I Took 3 AP Tests and This is What Happened

I took 3 AP tests, and they were some of the most stressful moments in my life. Here's what happened. But before I talk about that, let me give you some background of where I'm coming from.

Like most people of my calibre, school kids considered me a good student. Back in middle school, I tended to follow the rules and stay on task while the rest talked with their friends and messed with their studies. I didn't care about making friends back then, and I still don't care about it now. Besides getting the highest grade possible, it didn't matter because I liked learning. Nevertheless, I was such a good student that I was nominated as the most studious student. With this nomination, I get to be in a photoshoot for the yearbook with an equally talented student, wearing a suit and a tie.

So, when I entered high school, I naturally went for the most challenging classes possible for me. But on the other hand, I didn't pursue the highest science classes during high school (at the time of the publication) because I didn't know anything about these science classes. So, either you are one of a kind or have a regret minimisation framework for those whose first science classes in high school were the hardest. But that choice was the only one where I didn't go for the most demanding courses possible.

I took these challenging classes, which consisted of Pre-AP English 1, Algebra 1, Physical Education, Biology, Beginning Choir, and Spanish 1. I did well in these classes and got my usual straight As. However, suppose I wanted to go back in time. In that case, I should really sacrifice some grades for more effort into YouTube videos and getting into competition clubs. So, when I took the second year, I took my first AP class, AP World History Modern.

Like in my first year of high school, I did very well in these classes despite being forced to be in quarantine. I loved being in quarantine because school days were shorter. I could spend more time making better YouTube videos consistently (Some people may disagree with me on my position of being in quarantine). In AP World History, I was so "passionate" about the class that I even paid for the in-person test (I feared online cheating). According to some people, I did exceptionally well on that exam, but I could've done better. Now, I have all my academic experience for you to know. Let me tell you about these exams.

The three AP exams I'll be discussing were AP Psychology, AP United States History, and AP English Language and Composition. I paid for these tests and bought the study guides for these classes and the SAT and the ACT. Back in school, I did pretty well in all three of these classes (I felt that I learned very little in Psychology and English) and knew quite well about the exam. At home, however, things get wrong really, really fast.

Like most students (I am not an athlete, and I do not go to practice after school on sports), I went home and took a nap, which would last around 20-40 minutes. After that, I went to my study room and started doing my homework. Usually, I do my maths homework because it is easy (it wasn't). However, I started doing my homework so late that I could not finish it in one sitting. Then, I must eat the dinner meal and clean the dirty dishes. After that, I must go pooping almost every day, and I must go exercise, in which I attempt to do the splits (I am not very good at them) and a 20-minute cycling session. After finishing my cycling session, I went straight to take a bath and returned to work on homework. Usually, these would be homework for other classes and sometimes studying for tests. I would divide the time for me to do other tasks, like shooting videos and practising piano or guitar. So, I attempted to finish all my homework before I practised Spanish, which is something I still need to work on. Then I took my last break, prayed, and slept. That was my day in a nutshell.

If you're one of those very studious students with a schedule more organised than mine, I do not have the time to study for those 3 AP tests. So let me tell you about my first AP test: Psychology.

I took the test on the 3rd of May, 2022. That test was the first of the many worst days of my high school year. I went to school and actually took all the classes before the test, which would be my PE, maths, and physics. My parents don't see the need to extend my drop off time from 8:00 to 11:25 just for that one AP test, although this AP test was in the afternoon. After my physics period ended at 11:25, I went straight to the Sports Centre (some of you may know this as the small gym for those in the Kimball High School). I met one of my friends who I said,

"I'm never going to see you today!" My friend was somewhat confused by this, but I didn't care. I have this test, and I must get it done.

So, I went to the Sports Centre with many classmates in Psychology. Almost everyone didn't carry a big backpack with stuff. I asked a lot of them, and they arrived at around 11:25. So, it seemed that I was the outlier of this line-up. We got in there, and I chatted with a group of girls. One was a tanned-skinned, black-masked, brown-haired tall girl who looked like a dry mango. Her name was Mali. One was a tanned-skinned, black-masked, brown-haired short girl I knew more than the former. Her name was Julia. I tended to hang out with Julia a lot since we shared the same English class with the same styles across the board, except for maths, physics, and many from different periods. One was a brown-skinned, grey-masked, black-haired, curly-haired short girl who was the leader in Science Olympiad. Her name was Ankita. I worked with her on one event, and we earned a ribbon that was mistaken for a medal. I met with others, but these were the ones that I hung out with the most during this test. None of them was ready to handle this test. They even asked questions about psychological concepts, like psychoanalysis, drugs, the two-factor theory of emotion, James-Lange theory, and others.

A middle-aged Latina entered the room and called us to go to the gym. Before she told us to do so, we must take our phones out and place them on one of those pouches you see in a maths class. These pouches were initially part of a big package for setting calculators or anything like that. In this case, we put our phones there. Next, we received our designated seat number, which another middle-aged blonde woman would say to us. She told me to sit at number 5 at the front. I was mentally scarred because I thought I would be the first to get caught in this position. It didn't matter, though. The testing class had like 12 people, the seating was 4 miles apart, and the cheating was literally impossible. If I tried to look at another person, I could not see what they were doing, especially on the second part of the test.

After everyone was at their designated seats, the Latina grabbed a paper which showed the instructions for us to take the test. Most testing times would start later than the time set for it because she wanted us to fill in all the information. We must bubble in (fill in the circle completely) every piece of information needed, which was the most stressful part for me. If I took away the stressful nature of the test itself, this part would be it. When I bubbled in the information about my name, date of birth, and anything, I was so worried about the potential errors regarding the naming scheme. That part wasted me a good 30 minutes. And then, there was the first part of the test.

The first part of the AP Psychology test was the multiple-choice section. Like I said, I was horrifically unprepared that the test content blew my 50 minutes of cramming on the 2nd of May. Half the time, I rushed through the questions based on my instincts, and that was it. Unlike the other two, these test questions were quite dumb. The questions asked me for general knowledge of psychology and its terms. The test asked me to learn about certain psychology concepts, which I completely forgot while taking the test. You know what they say, "When you're taking the test, you're dumber than you think." I didn't remember a single question out of it because I ran through most of the questions at Sonic speed in my mind. I didn't finish the test despite going through the questions at Sonic speed. That was the worst part because the test only scored on the number of points correct. I skipped some of the questions due to not knowing much about the answers. And keep in mind that this portion of the test was 70 minutes with 100 questions. So, there was no way that I could answer each question in one minute.

That portion was over, and I got to take a short break. I brought a big lunch with me, but I only had a couple of snacks from that big lunch due to suspicion from these two middle-aged women. I ate these Chinese-branded snacks that tasted quite good and small oranges. If you never took any AP classes, you would expect me to talk about the test. Unfortunately, we cannot talk about that. I did ask about the experience of that portion to those I mentioned, plus another brown-skinned, black-haired girl, Lauren. Some couldn't finish the test, while some could. Some thought that the test was the easiest of them all. But the Latina stopped our conversations, and we returned to the gym to finish the test.

The second part of the test was called the Free-Response Questions. This section has 2 questions in 50 minutes. They should ask us about the implications of our knowledge in class to predict behaviours and things like that.

I took that test, and I messed up. I have a separate answer sheet in which I must answer the questions in complete sentences. On each page, I must fill in which question I was answering. Although the Latina and the blond-haired woman suggested we answer the first question first, I answered the second question first. Back then, the second question seemed easy to me. The second question showed me an experiment on whether high-priced products meant higher-perceived quality. Although I said 2 questions, other questions came within these two questions. So, I'm answering like 15 short answer questions. The second question was less about psychology but rather about the analysis of the experiment. It still asked me about psychological concepts, but it was less than the first question. I answered the first half of the second question before going to the first question. The first question took me a good 3 minutes of terror. I stared at literally the first part of the first question while reading the first part of the passage, knowing no psychological concept needed to answer the question. As the 25-minute mark passed, I quickly answered the first part of the first question before returning to the second question, where I finished the second question. While I tried to answer each part of the question, I lost my mind. I got dumber and dumber, with my already-limited knowledge of psychology starting to go down. Finally, I returned to the first question and finished the test in only a few seconds.

The two middle-aged women called us to stop writing and hand over our tests. After that, the test was over, I grabbed my backpack, and my phone, went to a car, and went home. I was so done with that test. Two more to go.

The following AP test was AP US History which would be my best bet for this test. Before the test, I went to my local Starbucks with an extensive study group, where we discussed major history concepts. I could talk a lot about that Starbucks thing in another article if you wanted to. The test was a morning test, and it started at 7:30 (it took much longer than that due to the registering process).

When I entered the Sports Centre, there were more people than last time due to a larger class. I entered there and met up with my friends, mainly with the new study group I studied with them at Starbucks. While conversing with these people, my history teacher came to the Sports Centre. He gave us a speech that was just a sign saying "good luck." Most people were unhappy about this because they expected the history teacher to provide us with an inspiring speech to cheer us for the 3-hour test. But that didn't matter, though. A person came into the Sports Centre and went inside.

She explained what we would be doing. She told us the same things the two middle-aged women did: turn our phones into the pouches, go to the assigned seats, and all that stuff. After that, I received a test packet, which contained two test packets and three answer sheets, with two of them being bubble sheets. I grabbed the two test packets, the short answer response booklet, and another paper called the short answer response booklet. Next, the proctor caught an instruction booklet and told us to fill in all the personal information before taking the test. After we filled in the data, it was time for the test.

The first portion of the test was in two parts: the multiple-choice test and the short-answer questions. The unknown proctor made us start on the multiple-choice test, where we must answer 55 questions in 55 minutes. Basically, I must do 1 minute per question. One lesson from my history teacher was that every question was in chronological order. So, the first question I encountered was about the Columbian Exchange, where I read the text and answered a couple of questions. As the test went on, the time got later and later until it went to the Obama era. I don't know about you, but I love history. I love analysing history because it was enjoyable to learn about things like the Rosetta Stone (I don't understand why this stone would contribute to the overall story). Also, my history teacher gave me these tests that resembled the test I was taking. I took a couple of practice tests along the way, and I felt very confident about getting at least a 3 on the exam. Because I worked on the multiple-choice questions incredibly fast, I cannot remember a single question. It didn't matter as I could finish the multiple-choice in no time. Stop writing didn't matter to me.

The second part of the first portion was the short-answer questions. We have 4 questions, with questions 1 and 2 being required and questions 3 and 4. Choose one and stick with it. In other words, we must answer the first two and only answer one of the two different questions. The first question asked me about cowboys and the American Frontier differently from the cowboys in movies. It gave me two passages. One is a primary and a secondary source (don't trust me. That's all I remember from that first question). Each question was divided into three parts. I must answer them in around 2-3 sentences, primarily using the formula, Claim-Evidence-Reasoning, a writing strategy to crack down the short-answer questions. I looked at the first part of the question. I began to jot down some notes on the test packet. I thought of Manifest Destiny and American Expansionism. Don't ask me why I thought of those. Then, I answered the questions like I knew everything because I just wanted to get this over before dealing with another AP test. When I thought about it, the first part of the first question didn't ask me for evidence. Instead, it asked me to compare the viewpoints from the two passages and give some similarities between them. But when I reached the second and third parts of the first question, I gave up and went to the next question.

The second question gave me a passage from a governor of Ohio who called for the end of slavery and racial equality, or something along the lines. That question was the easiest of the three, and I got to breeze through the first two parts of the question before returning to the first question. I have many ideas for the second question that flowed naturally: the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th. So, when I attempted to answer these questions, these were the excellent stepping stones to actually finishing it. It was a stark contrast to question 1, which I didn't know a lot about. I went back to do some more jotting and found an acceptable note, not a very good one, to answer the last part of the question. After I finished the first question, I returned to the second question and answered it in no time. And then there was the third question.

The third and fourth questions gave me the same question in two different periods. One was the Native Americans, and one was the Progressive Era. I remembered nothing about the Progressive Era other than Theodore Roosevelt, so I chose the Native American one. As for the Progressive Era question, I barely know about the Native Americans other than the Cherokee and basically think things not in the textbook. What made things worse was that there were 5 minutes left. So, I didn't have the time to actually finish the question in a precise order. I answered the question with the most made-up answer I have in that short time. I spent the first portion of the test, and I could finally eat some snacks.

Like in Psychology, I communicated with my good chunk of friends, including a blond-haired guy, regarding the difficulty of the first portion of the test. The people I asked gave me wildly different opinions. Some found it mildly challenging, and others found it incredibly easy. I didn't remember what other things I asked them during the break. But that part didn't matter, as the unknown proctor ordered us to return to our seats. The second portion of the test was about to begin.

The second portion of the test was still lengthy, even attempting to get to the real thing. The unknown proctor, like usual, read out the instructions on filling in the required information before taking the test, killing us a good 20 minutes. Once that 20 minutes of filling in was over, the second portion of the trial began.

Like the first portion, the second portion was divided into two parts, the Document-Based Question and the Long-Essay Question. Like most people, I started with the Document-Based Question, where I got a prompt and seven documents. The prompt was relatively easy to work with, but I must change the prompt to a question because I don't understand the prompt that much. It said something like "Evaluate the extent of what Beluga did to Mr Morse," or something like that. So, I must reword the prompt to a question to understand it better. Fortunately, I have a good enough background knowledge to start the essay. So, I wrote the background information before even analysing the documents. I did this so I could earn the background information point. After writing about 3-4 sentences regarding the background information, I examined the sources. I used the HIPP strategy to analyse the authorities. I tried to find either the historical context, the intended audience, the purpose, or the point of view. I couldn't study all the sources. Some took too long to analyse in 6 minutes (It said 15 minutes to read the documents, but I spent 9 minutes writing the background information for the essay.). I found out that America made a significant contribution to making its own culture (I hope that CollegeBoard won't sue me). So, I finished the intro paragraph with 2 potential points. Now, I can work on the body paragraphs.

I don't know how passionate are you when writing this essay. Still, my body paragraphs have the simplest structure in the paper. It worked out fine because it would make the writing and the argument a lot more complicated. Before starting the body paragraphs, I've already grouped the sources into like 3 groups, so I can rely on those for the reasons for my claim. I felt that the commentary part of the essay was my weakest point. I thought that the commentary was quite surface level compared to the level CollegeBoard expected. But it didn't matter, as I finished all the body paragraphs necessary and the conclusion. One paragraph that gave excellent riddance was a paragraph with Ralph Waldo Emerson as the evidence here. His passage was one of the harder ones I must read on. However, the essay went by so much that I already forgot the paragraph.

Finally, the last part of the second portion was called the Long-Essay Question. This part contained three prompts on which we chose only one of the three to begin our essay on. The three prompts asked the same question, but they were on different periods. So, I didn't remember exactly what these questions asked me. But I remember that one was in the earlier period, one was in the middle period, and one was in the later period. I didn't have the same familiarity advantage from the previous test compared to my World History exam. So, picking one of the questions was quite challenging for me to answer. But it wasn't a big deal after selecting one of these questions, and the test was finally over. One to go.

The last AP test I'm taking was AP English Language and Composition (What a mouthful title). Like in US History, there were a lot of students who entered for the AP Test. I still have a couple of friends who are taking AP English. I met up with a blonde-haired friend who wore very business-like clothing. I also met up with a couple, a short Filipino girl wearing a girly dress and an Irish boy wearing boy shorts and a T-shirt. The Irish boy left, though. I have others that I met often, but that was not the point of this article. Finally, the two history teachers came to the room and ordered us to go inside. A fat-bearded teacher explained the rules regarding the AP test with all the same information as the previous AP tests. At this point, you may already know what we must do. We turn in our phones, put our backpacks and snacks to the side, sit at our seats, fill in all the information, and begin our test.

The AP English test was divided into two sections: the first section was the multiple-choice section, and the second section was the free-response questions. The multiple-choice section has 45 questions in 60 minutes. This section was the only one I was comfortable with because it was multiple-choice. I turned to the first passage of the test, but I couldn't get what the text was asking me about. I didn't have the skills needed to finish the whole test accurately. I read the first passage of the text very fast and went to the first question. I answered that one and then answered the second one. I didn't have the test-taking abilities of SAT test-takers yet, so many of the answer choices for me were very odd and messed up. I did finish the test, though. However, I should've given myself more time to study for this test and all my other AP stuff.

I finished the test and went for a short 10-minute break with all my other classmates, in which I ate my snacks and conversed with the blonde-haired boy. He found that the test was relatively easy to work with due to its multiple-choice. However, some classmates found that test portion quite hard to work on. The rhetoric usage was too much for them. I didn't know a lot about rhetoric. I forgot all of that right after that ridiculous test right after summer. Then we were forced to return to the scary gym.

The second section was the scary three essays in different formats. My class and I started with the Synthesis Essay essay, which was like the Document-Based Question, with some minor changes in the rubric. This test gave me a prompt regarding the role of arts in the STEM world due to America's heavy emphasis on this field nowadays. Unlike the Document-Based Question, this one seemed more unclear and generally more challenging because I couldn't analyse much of the sources there. When I wrote the essay, I always felt a need to change one of my findings in one source. There was one article that can go either good or bad regarding the role of arts in the STEM world, and that was the Steve Jobs passage. I knew that he didn't code whatsoever, and he didn't do any engineering feats. But when I read the source, I felt that my claim in the essay was not in-line with his. The best thing about the writing was that the originals were there, I managed to write a decent article, and I followed all the criteria to get the highest score possible. But the next essay section would bug me.

The second essay I must do was the rhetorical analysis essay. In this essay, I must use the lofty knowledge to analyse a passage and explain why that article worked so well within that audience. The quote I must analyse was about Sonia Sotomayor, one of America's nine Supreme Court justices. She spoke about a passage I must study at the UC Berkeley Law School. Let me be honest with you, I didn't know any required rhetorical knowledge to analyse this passage properly. Sotomayor spoke about her Puerto Rican heritage with many references to immigrants as examples for her claim. It took me a good 10 minutes to get nothing out of it. After those 10 minutes, I began writing the essay with just the background information. Then I wrote the thesis with the only rhetorical words I could think of ethos and a few other things, not like the tone, syntax, or anything like that. After that, I wrote the body paragraphs in a rush. I clearly have no idea what to write about when writing evidence to support claims. That moment was the one I didn't do well. The only thing that went well was that I finished the essay.

The last essay I must do was the free-response essay. I received a short passage from someone in this essay, and I tried to write an essay about it. The quote I read was from MacArthur, that general in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, in which he read a passage about decision-making. I thought that MacArthur's quote was accurate to my decision-making view. The only thing holding me back was finding the evidence. I couldn't think of any appropriate evidence other than Kendrick Lamar when I took the test. I wonder if you chose a world-famous artist (in this case, a rapper who raps about American stuff with a whole load of racial slurs and nasty words) for your AP essay like me. That part was the one that made my day, but I am not sure about the college graders' choice to grade that. I couldn't think of anything to write because it happened so fast, and the test was already over.

So, what did I learn from this?

I probably should've learned how to balance my notoriously hard life with these 3 AP tests. I've heard and watched several students from Ivy League universities who took 20+ AP classes with 5 on their AP tests. It was such a marathon of an article to write with. I felt super tired after writing this article due to me just losing my mind throughout the whole process. I hope you enjoy this article, and you should comment regarding some inaccuracies in this article. See you in the following article. 😊