The first weeks of May are stressful for a lot of students, especially for the students taking AP tests. AP tests are obviously great because you can possibly get out of college courses if you score high enough, but there are also some lesser publicized perks of taking the tests. Here are some reasons why AP tests aren’t the worst things in the world.

1. You get to miss class: One of the BEST unofficial perks of deciding to take an AP test is that you get to miss class for half of the day. If you sign up for an AP test at DGS, your test will be scheduled for either the morning session or afternoon session. This means you will be called out of periods 1-4 or periods 4-8. While you’re taking a test that you’re probably asking, your classmates will be stuck being taught math lessons, watching science lab demonstrations and running laps in P.E., so who wouldn’t want to miss class to take an AP test?
2. The twitter memes: For most people the AP tests aren’t something they want to remember. The hours of studying and the countless studying is obviously not something students want to relive, but there is something students can look forward to after taking their test- the memes. Right after the test, memes making fun of the AP test emerge all over social media such as Twitter with hashtags like #aplang or #apbio. These memes allow students all around the nation express their frustration with the questions or their reaction to the test content . If anything, the memes give students a well deserved laugh after hours of studying.
3. After the AP exams are over, there is a certain sense of community around the school that is not often felt.  That sense of community comes from everyone having essentially gone into battle together, weathering the storms of multiple choice and free response questions.  However, the main sense of community does not come from having gone through the test with one another, but from the fact that everyone knows they essentially got a D on the test by DGS grading standards.  Students are expected to get around 60%-70% on the exams.  That, on a regular school test is not the best score, but on the AP, is what you aim for.  Thus meaning that students all can share in their feelings of knowing they performed poorly, but performed poorly together.

For all people that took AP tests this May, we hope you received a 5! You probably didn’t but still, there’s nothing wrong with a little optimism. For the people taking them next year, just remember AP tests aren’t the worst things in the world and they will do benefit than harm for your futures.