Monday, May 7 marked the beginning of Advanced Placement (AP) exams administered in the Upper School.

The first exams of the week were the AP Chemistry and AP Environmental Science exams in the morning, followed in the afternoon by AP Psychology. The morning AP exams began at 8:00 A.M., and the afternoon session began at 12:00 P.M. Students were to arrive at their exam site 30 minutes before.

The AP schedule for the day was posted on the doors of the Main office, where students could see where their exam would be administered.

To alleviate the stressful environment of the AP weeks, Spirit Club held a “de-stressing week” last week. To create a further relaxed atmosphere, Upper School Head Butch Keller announced that starting Monday, students could wear T-shirts and that the policy may continue until the end of the year.

Despite the stress of APs, many students still walked out of their exams positively.

“The preparation, depending on the subject, can be pretty stressful, but our teachers prepare us well. Especially for chemistry, we prepared a lot, so almost everything on the test looked familiar,” Preethi Periyakoil (10) said.

Sylvie Dobrota (11) expressed similar feelings.

“I think they’re pretty stressful because you spend the entire AP course leading up to this one test, but the teachers typically prepare me well for them and with studying it usually ends up being ok,” she said.

Likewise, Andy Wang (10) also felt that agreed to the stress of AP weeks, but he enjoyed the de-stressing week and the new t-shirt rule.

“It’s a stressful time, but I think that most students can get through it because we know that our teachers have prepared us well […] The t-shirt rule is a nice change, [and the de-stressing week] was great, especially the mariachi band,” Andy said.

Throughout the course of the next two weeks, students may take multiple tests held in the mornings and afternoons. During the week of May 21, students may take tests that they could not previously take due to conflicts.