On May 9, Jones College Prep students took the AP United States History exam.

This year, students reflect on their exam, while teachers evaluate their instructional methods. Many students said teacher preparation helped them feel confident, some criticized aspects of the course.

“I felt somewhat confident,” said Karina Brizuela ‘27. “It wasn’t total but I did feel comfortable with my amount of knowledge on the subject.”

From the jump, teachers begin preparing their students to tackle the exam.

“We talk about sourcing things like historical context, intended audience, purpose, point of view,” said APUSH teacher Mr. Smith. “Then we combine that analysis early on into writing.”

Teachers’ preparation played a key role in students’ confidence on exam day.

“The questions we were given during class time were harder than on the actual exam,” said Brizuela. “I felt that really helped me a lot because I was more comfortable with the questions.”

However, some students hold a different opinion on the amount of preparation done.

“Honestly, I felt that our teacher could have prepared us a bit more on the SAQ portion,” said Ariana Villanueva ‘27. “I felt very discouraged on the APUSH exam, as it was not practiced much, I was not confident in answering the prompt.”

Teachers recognize and plan to address the displeasement students faced with certain portions of the exam.

“We’re just trying to figure out or kind of discern whether or not they were less prepared for the SAQs because that was the hardest part of the exam questions received,” said Mr. Smith. “Or if we need to practice that more in the future years.”

Besides preparedness, other challenges presented themselves as the exam occurred.

“I did not feel like I had enough time to complete sections of the exam,” said Villanueva. “I felt the SAQ portion was rushed and I was not able to fully express my ideas.”

Teachers faced similar timely struggles to students.

“It’s a lot of content and we gotta get through it by May,” said Mr. Smith. “We start typically later than other districts around the country so it’s full gas from the start in.”

Knowledge intake along with concentration became a rigorous aspect. 

“I feel like there was a lot of material to cover,” said Brizuela. “ In the time span we had to start thinking about the exam, it was stressful to cover all the material and the connections to each other.”

As feedback continued to roll in, the exam has experienced changes throughout the years.

“More recently, I think they’ve tried to make the exam a little bit easier for the students,” said Mr. Smith. “Lowering the number of docs, lowering the number of HIPPO analysis in the essay itself and so I think that’s been the most noticeable change over the last couple of years.”

With the exam finally over, students feel accomplished but continue to express their feedback.

“Most students were able to walk out confident knowing that they did stuff,” said Brizuela. “But I would also say probably go light with the SAQs because that was really bad.”