By Claire Regenstreif
Staff Writer
With the end of the school year approaching quickly, students do their best to prepare for finals, Advanced Placement tests. Teachers help students prepare for these tests in many different ways.
In the beginning of May, juniors at Mira Costa took a new kind of state test, the common core test. Teachers and administration changed the schedule to block scheduling to give the students more time to work on this test,which caused them less stress.
“I think the block scheduling was beneficial for other classes, but not for the English classes,” English teacher Lisa Cook said. “As an English teacher it was hard for me to give up class time this close to the end of the year.”
Some English teachers, for example, Cook, use printed out examples of previous tests to help students prepare. She helps her students with practice test questions and example essays. Other teachers gave an english lesson on technology and ways to improve testing ability earlier in the week before the test.
“I felt my students would be prepared and have the knowledge to prepare for the test on their own, but despite the help they were given, the new test was vague and instructions were hard to understand,” Cook said.
As well as the common core testing for juniors, all Advanced Placement students have exams in the month of May. Teachers provide after school study sessions and in class study aids. Students also prepare by buying review books and online practice tests.
“Kloes has hosted four study sessions after school which have been very helpful and imformative, and in class practice quizzes have helped me a lot,” Sophomore Olivia Everhard said.
Teachers focus on preparing their students so they are able to achieve a good grade on the exam, since it greatly affects their grade in the class. According to advanced placement students, they are given the whole year to begin preparing, but for some it is not enough.
“With study books and help from my teachers I feel pretty prepared, but if we had more time I think the stress would be lower and grades would be higher,” AP biology student Ryan Ramey said.
The more time students spend studying for their advanced placement exams, the less they spend preparing for other classes. According to students, the focus is mainly on their hardest class which is usually their advanced placement test.
“I’ve been focusing on getting a good grade in my one advanced placement test, rather than focusing on all of my other homework and tests,” AP biology student Sam Dunbar said.
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