Nationally, students are preparing for upcoming Advancement Placement tests. Tests will begin Monday May 6, and end Friday May 17.

Bellevue West offers several AP classes including English, Psychology, World History, Calculus, Physics and many more.

AP World History teacher Bradley Nord says the hardest part of getting students ready are the writing the essays and reading the book.

“There’s lots of in-class work when in comes to writing. The reading portion is entirely on their own. I don’t walk through the book page by page. They’ve got to just get it themselves,” Nord said.

The World History test consists of a multiple choice portion and three essays.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Buresh agrees that the essays will be the most difficult part.

“I feel confident, but I know the essays are going to be the hard to get through,” Buresh said.

Sophomore Trent Hoppe is taking two AP tests this year: World History and Physics.

“I’m more worried about the physics test,” Hoppe said. “But if I do pass all the studying will be worth it.”

Students can dual enroll in several AP classes earning college credit, while in other AP classes students can only earn credit having passed the AP test.

Currently Nord’s class has a passing rate of about 50% with an average score of 2.95.

Senior Emilie Pechacek has relied on practice free response questions in her AP Calculus class. ”FRQ’s” are old AP questions that students do in class in preparation for the test. Pechacek said that her class does them once a week now that the test is coming up.

Though she feels Daughtrey has “most definitely” prepared them for the AP Calculus test, Pechacek says the overwhelming amount of information may be hard for her to keep organized.

“The teachers prepare you really well. But not confusing everything and keeping everything straight will be my biggest challenge,” Pechacek said.

Despite the hard work, students and teachers take on the rigorous courses in hopes to achieve success in the end.

“The best part is watching them succeed. They work hard. They strive to get a good grade in my class and then watching that translate over to them passing the exam or doing better than they thought they would is rewarding,” Nord said.

Bri Thomas
West Wind News Editor