Poll concludes a ‘yes’ from students to have AP tests and finals close together

Teachers’ policy of scheduling the finals for AP classes slightly before students take the actual AP exams is popular with juniors and seniors, according to a recent poll conducted by the school.

In first semester, finals are given during finals week, which is the last week of the semester. However, in second semester, AP course finals are often given in late April, which is why administrators wanted to gauge students’ opinions about early finals for the sake of AP exams.

Six hundred and sixty students from the junior and senior classes were given an optional one-question poll, asking if they preferred having finals and AP exams close to each other. Eighty-two percent of 202 students who responded favored finals in late April before AP testing. The other response favored finals in late May or early June.

“[The poll] was new. I think it was very exciting and appropriate to get student input before [teachers] built a schedule,” said assistant principal Brian Safine. “Doing that for the first time was a positive student-centered [response.] It was overwhelming; 80 percent of students wanted it.”

The reason most upperclassmen who responded favored finals before AP tests is that the material will still be fresh in their heads after days of studying.

“The only concern is that there are a lot of tests in a short amount of time,” Safine said. “But in the end of the day, we’ve asked the student voice—if it had been 50-50, that would be different. With 80 to 20, however, we believe that we are really helping students.”