In and after May, more and more students feel minor motivation. Why? The AP exams. The AP exams can either have a bad or good effect on students. Some students feel motivated to push fully through to the regents. Some students act otherwise.
In May at WHBHS, many students were taking the AP tests in the gym. Since it was so early during the year when students had to go over their whole subject again, some don’t feel like doing it for finals and regents. Regular classes that don’t offer an AP course for students can also seem less important which causes students to give up in them.
Mackenzie Herrera, a sophomore at WHB, takes four AP classes, “The week after the AP tests were the hardest, but now we watch movies and do busy work, but I’m able to stay motivated for the regents when I think about how they are 20% of my final grade, even though I feel that I stopped trying in Spanish and math.” Even teachers might not want to re-teach a whole school year’s worth of lessons for the third time, some get tired and summer-ready too.
AP World teacher Mr. Rupertus said, “Even sometimes I feel less motivated to teach after the AP tests, May and June are definitely the hardest months in school, since students aren’t motivated to learn right after the tests, we usually watch two movies in class, to cool off, then start to study for the regents.”
Some WHBHS teachers and students, however, never give up after the tests, it just drives them to try even harder. People enjoy just pushing themselves to the very end, and they keep trying in every single class. Brooke Huwer, a sophomore at WHBHS, takes four AP classes, “After the test we watched movies then did review but during that I’m able to stay motivated because I am aware that my finals and regents are 20% of my final grades and I want to do well so I can finish off my year with high grades, which keeps me motivated for my non-AP classes as well.”
The end of the year and idea of summer can be very appealing to some people while others would rather just stay locked in until the very end. Even some teachers don’t like the idea of giving up. AP Chem teacher Mr. Grodski said, “I never feel like giving up during this time of year because I live for this stuff. Although, sometimes my students start to give up because it’s just inevitable and regular behavior, I continue to encourage them to keep on going by keeping it lively in my classroom.”
So while some students may be burned out, keep the mindset that you’re almost done and should want to end off the year with amazing results or else feel regretful. Always be sure to have positive thinking while getting to this point of the year because it can get difficult.
