On Monday May 1, 2023, Hingham High School started its annual session of Advanced Placement exams offered by the College Board. These exams act as a final assessment to the AP classes a student may have selected for the year. The AP exams themselves are exceptionally lengthy given the rigor of the AP curriculum, lasting anywhere from two to three hours according to the College Board. In addition, some AP courses such as AP Research may have students submit final projects this week in lieu of taking a final exam.

The exams and other final performance tasks are graded on a five-point scale, with scores of four or five allowing a student to receive college credit in accordance with the AP course they completed. Usually, the exams take place in either the gym, wrestling room, or room 103 and start at eight in the morning or twelve in the afternoon. The high school will continue to have these exams until Friday, May 12, 2023, when the last of the exams are scheduled to take place. 

Due to the intensity and weight of these exams, the environment at the high school has grown increasingly tense as students begin to study in preparation. Zachary Kenigsberg, a sophomore at Hingham High who is taking AP World History, remarked that, “It is kind of scary because I have no idea what the tests are like and no matter how prepared I am, I think I will be surprised by everything.” While Hingham’s statistics for passing AP exams are especially high, it’s understandable that many, especially those who have had no experience with taking such exams, would feel anxiety throughout the duration of this week and into the next.

However, such feelings of stress are not universal amongst test takers. Ryan Chang, a sophomore taking AP Computer Science A, said he felt prepared for his exam, remarking, “I thought that the AP computer science teacher prepared us well and we used content from previous years to understand the difficulty of the test. The work we did in class was very useful and I felt confident about it.”  

In any case, Hingham’s award-winning AP programs continue to challenge and prepare students in the classroom while also solidifying the town’s public school system as one of the best in the state. Best of luck to Hingham students as they continue onto their second week of AP testing.