5 things to do after AP/IB testing
Last week marked the end of AP/IB testing. The (supposed) hard work of the past eight months finally culminated in the form of answer sheets and booklets on their way to AP grading conferences in the Midwest, while we in Newbury Park are left to ponder how our test graders will perceive the cat doodles and dried tears that dot our papers. We now enter that awkward period between the end of tests and the start of summer break, where many of us try digging up those hazy memories of school life without AP tests (freshman year? Is that you?). Some of us decide to rack up truancies with day trips to the beach, or maybe just to our pillows, while others are unfortunately still in the grips of the College Board as they cram for the June SATs.
However, these two extremes aren’t the only ways you can utilize the last four weeks of school. Here are five things you can do to make the most out of these last few casual school days.
1. Get rid of your AP test prep material
You don’t need those reminders of your tiring effort (or lack thereof) stifling up your bookcase or adding more clutter to your desk. If your books are still nice and new after being used as motivational symbols, the College and Careers Center, the city library, and teachers are usually willing to take donations. You could also sell these beautiful “you tried” emblems to next years’ innocent pupils. If you wrote all over them, remember that paper can be recycled, and kudos to you – I predict that you will get a 4 or 5.
2. Make a final push for your grades
Let’s say you’ve procrastinated schoolwork while procrastinating AP studying. Unfortunately, the heart-wrenching effects of missing assignments are constantly nagging you on the ESPN Live Stream of grades, Q, while your shameful 1 still has another two months to show up. With all the free time you have now that you’re not stressing about standardized tests, this is the time to do all that missing work, turn those zeros to 100s, and make a last effort to raise your trembling grade by 0.2%.
3. Read those English novels
If you prioritized reading (or staring at) your AP prep books over reading the novels you were supposed to in English class, you could also now just maybe crack open some of those novels you never got the chance to read. Realistically, this might be the only chance you’ll ever have to bother reading these particular books, until in fifty years when retirement has bored and impoverished you to the point of using the local library as a source of entertainment and free air conditioning. You never know when a story holds meaning that can truly strike you. By the end of reading Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, your experience might have you claiming, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” Literally.
4. Exercise (do it for summer)
Unless you participated in spring sports, you probably lived a rather sedentary lifestyle at your desk or went on quick 10-calorie-burning jogs whose effects were quickly nullified by your AP stress snacks. Your brain has had enough of a workout these past months; it’s time to go on a marathon. No, I don’t mean your Netflix movie marathons, I mean a physical training of your body. Without the nagging thought of thirty page tests, exercising regularly can now be more relaxing, whether you want to prepare your body for summer beach outings or take preemptive measures against your inevitable couch potato summer days. You can join local gyms like Fitness 19 or the Miller Y, or run laps around the community until you get tired, just like you rambled on in circles on those AP essays. At least you’ll feel better afterwards this time.
5. Plan your summer work
You either need money, something to pad your college applications, or both. Before summer starts and the motivation to do things fades to nothingness, pay a visit to the College and Careers Center or stores in the mall to snag positions that will suit your schedule and needs. In addition, plan out vacations with family and friends so everything can fall neatly in their places, and you won’t be left rushing to put things together in June just like you rushed guessing on those last multiple choice questions, and then helplessly watched things fall apart.
These are the five things that, in addition to being alive, you can do in these last four weeks of school. Save the parties and fun for later, because you’ll have plenty of time for that in summer. In fact, you may even have an odd longing for the return of school near the beginning of August. For now, after the climax of AP/IB testing, it’s a good opportunity to use your leftover brainpower to accomplish these tasks.
I would listen to my own advice, if I wasn’t still engulfed in my prep books, studying for the June SATs.
