Story by Nicolette Sarmiento
Editor-in-Chief
While most Bishop Amat students will be sleeping in, playing video games or traveling, a good portion of the student body will either be at school or at home studying for the upcoming AP and IB exams.
Due to Easter’s late arrival, spring break serves as a long study session for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate students.
When these students return from spring break, they are immediately greeted, not by the refreshed feeling the rest of their peers have, but by the stress that comes with the AP and IB exams.
This delayed spring break has affected most, if not all, of the AP and IB classes because of teachers’ inability to use that last week and a half for review. Rather, the students are obligated to study independently and diligently during break.
Some teachers like Ms. Christine Shaw are holding study sessions that include full-length tests for her students during spring break.
Mrs. Rosann Graff-Kindt, AP Psychology and AP European History teacher, thinks that though the timing is unfortunate, she is confident that her students will be fine.
“I have such motivated students,” Graff said. “I know that even though I won’t be having study sessions during spring break, they’ll study on their own.”
One of Mrs. Graff’s students, sophomore Daniel Ramos, describes the process as stressful, but still agrees with independent study.
“Instead of coming to school and holding study sessions during break, they should just supply us with the test,” Ramos said.
Senior Stella Song, an AP Calculus student, describes her schedule as hectic and her test is the day we come back from spring break.
“We’re preparing by taking a practice test on the weekend,” Song said. “It counts as our midterm grade, but it’s exactly like the actual AP exam.”
Teachers like AP Biology teacher Mr. Mike DiFiori say that there’s things that still need to be done..
“You’ve got to want to study the material,” DiFiori said. “There’s still a lot that needs to be learned and they have to finish the questions themselves [before the test].”
Students are responsible for adequately preparing for these tests in order to receive passing grades. Without their teachers to aid them, some students are stressing out.
Junior IB student Jenna Dominguez says that she had to adjust her plans for spring break to study for her math exam.
“Mr. Fragoso has study sessions on the weekend,” Dominguez said. “But it affects our spring break because right when we get back, we have our tests.”
Whether they’re an AP or IB student, they suffer from the same stress of having spring break so late and tests that follow immediately after.
On the bright side, once all these students are done with their tests, they might even get to have their own spring break.
