The 2025 College Board AP Exams were administered the first two weeks of May, from May 5 to May 16. These exams are not associated with LRHS students’ Powerschool grades. Instead, they are solely held with the intent of granting college credit to students who score a 3 or above on a 5-point scale.
On the other hand, Leesville’s final exams are the week of June 9 to June 13. These exams are in LRHS students’ Powerschool grades and are worth 20% of a student’s final grade.
In order to prepare for the AP Exam, second-semester students learn all the class material by early May. As a result, once the AP exam is over, students usually spend the remaining time leading up to their LRHS final exam partaking in busy work and projects. Some classes have their AP Exam and LRHS final exam nearly a month apart, resulting in even more useless days filled with random assignments.
Seniors may be excused from final exams if they have a grade of 79.5% or higher or fewer than ten absences. However, freshman, sophomores, and juniors must take all LRHS final exams regardless of their grades or attendance.
In my opinion, there should be a way for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to be excused from all of the useless, unproductive class time that follows AP Exams. Activities such as playing games, watching movies, and working on projects can easily be done at home. Realistically, it should be considered for early dismissal from AP classes after completing the AP Exam.
“In AP Gov, we watched Cars, and in AP Statistics, we are working on a project, but we have a lot of time to do it. It’s been a nice break to the workload prior to the AP Exam,” said Caroline Murray, sophomore.
Students work hard to prepare for their AP Exam in May, only to wait nearly a month before taking their LRHS final exams. For an exam weighted so heavily towards an individual’s grade, I believe it would be more effective to schedule it closer to the AP exam, when the concepts are already fresh in our brains. Requiring students to relearn and restudy the material weeks later adds unnecessary stress and work.
“We should [take the LRHS final exam in May] because we could be done with the class earlier and we have already finished all of the content. After the AP Exam we don’t do anything new so while the topics are fresh on our mind we should go ahead and take the exam,” said Sawyer Lisk, junior, via direct message.
If more students speak up about all the extended class time after AP Exams, perhaps a solution can be found, such as allowing second-semester students to take their final exams in May or even dismissing them early. Creating more flexibility could help make the post-AP period more meaningful.
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