Course Selection

This year is my third year of high school, and it has been the most academically stressful one by far. During my first two years, our school mainly focused on foundational courses, so I only took two APs: Precalculus and Calculus BC. This year, being the last year before college applications, I naturally wanted to take as many APs as possible. Initially, I planned to take five: World History, Statistics, Computer Science Principles (CSP), Computer Science A (CSA), and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism. Later, my teacher strongly suggested I take an English course, so I added AP Language. My teacher told me that I didn't necessarily have to take the exam for it, but if I studied hard and maintained a good GPA, it would not only help with college applications but also significantly improve my English skills.

The School Year Begins

After the school year started in September 2025, I gradually began to feel the academic pressure. First was Physics C. Because this course involves calculus, and I felt like I had forgotten almost everything I learned in Calculus BC the previous year, I spent a lot of time recalling and reinforcing those concepts. Moreover, electricity and magnetism are quite abstract, so I spent a good amount of time just trying to grasp the material. I remember only scoring in the 40s on my first exam, but I slowly improved and started getting better grades. In contrast, Statistics felt pretty easy back then; at one point, I even thought it was at an elementary school difficulty level, just analyzing a few very basic charts (though the later units definitely got harder).

History class felt okay at first, but whenever exams rolled around, facing the massive reading passages for the multiple-choice questions—combined with not having nearly enough time—was truly a breakdown-inducing experience. My history teacher also felt there were issues with my FRQ writing and even arranged a weekly one-on-one tutoring session for me. Although my history grades eventually improved, there was still a significant gap between my current level and the AP exam requirements. I have to admit, though, studying history during that time really helped improve my English.

As for the two computer science courses, they were generally pretty relaxed. I already knew most of the concepts in CSP, and the logic for the pseudocode section was relatively straightforward. For CSA, because Java's syntax and overall logic are very similar to C++, which I had learned before, learning it went pretty smoothly.

Mock Exam Season

In April 2026, mock exams officially began. We had a mock exam for every subject every week, and I have to say, that period was incredibly exhausting. I didn't get a 5 on my first Statistics mock because I wasn't familiar enough with the concepts and question types. But after systematically reviewing the material, I consistently scored 5s on the subsequent mocks. Unsurprisingly, I got 5s on all the mock exams for both computer science classes. For history, due to my lacking skills, my scores were never particularly ideal.

Physics was what made me the most nervous. In fact, I didn't score a 5 on a single Physics mock exam. Every time I reviewed my tests, I'd realize that aside from a few knowledge gaps, most of my lost points came from careless mistakes. After correcting each exam, I'd feel full of regret and constantly remind myself not to make the same errors next time, but similar mistakes would inevitably appear on the following test. Also, back then, our teacher told us we needed an 85% accuracy rate to get a 5, which scared me half to death; it felt like an absolutely impossible standard. Later, I looked at the grading curves for past Practice Exams and realized the cutoff for a 5 was actually around 75%, which finally let me breathe a sigh of relief.

The Real Exams

Soon, the mock exams ended, and May arrived. Even though I had been through many mock exams, as the actual APs approached, I still felt extremely nervous, even suffering from insomnia for a few days due to anxiety. The first week of exams made this especially apparent—it felt like every subject was harder than expected. Statistics was like this; there were quite a few question types on the exam that I hadn't really seen before. I wasn't entirely sure about three of the multiple-choice questions. Although I managed to finish the FRQs, I had very little time left over and almost no chance to double-check my work. Usually, I'd have about 20 minutes to spare after finishing the FRQs to review everything, but this time I really just squeezed by right at the buzzer.

After Statistics came the subject I feared most: Physics. Since I hadn't gotten a 5 on any of the physics mocks, I practically lived in my physics teacher's office reviewing during the time between the Statistics and Physics exams. At the time, I figured that since the first week's exams were so hard, Physics likely wouldn't be a breeze either. But when the actual exam came, the questions were surprisingly straightforward. This was especially true for the free-response questions. Just the day before, my teacher had reviewed the charging and discharging formulas for capacitors and inductors in complex circuits with us, which required using complicated differential equations and a massive amount of calculation. I was terrified at the time: if tomorrow's exam is at this difficulty level, I'm definitely doomed. Fortunately, the FRQs this time were unexpectedly easy; aside from an experimental design question that was slightly obscure, all the other tested concepts were very basic.

Next was CSA. I was actually a little nervous about this class too, because I had previously almost botched an entire FRQ due to not reading the prompt carefully, and I sometimes misunderstood algorithmic questions in the multiple-choice section. CSA was the day right after Physics, and although I was already exhausted by then, I still squeezed in some time to review. During the actual exam, I found the questions weren't that hard. I finished the test in half the time and spent the remaining half double-checking my answers over and over. I feel like I did pretty well.

After finishing CSA, I stayed home for a day and then flew to Hong Kong for the History exam. History was never my strongest subject, and since reviewing for the other APs had taken up so much of my time recently, my prep for history was basically left up to fate. As expected, I ran out of time on the multiple-choice section again, and I was completely clueless when facing the DBQ. Oh well, whatever happens, happens.

The very last exam was CSP. This course was generally quite easy, so I just did a quick review before heading in. I felt pretty good after finishing it.

I'm finally done! I can relax for a while now, even though I still have a lot of school projects to do. Hopefully, I'll get good scores in July!