Marika Alibhai – AP Statistics

Marika Alibhai, AP Statistics

What are your thoughts on new test format?

I was re-reading the press release that the college board did, where they kind of rolled out what they were thinking, and Mr Paris had told me the college board was thinking of doing exams at home, and I thought “I don’t know how they’re going to do that”, and we were wondering if the right thing to do was to just cancel the exams. But, looking at it now, and seeing what they’re doing, it’s kind of a nice compromise. Kids have worked hard for almost three quarters of the year, and at least when I was in high school, the point of AP exams was to earn college credit and then save yourself a lot of money on a college course, or be able to advance your learning. So, considering all the work that students have done this year, it’s nice that they’re still going to be able to take the exam and earn credit if the receiving institution gives credit for the exam.

How do you think this will affect juniors?

I can’t imagine that any of this is problematic for students in the way that they fear. I know that students are really worried, like “what about my grades?” or “what about applying to college?”, but you look at the news and every high school junior is having their education disrupted, as is every single senior. So colleges know that there is something going on and they will adjust just as BHS teachers will adjust to. So, teachers of senior classes will know, “oh, the juniors only got through this much, maybe these things were not covered so we’ll need to teach them in our senior year courses”. I think the same will be said for colleges and incoming freshman, every teacher whether you are elementary, secondary, or college-level is going to have to change how and what they teach next year.

How do you think the online learning if going for your AP classes?

I wish we had time to prepare for the school closure before it happened instead of preparing for it after it happened, but it’s our first pandemic, so there is now way to have known if we should have been dedicating time to preparing for it, if we didn’t know whether or not it would happen. So, I think everyone is kind of doing the best that they can given the circumstances.

Do you have anything you want to add?

I guess the thing that I want all my students to know, AP or not, is that even though we are trying to establish a new learning routine, I don’t want them to make school the number one priority. School’s stressful, so trying to juggle all your academics and all your extracurriculars and do your best, and have this pressure to apply to a million colleges and universities, I just hope that students know that even if we don’t have all the answers, they have faith that we will figure it out, and colleges will figure it out. Just take this time, and if they can’t do an assignment because they’re caring for a younger sibling, that they just take care of their sibling, and don’t worry so much about the school work. Prioritize your mental health and wellbeing because social distancing is really hard, and it must be crazy hard for teenagers who just want to be with their friends. So, I just hope everyone takes it easy on themselves, so, yes there is still this pressure to take all your AP exams and get a 5 on them, but I still hope everyone instead prioritizes being home and being with their family and doing what needs to be done.