With the AP World History test coming up on May 21 for sophomore students, the Humanities curriculum has begun preparing sophomores by reviewing skills and knowledge.

“AP testing is shorter and more focused on skills because of COVID-19. The AP history exams have gone from being 55 multiple choice questions, 3 short answer questions, 1 long-essay question, and 1 document-based question (DBQ) to a single DBQ,” Humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said via email. “A challenge is that it’s just hard not to be there to catch little mistakes and misunderstandings in class. That’s really a challenge for teachers like me who rely a lot on informal, observational feedback, reading the room, and making adjustments during class.”

Sophomore Humanities student Simon Nagles sees the good and the bad in this situation. 

“Well, the first week of the AP test process seems to be going as well as it can be. There are many relevant practices for writing, and reviews for historical time periods,” Nagles said. “Naturally, it is harder to review outside of the normal classroom setting. Personally, eLearning has made it harder for me to engage since I am a very physical learner.”

In her second year enrolled in Humanities, sophomore Zoe Mallari trusts the curriculum. 

“I think the Humanities teachers are doing a good job of accommodating the needs of students with prep,” Mallari said. “We have a Google Chat that is open to all Humanities students, so the teachers can answer their questions and others can see those answers in case they have a similar question. The material they’ve given us to work with has helped me refresh my knowledge on subjects we learned last year without being too overwhelming.”