Juniors are taking the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) End of Course (EOC) exam for U.S. History on Wednesday; one of the last STAAR EOC tests needed to graduate.

To prepare his students for the test, AP U.S. History teacher Kenneth Schiumo has been focusing on teaching test-taking skills.

“Instead of cramming tons of content, we’ve been focusing more on honing our skills in tackling different types of questions and knowing how to structure our answers effectively,” Schiumo said. 

The studying junior Sia Parpelli has done in preparation for the AP test has made preparing for the STAAR less stressful. 

“I don’t really have any worries for it because I’ve been studying very intensively for the AP US History exam, so the STAAR is definitely a little bit less stressful,” Parpelli said.

Despite being less stressful, Parpelli has still been taking practice tests to prepare.

“I’ve been preparing by taking practice tests in my spare time and just brushing up on my U.S. history skills overall.”

Schuimo feels confident in the preparation his students have done for the test.

“Our students are pretty confident in their knowledge,” Schiumo said. “Sure, there’s always a bit of nerves before any test, but overall, we’re feeling good about it.”