AP Humanities: Appropriate for Exeter?

For the last two weeks, uppers, seniors and some lowers took the Advanced Placement (AP) exams on various subjects, including Biology, Calculus, History, English and even Studio Art. AP Exams are standardized tests created by the College Board to test high school students’ knowledge on college-level AP courses, thus enabling students to earn college credit. But can standardized tests really test one’s knowledge in humanities courses, such as history or English? Also, would it even be a good idea for Exonians to take the humanities standardized tests? After all, our history and English courses are centered on the belief that there is no right or wrong in humanities, that everything is open for interpretation. In addition, students at Exeter learn a very different type of humanities than students in many other schools; our curriculum is not at all based on facts and dates, which we would expect standardized tests to ask for, but rather focuses on the analysis and formation of arguments based on historical resources.

As much as Exeter’s Harkness-style does not seem to prepare students for the AP exams, I believe that studying humanities at Exeter actually prepares us well for the test. AP History, for example, has two sections, one multiple choice and one free response, each of which constitutes 50 percent of the whole score. For the free response section, students are required to write essays and analyses; for example, for the 2013 AP History exam, among the free response essay questions were those that asked students to analyze the causes of growing opposition to slavery in the United States from 1776 to 1852 and to analyze the ways in which the United States sought to advance its interests in world affairs between 1789 and 1823, according to the College Board website. Therefore, the AP Exam tests students not only on facts and dates, but also asks them to analyze and combine given resources and knowledge to put together essays, which Exeter definitely prepares us for. Exonians, using the skills that come from writing numerous research essays and Harkness discussions, should be able to successfully take the AP Exams in humanities.

I believe that Exeter’s humanities courses and teaching methods prepare us for the AP tests better than those of most other schools, because we have experience forming arguments and analyses in a short amount of time for the free response section for the AP’s, which often constitute more than half of the exam. From what I have heard from upperclassmen friends who have taken the AP exams in humanities, students at Exeter just need to review the facts and dates, and then write the analyses and essays that they so often write in class. I believe that reviewing and memorizing facts and dates is easier to do than learning the skill to form a coherent essay. It can take months or even years for students to learn how to successfully write an essay, a skill which students in many other schools must acquire from scratch for AP exams in humanities. On the other hand, Exonians just need to get the facts down for the multiple choice problems, which often makes up less than half of the whole score, and this can be done in just a few days of cramming. Therefore, Exeter prepares us beer for the AP humanities exams than most other schools do.

While Exonians might seem to be at a disadvantage for taking standardized tests in humanities, we are actually not. In fact, because we are trained to formulate coherent arguments for years, we are more prepared than students from other schools. So do not be discouraged, my fellow Exonians. The AP humanities exams are well within your reach!