Anxiety courses through the veins of students as they prepare for the dreaded Advanced Placement (AP) exam.

Every May exhilaration is one of the emotions that surges through the hearts of students as an entire year of preparation is determined in one single test.

In 2020 COVID-19 disrupted the educational realm. Distance learning caused many issues, but especially to AP students as they did not feel like they were getting the full experience and were terrified for the upcoming test.

As a solution College Board, the company that administers every subject’s AP test, has developed AP daily review videos. The service was launched on September 1, 2020 through the College Board website, where many students already have accounts.

Senior Naibe Reynoso said, “I think College Board is a great organization for students to challenge themselves on the curriculum based on their interests. It helps before you go to college because it prepares you for the rigorous coursework and challenges you to work harder. It also reassured me on what I want to do because I took different AP classes and I saw what I am most interested in.”

The AP daily review videos give additional information on the learning objectives and skills for every subject leading up to the test.

The videos feature an AP teacher who gives a lesson per day. In this lesson they explain the objective and skills for the day, give a brief explanation on the topic, and have the students do a task.

These videos are extremely concise as CollegeBoard took the AP students’ time into consideration and made them short.

“It keeps me on track with the classes. I understand what they are going to have on the test because of these videos. They are slightly repetitive, but I like the way the teachers dedicate their time and teach us concepts, like how to apply the standards,” said Reynoso.

For the 2019 AP exam CollegeBoard released hour long review videos and although they were very helpful, they were rushed. It was a tension filled environment as many AP students did not understand what would be happening on the AP exams for that year.

The AP Daily Review Videos have more content overall as every Monday through Friday there is a video, up until the exam. This repetitiveness also builds students studying stamina. Students are also more confident as the company who created the test are administering these videos.

Not watching them and feeling unprepared eliminates the purpose of taking these exams. AP students want as much preparation as possible because this one test determines whether they will receive college credit.

Reynoso said, “It helps me in English cause I feel like I’m weaker in the subject, like for example how the first Unit talked about writing a detailed claim. I tend to not have a good structure in my essays and the videos do help me because I tend to write fluff, so it tells me to keep it concise and relevant.”

By watching these videos and participating in the questions that are presented could lead to a higher test score than without them.

These videos could be seen as a Godsend to the AP students’ worrisome brains. Even though these videos are meant to be watched daily students could always save it to watch on the weekends, when more time is available.

When AP students signed up to take these courses in August, they were signing up for a year of absolute vigor. It is incredible how regular High School students are given the ability to take college courses.

Los Altos High School provides around 24 AP courses ranging from U.S Government & Politics, Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism, Calculus AB & BC, Human Geography, English Literature & Composition, United States History, Computer Science A, Chemistry, Spanish Literature & Culture, Physics 2: Algebra-Based, 2-D Art & Design, Macroeconomics, Seminar, Spanish Language and Culture, Psychology, English Language & Composition, Microeconomics, Music Theory, Comparative Government & Politics, Statistics, Biology, Chinese Language & Culture, and Environmental Science.

The AP test is around $94 per test (excluding waivers/scholarships) and the deadline to sign up is October ninth through November sixth. Every student should apply, because that is the main point of joining an AP course.