AP Season Comes to an End

By Aurelia Bernier 

“Aurelia! What are you doing for lunch today?” asked Alexia Nyul (12) on Monday, the 20th of May at 10:07 am. 

A sentence I have not heard since the start of AP season, the week after JSB (May 3rd), as everyone I knew either ordered in or had a test. After the juniors’ interesting masquerade-themed banquet, where we had breath-taking, eye-opening, and mind-boggling performances by Pope Marcus Lim (11), Opera-Singer Daniel Willoughby (11), Weird-Queen Kiera Nichols (11), Dancing Porkchops (Micah Pickett (11), Romeo Kontsas (11), Ting-Yi Huang (11), Sean Lee (11), Jason Choi (11), Andrew Tan (11), Darnell Dwumfour (11)), and many more, the AP grind started with only two days to spare until the first test: AP Chemistry. 

Having taken it online last year, I was interested to hear the array of opinions and techniques this year’s students have learned with Dr. Schmidt. Some felt prepared for the test while others heavily under (but that’s what happens with every test, anyway). After taking the test, Leyla Lee (12) remarks, “I’m glad there was no experimental design on it; I wouldn’t have been prepared for that. All the hard work definitely paid off!” 

This year’s last test at Dalat was AP Physics 1, which happened on the morning of May 17, a school holiday! Alicia Lim (12), who took the test she has prepared the whole year for says, “It honestly went better than expected. I did my 5 dance before, so let’s hope that works.” 

For those taking AP Calculus BC, we are all fully aware of Alicia’s infamous 5 dance–a form of manifestation for a score of 5/5 on any AP, where one puts their hands in the air with fingers sprawled to make a ‘five’ and moving their hips to the tune “five, five, five, five, five, five, five…” A combination of this, as well as a handshake from Jia Ru Sim (12), was what many of the seniors exercised before this afternoon's test. 

Compiling the post-testing thoughts of students; this year was definitely a year where topics that were usually present/expected on the FRQs, ended up not even being tested (except for in AP Stats); a huge relief for many! In those specific classes, with nothing else to do now, projects and experiments have been assigned. 

To celebrate the end of AP season, the senior class had an outing to Escape on Saturday the 18th. Trecking the third level of monkey business, clogging the water slides, riding world records, and participating in diving and banana-flip competitions, our class had a great ending to the stressful week beforehand. Lee Yee Tan (12) describes her time that Saturday as “Fun! But also scary, as I got stuck in the middle of the long zipline, where I had to be rescued by the staff. Ugh!” 

With only seventeen days left until graduation, the senior class of 2024 is planning many fun and exciting activities to end the year on a good note. The next and most anticipated one being Senior Assassin. Get ready to see the seniors in floaties, and maybe even underclassmen, drenched!