As the AP Psychology course makes a significant transition from a half-semester course to a full-year format, both students and educators are adjusting to the changes. This shift is designed to offer a more comprehensive learning experience and better prepare students for the AP exam later in the year.
“I was very happy about the class was changed to a year course because there’s so much content to cover that it didn’t fit very well in one semester,” AP Psychology teacher Thomas Boane said.
The number of students that took the AP Psychology exam was relatively low in the past few years because some of the people took the class in the first semester making it hard for them to remember the information presented at the end of the year.
“I don’t want the class to be back as a semester because I think the full year is gonna benefit us and the teacher more because we get to learn more material,” sophomore Lipi Shah said. “We have a better grasp of what he’s trying to teach us and we’ll just get more familiar with everything.”
Although the class was changed to a full-year course, some people are joining the class from the second semester due to some schedule difficulties. This will cause the teachers to teach in a different way, so they can pass the AP exam. Also, students have to learn the material in a short amount of time.
“Well, we’ll squeeze [unit] zero in on the test specifically, so you’re going to have a lot of background knowledge and then we’ll start adding those test strategies and stuff like that and finish off the last couple chapters,” Boane said. “So it is possible, it’s very difficult for a kid to join in spring and still do very well on the AP exam, but they’re going to have to apply themselves.”
Junior Grace Hu said former students who took the semester course struggled to take the AP exam because the materials were crammed into a semester and it should have been a year long. Making the class a year-long will help students get ready for the AP test.
“I took the course because I’m really interested in how our brain works and why we do things the way we do things and I think I’ll get to know more knowledge about psychology because I think coach Bowen is a really good teacher,” Shah said. “I think we’ll get the benefit of learning a lot about psychology throughout the year.”
