AP Bio students should not have to prepare themselves for exams

By Isabelle Chiu
Online Sports Editor

This year Mira Costa High School students taking Advanced Placement Biology did not finish reading the textbook. It is unjust to require students to teach themselves unlearned material from new chapters because they do not cover a critical section of the exam.

In the AP Biology classes taught by Jessica Bledsoe and Daniel Sponaugle, four out of the thirty-eight chapters in the textbook were not formally taught during allotted class time. Students can use their study time to either review previous units or teach themselves the chapters that were not covered, on top of preparing for the AP exam.

Bledsoe and Sponaugle teach the material on the AP exam out of the textbook. However, they often skip over certain subjects that do not occur as frequently on the AP exam. According to junior Anna O’Connor, the test consisted mostly of the material taught in class; only a couple questions were on the untaught material. Therefore, It is a waste of time for students to teach themselves material that may not even be on the exam.

According to Bledsoe, each year she and Sponaugle are not able to finish the textbook due to time constraints, and skip over the sections that are not covered on or have a small section on the exam in years past. The chapters that are not taught are redundant and unnecessary to read. Students can possibly score higher by thoroughly reviewing the learned material and doing well, instead of using their time to study unlearned material that will not help at all or only help answer one or two questions.

Even if students utilize their time to teach themselves the remainder of the course, it will not be beneficial since they will not have teacher guidance through the untaught chapters. According to Bledsoe, students do better on exams when the teacher is teaching the material. Having students teach themselves is not only time consuming but also takes time away from reviewing; the self-taught portion is not taught as well as the learned units were at Costa. Students who self-teach the remainder of the textbook in favor of reviewing will not have a significant advantage over other students who spend time reviewing.

Additionally, students would need to cram learning new chapters into a period of a couple of weeks in order to master it before the AP exam. According to a study by Dartmouth College, cramming is an ineffective way to learn because students will not retain enough information. Those who self-teach the skipped chapters may understand the basic concepts of the new unit, but will not be able to eloquently answer the free response questions on uninstructed material in depth.

AP Biology is not the only AP class that does not finish the course for the same reasons. Students taking AP Chemistry must also make the same decision between self-teaching and reviewing past material.

Students who teach themselves the remaining chapters are at a disadvantage on the AP exam because they are wasting time that could be more valuably spent reviewing major topics that have been already covered. By cramming new material that only represents a small portion on the exam, within the couple of weeks prior to the AP exam, is not beneficial to students, and ultimately will not dramatically affect a student’s overall score.