The exam room was filled with math students from all around Ann Arbor. Among them were Community High School students who had taken Advanced Calculus with CHS teacher, Maneesha Mankad. In the early morning of Monday, May 11, students arrived at the testing center at Eastern Michigan University to take the AP exam for Calculus BC
Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college level classes offered for high school students. They are designed to prepare students for the AP exam associated with the class. The exam for Calculus BC covers all of the topics in a first year college calculus class.
“Getting into that room I was really stressed out, but it wasn’t that bad,” Senior Huck Ellis said. “It’s kind of easier once you realize that a majority of the students are in the same position as you are, and feel the same way about the test.”
For most Advanced Calculus students, it takes a lot of studying to do well on the Calc BC exam. Senior Gus Finn compared studying for the exam to studying for the SAT. His preparation for the exam included studying with friends and reviewing the practice material in class.
“The exam definitely requires a lot of prep,” Finn said. “I’ve never taken an AP exam. I’ve taken the SAT, which required a lot of prep, but taking AP exams isn’t really a part of my routine. I tried to study with friends mostly and a couple groups went to the library every now and then.”
Junior Rowan Kim also worked on problems with friends. Some of the concepts were very challenging for him but he found it helpful to work with other students to understand the material.
“I went to the library about four times just to power through that work and talk to other people about it,” Kim said. “I think collaborating and getting other people’s ideas and having them teach you their shortcuts is super helpful.”
Kim thinks students should take Advanced Calculus even though it’s challenging and the exam takes a lot of studying.
“You can never prepare enough,” Kim said. “I would recommend that people take the class, but they have to bear in mind that the class itself is difficult and that the AP test is very, very hard, and you really have to put in the work if you want to get a good score on it.”
Everyone who took the exam had a different approach towards studying. But one thing all the CHS students agreed on was how effective their teacher Maneesha was in preparing students for the exam.
“We had study groups through the [advanced calculus] class with Maneesha, and that was probably the most helpful,” Finn said.
“I didn’t do much more than what Maneesha gave us, but that was a sufficient amount of studying,” Ellis said. “The amount of time that we spent doing the AP prep sessions was super, super helpful. I can’t imagine what it would be like going into that test without those resources.”
From studying with friends in the library to staying after school with Mankad, these students worked every day to build their math skills. The exam tested their knowledge of many of the topics that they have spent the year studying. It was stressful and challenging for many, but they were well prepared thanks to the resources they had at CHS.
