Must Go Faster

I've decided that the best way to avoid stressing about A.P. tests is to take as many of them as possible. My data indicates that there's an inverse relationship between the number of AP tests taken and the total freak-out level attained. Consider the following:

Sophomore year
Like all reasonable persons, I took on U.S. History as my sole A.P. class. I got more worked up about that class than really pretty much anything ever. If, on the eve of the test, you'd asked me if I would accept a full-ride scholarship to the college of my choice, on the condition that I would only get a 4 on the APUSH test, I would have hesitated, then turned you down.

Here's a semi-embarassing story to convince you of the magnitude of my monomania: One day, a few weeks before the test, I took a break from re-re-re-reading about the War of 1812 and the Hartford Convention (downfall of the Federalists, that ol' convention was) to watch that pitch-perfect cinematic masterpiece, Independence Day. As I watched Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, fresh off their defeat of the alien menace, strut across the salt flats, smoking victory cigars and playfully punching each other in the arm, I seriously thought "Wow, that must be what it's like to get a 5 on the A.P. U.S. History test."

I realize this image is kinda crappy, and from an earlier part of the film, and I really identified more with Jeff Goldblum, but it was all I could find, and ideally the flightsuit and cigar should jog your memory about the part of the movie I'm talking about

The test ended up being pretty easy. In fact, I was kind of miffed that so many people got the same grade as me. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten like a 6 or a 7 if these tests were graded by people and not soulless machines.

Junior year
I took three tests, Chemistry, Art History, and Lit. I was ridiculously prepared for Chem, but that was more Lundgren's doing than my own, and Lit...well, they apparently decide Lit grades by random drawing, so there wasn't much I could do there. Really I only obsessed about Art History, and even then my fixation didn't approach its U.S. History levels.

Senior year
I have 6 tests, I've done basically no special preperation for any of them, and I'm feeling light-hearted and, as I commented earlier, sanguine. I guess I knew that there was no way I could have possibly over-prepared for these tests to the extent that I'd done so in the past, so I just took it easy. There's no way to tell until mid-July, but I think this strategy is working out pretty well so far.


P.S.: Every time I say or hear something now, I subconciously translate it into German.

P.P.S.: Work sucks. But then I suppose that's why they pay me to do it.