"Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel. Don't think. Use your instincts."
Qui-Gon Jinn, Episode I

A better string of words could never have been used to describe this past weekend better. Throughout my entire high school career, never have I been bombarded with as many overbearing tasks as I was in the past days. Bear with me hear, because I'm not entirely sure if this blog will amount to anything more than a personal account. Even though my weekend had a road race and a track meet along with tux shopping for the prom, this one event overshadowed it all. This is just a portion of my life that I feel has raised my well being as a person to the next level and what better way than to let it all unravel than in a blog.

Friday 5/5/06
I awoke with such trepidation on this morning as I have never felt before. Following an excellent night's rest, surprisingly I awoke to the quiet chirping of my alarm feeling more refreshed than any normal day of the week. The apparent groggy morning grossness was not there and after hoping into the shower, I was more than ready to tackle what lay ahead. A year's work would culminate today with the AP United States History Test.

APUS, as I have affectionately dubbed the course (pronounced a-puss) is no small joke. An entire year spent flying through U.S. History from 1492 with old Colombo sailing that ocean blue to the Watergate scandal of Nixon's famed presidency. To give you an estimate, my school's honors history class covers from the Civil War to Vietnam. Basically, we cover another four hundred or so years of history in the same time. As anyone who has ever taken an AP course knows it all comes down to the final AP test.

I left the house that morning with three dulled (it's better for bubble bubbling) Ticonderoga (the fort captured by Ethan Allen during the Revolutionary War, in case anyone was wondering) and two papermate pens. I was ready for the worst. Now, the test works like this: you have 55 minutes to complete the 80 multiple choice questions and two hours and ten minutes to right three essays in PEN. The catch with the essays is that you have 15 minutes to read over the documents for the document based question and then from there on, you have to budget your own time to write three essays. Basically, its 45 minutes for the document and 35 minutes for each free response essay.

I thought it was impossible.

Entering the test room I chose a seat, it didn't really matter. We were all trapped in our desks for four long hours. Our supervisor was a rail thin lady with horn rimmed glasses and the most calming voice. Being as our teacher can't give us the test. We're not even supposed to talk to him for 48 hours. Hmmm... Anyhow, I chose my execution chair got comfortable, at least as comfortable as a school desk can be, and went through the whole survey thing and filling out more bubbles about who you are and where you live and how many cats you have and your eyeglass prescription and so forth. And, all the while, wrapped nicely in a little plastic bag lay the test, mocking me. He just begged me to open him so that he could rack my brain and make it hurt. Well, you know what test, I got the last laugh.

I helped Joe next to me open his test, seeing as he dislocated his shoulder and, then it began. Questions A through E on such stuff as the Tet Offensive, the Stamp Act, analyze this cartoon of Wilson's plea for the League of Nations, what was the 13th Amendment designed to accomplish, and on and on...Eighty questions of mind numbing U.S. history. But, myself and my comrades made it through unscathed and were given a break.

We were given bagels and water. Mmmm...prison food. After peeing and talking with one another, not about the test of course. Gosh, if we did that the College Board Patrol would come flying in sirens blaring and have our tests incinerated. Pssssh...

We headed back in to the dungeon and began the grueling essay portion of the test. This is what really matters. Your score comes down to the essays. Speaking of the score a 5 is the best, and then down with a 4 all the way to one. Usually if you were to get a 4 or 5 (wow if you get a 5...wow) most colleges will accept that you took that course and you won't have to take it in college. Cool. A 3 some schools will look at, but everyone is definitely shooting for at least a 4. Opening the second test booklet, I was about to embark into hand cramp central. But, surprisingly they were good questions and ones that even if you didn't know a whole lot about them you could bs your way through it. In my allotted time I wrote a solid 5 paragraph for the document and two more equally solid essays for the free response questions. I was overjoyed. Here I had come into it that it would be darn near impossible, but you know what, it wasn't that bad.

Now, I have conquered AP and for the remainder of the year, I'll enjoy a nice and lazy history class watching movies and just knowing that we all made it through APUS. The scores won't reach us till July and I'll be sure to post them in a future blog then.

I went with my instincts, relaxed, kept cool and was able to write fluid essays and answer boggling multiple choice questions. I had raced my pod through the canyons of the Tatooine and bested Sebulba in the final moments to leave my slavery to history in the dust. I don't know if I brought hope to those who have none, but I did conquer the APUS test...

~QGJ