AP Exams

Overview

AP Exams, short for "Advanced Placement Exams," are annual test measuring a teenager's proficiency in a given subject. They are generally given to students in advanced placement high school courses, but anyone is eligible to take the tests. Depending on the the student's score, the test may make them eligible for college credit. Online, the tests are generally viewed as a tremendous source of stress for students, and have inspired image macros and jokes about individual tests.

Background

Advanced Placement courses began in 1955 as a way for high school students to take college-level courses.^[1] Any student is eligible to take the tests provided they pay the fee for each test (in 2015, the fee was $91 per test). In 2018, 38 subjects had an AP exam. Tests are scored on a grading scale from 1-5, 5 representing "Extremely well qualified" in a given subject, and 1 representing "No recommendation." Many colleges allow higher scores (3-5) to serve as credit for introductory learning.

Developments

Online, students have long created image macros and advice animals related to AP exams (examples shown below).

In 2015, a subreddit for AP students, /r/APStudents,^[2] was created and mostly features students sharing memes related to the tests (examples shown below).

In 2017, memes shared about the AP Language exam garnered media attention due to a question that students took to write about Donald Trump. The question was related to "artifice in politics," and students shared memes about how they roasted Trump using the hashtag #APLang. These were covered by The Daily Dot.^[3]

In 2018, the Daily Dot^[4] covered a surge of AP US History and AP Literature memes. Students joked about their unpreparedness for the test and also made jokes about specific aspects of the exams (examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References