Alongside the many students enrolled in AP courses this year, I dedicated hours of my summer to the intense workload assigned to individuals in these classes to be completed over the summer. While my peers in CP2, CP1 and honors classes were only required to read a single book with optional note taking, I, alongside fellow AP students,  were drowning in books, notes and essays on top of the schoolwide reading assignment. Although it is understandable that the concept of summer assignments is intended for students to retain information over the summer as well as prepare students for the course, summer work is often disregarded, making the effects of summer work impractical. 

According to a recent survey addressed to the AP students of Walpole High School, about 55.2% of those assigned to AP summer work admit that they cram their work into the remaining weeks or days of summer, ultimately invalidating and reducing the intended effects of the assignment. Students do not maximize their effort into these assignments because they want to consume the summer as much as possible uninterrupted by school and its responsibilities. The majority of AP teachers assign too much work compared to the small effect the assignment has on a student’s overall grade. With such a small impact on the line, AP kids are additionally discouraged to treat the assignment as if it had a heavy impact on their grade or class performance. After a long 9 months with 180 days of school, everyone should be entitled to an entirely stress-free summer, not just the kids who are taking lower level classes with no summer assignments. It may be argued that AP students should not be complaining since they signed up for those courses, which is true; however, the summer work could be a potential drawback for students wanting to take an AP course. For those of whom spending their summers traveling, working or just out of the house in general, finding time to thoroughly dedicate to completing assignments is a difficult task. For incoming seniors, college essays and applications are simultaneously tacked onto the summer to-do list as if that is not stressful enough in itself. 

 It is not to say that summer work should be abolished entirely; instead, the amount of which is assigned must be significantly reduced. It is respectable that teachers want their students to come into class in September with a basic foundation of the course expectations. However, teachers also need to recognize that they are not the only class assigning this work; therefore, collaboration between teachers is essential to making sure students are not overloaded with summer work. Even some simple guidelines in place, such as restricting each AP subject to an estimated time for completion, would reduce the amount of summer work assigned to students. With less demanding work, students will dread its completion less, therefore enforcing the exertion of more effort into what is expected of them. Furthermore, a decrease in the amount of summer work assigned to AP students would improve its benefits while lowering stress and anxiety about its deadlines.