THE MIRROR | Courtesy of The College Board on YouTube
The dreaded month of May. It doesn’t just come with mayflowers—it’s accompanied by the annual high-stakes ritual of AP exam season. What begins as a challenge to rise to college-level expectations quickly spirals into a stress marathon marked by sleepless nights, frantic cramming and a constant state of panic.
The pressure to succeed is enormous. Our culture tells us that burnout is a badge of productivity, and that sacrificing well-being is just a part of the college admissions game. But exhaustion is not a prerequisite for success, and no test score is worth losing your health over.
That said, how does one survive this storm of crashing out?
It’s important to be strategic. Now is not the time to become a martyr for the College Board. You don’t need to review every unit in microscopic detail or make aesthetic flashcards for Instagram. Focus on the essentials, cut the fluff and know that good enough is truly good enough.
Protect your peace like it’s on the AP exam. Take breaks. It might sound like an obstacle to productivity, but schedule rests like you would a study session. Go for a walk, rewatch a comfort show and eat something with nutritional value that didn’t come from a vending machine. You can’t power through burnout if you never give yourself a chance to recharge.
And finally, remember that your worth is not defined by your score. A five is great, but so is surviving this month without turning into a shell of your former self.
The system could and should be better to minimize student stress. We should question why we’ve normalized academic pressure to an extent that it creates mass burnout every spring. But until the culture changes, we’ve got to outsmart it. Power through it with boundaries, not just a blind hustle.
The AP exam might last three hours, but your sanity has to last much longer.