While summer vacation should be a break from all the stress and work from school, summer assignments should be given to students who choose to take AP courses.

Many students stop receiving homework from teachers by the last week of school; however, those students who are proceeding to take AP courses continue to have homework throughout the summer.

Although some students may think it’s unnecessary to have a summer assignment, AP teachers believe otherwise because of all the benefits it brings. Most students don’t do very much learning throughout the summer; they often forget many things and have to be reintroduced to a few things in the beginning of the school year to proceed on their learning. The summer assignments for AP students can be very useful for students to keep learning at their own pace.

The summer assignments may be an eye-opener for some students on whether they should or shouldn’t take the class. AP teachers give summer homework to give students an introduction to what they will be doing in that class.

Like in Whitney Leonard’s AP language arts class, she will not be giving out too much work that would take all summer long. Although, if it’s done the very last minute, it can be very overwhelming according to Leonard.

When you think about it, the summer assignments aren’t bad at all, it’s just the thought of doing work over summer break that brings students to disagree with giving out summer assignments. At the end of the day, it benefits you and your teachers tremendously.

Leonard thinks “it’s necessary [to have a summer assignment] in terms of preparation. [It’s a] better gage of what to expect.”

Some high schools start a few weeks earlier than others; however, we start a few weeks later than other schools, which gives us less time to prepare for the AP tests. Even though some schools begin earlier than others, everyone is scheduled to take the AP test on the same day, at the same time. High schools who start earlier are given the advantage to study the content a few weeks more than others.

“Our school starts later, therefore we have less time we have in session before taking the AP test. [The summer assignment gives us] a chance to complete some work ahead of time,” said Kathy Owens, an AP Lit teacher.

Despite the benefits of the summer assignment, Owens said, “I still believe summer is summer. Homework should be within reason, students need a chance to recharge.”

AP teachers giving out summer assignments is a great way for the student to figure out if they’re really ready for the class; meanwhile, it shows the teacher that they are committed to doing the work for that class. Summer should be a break where you no longer stress about school work; however, if you learn to manage your time efficiently, the summer assignment won’t take you all summer long.

As Leonard said, “Just because it’s summer, the learning does not stop.”