As College Board has once again released a feeling of doom amongst thousands of AP students the past week, AP students all around the world have experienced a wave of emotions, ranging from drowning in sorrow to swimming in joy. To those who have successfully obtained the score they wanted on their AP exams, congratulations! To those who had not and is extremely disappointed in themselves, here are five healthy methods to get over your disappointment of your AP scores.
1. Take a break from school.
Although it is summer, you probably still have summer homework to finish before school starts once again in a month. It's best to take a break from continuing your summer homework, as you probably are currently too depressed to even touch your homework. Rather than sitting around and watching Netflix, go out with friends and just have a good time. What better way to distract your mind than hanging out with your friends?
In addition, school adds onto your stress. With unsatisfactory AP exam scores, you begin to question your intelligence. When questioning your intelligence, you continue to believe that you lack intelligence. Placing such negative thoughts into your mind can cause yourself to lose motivation to do your school summer homework. It could even make you feel frustrated.
2. Exercise.
Exercising is one of the best forms of relieving tension and stress in your body. This relaxing method of getting your mind off of your scores is one of the best and healthiest ways to get over your disappointment. Each time you begin to have an inkling of a thought about your score, move around. Don't stand still. Standing still allows more room for your thoughts to roam. By keeping your body and mind active, you can prevent yourself from thinking too much about a score you can't change.
Not only can exercising be great for your mental health, it also can be great for your physical health as well. You can smoothly lose weight while feeling good about yourself. It helps you to let loose of every single negative aspect in your mind.
3. Talk it out.
Talk about your disappointment of your AP scores. Don't just let it build up inside your mind. Whether it may be your parents or friends or even teachers, it's best to talk about your disappointment. If you leave it too long in your mind, you can begin to question whether or not you are actually the dumbest person in the world. To be honest, even just writing out your emotions in a journal is sufficient enough. Although it may be silly and rather stupid, it is helpful.
People all around you can provide you encouraging statements. In addition, these people can help you push through your negative thoughts and help you to move on. Dealing with an insane amount of negativity can truly harm your mental health. Talking it out is always the best option.
4. Know that these scores don't matter that much.
These scores just tell colleges whether or not you can gain credit for the course. It also just tells you how well you are able to handle a college-level course. But these scores don't even touch your GPA. These scores impact little to none of your college admissions process. It hardly hurts you. The only thing it can do to you is make you feel you lack intelligence. But it doesn't mean everything.
If you fail, realize that it's not going to affect your entire future. Maybe several aspects, but at most it is you taking the class you could've exempted out of in college. You will still be able to get a job. You will still have a family. You will still be yourself. Don't continuously beat yourself up just because of a couple bad test scores.
5. Remind yourself that this is a college-level course.
You're a high school student. The test you took back in May is a college level test. It is possible not to do well. Receiving a bad score on this exam just means that you aren't able to handle this course in college at the moment. But you need to realize that you're not a college student. You're not there yet. What you can do is to push yourself to improve and eventually, in college, you can excel in these courses.
Don't continuously look back in the past and wonder what you could've done better to get a better score on the AP exam. The past is the past and you should no longer live in the past. What you need to do now is to focus on the future. Focus on doing better in school. Focus on what were your weaknesses in the past that may have caused such a score; instead, improve on your weaknesses. Make your weaknesses your strengths.
Regardless of your score, you are smart. Don't let this score discourage you.
