Tomorrow is the final day of Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition (APLIT) and Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) exams for high school students. The courses are designed to mimic a class a student might take as a college freshman, and the final exams take over three hours. As you might imagine, this has led to some stressed out teenagers.
And what better way to vent that frustration than filling up Twitter with a bunch #APUSH and #APLIT memes?
A lot of the tweets are students worrying about how they did, with everyone hoping for a 5 (the best possible score) but thinking they might have gotten a 1.
https://twitter.com/AdelynnPuett/status/995031459785199616
me laughing at the #apush memes knowing I definitely got a one on the exam #apushexam pic.twitter.com/iTDvr00yNU
— angie :3 (@angieestweets) May 11, 2018
rt this picture of franklin d. roosevelt for a 5 on your apush exam pic.twitter.com/Lqj3Ik5UCI
— dustin (@DUSTlNNGUYEN) May 11, 2018
when the essay asks you about the economy but all you studied for was women rights #apush pic.twitter.com/zowiwtfl2M
— Tony Yoo (@sgyoo98) May 11, 2018
Wouldn’t want my 1 to get cancelled #apush #aplit pic.twitter.com/TD1FKo1uv0
— Jenna (@Jennaostoff1) May 17, 2018
how does one learn 9 months of apush in 24 hours ???!!
— bella (@bellavaquerra) May 10, 2018
This better get me a 5 on the APUSH exam pic.twitter.com/XpRtO9DndZ
— barbie doll 🍉 (@aissatouncisse) May 10, 2018
My 2 essays were weaker than the Articles of Confederation #APUSH
— Griffin (@mcmahon_griffin) May 11, 2018
Other students chose to focus on what they learned.
writing about literally anything in apush #apush pic.twitter.com/SsG7aZ5SS8
— allie (@ayegsandbacon) May 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/annanicchitta/status/994995258760007683
Loved ending the year with #APLit presentations on Shrek using various literary criticism theories.
— Brittany Ditton (@mrsditton) May 17, 2018
“She’s a strong, proud, independent…dragon” pic.twitter.com/qR5jSXXBQJ
theodore roosevelt investigating the meat scandal #APUSH #APUSHExam https://t.co/owF1K0TL1u
— cam (@trainorcam) May 11, 2018
#ApLit test but I give you no context pic.twitter.com/kEz124lMZj
— Michael Tsai (@mikey_tsai217) May 9, 2018
Or didn’t learn.
https://twitter.com/ActuallyRJ/status/994988315098181633
Apparently the APLIT exam covered poetry by Jamaican writer Olive Senior, and whatever she wrote about plants is freaking kids out.
joke: flowers are beautiful
— olivia jewel (@olivojl) May 9, 2018
woke: flowers are militant colonizers with an imperialist agenda#aplit
https://twitter.com/4N1ER/status/994274427197165573
https://twitter.com/KMD1100/status/996893107009486848
Me from now on every time I see a plant#aplit pic.twitter.com/FnRYoA48GO
— luigi (@litzyhood) May 9, 2018
“Plants are deceptive”
— navi (lovers arc) (@notagoodfox) May 9, 2018
*me to every tree now*#APLit pic.twitter.com/qsw9udHV1v
https://twitter.com/lukemaffia/status/994252665918980105
https://twitter.com/mdg027/status/994292221053677568
Although many saw the poem as an analogy for colonialism, the author didn’t necessarily see it that way. She did however indicate that she was open to that interpretation.
Please take note exam scorers.
https://twitter.com/erinnchnn/status/994367303646003201
I don’t hate plants. Quite the opposite. My poem shows how clever plants are in devising so many methods for ensuring their survival. Read again.
— olive senior (@olivesenior) May 10, 2018
Not really. But in the poem plant activities are related to the human. So you can see parallels. Not everything in the poem is revealed to the author. The best poems invite the readers in. Your own interpretation is valid if you can support it with evidence from the poem.
— olive senior (@olivesenior) May 10, 2018
A few students even seemed worried that retweeting memes could get them in trouble. After all, who wouldn’t be a little afraid of something called “The Office of Integrity”?
https://twitter.com/sameerghai_/status/995083868733558784
Me: RT’s #APUSH memes
— ari (@AquaberryAri) May 11, 2018
Office of integrity the next day: pic.twitter.com/jOcgKEGale
https://twitter.com/josiahsaintius/status/995000470614691842
Even exhausted teachers were taking to Twitter to express their feelings about the exams.
If my students spent as much time analyzing poetry as they did analyzing “Yanny vs. Laurel” imagine the class I could have. #aplit #teacherproblems
— David Rickert (@davidrickert7) May 17, 2018
These kids shouldn’t be too worried about the exams, or even getting into college. Given the historic rates of student loan debt, and the possibility of finding a good job in their field after finishing college, they might be better off concentrating on creating more memes. That’s an economy you can always count on.
