Hello everyone!
Today I am going to be discussing the class I have been taking online this summer yet again; I have been taking AP Psychology through BYU Independent Study online, and I am writing this after taking my Semester 1 final. I posted an article explaining why I chose to take this class and how I figured out what online school to go through, so you should check that out if you haven’t already. I would definitely say it’s been easy to work through so far- I started at the end of June and I plan to finish by the end of August, but I would be finishing sooner if it weren’t for me currently being away at yearbook camp and in a little more than a week going to cheer camp. This post will detail my experience taking my Semester 1 final- I just took it yesterday and it was definitely the one part of my class that I was concerned about.
I was a little intimidated by the final: all of the previous quizzes and assignments were open-book and fairly short, whereas the final was obviously closed-book and it happened to be 100 questions. It actually wasn’t too bad; I studied some Quizlets (if you’re taking a popular course, there’s tons of online study materials) that I found and that was all I really needed to prepare. The questions were straight-forward and a lot were recycled from the unit quizzes and midterms. I didn’t know the answer to some, but it wasn’t too hard to make a guess. Since I took my final online, I was immediately emailed with my test score after finishing. I got a 92 which I was perfectly happy with- I successfully ended the first semester with a high A.
The process of taking the final was a bit confusing at first (I’ll explain why), but once I scheduled my time slot with a proctor everything else went smoothly. I’m not sure how it is with other online schools, but for BYU you must take your finals in person with a proctor. Once you’re ready to take the exam for a class, you must request it. On the page where you do this, they give you a list of proctors in your area with their contact information and criteria. **IMPORTANT: You must choose and contact your desired proctor directly before moving further or actually requesting the exam. Almost all of them require appointments, so call and schedule an appointment with the proctor, and THEN request the exam. Most of BYU’s exams are offered both in an online format and a paper format, but some proctors don’t allow online tests so take that into consideration.
I wanted to do the online format since if you choose the paper one you have to wait for it to ship to your proctor; I had to find a proctor that accepted people with online tests. The proctor I ultimately ended up scheduling with was at a local community college, so I went there to take the exam. I made the dumb mistake of forgetting my school ID (I’ll remember when I take the semester 2 final!) but luckily they accepted my mom’s ID as some sort of verification. The proctor was really nice and set me up on a computer in an empty room. She watched me through the window but I was by myself the whole time while taking my test. It only took me about a half hour to complete the exam and turn it in; upon completion I simply logged out, checked out with my proctor, and got a receipt.
I was relieved to have one semester of the course in the books, and I’m also at the end of unit 3 in the second semester so far. Since it took a while to make my appointment and figure out the logistics of requesting the final, I had gone forward with the coursework of the second semester while simultaneously studying for the final this past week. I’ll probably be ready to take the next final soon, but I won’t be able to actually do so until after I return from cheer camp. The next few weeks are going to be busy, but going through the actual lessons of the course doesn’t take much time; therefore, I can continue working and finish all the units- I just won’t be able to schedule my last final and officially complete the course for a while.
I would definitely recommend taking an online course if you have some extra time and are looking for more AP credits or a GPA boost- just make sure it’s a lighter subject matter or a subject you are comfortable with, and that you’ll have time in your schedule to continue studying for the AP test as it comes closer. BYU Independent Study has been a great program to work through, and I personally find psychology fascinating. I’ll post another update once I take my Semester 2 final and can wholly reflect on the course, but I’ve had a wonderful and fairly stress-free experience so far.
I hope this gave you some clarification on how my summer course has been going and what it’s like to take a course completely online! Let me know if you guys have any questions about online courses, APs, AP Psychology specifically, or BYU Independent Study courses! I am currently at Chapman University for my school’s yearbook camp, and I will be posting soon about my experiences here. Make sure to look out for all the exciting content coming soon!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 