Dear College Board: Give us a break!

Note: Saba Hamedy is a senior at Santa Monica High School. She wrote this article in May, prior to AP testing.

Dear College Board,

I like to think that I'm a good student with the grades and scores to get me into a prestigious university. However, in light of recent SAT scores and my slightly ruined GPA due to AP courses, I have realized that my assumptions and thoughts are but mere dreams.

(Jack Acland, seated at left, has taken the SAT and the ACT college entrance exams.)

As May rolls around the corner, I feel my wrinkles kicking in at the young age of 16. My lack of sleep is getting the better of me and my brain is overloaded with mind-numbing information. My backpack is weighing me down both physically and mentally. I spend my days studying not just for school but also for the APs and SATs you so graciously bestowed upon me and my classmates.

As I juggle my extracurriculars, I attempt to keep sane, yet somehow stress seems to stalk me. I carry around my "AP U.S. History in a Box" so that I can cram as much into my mind as humanly possible before the AP; I also keep my my Cliffs AP English book handy (just in case, you know, I'm asked to spew out a few rhetorical terms during a time of crisis). In addition to my AP resources, your SAT prep book has become my official guide to life.

To deal with the stress, I have turned to my only true friend: coffee. All those countless nights I have to stay up late finishing my pile of homework, coffee has been right at my side, making sure I don't fall asleep before my work is done. In fact, I can already feel caffeine replacing the blood in my veins.

However, the point of this letter is not to tell you, dear College Board, that I am exhausted, but rather to explain what many of us juniors nationwide go through simply to please you. We essentially just want to get into college, so why not cut us some slack and bring the competitive judging down a notch?

And, finally, as I brace myself for the horrors to come (APs, college applications, SATs, etc) I would just like to say, I loathe you. Thanks for ruining my fun high school experience.

With no love,

Mentally-exhausted, ready-to-graduate junior, Saba Hamedy, editor-in-chief of The Samohi

Photo by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Sarah]

This really captures the emotions of every upperclassman, good work!

[Fellow junior]

I agree with this letter 100%. It seems that all of my time and energy is devoted to the collegeboard. i'm thinking of burning a large effigy of this 'peculiar institution' after the ap tests are done this year.