Every high school student who has taken an AP class knows the struggles you face day to day when taking such a course. Even though you put in long hours and dedication, nothing prepares you more for college courses. Here are 15 problems I have experienced as a junior AP student as I embark on my journey through these college level courses.

1. When Henry David Thoreau becomes your best friend.

After carefully reading the essays of the great Henry David Thoreau such as Civil Disobedience and Walden, you really get a sense of his influence on our world. After months of reading his work you get to know his thoughts and opinions. Then he becomes the only human being you learn about since you are so busy with work.

2. When rhetorical analysis becomes second nature and you begin to analyze everything you read.

After doing rhetorical analysis for the past five months, it has become second nature to scan a piece of writing for its literary devices. After scanning and picking apart over 30 passages, you’ll catch yourself analyzing the toilet paper package at the grocery store.

3. Still having to do work after the AP test is over.

All AP students know that after a long nine month haul, when you reach May it’s go time. All your hard work will pay off and you’ll finally get to the end of the course. Woah woah woah…. wait back that up. That is actually incorrect; another problem with taking an AP course is, even after completing a college level course, you still have to do work for the last month and a half of school.

4. What the letters FRQ and DBQ do to your soul when they come out of your teacher’s mouth.

When you walk into class and see either the letters FRQ or DBQ on the board it’s an automatic inner outrage slash sadness comes upon you that you will be having to look at serval documents or try to recall history from centuries ago to get a decent score on it.

5. Having a textbook double the size of an average one.

Have you ever compared an AP book to a regular textbook? It’s like comparing a phone book to a takeout menu. AP books are much larger, with a lot more material.

6. When the month of May seems like an entire year.

After the long, tiring span of several months, when you finally reach May it feels like the finishing line, but with a twist. That twist is the finishing line is still 100 yards away. Even though when your entire year’s work is coming to an end in May, the month feels as long as a normal year.

7. When you become inspired by Hester’s story of redemption.

After reading, analyzing, and carefully looking in depth into the story’s meaning, The Scarlet Letter becomes a huge part of your life for a month. After finishing the book, AP students become influenced by Hester Prynne’s great redemption throughout the book.

10. When your favorite chapter of E.B. White is the one about whether white or brown eggs are better.

After reading a book full of intellectual short essays, you come upon the egg chapter in The Essays of E.B. White. Towards the end, E.B. White is pondering whether white or brown eggs are better; therefore you start to think about it too. Turns out, that chapter becomes your favorite part of the book.

11. When the summer work takes you the whole two and a half months.

You know going into the summer that you were given a huge amount of work to prepare for the upcoming school year. Then you don’t end up even getting the book until the middle of July. That’s the “oh shoot” moment and you realize that this work will take you forever. You end up working on it up until midnight the night before school starts.

12. When you’re late every morning because you’re up until 2 a.m. finishing your homework.

You’re struggling to finish that last page of reading or that last sentence of your essay when you look up and see it is 2 a.m. That’s when you know it will be a rough morning, and find yourself waking up at 7:15 a.m. Well, say goodbye to being on time to first period. Can being an AP student be a legitimate excuse?

13. Having to pay hundreds of dollars on AP test prep books as well as the actual test.

March comes around and now you (or your parents) have to shell out hundreds of dollars just so you can take the exam. You end up calculating what your parents are going to have to pay and it turns out to be almost $300 on top of all the AP books you bought to prepare for these expensive tests.

14. Having to wait three months to get your scores back.

After taking the three hour, $90 test to complete your AP course, the test results take forever to come in. You have to wait three long months of agony and stress to find out the results of a test that you’ve been dreading all year.

15. The feeling you get when you finally log onto the College Board website and see you didn’t do so great on the test.

After the three long months of waiting, your test scores are in. You anxiously log into your College Board account while your hands are trembling and heart is beating. You click on the “see your AP test scores” button. There is your score you’ve been waiting for and it is a two. It’s a moment of sadness, but relief that the course is over and you gave it your best.