It’s one in the morning, and your eyes begin to glaze over as you stare at the computer screen, your half-typed essay glaring right back. Completely unable to fathom why any teacher would ever even consider burdening a poor high school student like you with such a ridiculous amount of homework, you curse your teacher under your breath. After reserving a moment to let your frustration simmer, you collect all of the motivation you can muster and continue writing in a half-hearted, zombie-like haze.

Every student has had one—or maybe even a hundred—of those moments, working in the dead of the night, where he or she harbored quite a bit of ill will towards his or her teachers. But now that the school year is nearing its end, it is possible to look back on those late nights or early mornings, as well as those teachers, in a different light.

At the beginning of the year, Liberty’s AP teachers were faced with quite a task: they were responsible for turning the group of amateurs before them into experts knowledgeable enough to pass the rigorous AP tests that many Patriots took just a few weeks ago.

Think about it. How much did you know at the beginning of the year, and how much more do you know now? AP teachers may dish out massive homework loads, but all of that work got students where they are today. All of this work, and all of this learning, is what allows students to succeed on AP exams.

Although the AP journey may be difficult for students, it is important to remember that it requires a lot of effort from teachers as well: it takes a lot of planning and energy in order to adequately prepare students for such extensive exams. Teachers are responsible for knowing everything that will be on the exam, and figuring out how to teach it in the 150 school days before the test.

When it comes down to it, AP classes give students the opportunity to receive college credit, but it is the teachers and their extensive efforts that ultimately make this possible — without them, nobody would be able to pass the AP tests. With that in mind, we at the Patriot Press would like to give Liberty’s AP teachers a big thank you.