As “AP season” gets underway, students chug Monsters and crowd libraries in preparation for the two-week exam period.

Here are testimonies from students who’ve lived and breathed practice test after practice test, study session after study session, all with the hope of seeing that coveted 5 when they open their laptop screens.

“For me, I started studying for the AP exam a couple weeks before,” Briarcliff High School junior Zahra Choudhri said. She described library study sessions with friends, doing practice problems, focusing and drinking “a lot of caffeine.”

“Every time you have a question—no matter how little—ask your teachers,” she commented. “And the night before the exam, go to sleep early. I got up bright and early this morning. I think a big part of it is the mindset.”

Throughout Westchester schools, the AP experience stays mostly the same.

“It was easy,” WPHS sophomore Halle Archer said of her first AP exam. “I was stressed about it beforehand, but I was relaxed while taking the test. I feel like our teacher prepared us a lot.”

For seniors, nevertheless, AP season can feel especially difficult.

“Compared to junior year, this season was significantly more challenging,” WPHS senior Danielle Mitchell said. She took three APs—Calculus AB, Mandarin and Physics. “I definitely felt more senioritis and general fatigue this time around.”

However, AP exams are not limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Freshman Maxence Fernandez Boquet described his experience taking APs at an earlier grade level.

“I’m traumatized,” he joked. “I took it without following the AP French course at school.” He explained that he used the AP French handbook to review question styles and learn strategies through practice tests. “Since I already understand French well and speak fluently, I could focus less on that aspect and more on getting used to the test’s time constraints,” Boquet said.

Many WPHS sophomores took AP World this year, while juniors and seniors had a greater variety of exams, ranging from Psychology to Computer Science.

Ultimately, AP season is a time filled with dark eye circles, painful hand cramps and sunrises with friends while chugging a fifteenth dose of caffeine.

“That said… I knew these scores would matter the most for my college career,” Mitchell said.

For students across the United States, that pressure is all too familiar.