AP Memes 2021: The Best of TikTok, Instagram and Twitter

No one looks forward to Advanced Placement (AP) exam season. But the memes the APs generate — those are worth waiting for. The 2020-2021 school year was another unprecedented one that saw many students taking classes remotely or while wearing masks in socially-distanced classrooms. With these high-pressure tests finally underway, many students are turning to meme-making to blow off steam.

There were plenty of jokes about performance anxiety and feeling unprepared for tests. Some said that it was the experience of seeing other people’s memes made them realize they misread or misinterpreted a question.

The subject matter itself was also a gold mine for memes. (Cue tons of jokes about the AP Lit question about Ai’s 1985 poem “The Man With the Saxophone,” Big Bird’s appearance on the AP Bio test, and, of course, the Swifties on the College Board planting a Taylor question on the AP Gov exam.) The psychedelic clown made a lot of cameos.

We pulled together some of the best memes about the 2021 exams from TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, broken down by subject. 

AP Bio Memes

The clear star of this year's bio exam hails from Sesame Street. A free-response question about finches on the Galápagos island referenced a hybrid lineage of the species that came to be known as Big Bird. C'mon, the memes make themselves.

AP Lang Memes

The AP Lang exam inspired two main meme categories. One centered on a FRQ on whether schools should stop teaching cursive (um, yes), while the other made fun of a question about rearranging furniture to improve social interactions.

AP Chem Memes

It's all about knowing the basics. TikTok user AJ Nakash adapted the “Walking into the exam knowing…” format ahead of the AP Chem exam, writing, “A buffer is what happens when Netflix won't load.”

AP Euro Memes

AP Euro students found themselves more than a little confused to open their document-based question packets and find themselves confronted with a question about India. A question about the meaning of liberalism was also…unwelcome. As Twitter user @PEEBSIE put it, “WHO is a liberalism and why are they in 1800s india.”

AP Lit Memes

Writing a lot, fast, under intense pressure is a core part of the AP exams. But nowhere is that more true than in AP Lit classes. Tons of memes focused on the difficulty of coming up with thoughtful essay angles quickly — and, of course, that saxophone player question.

AP Calc Memes

Whaaaat was with the spinning toy question!? That FRQ stumped many AP Calc students who were left with nothing to do but meme away their frustrations.

AP Gov Memes

Swifties, the AP Gov exam is your time to shine. Taylor's question was — duh — the fan favorite from the test, inspiring meme upon meme. Fans who are quick to search for clues and hidden meanings in everything from her lyrics to her award show outfits even speculated that the multi-part question may contain some Tay-approved easter eggs.

AP World History Memes

This year's AP World History exam generated the fewest memes, with just a handful of gems available on TikTok. If you see any good ones, hit up our DMs! 

This year, the College Board is offering three different testing periods, with both online and in-person exams available. The first round of tests, which started on May 3, is in-school only, and extends until May 17. The next two rounds of tests, which are offered both in school and at home, stretch from May 18-28 and June 1-11.

This is one major difference from the exclusively online spring 2020 exams, which fell early in the COVID-19 pandemic and the bumpy transition to learning from home. Students shared harrowing stories about technical glitches that forced them to take makeup exams.

The College Board said it was also taking steps this year to address the socioeconomic disparities exacerbated by remote learning, such as loaning personal devices to those who don’t have their own. Yet some students said these changes didn’t go far enough, arguing that all the exams should be open-note to account for the extreme disruption of attending class online during an unprecedented public health crisis. They took issue with the fact that there was no option to toggle back-and-forth between questions on the online exams to review prior responses, a feature that the College Board said was intended to deter cheating.

The organization told Teen Vogue it also removed its per-exam cancellation fee and offered full refunds to students who feel unprepared to test. For those who are taking exams this year, the results will be released in late July.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: 2021 AP Exams Show the College Board Doesn’t Care Enough About Students

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