Pen and notebook in hand, history teacher Amy Lukert starts off her summer day with something out of the ordinary for teachers this time of year — grading. She opens her computer and starts the six-day process of grading hundreds of AP exams. 

Lukert teaches AP Modern World History. Out of the four years Lukert has been teaching this subject at Miege, this will be her third year scoring for the AP exams. Thousands of teachers score the approximately 300,000 students exams for AP World History each summer. 

One of the many reasons that Lukert said she grades these exams is not only for her own benefit, but for her students’ success when they take the exam. She said she especially learns about teaching writing from scoring the tests. 

“I see how other teachers have taught writing a thesis, or different formatting issues,” she said. “And I see what’s considered, a good essay or a bad essay.”

Another reason Lukert chooses to score each year is because she ear

ns 30 professional development hours through this process. Every five years teachers are required to have a certain amount of hours, which differs from state-to-state, to renew their teaching licenses. 

Teachers use the website “ONE” to score the exams that they grade. 

“The SAQs [Short Answer Questions] are all scanned in, so I just click on ‘tests waiting for you’ and I click on it,” Lukert said. “Then I read it, I give a score, and press the arrow to get the next test.”

This year Lukert will be scoring the SAQ section of the exam. She has scored this section once in previous years and said that she graded between 200-250 a day over the six-day process. 

“This year I plan on grading around 1400 SAQs, which is just a little more than I did last year,” Lukert said.

Lukert also has the chance to talk with other teachers around the country through this experience. She said she gains tips and ideas on how to improve her teaching and grading skills each year.

“It helps me teach how to write and it helps me answer questions that my students might have about what the writing looks like or how it’s graded,” Lukert said.