Many students who are taking the AP Psych class recently participated in the Psych Bowl, and the team placed 3rd overall. The Psych Bowl is a fast-paced battle between seven different schools where the teams compete in a trivial competition to compare what they have learned over the year.

“The psych bowl is a competition between schools, it’s sort of like a trivia game. There’s round one where you use whiteboards and you have thirty seconds to put down answers to questions that are shown on the projectors, which are projected out to the teams,” Psych Bowl Participant Andrew Shepard said. “There’s another round and it’s called the lightning round where you have to buzz in the question shown on the projectors and it’s really fast. You cover a lot of psychology terms”.

One of the biggest advantages to participating in the Psych Bowl for AP Psychology students is that the after school practices and meetings provide huge opportunities to study and review for the AP test. This year the AP test took place on May 1, just nine days after the Psych Bowl.

“Being a part of the Psych Bowl team is a great way to review for the AP test because you’ve relearned the entire year of knowledge in just two weeks, right before the psych bowl,” Psych Bowl Participant Clarissa Nelson said.

Psychology sparks the interest of many students at school because of the relevance of the subject that is studied. Certain students took AP Psychology because they thought it would offer a great experience and college credit, but they would agree that it has brought much more.

“I like it just because it’s so applicable. Just because everything you’re learning is literally how your mind works. It’s explaining why we think the way we do and it’s just so cool, it’s so real,” Psych Bowl Participant Abigail Clawson said. “Also, it kind of helps to know why you’re thinking certain ways and if it’s flawed”.

Taking the AP Psychology class has been a great way for participating students to get a better idea about how their minds work, and brings many hands-on experiences that are very enjoyable. Many students, in fact, are interested in pursuing psychology as a career in the future.

“I want to become a clinical psychologist. It’s just something that I really want to do because I want to help people who may struggle with their minds. I really hope to progress more and to be able to reach that goal,” Shepard said.

Ms. Whitlock is the teacher of the AP Psychology class and has a great reputation and pass rates. Anyone who is interested can sign up for the AP Psychology class, and additional opportunities such as the Psych Bowl can come from participating in the class.

“I really enjoy the subject. It’s a lot of fun to learn, it’s basically kind of a way to kind of see how people think, how things work, how we direct with other things in our environment, and how our environment impacts us,” Nelson said.