It’s the first day of school and your AP U.S. History teacher is collecting your summer assignment. Your hands are shaky as you turn in your paper. You didn’t complete the assignment. Are you going to start your first AP class with a failing grade, or will you be able to recover like those who came before you?

This is the way many students start their first AP class. Complaints roll in as summer ends, and the elite procrastinators begin to evaluate how big of a dent this assignment will make in their overall grade. The APUSH summer assignment was to read and answer questions for 15 chapters of American Colonies by Alan Taylor. I was one of the students who overestimated my abilities and underestimated how boring history books are.

Recently, students have questioned why AP classes even have summer work. A few classes that assign summer work include, AP U.S. History and AP Chemistry. But, why doesn’t DGN ditch the summer work? While I struggled with the APUSH summer work, I have realized it may be one of the most crucial assignments.

Comparing the national passing rate of APUSH students to DGN’s passing rate for the exam, there is a clear difference. Nationally, 73 percent of students pass the exam, meaning almost three-quarters of students get a score of three or higher. According to DGN School Profile, 96 percent of students who took the exam in May 2025 passed. It is worth noting that the summer assignment isn’t the only reason for this success.

So, why assign the work in the first place? According to social studies teacher Karen Spahr-Thomas, summer reading became vital after the College Board made a change requiring students to start learning American history beginning in 1492, replacing the original standard of beginning content in 1607. That’s over a century of material that, without summer work, students would have to cover within the first nine days of school. This gives students a smooth transition into the class, and allows them months to read lengthy chapters, rather than a couple of days. This also applies to AP Chemistry: with too much content to cover for the school year, summer work helps make up the difference. These assignments aren’t meant to be busy work–they’re the solution to an overloaded curriculum.

Of course, skipping the summer assignment doesn’t make passing, or even getting an ‘A,’ impossible, but it does make it much harder. It’s possible to recover, but teachers have pointed out that it often means working twice as hard when the tests comes around.

I know how challenging it can be to have homework over the summer. You should be able to enjoy your free time, and not have to worry about school. But at the end of the day, AP classes are meant to mimic college. The summer work prepares us for that reality–in both content and mindset.

So the next time you’re tempted to ignore the summer packet, or your daily homework, remember this: one assignment may not break your grade, but staying on track now will always help you in the long run.