How to Study for AP Exams

General Tips

• Don’t be afraid if you have to self study! - Classes in school sometimes may not finish the full AP curriculum, which can be daunting. It won’t be if you plan accordingly! Understand the different units that you have to learn for your AP course in each AP “syllabus” (called a “core document,” which you can search up! This is the one for AP Lang - AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description, Effective Fall 2020 and see what you have studied (and what you haven’t!)

• Self study “easy” APs - There are many AP subjects that are relatively simple to learn if proper time is set aside. Some examples include: AP Psychology, AP Statistics, and AP Microeconomics/AP Macroeconomics. Most students self-study these APs at home and then register for the AP exam via College Board.

• Practice, practice, practice! If you took the AP class through school, you should have an AP Classroom, where your teacher can unlock full length AP tests. Ask them to do that and practice under test conditions: AP Classroom will help you with a timer. You can also find old AP tests online, with this one being the one for AP English Language and Composition Past Exam Questions.

  • Take a test and see what units you still need to study! AP Classroom should automatically strike/note the units you may want to target practice.

  • If you don’t have an AP classroom, feel free to check out the below resources.

• Get extremely familiar with recent past prompts. Most of the free response/open ended questions for each subject should be available online. Browse the past 5 years’ practice exams and practice answering them within the time limit! There should also be an answer key, which gives you pointers towards what your answer should be structured like. This will help you have targeted practice towards the areas you are weak in or unfamiliar with.

• For STEM based subjects, creating an essential document for equations, graphs etc. is super helpful. This can be the condensed version of everything you need to do - and you can also go online and search up “essential AP Calc BC cheat sheet” to review others’ sheets too! Some exams even offer “cheat sheets” for use during the exam as well. Practice using the sheets when taking the test so you get familiar with the locations of the equations and can quickly access them during the exam.

• For history classes, create a timeline! This can help sort out historical influences on one another as well as what happened chronologically. Work with your friends or even your parents to talk through each of the historical events as a story. Creating a story* when trying to memorize the facts will immensely benefit you during the exam. *This is a proven effective memorization tactic.

• Understand the cutoffs. You don’t need to score a 100% to get a 5! Each subject has different score cutoff requirements historically, so definitely know the multiple choice/free response score requirements for your desired score. For example, you only need to score 70% of the questions correctly on the AP Psychology exam to score a 5.

Recommended Resources

• Barron’s textbooks are really good for most STEM subjects and Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. However, make a note that these tests are significantly more difficult than the actual exam. To have the most accurate understanding of the exam difficulty, practice as many official College Board exams from the previous as you can.

• For APUSH, AMSCO is great! The resource gives information in a condensed and digestible format while breaking everything down by time period. This can help you be more targeted during your preparation and reduce how overwhelming memorizing all the information can be.

• Use Google Slides - Many of our tutors created a Google Slides presentation for each AP class, covering each unit/event (depending on which subject you are studying) and related information. It was color coded by unit and super helpful - sharing this resource with others can also be helpful too! We can send a template of what this would look like for a sample AP. Just give us an email at redwoodriveracademy@gmail.com.
  

These are just some of the tips towards how to study for your APs. If you want to know more information on this topic and your questions were not answered in this edition of the newsletter, feel free to email us and we would be happy to get on a free call to talk more about your specific questions. Next week, we’ll be talking about recommendation letters, tune in!