It’s April. The warm spring breeze smells like sunlight, senioritis, and those AP tests you forgot to study for. The senioritis hit too hard, but there’s still hope for clutching up.
AP Tests seem intimidating at first, because they are lengthy college-level tests with lengthy free response sections and speedy pacing. Unlike the ACT, a stock standardized test, AP Tests rely on a deep understanding on concepts and knowledge. There are detailed processes to memorize, like the Krebs Cycle for AP Biology and vast historical movements for APUSH. However, this shouldn’t deter you from working to earn a high score. It will be worthwhile when you can skip prerequisite classes in college, graduate earlier, and save lots of money.
Luckily, there are plenty of resources to help you with your cram. Test prep books like the Princeton Review or Barrons have concise explanations of the main concepts within each unit. They also have many practice problems and full-length practice exams. Khan Academy has good videos and practice problems on many AP subjects. CrackAP has even more practice problems for even more subjects- its worth it if you can tolerate the sketchy UI and survive the popup ads! CollegeBoard has the official websites of all the AP subjects. You can find past free response questions and the rubric for scoring your free responses. After taking a practice test, you can put your results into a score calculator from Albert.io to gauge your progress.
In addition to the right resources, you need the right study schedule. At the time of writing, there are 3 weeks until the AP exams. Most subjects have between 6 to 10 units, so you can learn the material from reading a prep book, watching Youtube lectures, or using Khan Academy in 2 weeks if you regularly study. Adjust your review schedule based on the time remaining before the exams. After reviewing all the material, reflect and find our your strengths and weaknesses. Brush up on your weak spots and spam full length practice tests in the time before the exam to refine your strategies.
It is more challenging if you are taking multiple AP tests or self-studying. You might need to spend more time studying, but it’s definitely feasible to manage many tests.
Here are some general strategies and tips to maximize your study time:
- Know what’s on test. Sounds obvious, but look at the Course and Exam Description from Collegeboard.
- You need to be prepared to self-study if your teacher or textbook does not cover a section. They sometimes update material and have different units.
- Be familiar with the timings and structures for each test. Again, they may update the test format.
- Collegeboard lists out the percentages of questions on a particular unit per test. Study the more commonly used topics that are on 17-23% of your test.
- Spam A LOT of practice problems.
- Get used to reading a lot for humanities tests and doing lots of math for STEM tests
- Make sure you actually understand the important concepts. Teaching it to someone else or writing your own study guide to find knowledge caps is a good strategy. Drawing diagrams helps with complex science concepts. Timelines help with history.
- Sleep well before the test, of course.
Check out my ACT prep article if you procrastinated on that too: https://www.girlspring.com/hit-that-36-all-the-act-strategies-you-really-need/
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