<p>does anyone have released exams for APUSH, STAT and Psych ? im freakin for next year…</p>
<p>
I started prepping ~1-2 weeks before the exam and got a 5. I never learned a single thing all year, at least not until around the beginning of 3rd quarter (end of 3rd quarter is right before AP week). Rest assured that this is legitimate (that I never learned anything), or at least reasonable, as my AP Chem teacher delivers an average of ~1.6 on the exam (most students take this class for the outrageously easy A - in the testing room about 1/3-1/2 of the room went to sleep) - this guy is extremely smart (PhD in both Chem AND Biochem) but he used to teach at a university, so his teaching tendencies carried over (as well as diminished further).</p>
<p>physics- you NEED to do practice multiple choice. we only did one released test in class and i reread my entire textbook and still felt shaky. open ended wasn’t terrible, just really know mechanics!</p>
<p>lang/comp- there is no “secret” for this test…you can either write and understand the readings or you can’t. practice can help, but its really just a matter of showing what you’ve learned in your last ten years of english courses. cramming won’t help. google ap literary terms the night before and read them over, they do pop up through the multiple choice</p>
<p>@EngineerHead: I’m assuming the reader is an “average” person. I know many people who prep one week before an AP, SAT, or whatever and end up with very good scores. But what are odds of that happening. . .</p>
<p>The only one I feel like I can give a legitimate testimonial on is Bio, since I got a 5, but see below…</p>
<p>**Bio<a href=“self-study”>/B</a>: CliffsNotes is your new best friend. Get the one w/ the CD so you get extra practice tests. It’s just memorization, not crazy stuff. Try to get released exams to practice the MC.</p>
<p>Music Theory: I didn’t do so hot on this one, probably because I didn’t study enough. It is definitely possible to get a 5 on this if you practice everything. You can try to attain perfect pitch (I only know half), which helps greatly. I went through a released exam, which was pretty helpful. Google “Music Theory AP Study Guide” and memorize all the terms. (They’re the definitions to all the terms listed on the College Board course description.) Dictations are <em>HARD</em> so practice them. Same goes with sight-singing, except that was probably the only thing I passed with flying colors on the exam… You will need a teacher to teach you the composition unless you’re adept at it already. I’ve played piano for 10 years and flute for 6, so that definitely gave me an advantage, but I still didn’t get a great score, so don’t think passing the level theory tests will get you a 5 'cause they’re totally different.</p>
<p>Euro: Took it this year, and I’m pretty confident I got a 5. Went through REA up until WWI. Took 2.5 practices tests in REA, no good 'cause they’re too specific. Princeton Review was a little better, but still not great. Did 2 released exams, which helped immensely. DBQs: They’re easy as long as you know how to manipulate every document to support your point. You don’t actually need much historical background to do this; it’s all in the documents. FRQs: Just know your stuff.</p>
<p>French: Not so great on this one either. I’m guessing a 4. If you’re taking the test next year, START NOW. Watch French TV, English films w/ French subs (since you know what they’re gonna say anyway), put some Edith Piaf on your iPod, etc. Language tests you cannot cram. Aside from that, read Barrons thoroughly (though not everything in there is important) and practice practice practice! I would especially recommend doing all the speaking/writing FRQs on the College Board website. ETA: Read Madame Bovary, Candide, etc. Should definitely help because they have passages from such works on the reading.</p>
<p>Chinese: I’m a native speaker, so if you’re not, can’t help you on that one. I would say the same thing as I did about French - to immerse yourself in the language. And practice. Aside from that, I’m sorry if you’re not a native speaker because the curve is extremely hard due to people like me.</p>
<p>Biology</p>
<p>My AP Bio course in school left lots of material uncovered. I payed little attention second semester and got a B in the course. I didn’t start studying until the weekend before the test. Yet I still got a 5. Here’s my advice for last-minute study:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Buy a good prep book with plenty of practice FRQs. I like Barron’s for all my tests, but Cliffs is supposedly good too for Bio. Just make sure it has lots of FRQs.</p></li>
<li><p>Take one of the practice MC tests to get a feel for that portion and maybe highlight areas of major concern.</p></li>
<li><p>Start reading the review sections. At the end of each, ignore the MC questions. They’re a waste of time - too specific. Instead, do the FRQs in as much redundant detail as possible. When you’re done, check the answer in the book and fill in everything you missed in red pen.</p></li>
<li><p>You can probably do step 3 for the whole review book in a day of hard work. Now do it again on day 2. The questions are the same, but that’s okay. Use as much detail as possible.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here’s why the method works: the FRQs are usually very open-ended. Answering one of them will cover more topics than thirty MC questions. Plus, the answers will be burned into your brain by so much exhaustive writing.</p>
<p>AP Euro:
McKay’s “A History of Western Society” is very good, that’s what we use at my school. My teacher was very good about covering social, cultural, and intellectual things, instead of just economic, political, and diplomatic factors. And even though topics like women, social classes, marriage, and “lifestyles” might seem like they’re very simple and don’t merit study time, they’re rather complex sometimes.</p>
<p>I love this thread, and I wish i saw this last year. But here are my advice for ap exams and their corresponding SAT iis. I’ve taken 10 AP exams (9 5’s, 1 4 - microecon) and a few SAT iis (chem - 800, bio e - 770, ush - 760, math ii - 800) so I feel I can give some decent advices =] </p>
<p>in alphabetical order, hahaha</p>
<p>Biology
If you read Campbell as a text book, you’ll probably be intimidated. I honestly thought I was stupid because I always did horribly on the Campbell tests that accompanied the book. I also had a new teacher, and though i love him as a person and friend, he was not a good teacher. I went through fewer than 15 chapters. However, don’t be scared. AP Bio is an easy test. As long as know a decent amount of material (i’ll define how decent later), you’ll definitely get a 4, if not a 5. First, I recommend that you not to read Campbell to study for the AP test. Yes, use it to study for the class, but not the test. It’s too specific. I used Barrons (which i ended up regretting because it was too specific), Cliffs (i liked it, not too brief, and summarizes Campbell textbook), and Princeton Review (my fav). Honestly, if you know everything on the PR book, you’ll get a 5 90% chance. The weekend before the exam, I read through PR one or twice more to consolidate my memory. I also took all the FRQ exams Collegeboard had offered (I believe 5). They are better to study with than MC because MC is too limited and detailed. However, I suggest taking 1 or 2 MC exams before hand, maybe in april, so you can know where you’ll need more focus and you’ll also get a grasp of the dificulty of the exam. If it’s one thing you have to learn, I would recommend ecology. I think that was the reason why I got a 5 because I took APES the year before. </p>
<p>Calculus
I can’t give too much advice. I was always good at Calculus and always scored above everyone on tests in class, etc. On my first practice test I got a 5. However, I did make one mistake. I was a bit overconfident and I took the risk to not study at all for this exam. I freaked out a bit on the test day because I had a calculator malfunction and I ran out of time. Also, study those series! they are so important for calc bc!</p>
<p>Chemistry
To be honest, I struggled big time with chemistry. I took this as a sophomore, and it was hard. If you thought biology was hard, good luck with chemistry. Unlike biology, knowing the Zumdahl textbook material is crucial. All the little practice problems are so important! I also used Princeton review and Barrons. Barrons was great because it was very specific, and you’ll need the specificity to do well on the AP exam. PR is a good last minute brush-up. I also did over 15 MC exams and 15 FRQs. Yes, I studied my butt off for this exam. If you aren’t born a chemistry genius, you’ll have to study to do well. My advice for this test is STUDY STUDY STUDY, and it pays off. I may have studied too much, but I don’t regret it. I improved from a 2 to a 5, and a 570 to 800 on SAT II Chem within 3 months. Lastly, you have to know acid/bases to do well. </p>
<p>English Language
I honestly had no idea why I got a 5. I thought I got a four. You’ll need to know how to write essays. For prose analysis, KNOW YOUR WORDS! by words, i mean the rhetorical terms (diction, language, etc, and what defines those) and the figurative language words (do you know what a synedoche is? a zeugma? a anaphora? you get the point). Before the test, you need to know how to write a synthesis essay. It’s similiar to DBQ, but also different. There are guides on how to write these essays on the AP Central website. The argumentative essay is pretty easy. I wrote it in the same format as my SAT writing essay - used a short intro, a literature piece, a historical person, and current event (or in my case for English Lang last year, I talked about Futurama, Simpsons, and other current cartoon comedies). The MC is easy. If you’ve read enough books and you practice enough, you’ll get a grip. The level of difficulty is between SAT CR and SAT II Lit. There are no poems and you need to know the figurative language terms. </p>
<p>Environmental Science
It’s really not a hard exam. I thought it was more common sense. However, I had a wonderful teacher and I didn’t need any studying. So that was definitely a plus. If you want a book, I used PR and thought it was a good review for the day before the test. </p>
<p>Macroeconomics
I self studied this test, and pretty much, you must know all the graphs. It’s not bad, I made my own review sheet (about 4 pages) and there were about 20 graphs to memorize. It was worth it, I got a 5. You’ll also need to know the relationship between all the factors, like what factors causes aggregate demand curve to shift, what makes price increase, etc. You’ll also need to know the Phillips curve.</p>
<p>Microeconomics
I self studied this as well, ended with a 4. First and foremost, you need to know the types of industries (monopoly, oligopoly, etc). You’ll also need to their corresponding graphs. Second, and almost as important as first, you need to know elasticity. If you are lucky, game theory will be one of the FRQs. It’s the easiest thing on ap micro, i literally learned it in 2 minutes. Unforunatley, it was on my year’s exam. </p>
<p>For both the econ exams, I used a combination of Barron’s and Princeton review. I read PR first so I can get the basic idea (since i self studied) and then I read the more in-depth Barrons. I copied all the charts and tables many times. </p>
<p>Statistics
Stats is exciting. I just did as many practice problems as I can and I also tried to memorize all the form of the hypothesis test as well as the ways to conduct a survey. I studied a lot for stats by practicing. I used barrons but I regret it. My text book was enough. Barron’s is dry and boring and also discouraging.</p>
<p>US History
Know the overarching themes. A practice I love to do (introduced by my teacher) was just have someone give a random topic. For example, your friend chooses Salem witch trial. You can put Salem witch trial on the piece of paper, and then connect it to as many topics as you can, such as persecution in the 1600s, desire to have more land, etc. and for these topics, connect them to more. Persecution in the 1600s can be linked to religious dissent (which is linked to Anne hutchinson, omg, i can’t remember the guy that formed rhode island, but yeah, that guy as well). You can also link perseuction in the 1600s to religion in the 1600s - puritan mostly in new england, some catholic in the mid colonies, and quakers concentrated in penn. I did a lot of these brain storming charts and i really reviewed well. Also, read AMSCO. It’s so important! I loved AMSCO. I must admit, it is long, but it’s worth the reading. I split the reading over a month, and read every chapter up to Clinton. I’d like to stress one last thing. Have a basic idea of each of the eras. Say if your friend says Progressive Era, you have in your mind 4 or 5 topics that you can quickly extend to. 1. trustbusting, 2. women’s rights, 3. prohibition, etc. </p>
<p>World History
I used a combination of Barron’s and Princeton Review. I didn’t study too much (my sophomore year studying was all ap chem), but I believe the reason why I got a 5 was because I know a lot about China. Haha. Fortunately, one FRQ was on the silk road. My comprehension of world history is mediocre, but you only need to be mediocre to get a 5 on the exam. However, I tried to remember certain specific details so that I can use these details on the FRQ to impress the AP readers that I do have a deep understanding. It helped as well.</p>
<p>For my psych. Class we are not using the book you guys are recommending and we are using CICCARELLI. Any suggestions for me, or am I fine?</p>
<p>Computer Science
Learn the material and practice well. Write tons of programs - the FR will be extremely easy if you do and you’ll be done in litterally half the time or less. Learn Gridworld. Work with error correction and complete a few multiple choice problems. Get the Barron’s review book (I bought it but did not use it) for a good amount of material. And remember, with computer science, you have to enjoy the subject and take each task as a good challenge. If you don’t like the subject, well…</p>
<p>I could do several others, but since they are taken care of, I’ll leave it at this: ENJOY the subject you are studing. Learn it, love it, (live it?). If you don’t find a desire to study a subject as you get into it, the AP exam will be that much harder.</p>
<p>AP Chemistry (ref: got a 5)
memorize formulas and understand concepts
AP Bio (ref: got a 5)
read and actually understand the textbook
AP USH (ref: got a 4)
read the review book…i didn’t even read the book
AP Lang (ref: got a 4)
be a really good essay writer. I bombed the MCQ but i got really good on the essay. I used pity essay pov
APES (ref: got a ?)
i studied the review book
AP Calc BC (ref: got a ? probably a 4-5)
practice and memorize math equations…and review the PAST CALC BC/AB FRQ questions and look at the answers and how they present the answers. it’s mostly about how you show your answer than how you get it…</p>
<p>Calc AB/BC:
Just do a whole lot of past FRQ’s. Do like… all of them. At first, they may seem hard, but you’ll soon notice patterns and begin to get the hang of them (eh, it’s useless for life, but it works here :D).
For MC, just… learn everything. 
Whatever book you’re using, get EVERYTHING down. And more, because that’ll help… maybe not on the test, but it will somewhere (…assuming you want to be a math/science major >.>)</p>
<p>For AP French (got a 5):
The speaking is going to be difficult because everyone else is going to be speaking around you. There’s no way I can think of to prepare for this except to practice speaking as much as possible, so even if there are distractions around you, you can keep your French going since you’re so used to it.
The grammar is easy to prepare for. Just go through your workbook and do as many of the fill-ins you can. Personally, I just have a “sense” of what the right preposition/word is, but there ARE rules! With enough practice, you’ll notice what those rules are if you didn’t go over them in class.
For reading, just read a lot. The questions are similar to the CR on the SAT I, so remember to ALWAYS look in the passage; it’s right there! You’ll have to get used to how the French write: A lot of pronouns, long sentences, sometimes the structure’s weird.
The essay? Just practice. It’s an SAT-esque essay. For instance, mine this year was “Should you always follow the rules? Why or why not.” I wrote about Les Mis (figured they’d enjoy that :P), Huck Finn, MLK Jr, and gave a hypothetical example I think. Idk, I wrote 2-2.5 pages. Try to include subjunctive, si clauses, and fancy language. As my teacher said: “This is your time to show off!” I SERIOUSLY recommend dorne(aigu)avant, meaning “from then on.”</p>
<p>AP Literature (got a 5):
This is a skills based test. There’s almost no actual knowledge you can study, only abilities to hone. For the MC, you just have to practice and study your literary terms. The terms DO come up in the questions, and your teacher should be giving you an extensive list. Learn what strategy of reading/answering works best for you. Personally, I read through it quickly (1 min or less) then got to the questions, which usually reference to a certain place in the text. It would be then that I do my “deep reading.” However, there ARE other strategies that the Barron’s book will give you.
For the essays, the first thing to do is relax. You’re obviously a smart kid if you’re in that class, so you have the ability to write/analyze. I personally studied how students opened/closed their essays, since that’s always been a point of difficulty for me (I like easing myself into my thesis). Oh yeah, that’s another thing, make sure your thesis is more than “The author was sad; you can see this because of his diction and imagery.” You don’t have to write a PhD thesis, but make sure it’s substantial. Anyway, I would write 1.5-2.5 pages, 1.5 being if you really have nothing to write about. These don’t have to be extremely long, and you want to give yourself ample time to come up with a good idea (2-5 mins). You have about 40 mins per essay (of which there are three), so 2-2.5 would be an optimal length for both time and content.
I recommend that you read more classic novels outside of class, since it’s very likely that those will appear on the free choice essay. For your third essay, they give you a list of about two dozen novels. You choose one and use it to write about a vague theme they give (e.g. isolation). You’ll CERTAINLY find at least two or three books that you know well enough to write on there, since they’re books we all read in English. But, reading more will give you a wider selection. Concerning the essay itself, it’s not going to be all that great. It’s a lot of retelling, imo, with minimal analysis.</p>
<p>Music Theory: Pay attention, do lots of voice leading exercises on a keyboard at home to help drill them in. Also, there are TONS of melodic dictation and harmonic dictation things on teoria.com, much more than your usual interval trainers on most sites. Practice with those, and practice only hearing them a few times cuz that’s how the exam is.
As far as nonaural goes, KNOW MELODIC TRANSFORMATIONS. Obviously know all your harmony stuff, but make sure to know about inverting melodies or all the things you can do to a melody. Also know form (like binary and ternary), cuz those few things are usually not covered til the very end of the course and they are all over the exam.</p>
<p>For Calculus AB and BC my most helpful resource was this dude’s videos on youtube.
Go to youtube and search “Patrick Jmt calculus”
He explains difficult concepts very well!</p>
<p>AP US History
I cannot stress this enough: READ THE FRIGGIN BOOK. It’ll help so much. Read the book and take your own notes. Also, if your class doesn’t use The American Pageant, buy your own. You can buy an earlier edition for less than $20 and it reads like a novel. Best textbook ever made. I used 2 review books, the PR and the 5 Steps to a 5. I didn’t use them a whole bunch. Just from reading The American Pageant cover to cover I just knew most of it. I felt confident on nearly every MC question and knocked out the FRQs. The DBQ was meh for me but I still felt pretty good about it.</p>
<p>And think of connections. Everything in APUSH can be connected to something else in APUSH. If someone brings up the Billion Dollar Congress, link that back to the Annexation of Texas.</p>
<p>Billion Dollar Congress
Benjamin Harrison was president during the BDC
Gilded Age was the era in which Harrison was prez
Civil War preceded the Gilded Age
Virginia was a prominent slave state
Thomas Jefferson was a prominent Virginian
John Tyler and Thomas Jefferson both graduated from William and Mary
John Tyler put forth the legislation to annex Texas
Annexation of Texas</p>
<p>As for essays, 3 letters: SFI. Specific Factual Information. Dates, people, places, events, that kind of stuff. Those readers fly thorough an essay. Get lots of sparkling specific information to catch the reader’s eye and show him that you know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>AP English Comp
Learn to mark up a text well. This really helps to break down the passages which makes it easier to answer the multiple choice questions. As for the essays, write with voice and conviction. Make the reader remember what you said.</p>
<p><strong><em>One thing I haven’t seen anyone mention yet (I may have missed it) is the SparkNotes Power Packs that are available. You can get them at Barnes and Nobles or at barnesandnobles.com. They contain a bunch of flash cards, a couple practice tests, and these big sheets that are a summary of everything. These are amazing, especially for people who have already taken the class and don’t need to learn everything, just review it and maybe go a bit deeper. The flashcards are great and the sheets are a great last review the day (or morning) before. They’re available for (at least) Bio, World, Euro, US History. I used them and they were really good - probably even better than a review book. I’m pretty sure they make them for other subjects but those are just the ones I used it for. I very highly recommend them.</em></strong></p>
<p>Physics B: Know how and when to use formulas and understand them. I learned almost nothing in my physics B class but between knowing the principles of the formulas for the MC and writing down formulas and numbers on the FRQ I got a 3. (Only 2 people from our school got higher, and they had already taken physics C beforehand.) So a little knowledge of formulas can get you a long way.</p>
<p>Spanish Language: Grammar is less important than vocabulary. Make sure to know a few idiomatic expressions (modismos), have a decently advanced vocabulary, and know how to use the subjunctive and a few complex grammar things (especially if clauses with imperfect subj./conditional). When you use these things in your writing and speaking it makes you seem like an advanced speaker/writer. Make sure to practice the format - you can speak and write Spanish well but still fail the exam if you aren’t prepared to deal with the tough format of the exam, especially the presentational writing and speaking. Throw in idiomatic expressions and the subjunctive and a few advanced vocab words and it will help a lot. (I got a 5.)</p>
<p>English Language - Don’t worry too much about lit terms (my teacher way over-emphasized them). Not a lot to tell you to do. If you’re good at the SAT reading section you’ll be fine for the easy MC section. </p>
<p>English Lit - Heart of Darkness can be used on almost any prompt. Read it or SparkNote it. </p>
<p>World History - I never took this class, but the exam is pretty easy. If you’ve taken Euro you can take this with very little self-study. Know how to write DBQs and FRQs. A little extra studying on non-European history will let you do well. The DBQ will be easy if you know how to write them and the FRQs have options so you can probably find one you know pretty well. If you have taken the class and know how to write the FRQ/DBQs and have a general knowledge of world history you’ll do well with no worries. </p>
<p>Euro - Fact memorization, and know how to write the FRQs and DBQ well. </p>
<p>US History - Know people, facts, events, big themes, etc. This DBQ is harder that World/Euro so be prepared for it. As someone mentioned, don’t get Barron’s for this one. In general I love Barron’s but it’s not as useful here.</p>
<p>Chemistry - Practice problems, kind of like for a math test. Don’t worry too much about lab stuff. Make sure to review the polyatomics, solubility rules, etc beforehand because they’re important. Acids and bases (problems and concepts) are important so if you only review one thing, that should probably be it. </p>
<p>Biology - Don’t worry much about the labs you’re supposed to do (we did like 3 of the 12 labs). If you get how labs in general work you’ll probably be fine. Have a lot of knowledge you can pull together for the FRQs because it’s just writing as much as you can about the topic. </p>
<p>US Gov - The biggest thing is to know the Constitution stuff, mainly the powers of the 3 branches. A few court cases but they’re not huge (we over-emphasized them in my class). Know everything you can, but make sure you know the powers and checks/balances of the 3 branches perfectly because those tend to come up on several of the FRQs each year, plus the MC. </p>
<p>Microeconomics - My teacher had us makes these Unit Graph pages with all the graphs we did each unit and a short summary. These were an amazing idea. I just looked over these the day before the test (with an entire semester of no econ between the class and the test) and was amazed at how much just remembering the graphs let me answer. So, know all the graphs but you don’t necessarily have to worry too much about the other concept-type things. GRAPHS. Those Unit Graph things I made netted me a 5.</p>
<p>Human Geography - This had a lot of common-sense type stuff on it. One tip is to know the various names for things - my year we studied the city models with the concentric, etc names instead of the people names (I think one was the Burgess model). One of the FRQs was on the model we knew but most people had no idea what is was because it wasn’t the name we had called it, so a lot of people did poorly. Otherwise there isn’t a lot to say about this one. </p>
<p>Enviro - Also a lot of common-sense stuff. Keeping up with current events tends to help because I knew answers to some of the stuff about global warming and pollution just from paying attention to the news, not the class. This is one of those tests that if you go ahead and study you will probably do well; it’s mostly memorization of concepts. </p>
<p>Calculus - PRACTICE. A lot. We spent more than a month just practicing problems, especially FRQ problems. But if you practice enough (and understand the problems) you’ll be fine. It can be frustrating practicing problems because they usually seem really hard at first, but you’ll get there.</p>
<p>In general, pay attention and do well in your AP Classes. That’s the most important part. I’ve used Barron’s and SparkNotes Power Packs for everything and it’s worked well for me. (For reference, I got a 5 on every exam I mentioned above except physics [3] and Lit [4], so whatever I did worked at least for me.)</p>
<p>Good luck everyone on all your tests and I wish 5s upon all of you!</p>
<p>ill throw in some advice</p>
<p>calc bc- cant say much here, i did not need to spend time outside of class to review, just came naturally.
chem- same as above
hist- read amsco even though it might take a while, very detailed and helpful
comp- just pay attention in class ( no review is required), like honestly, the mc is just a little bit harder version of the SAT CR and the essays are simple. not too much to stress out about here.</p>
<p>I have some advice for Physics B which kind of goes against what some people have been saying. Anyways that advice is DO NOT memorize every formula. Sure it might seem easier but what you should really focus on is the concepts. Out of the hundreds of formulas in my physics textbook, I’d say all but 50 are easily derivable if you understand the concepts. If you just know the formulas but not the concepts behind them you often end up applying them incorrectly. Oh, I also highly recommend doing as many practice multiple choice questions as you can before the test because there tend to be many questions from year to year that are the same or similar and if you recognize you can make up for lost time because I guarantee you there will be some VERY challenging questions mixed in. I got a 5 btw. </p>
<p>For Spanish, I agree with what was said about practicing the more advanced verb forms. It definitely can set you apart from others and I really think my use of a wide variety of moods and tenses in my speaking/writing was the main reason I was the only non-native speaker in my class to get a 5.</p>
<p>US Gov is cake if you know US history, it’s basically all memorization of certain terms and relationships.</p>
<p>Calc was easy to me but I suggest practicing AP problems or looking at different presentations of the information you are struggling with if you get stuck. </p>
<p>I think the others are covered well enough already.</p>
<p>Physics B (5): Do as many old tests (MC and FRQs) as possible. Make sure you know every formula on the formula sheet, the concepts behind them, and when to apply them. Don’t forget the right-hand rules after you finish your magnetism unit. (…this happened to me.)</p>