Tips for each subject from AP-graduates!

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
101

<p>Biology - 5
I had a very good class, and Cliffs AP books helps a lot. Just read everything.</p>

<p>Comparative Government - 5
Read/take notes on the Ethel Woods Study guide, thats really all you need.</p>

<p>Calc BC - 5
Focus all year, its really hard to forget math once you learn, oh and Peterson’s Calc AB/BC is really good (and witty)</p>

<p>Chemistry - 5
Can’t say much here since I had a great teacher and basically did nothing all year.</p>

<p>Phys C - 5
THESE VIDEOS WILL SAVE YOU: [Viren’s</a> Videos Free AP Physics Review Help](<a href=“http://apphysicslectures.com/]Viren’s”>http://apphysicslectures.com/)</p>

<p>Eng. Lang - 5
Can’t say much here since I didn’t study at all (BSing FTW!!!)</p>

<p>US - 5
GET A STUDY GUIDE! - personally I used REA, which cuts out the garbage from The American Pageant - read it the day/week/month (depending on your style) before and you’ll be fine</p>

102

<p>US-5
Get the kaplan study guide book, it gives great summaries, which is helpful for things you might not get to cover in time for the exam. its very clear and straightforward.
we used American Pageant as our text, and i did not find it helpful at all. I never read a chapter of the book, i studied and copied notes from course-notes.org.</p>

103

<p>Bio - 5, 750 (self-study)
Practice Book: CliffsAP is your new bible. (Get the one w/ the CD 'cause it has extra practice tests.)
That’s pretty much it. And DON’T SHIRK on your SAT studying esp. if you’re taking it in June.</p>

<p>Euro - 5 (class)
Practice Books: REA (too much detail, ridiculous practice tests); PR (same, but slightly less ridiculous); best bet - released exams (so helpful)
I honestly don’t know how this happened, but the test was really easy imo. I didn’t write many practice DBQs, probably only 2 or 3. If you can weave every document into your essay (which is manageable), you’ll be fine. Just read your textbook.</p>

<p>French 4; 730 (French 1, 3, AP classes, horrible AP teacher)
AP Practice Book: Barron’s (pretty thorough)
SAT II Practice Book: PR (okay), SAT Subject Tests book (best bet)
Immerse yourself in the language. Read some Voltaire or Montesquieu 'cause they always have really idiomatic passages like that. Practice speaking/listening, brush up on your grammar. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.</p>

<p>Chinese 5
I’m native, sorry.</p>

104

<p>Oh yeah and i almost forgot - for AP US, definitely get Crash Course - I think for this year’s MC, it missed like 10 questions MAX</p>

105

<p>World History:
It’s virtually impossible to cram the entire history of our planet into a week. Consistency is key. Keep up with your readings from class – I will admit that they are tedious – and then do practice questions in the review book.</p>

<p>US History:
While it covers far less ground than APWH, APUSH is incredibly detailed. AMSCO and Crash Course are a wonderful match, they will help you succeed without reading your textbook. Don’t neglect the back sections on women’s rights and literary works in Crash Course, and have a solid understanding of recent events, for in terms of what will appear on the exam, everything is fair game.</p>

<p>Foreign Languages:
Just like the CR section of the SAT, this is a skills test. Cramming vocab the night before won’t do you any good. Have grammar drilled into your head. Listen to music in the language; watch English films in the subtitles of your language; read books…real books, not children’s books or abridged versions. The Very Hungry Caterpillar will only take you so far when the AP exam asks you to read and evaluate Voltaire.</p>

106

<p>

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<p>That made me chuckle.</p>

107

<p>Human Geography</p>

<p>Know your vocabulary by heart.
My teacher did this to help us understand concepts: We pulled 2 vocabulary words at random from a hat and had to explain how those 2 terms related. That’s one of the big things in HG: how things relate to each other. So, know how every concept and chapter go together.</p>

<p>Read PR. From cover to cover.</p>

<p>Know modern and past examples for EVERYTHING. That will kill you on the FRQs if you don’t know. It was always define, explain, and provide a modern/past example. Something along the lines of that. Yes, this year’s FRQs were easy, but if I hadn’t known the examples…ha. I wouldn’t have gotten a 5, that’s for sure.</p>

<p>(And although this may seem absolutely ridiculous [I thought it was], you’d better know the different types of architecture and religious buildings.)</p>

<p>Also- it’s not a good idea to skip too many MCs. Always go back and count how many you originally skipped. Once I finished the MCs, I thought I’d skipped maybe 5 or 6, but turns out I’d skipped 17. I went back and guessed at the ones I knew best, and left 5 blank.</p>

108

<p>^Bumppppp.</p>

109

<p>For AP USH:</p>

<p>Just read all review materials you can get your hands on. Ask you friends for review books so you don’t have to pay for them, and you should get a variety of them. I just listened very, very attentively in class, read all the review books, and I never had to open our textbook. I’m not sure how many of you guys also have the same horrible textbook I had, so not having to wade through paragraphs of ****ty flowery speech helps a lot. When you read the different review books you’re reviewing whatever material is repeated, and you learn a little about the different perspectives. </p>

<p>And get a bunch of different types of review material. I watched these videos that were made by someone called “awaizy” on youtube. They’re reviews that an AP USH teacher does, they’re about fifty minutes long, and omg they’re amazing. He’s pretty interesting, and it’s good to deviate from just reading. If you learn better from lectures, then definitely look into that.</p>

<p>READ THE PRIMARY SOURCES YOUR TEACHER GIVES YOU IN CLASS. I can not stress this enough. Out of twelve of the massive packets (as in 20 pages of Puritan written crap) my teacher handed out for my class to read, eight of them came into play on the test. One of those sources was about how Puritans started democracy, and how religion started democracy, and about Foucault. That was entire essay topic right there. I used up the entire packet, and then some, for that essay. The primary sources are your friends. They give you a lot of insight when you’re actually taking the test.</p>

<p>Be able to identify themes. Review books can help you learn them, essay topics can help you find out whether you’re able to identify them/write about them.</p>

<p>I got a 5 without ever opening the textbook, because reading review books helped me personally far more. However if you have a really good textbook, and find that you can’t remember anything when you read review books, then just read your damn textbook. Only change your studying habits if they’re not working for you.</p>

<p>I got 5s on my other exams, Bio and Lit, but I can’t see giving any advice for those because they’re pretty straightforward. Bio is fact memorization, Lit is just if you know it then you know it.</p>

110

<p>Thanks for the bump. I love this thread.</p>

111

<p>Thanks for the advice, Wanton. I recently stopped reading my textbook for APUSH and my test scores have improved as a result (I think it was just adding more confusion with all the unnecessary jargon), and I wasn’t sure if it’d hurt me when it came time to the AP exam or not, but you’ve given me some reassurance.</p>

<p>@neek, I love it too! What I love more is the fact that people are actually getting a use out of it, and contributions are being made.</p>

112

<p>AP US History: AMSCO has magical powers.
My teacher uses an AP test bank for our unit tests, so I just read the chapters in AMSCO that cover what we learned, and I always get A+s on the MC tests and 9s on the FRQs.</p>

113

<p>Alright. So what I am getting is that most people recommend simply memorizing facts (if anything else) for the APUSH and AP Bio tests. Did you guys do any note taking to complement the memorizing, or did you simply read through the textbook and/or review guides? Last year, I took brief notes over my APWH review book, but I do not feel that it helped any more than simply reading through my review book multiple times (and luckily, I got a 5). Thoughts? Opinions?</p>

114

<p>^ I’d say note-taking would have been more beneficial in APWH than AP Bio. I took APWH and reading alone simply wasn’t enough (I only got a 4), but Bio, I just read the textbook whenever I could, then ingrained Cliff’s into my mind the weekend before the exam, and I got a 5.</p>

<p>The key to AP Bio is simply knowing the facts and knowing what is what. Whether the method most effective for you is note-taking, writing word lists, making flash cards, or just reading, is totally variable. For me, I made do with just reading. It may not be enough for you, but it just depends on your style of learning.</p>

115

<p>AP Biology ftw</p>