Why APs Matter (More Than Ever) and Top AP Exam Prep Tips

As you gear up for May AP exams, now is the time to take ownership of your AP prep. While these exams may still seem distant, beginning your preparation now is the key to a strong performance and alleviating test anxiety and stress. Your AP scores are not just a way to place into advanced coursework or test out of requirements in college, they are also a pivotal asset in college admissions.

Just last month, Yale University announced that they will once again require applicants to submit standardized test scores. But, for the first time, Yale will allow applicants to report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in lieu of the ACT or SAT. For students at schools without AP or IB offerings, this policy places even more weight on the SAT or ACT and may encourage students to self-study for AP exams beyond their school curriculum. 

CONFIDENCE IN YOUR AP EXAM PREP

Are you feeling less than confident about your AP prep? You’re not alone. AP courses correspond to year-long college courses, but high school teachers have less than a year to cover this material. Even the most experienced, efficient teachers often have trouble covering all of the course content, let alone reviewing or preparing students for the exam. Prepping along with your coursework and independent self-studying are key! 

As you double down on AP prep, we’ve asked out expert tutors to share their words of wisdom:

TTA’S AP EXPERTS WEIGH IN: STUDY TIPS

AP Biology

To get the “biggest bang for your buck” from your AP Biology exam review, make sure you focus more time and energy on completely mastering the concepts in Units 3, 6, and 7 than on those covered in Units 1 and 5. A higher percentage of the exam questions are on the material in those three units (12-20% each, vs. 8-11%), so in addition to memorizing definitions for Units 3, 6, and 7, mastering processes will be crucial to earning a high score.

AP Calculus AB & AP Calculus BC

Trigonometry is often an overlooked area for students as it usually does not have a dedicated course. However, it is a very important part of both Calc AB and BC, and I highly recommend students take a deep dive learning/ review and be proficient at it.

AP Chemistry

Dimensional analysis, or unit conversions, is a fundamental and recurring topic that comes up in Chemistry. They will most definitely show up on the multiple-choice section and will be required for subsections of the free response question. Getting comfortable with different conversions in mass, length, volume, etc. is crucial to score points on both sections!

AP Chinese Language & Culture

Don’t neglect the cultural aspect of the exam, and conversations with Chinese natives are the best way to improve both linguistically and culturally–competency wise. 

AP Computer Science A

Complete Free Response Questions of all four types with your tutor, and grade them using the rubric. You will set yourself up for success on the AP Exam with practice and support!

AP Computer Science Principles

Complete a practice Create Performance Task with your tutor, and be able to explain how your code works. You will then be prepared to make your own independently for the AP Exam!

AP English Language & Culture

When writing the three AP English Language essays, surface-level observations or arguments are your worst enemy. To craft an argument that’s truly compelling, consider: what inherent value systems or biases are at play beneath the surface? For the Rhetorical Analysis essay, ask yourself not only what value system the author is coming to the topic from but also what value system that author expects her audience to have (AKA, whom is she speaking to?). Your analysis of the author’s text lies somewhere within the coming together of those two value systems. For the Argumentative and Synthesis essays, similarly ask yourself what value systems may be operating beneath the surface. Write to those and acknowledge their power, and you’ll be setting yourself up for success!

AP English Literature & Culture

Many students find Question 3 of the AP English Literature essay section onerous. (This is the question that asks students to analyze a particular theme in the context of a literary work that they’ve read.) To make this question infinitely easier for yourself, start prepping early! Create a Google Doc, Word Doc, or handwritten page (just don’t lose it!) and begin to list out 6-9 literary works you’ve read in the past three years. Then, beneath each work, list out the themes that these texts tackle (cast a wide net, but don’t stretch the text too thin), and provide a few examples from the text for each theme. Study this document and you’ll find that, come test day, Question 3 won’t be quite so surprising or scary!  

AP Environmental Science

Be sure to know and review the six aspects of thorough experimental design. One of the three FRQ’s will incorporate and ask about experimental design. The acronym below will help you remember.

AP European History

AP Daily Videos is an incredible resource. In these videos, which are available on AP Classroom and the Advanced Placement YouTube account (yes, there’s a YouTube account you can follow for purely scholarly purposes), experienced AP teachers give mini-lectures on course content and walk students through sample exam questions. If your teacher is already covering the material in class, watch these videos as a painless form of content review; if your teacher isn’t (or you are self-studying), watch even more carefully, and take notes!

AP French Language and Culture

Find French materials to listen to outside the classroom. For many students, the listening component is one of the most stressful parts of the exam, because you can only listen to the audio twice. When you’re used to listening only to your teacher and classmates, a different voice can be hard to parse. To prepare for this, listen to as much French as possible in the months and weeks leading up to your exam. This can be songs, podcasts, radio stations, even films and TV shows — anything to increase exposure to spoken French at real speeds and in a variety of voices. Students should also seek out audio sources not just from France, but from other areas of la Francophonie, such as Quebec and west Africa. That way they’ll be prepared for any regional accents they might hear on the listening portion of their exam. 

AP Human Geography

Even though the material covered in AP Human Geography isn’t necessarily the most challenging to wrap your head around, there’s a good deal of it (material). Because of the sizable number of terms that must be memorized, APHuG has a relatively low percent of 4s and 5s earned. Dedication to reviewing Quizlet decks or good old-fashioned flashcards is key.

AP Latin

Plan for different essay topics in advance. Believe it or not, it is often possible to predict what the essay will ask, and even sometimes the exact passages it cites. Given how important the essay is to your total score, it is definitely worthwhile to brainstorm potential topics ahead of time and pick relevant passages from the assigned lines.

AP Micro/Macroeconomics

There is a LOT of amazing information online for AP micro/macroeconomics that you should use to your advantage! Khan Academy has each unit for micro/macroeconomics broken down into several videos, lessons, and practice problems that many students have previously benefited from. Additionally, Jacob Clifford, on YouTube, has very helpful unit review videos that can help as a supplementary preparation resource tool!  Finally, although UWorld does not have AP Microeconomics practice questions, UWorld does have AP Macroeconomics questions which can be very helpful too.

AP Physics

For a complete breakdown of each of the four AP Physics courses (AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics 1, and AP Physics 2) as well as exam prep and course tips, check out our recent blog post, “AP Physics: Explained.”

AP Precalculus

Be religious about getting in reps. Most of Math is application-based, and it is imperative that you endure sufficient and meticulous practice prior to taking the exam.

AP Psychology

Practice, practice, practice! AP Psychology questions can feel a lot different than most other high school tests. For this reason, using resources like UWorld’s AP Psychology practice questions, Albert.io’s practice questions, and any questions provided to you by your teacher/the College Board itself can be a huge help in familiarizing yourself with the test material and question types.

AP Statistics

The little things matter: make sure that you know the assumptions for each test that you have to know and always explain things in context.

AP U.S. Government & Politics

Make sure to understand how everything relates together in government. We are a democracy for a reason, and there are a bunch of levers at play to dispel any imbalance of power. 

AP U.S. History

Don’t forget about the Course and Exam Description! The APUSH Course and Exam Description, for example, contains 17 multiple-choice questions based on five representative passages ranging from the colonial era to the late 20th century. Although these multiple-choice questions aren’t enough, on their own, to guide your content review plan, they will give you a better sense of the exam format, difficulty level, and the kinds of knowledge and reasoning required. 

The Course and Exam Description also provides a detailed list of course and exam content by “unit.” Regardless of whether or not your teacher followed these units (or you’re self-studying), skimming through the Description will give you a birds-eye view of the course material and a sense of what you understand well, feel shaky on, or haven’t covered at all.

AP World History

The free response questions from each year’s exams are available online on AP Central, along with grading rubrics, answer keys, and sample responses with commentary. You will find these sample responses most helpful for exams that include essays or oral presentations. Since the rubrics for these questions tend to be vague, seeing how AP “readers” (the college and high school faculty who grade the exams) have evaluated previous test-takers’ work, will show you what excellent, satisfactory, and weak responses look like.

Good luck this May!

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