AP Exams: Cram Time
Photo by Cora Kuhlenbeck
Sarah Gerovac
The beginning of May is almost here, which means one thing to many Hamilton students: we’ll be taking AP exams soon. Preparing for these tests is something that many of us have been working on throughout the year, and your study habits in these last few weeks certainly have the potential to tip your score up or down, and make the difference between a 3 and 4, or a 4 and 5.
If you hope to use the college credit you earn from these exams, you should aim for a 4 or higher, as this is more commonly becoming the cutoff for credit at many colleges. I’ve taken various AP classes at Hamilton, and I will say that helpful study habits differ by test, but there remain surefire ways to study and maximize your score in May.
#1: Schedule study time, and then actually study at that time
Set an alarm; write yourself a note; do whatever you know you need to do to convince yourself to study. Personally, I also would suggest making a schedule of specific topics that you want to review between now and the AP test.
A helpful aspect of the COVID-19 situation is that the College Board is once again recording live review sections for each topic in AP courses, and because your test is coming directly from the College Board, you can pretty much guarantee that their videos are going to be a great review resource. I’m linking the schedule of live review videos here so that you can potentially watch them as they are live or whenever works best for your schedule. Additionally, the College Board’s YouTube channel provides a nice breakdown by subject with playlists of classes and specific topics that you might want help with for each class.
For example, here is a quick schedule of College Board Review sessions I plan to watch on specific dates to study for AP Biology in time for our in-class final; having a specific schedule holds you more accountable in actually getting this work completed.
#2: Study for specific periods of time, and schedule in breaks
This tip works best in conjunction with #1. Decide what you need to study and when you want to study it, and then go ahead! While studying, it’s incredibly easy to get distracted, especially if your phone is sitting five feet away from you or Netflix is playing on a TV in the background. So, an important part of maximizing your studying efficiency is removing as many distractions as possible.
For example, study for 60 minutes, and set a clock so that you know how long you’ve been working. Then, take a 10-15 minute break, with another alarm set, to have a snack or scroll through social media. If you have any days in the next few weeks where you don’t have much else going on, you might consider trying a repeated cycle of a schedule like this to make your studying time run more smoothly.
#3: Try out different study tools and see what works best for you
This may seem obvious, but depending on what resources your teacher provides as well as other sources, tools that genuinely help you study and learn will vary by person and by class. I personally use a lot of study tools like notes and videos for AP Calculus directly from my teacher’s page, and I also enjoy Khan Academy, which is an amazing resource as well, for this particular class. And for AP Biology, for example, I use my teacher’s notes and Khan Academy, while for AP Literature I enjoy College Board review videos, and I did for AP Chemistry as well. Essentially, everyone is different, but resources like College Board Review Videos, AP Classroom practice, teachers’ notes, Khan Academy, finding old released practice tests online, and AP exam books that you can check out in the library are all good resources to experiment with to clear up any confusing concepts in these last few weeks.
#4: Take practice exams! (Or at least complete practice problems)
As we all know, there’s no way to predict exactly what question is going to be asked on test day, or how it’s going to be worded. But, the best thing you can do for yourself once you have a solid grasp of the course’s content is to practice with the same types of questions you will be asked on the test. Your best predictor of what will be asked on the test is what was asked on the test in previous years.
Your teachers may have resources of many old test questions to share with you, and AP Classroom practice problems are also good for application of content and getting used to how questions are asked. Additionally, looking through your old notes and redoing the AP-style questions you’ve completed throughout the year can be helpful. Also, simply Googling free-response questions or multiple choice questions for your subject is an easy way to get a hold of many practice examples from previous AP tests.
Sometimes you may feel more comfortable with a certain section of the test, so if you know that you’re already good at multiple choice, force yourself to complete a few extra FRQs, and vice versa. Challenging yourself in the areas you know you are weak in is one of the best things you can do to improve before your AP test date.
Ultimately, you want to go into your AP tests with the confidence that you did everything you possibly could to prepare yourself for success. Taking the time to plan out these next few weeks will result in less stress in the days leading up to the test, and you’ll hopefully even be able to get a good night of sleep the night before without worrying about having to cram. But no matter how much prep you do, you’ll probably still be nervous, and that’s fine because nervousness correlates to caring, and if you care up until the test, you probably actually studied. So, eat healthy these next few weeks, get enough sleep, drink plenty of water, and try not to get COVID so that you can get your exam over with in this first round in May.
