Studying for AP Exams

In about a month, students will be spending hours on end taking College Board Advanced Placement tests. These assessments are long, tedious, and draining and are often met with dread by testers. However, before thousands of teens start their trek of multiple choice, essays, and fields of bubble sheets, students have to study. However, this can also be daunting in itself because of the vast amount of aides available to AP students. Here are some methods to ensure high scores on their exams:

  1. Get AP study books. Companies such as Princeton and Barron’s offer accurate, high-quality books that cover content and contain practice exams. For those who want to know how the AP tests are conducted and how the material is presented, these guides can help students review class curriculum and take a practice exams almost identical to the one given for the actual test. It’s a great way for students to flex their testing muscles and be prepared for the storm to come.
  2. Go to study sessions. Often times, AP teachers offer their students times to come in and review content. This is essential for anyone who feels their knowledge isn’t sharp enough or for those who want to refresh their memory of material from earlier in the year. Likewise, it also is suffice for students to personally talk to their teacher and get personalized information according to what they need help with.
  3. Study with friends. For those who have friends in their AP classes who also want to study for the exam, partnering up with a few people can actually help the studying process. Others may know certain topics better and can help fill in any gaps in the curriculum that students don’t understand or feel they need to know more about. However, beware of the students who aren’t as committed to getting a good score on the test because they will do nothing but slow the studying process down.
  4. Go through old notes and past quizzes and tests. If students have any notes or previous exams, going through them can boost scores. By knowing what material was missed on tests, students can get a more refined idea of what topics need to be reviewed. Thus, instead of reviewing an entire year of information, they can go through notes, meet with teachers, or read review books for the material that they need to go over.

These methods, hopefully, will help AP students obtain better scores on their exams. Furthermore, they might lessen exam stress or, at the least, make it more bearable.