LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — Before the school year comes to a close, many high school students have one last task to face: Advanced Placement exams. AP exam season can be an extremely stressful time for high schoolers, as many have challenged themselves with taking multiple of these rigorous courses. So, to hopefully ease some stress, here are three ways to ace any AP exam.
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review books are one of the most recommended ways to study for AP Exams. They are highly accessible and can be found on their website, Amazon or a local library. These books are an extremely efficient method of studying as they provide the following:
- An outline of the exam’s structure: number of multiple choice questions, free response questions and the allotted times for each section.
- Strategies of how to tackle each section, including tips and tricks for Multiple Choice Question and Free Response Question.
- A comprehensive unit-by-unit review of the content covered in the AP exam, with each chapter ending with a practice MCQ.
- Finally, several, full-length, practice AP exams at the end of each book, completed with an answer key for both MCQ and FRQ
“When going over material for my AP exams, I use the Princeton books. I like to take notes on it because it’s a way for me to actively learn,” said Vanessa Pirrello, a senior at Los Alamitos High School.
Quizlet
When needing to quickly memorize sections of content for an AP exam, Quizlet is definitely a great resource. Though Quizlet is not a preparation textbook, it is an amazing study tool; especially for AP classes that deal with a lot of memorization, such as history or science courses. For example, if a student is taking AP Psychology and they want to memorize the different neurotransmitters, Quizlet could help the student efficiently learn them. Some of Quizlet’s the many features include:
- The tools to create personalized flashcard sets.
- A large public library of flashcard sets already made by other users.
- Programs that take a flashcard set and turn them into study games.
- Generating study guides and practice tests based on flashcards sets.
“I recommend going over all the notes and quizlets. Quizlets are everything for memorization, I also take their practice tests,” said Sophia Mason, senior at LAHS.
Rest
Though they are sometimes inevitable, pulling an all-nighter the night before an AP exam can often do more harm than good. Losing out on sleep gives the brain less time to consolidate memory. By having no sleep, chances are, much of the “crammed” material may be forgotten. Further, AP exams are often two to three hours long, so students will need their energy to be at full capacity to perform well on their exams. Taking an AP exam while sleep deprived can lead to focus dropping, slower thinking and careless mistakes. Therefore, it is highly recommended that students try to get a full, eight hours of sleep the night before an exam to allow their body to be functioning at its best during the day.
