2019 AP Study Tips
If you’re a high schooler who took AP tests this past spring, then today is the day you have long awaited –
AP Score Release Day.
I’ve been desperately trying to forget that the day was approaching, deleting every reminder email from the College Board the moment that I saw it. I was confident that I passed one test, and equally as confident that I failed the other two.
When I logged on this morning, I was surprised to see that I not only passed my three tests from last year, but that I got two 5’s and a 4.
I would like to tell you that I had studied hard all year, prepared months in advance, and had everything figured out.
That, my friend, would be a lie.
In reality, I had prep books I had yet to crack open despite buying them the summer prior (in a weird twist of events, I actually ended up with three AP Calculus books), Quizlets that were found but never used, and “suggested review” packets jammed into the bottom of my backpack.
But, managing to pull the scores that I did, especially receiving a 5 in a class that I had a C+ test average in, had some method to it. I thought the timing was perfect for my first study tips post.
How to pass your AP tests (even if you’re barely passing the class).
Tip #1: Make yourself a schedule and do your best to stick to it.
This is the hardest step for me, but it was the most helpful. I use a daily planner during the school year to keep track of my assignments, rehearsals, work schedule, and everything else. When I realized that I only had three weeks left until my AP tests, I went into panic mode, which includes me scrambling to organize everything that I should have been organizing about a month prior.
So, I took a look at what I had to do, split it into reasonable chunks, and assigned it to different days. For example, there were 9 “periods” of AP US History that I had to study. Having 3 weeks (21 days) to study these 9 periods, I gave each of them about two days, with some slight adjustments based on what I felt I needed to spend more time on. So, I would mark on a Monday that I would have to be done studying period 1 by Wednesday, and then period 2 by Friday, and so on and so forth.
I did this for all of my classes, and it not only helped me break up the studying so that it didn’t seem so intimidating, but also helped me figure out what I needed to study most. Breaking up one big goal into multiple smaller goals always makes the end result seem easier to accomplish.
Tip #2: Use Multiple Forms of Studying
Watching videos can help. So can a Quizlet, so can review games, so can a store-bought review book and so can homemade flashcards. The most important thing that I learned is to use multiple forms of studying so that you really understand the information instead of just memorizing how to answer the questions in that format.
To give you an idea, I used to use only Quizlets in prior years to study. This was helpful to memorize and purge vocabulary. However, I didn’t know how to connect the words to each other or to certain events, and I wasn’t used to practicing the methods I would have to use during the test to implement them. When this was my primary studying strategy, I received two 3’s and a 4 on my AP courses.
However, this past spring, I used different forms of studying so that I had a more well-rounded knowledge of the content. For example, for AP U.S. History, I used a combination of vocabulary review quizlets, videos, review games, and a detailed and comprehensive timeline to review. This further prepared me for the test as I was memorizing the key terms with the quizlets, reviewing important events and details with the videos, and putting it all in order with the timeline.
Tip #3: Use a Review Book
You can’t “review” something that you never learned in the first place.
Review materials are made so that it prompts your mind of what you learned before, so that it brings it back to a fresher place in your memory. Therefore, if you’ve just been skimming through the material all year (couldn’t say I’d blame you), reviewing won’t do you much good.
This is when a review book comes especially in handy. They typically cover all of the same material that would be in your textbook, just without unnecessary details or too much explanation. If you break it up into chunks, you can easily read the entire book in a week.
If you’re someone who’s reading this during the school year, I highly recommend buying and using a book during the year. Admittedly, I tried and failed to do this, but when I was able to it was super helpful to review for tests. Just find the chapter you’re working on in the review book, read it over, and highlight the important stuff. Not only will it help you review for your test or quiz, but the highlighted sections will help you when you go to read the book to review for the AP test.
Tip #4: If something isn’t working, stop and find something else
If you take one thing away from this article . . . let it be this: If something isn’t working, stop and find something else.
Seriously. Just because your teacher thinks that anyone who watches all of his review videos will get a 5, if you don’t feel like they’re working or helping you learn, stop and find something else. Everyone has different study strategies, and what worked for someone else might not work for you. Don’t waste precious last-minute study hours on something that you know isn’t working.
Tip #5: Use practice tests . . . in moderation!
Practice tests can be super helpful when it comes to AP courses. They help you review the material in the format that you’ll be tested on, familiarize you with the test structure, and test you on all of the content so that you can find out what you need to work on most.
AP practice tests can be a part of your study strategy, but they can not be the entire plan.
If you only take tests over and over again, you can’t expect your score to improve. If you aren’t reviewing what you did wrong on the tests, then all you’re doing is proving that you know the same amount of information – over and over again.
Especially for courses like AP Physics or AP Calculus, a key study strategy is to take the practice tests, find out what skills you are lacking, and then brush up on those. Personally, my AP Calc teacher had us take every practice test from 2008 up until 2018 as part of our homework assignments. Each time, I would see what I didn’t fully understand or what I wasn’t confident about, find it in my textbook, review book, or find a video online, and take notes on it. This helped me familiarize myself with the test strategy and time frame, and minimized the time I needed to spend studying by only reviewing what I didn’t know.
Study smarter, not harder!
I hope some of these tips were helpful in your preparing for the AP test this year! If you have any other tips, please feel free to share them in the comments section below. Good luck with your studying!
xoxo, tori ♡
p.s. : Regardless of what class you are taking, there are certain study resources I recommend. Here they are – enjoy! 🙂