This year I took AP world history and AP chemistry scoring a 3 on world and a 2 on chemistry. I thought I was gonna do a lot better on both of the exams and I’m a little disappointed. Does anyone have any tips for studying and preparing starting at the beginning of the school year? Next year I’m taking APES, AP Psych, AP Lang, and APUSH.
(Also any study books?)
Do ALL of the assigned reading for Lang and APUSH. ALLLLLLL of it.
Also, Quizlet and Khan Academy.
If you can get your hands on a review book like Princeton Review or Barron’s GET IT. I found Barron’s useful for APUSH and AP Psych.
For APUSH: use apushreview.com, the teacher has really helpful study tools. Write out your notes if you can, I found that handwriting helped me stick things better in my head. Create a study system like mnemonics or acronyms. Buy some colored pens or highlighters because you’re gonna have to do lots of readings.
For AP Psychology, use appsychology.com. I suggest doing the same strategy as studying for APUSH. If you can find a good Quizlet set, use it!
I’ve never taken APES or AP Lang, but ask for help the teacher if you’re ever confused on anything. I really recommend forming a study group so that way, you can ask questions to your friends.
I took both APUSH and AP Lang last year, and I did really well on each of the tests - a 5 on apush and a 4 on ap lang.
For APUSH I highly recommend reading all of the chapters (I know its a pain, but its essential) and then watching the youtube videos for summaries of the chapters. Some of the best are Jocz Productions, Adam Norris, and the all-around favorite Crash Course. If you do both, it really helps the information to stick in your head. Im more of a visual person, so the summaries helped me to understand the concepts, but if you like to read, I would make notes about important dates, a timeline, and important people in the time period. As someone told me in the beginning of the year “its not that you need to know who John Adams was - you need to know who he was, what he did, and how he fits into the story of US history.” That’s mostly for the important people - but have a good idea of who important people are in each time period. If you dont have a study book GET ONE!! I used the Princeton Review to help me review for the AP test, and I did the week-long crash course, which really seemed to help!
For AP Lang, I would do all of the assigned reading and really concentrate on how to do well on the Multiple Choice. The multiple choice killed me (If I did well on the multiple choice I would have gotten a 5 instead of a 4) and its unlike what a lot of people are used to - it asks you about different rhetorical things in the passages. So before you go into the class, I would brush up/learn my rhetorical terms - ethos, pathos, and logos, and how to use them. That will give you a huge leg up on other people in the class and it will help you to understand the concepts better. I would also keep a good knowledge about what is going on in the world for your free-response and synthesis essays. You need to bring in outside information in order to do well on the synthesis essay, and you want the best examples from the world today, so its good to have outside knowledge on a wide range of topics. For the free-response, its the same thing, just know examples from a broad range of topics - taking apush and ap psych will help you with that. Your teacher will probably explain more about it in the fall.
Im not a STEM person at all so I didnt take AP Psych and APES, but I heard from people who did take AP Psych to keep a good handle on your vocab and to keep up with your reading. I helped someone study for a test for psych, and their quizlet had a good 120 terms on it. I dont know anything about APES, sorry!
Im so sorry this turned out so long but I hope that these tips help you!! 
I got a 5 on AP Lang and there’s not a lot of studying to be done, but before the exam I went through all the practice multiple choice exams and found all the words that i didn’t know in the questions (different fallacies and rhetorical devices I was unfamiliar with) and made a Quizlet out of them. My class focused a lot on reading different books and things unrelated to the AP, so be sure to brush up on these terms yourself if your class is the same way.
AP Lang and APUSH are both writing intensive in my experience and it helps a lot to have strong writing skills. Even if you don’t have them now, you can always build them up and practice writing and conferencing with your teachers- it’ll be beneficial when you take the AP and in the long run.
Best of luck!
I’ve only taken AP Lang and APUSH so I can only give you advice on those. For AP Lang I highly recommend completely understanding what each type of essay wants. Also, practice MC tests and focus on timing. Time flies by during the exam. If your teacher offers a mock exam definitely take that because it gives you a real feel for the exam. I got a 4 on the lang exam and I would credit that to knowing how to write the essays successfully, and having MC strategies. APUSH is a intense class, I loved it because I love history. Make sure you read all the assigned readings, watch videos, and pay attention in class. If your school doesn’t provide the crash course book I highly recommend buying it for APUSH. The best advice I have for APUSH is do not leave any studying out. Your teacher can only teach so much, some topics are left up to you, especially when the time period is closer to modern day (post WW2). I got a 5 on the exam, I was a bit surprised because I wasn’t able to go into my normal depth on the essays because I left a lot out while studying. Take a look at the collegeboard APUSH site and see the revisions to the exam. They outline which writing questions will align with certain time periods and it is pretty useful when mapping out your study plan.