<p>^Don't let percentages fool you.</p>
<p>About 42% of students who take the Calc BC exam get 5's. That does not mean AP Calc BC is an easy exam.</p>
<p>yeah, the BC pool is very bright, and since the curve for the BC exam is set low enough for lots of 5s...</p>
<p>so i just saw my counselor and switched from bioap to envisciap.
bad idea?
i figured i could selfstudy bio since i heard the teacher at our school doesn't really help you for the ap and take the envisci class wince i heard the teacher was really good.</p>
<p>any advice for either?
what's a good prep book for envisci and how difficult is the exam ( for those who took it )?</p>
<p>lol please....don't tell me it was super easy if you're one of those CC people who get 5s on all 209585 of their aps with no studying. haha</p>
<p>i got a 3 on ap chem and enviro was super easy
im also drunk right now
make your judgement</p>
<p>I think a lot of people on CC are exaggerating when they say "no studying." You need to at least look at something in order to know it in the first place, so...</p>
<p>But APES is an easy self study if you know your bio and chem really well.</p>
<p>uhhhh</p>
<p>i havent done bio in a while.
and i took chemistry 1 honors this year but basically slept through it.</p>
<p>soo.... haha
will self studying bio at the same time be a good idea?
or just too much excess studying?</p>
<p>take bio, self study env. sci.</p>
<p>yes i agree with that ^</p>
<p>well the reason why im hesitant to take bio as a class is because the teacher is basically bipolar and doesn't teach. lol</p>
<p>everyone i know that has taken it says the only way she helped was that her tests are ridiculously difficult so they ended up studying like crazy to get a good grade, therefore were ready by the ap test. many feel as if they could have taken the ap without the class. apparently, if you memorize cliffs for bio, you'll get a 5.</p>
<p>i've also heard that envisci requires you to know outside information and there aren't too many good books to help you. i've also heard that it isn't as easy of an ap test as everyone claims. the teacher at my school is apparently really good and prepares you well.</p>
<p>knowing this...any advice?</p>
<p>and please correct me if i am wrong in any of my asumptions about either test.</p>
<p>peaceofcake - you are correct about having to know outside information. the open ended (at least this year's) required some practical knowledge of energy saving ideas. maybe subscribe to an environmental newsletter or just keep updated on the news. good luck! :)</p>
<p>^ Oh yeah, I liked the FRQ this year - very practical and I liked the easy multiplication and additions =)</p>
<p>APES is a very natural extension to the Ecology part of AP Biology. If you don't want to take AP Bio, just get a major textbook (like Campbell) and read the last few chapter on ecology. Then, get Smarty Pants (a very good APES study guide) and read through the book. If you are current on ecological knowledge like ozone, endangered species...etc., you should be fine for the exam. </p>
<p>I self studied the exam this year using only Smarty Pants and got a 5 after four hours of studying (I'm truly not exaggerating - but granted, I took AP Bio this year). A lot of APES is common sense (like, how do you conserve electricity when you're at home?) and you should know around 30% of APES just by gut instinct. The rest of the material is still quite limited and already covered in Smarty Pants.</p>
<p>If you prep right, you should be able to get a 5. I think the percentage that gets 1-4s in the score distribution are people who underestimated the difficulty of the exam (since everyone says it's an easy test) and didn't bother to study. You WILL do badly if you don't prep for Enviro - but the prepping doesn't take very long if you put your mind to it.</p>
<p>I took AP Envi Sci as a class, and found it to be easy but rewarding. The quizzes were simple and the material easily memorized, but my teacher also expected a lot of us. We had frequent debates and in-class projects. He normally teaches Chem, so he threw in a lot of Chem as well (I loved this, because I'm a Chem-nerd =P), which was a bit difficult for those who hadn't taken Chem. I found the class to be very rewarding though...</p>
<p>I scanned my friend's Barron's AP Envi Sci book... I studied for <2 hours. There are some nitpicky things on the test, but most of the MCs and FRQs are highly BS-able. The FRQs this year were incredibly simple. I got a 5, despite panicking during the "wait period" between the test and getting my scores... I overestimated the amount of "nitpicky" questions that I got wrong. =)</p>
<p>Easy class, easy 5.</p>
<p>LOL...and yet I got a 4...time to rescore and when that reports no change then to kms...</p>
<p>I also recommend the Smarty Pants guide as a refresher right before the test (it's pretty thin, you could read it in one or two nights).</p>
<p>I got my results! </p>
<p>I got a 5, and all I had to study with was a 6 dollar used textbook from Amazon which was an outdated edition, along with the Princeton Review prep book.</p>
<p>what book was it? or should i even bother reading a textbook and just use the prep book instead?</p>