How I self-studied for 6 major AP exams (APUSH, WHAP, APES, CALC BC, BIO, LIT) and got 4s and 5s

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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So I got 5 in APUSH, WHAP, APES and 4 in CALC BC, BIO, LIT - All Self-studied, no teacher, no nothing!

How did I pace myself:

I made notebooks and notebooks of schedules… I couldn’t abide to almost anything, but I suppose I did enough…

The key was to make an AP MASTERY MEGAPLAN. There, last June, I decided the subjects I wanted to take. I researched the hell out of collegeconfidential and reddit to find the best books for each subject. The first round for me was to cover the schedule. I named it: Immerse in content. I went grass root with zero concern or thought of exam and just tried to learn the content. This phase was June to Decemeber. Then was revision1. There I took Barron books from my library and then I tried to revise everything in AP Context. Final phase was practise exams. I salvaged every official and reliable exam I could and tried to do it exam style. When I ran out of time, i did a bullet version, where I wrote bullet point answers to question and compared it against official guidelines…

I distributed and planned… I divided chapters and content over the periods and made bullets in my journals for my each day to-do. I generally tried to do 2 hours per day per subject since I had 7 APs to cover… I colored the bullet holes which I finished to keep me on track…

I ran out of time since content proved to much, i barely did past papers but again, it was enough to get me through the 4 line…

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AP Biology: I took a bio ii college class with this amazing teacher… Ironically, AP Bio is now more about BIO II, evolution, heredity, than BIO 1 molecular processes etc. Only thing you need, is Cliffnotes post 2013…

Round 1: Get cliffnotes latest edition, not available online. Memorize it. No really, memorize it… There are about 13-14 chapters and it is constructed in perfect symmetry with Khan Academy. This was the first time in my life that I studied Biology. What I did was that I used to sit outside in sun, watch KHAN videos for the chapter and then I tried to memorize it…

Round 2: Once you are done with both, get Baron Biology with flash cards and use Bozeman Biology to brush up any topics you want… Do the Genes experiment, know how to calculate statistics etc

Round 3: You will only get past papers after 2013 to practice out of… so use them cautiously and well! The answers are pretty straight forward. Your math will drag you through 1/3 of questions. You get small space to write short answers. Mainly application is tested, any information that you would memorize is provided…

You should be good with this

APUSH: AMSCO will be your savior. The book is gold. There are 31 chapters in 9 periods. Each chapter is 20 pages average. You can read! I attempted to memorize as much as I could. If not, memorize the lists given at the end of each chapter.Then comes Barron. It is good revision, read it again after January to make sure you still remember things… Try to do questions from AMSCO and Barron after each period… If you want to go the extra mile, do old format questions from 2012 and earlier to give yourself content mastery.Finally, the exam format. They just keep messing up with DBQ and LEQ guidlelines. Jcoz production have videos on newest format, but I recommend giving a good 12 hours to reading the latest scoring guidelines and sample questions again and again and again… until you finally get it…

For final revision before exam, do the latest exam in exam style (time restriction and everything). If you have any old format exams left, you can make bullets of your answers real quick instead of writing whole answers and check them against guidelines (don’t test format just content and historical facts etc for old exams). I personally had only 12 hours before APUSH so I only did a JCoz and Adam Norris marathon period by period to remember my facts.

Thing with APUSH is that half the paper is knowledge… Doing well in it takes you above 3. If you have basic knowledge of trends and movements and events in each event, you can easily answer the MCQS and SRQS.The other half is just 1 DBQ and 1 LEQ - Easiest time strain I ever got in any paper, so relax and write as much as you can. What truely took me to 5s was this simple key:LEQ: 1- Give thesis on the question (state a blunt opinion) 2- Build an argument around the prompt with a broader look at context 3- Give evidence, describe something related to prompt with as much detail as you humanly can 4- Connect your prompt argument to an alternative time or place etc…DBQ: 1- Give thesis on the question (state a blunt opinion) 2- Build an argument around the prompt and UTILIZE DESCRIPTION OF 6 DOCUMENTS IN FAVOUR OR AGAINST your thesis… 3- POV - try and describe the context of atleats three documents, trying to tell the events that led to the creation of that document, the author’s background etc etc 4- Connect your prompt argument to an alternative time or place etc…

There… enjoy your hard earned 4/5… :slight_smile:

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AP Environment Science : So there are two types of people in APES. People with solid science background and people attempting a science AP for the first time! You need two subjects for APES to become the easiest AP out there for you: Organic Chemistry and Biology! Everything will be so much easier if you know this stuff!

So start by opening up Barron APES, if you are not all lost then proceed with next step. If the chemical compositions, phosphate vs phosphite confuses you, then it is a good idea to head over to Khan Academy and watch ecology and basic chemistry videos! You can also use Living in Environment textbook if you want to go the extra mile!..

You don’t have to start super early for apes, so that you might as well remember the information by exam… I love REA Crash Course and Barron APES. Both of these books alongside Bozeman APES are all that you will need…

Thing with APES is its unique answer structure. It is kind of like Biology, very straight forward, very on point! If you want a guaranteed 5, do every APES exam out there. Do not right full size answers to every exam, but do the bullet method. Only write bullets for your answers and keep practicing until your bullets matches those of scoring guidelines…
. I actually did this in exam. Try planning out your answer in 5 minute and write an essay around it in next 15 minute… APES awards you number if you have those certain words and ideas in your answer and tends to be very repetitive so practice is the key!