How to Self Study an AP Exam?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>This is my situation. I will be taking 5 AP exams this year, Chem (5/6), Psych (5/6), Comp Gov (5/14), World History (5/16), and Environmental Science (5/22). I will be self studying all but Chem. Also, I have SATs on 5/4, which I will need to study for as well, as well as my schoolwork. </p>

<p>For each subject, I have purchased Crash Course, PR, Barrons, Barrons Flashcards, and 5 steps 500 MC Q's. I am just beginning to start all of the subjects now. Is it possible to get a 5 on all of them? And based on the dates, exams, and my materials, how should I effectly study for each of them? Because of all the materials I have, should I take notes or just memorize? I will have notes for chemistry, but should I take notes for the others especially WH, and Comp Gov? If I do take notes, how should I take them from these review books, because they are basically summaries in themselves? Should I study them in chronological order(Chem and Psych first, Env. Sci last)?</p>

<p>I am extremely overwhelmed right now; these 4 weeks will play a HUGE role in what college I will be going to, and could set my future based on my success of these exams and this SAT. I need to perform. If any of you have experience, or advice on how you would attack this situation if you were me, I would greatly appreciate it. I just need to figure out how to study, with your help, and get started now.</p>

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<p>Bump please, need to start tonight lol</p>

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<p>Nobody knows? :(</p>

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<p>I totally know what you’re going through right now. I’m taking 6 AP exams this year, but no SATs.
This is my plan and I know it will work for me, but it might not work for you.
I plan on quickly reviewing material from a review book. At least 1-2 days of pure review. Then after that, I’m taking as many practice tests I need to get to a 4. Usually this is around 2-3 tests. You need to look at the explanations to the questions you get wrong though, or else you’ll be taking a dozen test with the same score each time.
But I know you want that 5! And I want it too. The reason I stop taking practice tests after a 4 is because review books usually have tougher exams, imo. Then I break out the real deal. I take previously released AP exam. I usually end up borderline 4/5 on those. Then just review the ones I get wrong again. Then practice, practice, practice the released FRQs. </p>

<p>Yes, I’ll be studying in chronological order. For me, notes do not work. I just need to read the material and put it to practice by taking practice tests. </p>

<p>Last year I took 4 AP exams, and studied for all 4 the day before the exam. This was probably the most stressful time in my high school life. But I managed a 5 on three of my exams and a 4 on one (euro, ugh I hated that class). Since you are starting review NOW, you absolutely have the chance to get a 5 on ALL your exam. It’s how you use your time though. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t use all your resource you have though. For psych, just Barrons will do. I got a 5 last year using Barrons. PR is great but doesn’t cover everything. </p>

<p>I’m taking chem this year, and PR seems promising. Barrons just present information in a format I don’t like for this subject. I’m also taking environ this year but I’m thinking that Crash Course will do. Not sure on that one though.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

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<p>If you haven’t started studying yet, don’t worry about self studying APs. Please just concentrate on the SATs! They are far more important. Self-studying APs is just an extra on the college application, and cannot replace a good score on the SATs. You need MONTHS to self-study an AP, not just two weeks.</p>

<p>Do well on chem, but forget the others. Your focus should be the SATs. You could always take the subject tests to showcase yourself too.</p>

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<p>Thank you both so much! @Jdroid- You seem to have been (and are again this year) in my situation, and I will plan to follow through your methods. @Risubu- I will up my focus a lot on the SAT. I will continue to study Chem, but also Psych and Env. Sci because they are very easy, and I won’t worry too much about Comp Gov. and World History if there isn’t enough time. I just don’t know how much I can improve my scores in <2 weeks.</p>

<p>Does anybody else have advice?</p>

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<p>Bumppppppp</p>

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<p>My only advice is to get off this addicting website and start STUDYING LOL!!!</p>

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<p>I’d say it’s possible, but you’re going to have to put off schoolwork as much as you can, as well as give up pretty much all of your sleep. :)</p>

<p>I’m currently working on self-studying AP Psych, as well as reviewing for two other AP tests for classes in which I have learned nothing. I took an AP Pysch practice test and got a 4 after skimming the book for about 3 hours. I think it’s possible to get it up to a 5.</p>

<p>I’d say spend one day each of this week on each of the tests to begin. So like tomorrow, spend your day on Psych. Read the entire book (or just skim it… whatever you can do in the amount of time you have that day), and then take the multiple choice part. For the essays, just see if you know it or not for now. Spend a day for each of the tests and see where you are after this. Grade your tests and see where you need to allocate the most of your time, also taking into account the chronological order of when you are taking the tests.</p>

<p>Then get down to intense studying, in chronological order of when the tests are.</p>

<p>Actually looking back, it looks like you have some nice gaps in between your tests. Perhaps you are better off cramming for your first two now, then after those cramming for the next two, and such. Note: I would never recommend this to anyone. But considering you have under two weeks for your first test, you may be expecting to cram.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t recommend that last method. But it’s whatever you think is feasible. </p>

<p>Best of luck to you! Hopefully we will both be happy in July!</p>

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<p>Also… I am taking the SAT as well on May 4. It’s probably too late now, but it may be a good idea to take your SAT subject tests on that date, especially if they correspond with the AP’s. That way you could (somewhat) be studying for two-in-one, although they will undoubtedly be slightly different.</p>

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<p>I would study them all of them at least a little bit every day, but then on the weekend before, focus only on the ones that you are taking soon. In other words, the weekend before psych/chem, mainly study for those two exams. So on and so forth. I got an easy 5 on Psych after cramming only two days before the exam though, so I would focus a lot more on chemistry than psych personally LOL.</p>

<p>The way you study depends on what works best for you. I prefer just marking/highlighting in my study guides as I go over writing study guides for all of the subjects, and that works very well for me (I have gotten 5’s on all of the AP exams I have taken). Other people I know make their own study guides, tests, etcetc and also do well. Granted, they started studying months before and I started studying /literally/ the weekend before so they had more time to do all of that stuff LOL. Do whatever works best for you, as long as you have the time to do it. </p>

<p>Last year, I self-studied AP bio and psych, and my APWH class didn’t teach me much so I basically had to self-study for that too. Since I was a sophomore, I didn’t have to worry about the SAT but I did take the SAT II biology. What I did was study for both the SAT II and AP at the same time, and it turned out great. I took the AP in May and the SAT II in June, and got a 5/800 respectively. </p>

<p>Taking the SAT on the weekend before AP exams seems like it would be tough, since that’s usually the weekend I use to cram for my exams, but everyone is different haha. Since I decided to take my SAT in January as not to worry about my APs/grades/etc, I have never faced your dilemma but I suppose you could devote 30 minutes every day to SAT MC/vocab/prep and then use the rest of your time to either focus on school work or study for AP exams? I’m not quite sure what your EC time commitments are, but anyways good luck figuring out how to organize your schedule. @__@</p>

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<p>Very doable. I took 10 AP exams last year. 5 were self-studied, 5 were from AP courses I was taking.</p>

<p>Self-studied:
Enviro - 5
Bio - 5
Physics C Mech - 5
Human Geo - 4
World - 3</p>

<p>Classes:
Physics B - 5
Comp Sci A - 5
Eng Lang - 5
Calc BC - 5
US Hist - 5</p>

<p>Eight 5s, one 4, one 3.
I started studying for all of them the Saturday before the 1st one (Enviro).
I would say that the best way to study for them is Crash Course + tons of practice/released exams. Especially on World, because of the DBQ.</p>

<p>Expect to stay up late at night and to have no social activities whatsoever. Kill Facebook and games until after APs. I went to the Coffee Bean at 7am and stayed until 11pm on weekends, 4pm-10pm on weekdays. Spent around $200 in drinks, ahaha.</p>

<p>Figure out what kind of study environment you need. Do not study in bed. Also try not to study the night before.</p>

<p>As for SATs, don’t really worry too much about studying. Instead, just take practice exams. Take all the exams you can, and if you need more review do some more exams. Also follow my advice below.</p>

<p>How I studied for APs:
-Brought a 30lb bag full of books, my laptop, some music, and lots of money for drinks/food to coffee shop.
-Read through Crash Course for each exam (almost skimmed; read each in 12 hours).
-Took practice exam and graded. If the results were not good enough for a 5 (calculated using appass.com), then made a list of topics to review and used the more in-depth review books for those.
-Whether I did well enough or not the first time around, I took another practice exam. Repeat until a 5 is essentially ensured.
-Sleep well the night before
-Eat well the day of
-Take exams, ace them with 5s.</p>

<p>The only ones I didn’t get 5s for, I spent less than 12 hours cramming. Bad idea, especially for something like World where you need to cover 10000 years of history.</p>

<p>Also, I recommend focusing on Chem, Comp Gov, and World primarily. Psych is pretty easy (probably 2 days of studying is enough), and Enviro is even easier. Reading through Barron’s one time for Enviro was enough for me, I found. That took only about 8 hours.</p>

<p>If you want any more advice, or perhaps access to my massive collection of prep material, then feel free to shoot me an email. I hardly ever check this site.
(take out spaces)
w c h i l l 1 3 3 7 @ gmail DOT com</p>