<p>spanish language: don’t freak out about the talking part.
spanish lit: read!
chem: you’re never as prepared as you think you are. also, don’t use arco.
us: read American Pageant. a lot.
english lang: practice tests.
comp sci: the PR book really helps.
bio: memorize.
stats: read the textbook, no matter how little you think it will help.
calc: you’re never as prepared as you think you are, so keep doing practice problems.
english lit: read!
physics: haha. sorry.
psych: read the book, and study the people associated with the most important theories.</p>
<p>AP Biology: don’t procrastinate. pay more attention to the annoying taxonomy.
AP Physics: Don’t ignore lab questions
AP Physics C (self study): more practice problems
AP Calculus BC (self study from AB): don’t procrastinate, sleep more instead of cramming.
AP Psychology (self study): don’t start memorizing the brain parts and functions the night before</p>
<p>*Anyways, it was my first year taking AP exams…hopefully all goes ok! Good luck everyone! :] *</p>
<p>First time taking AP Classes and I would like to say that the tests weren’t as hard as I thought, but that doesn’t mean procrastinating. Another thing is don’t get worried you are more prone to mistakes.</p>
<p>AP Euro: Actually read all the way through one of the books you get (Recommended: PR and REA)
AP Chem: DON’T USE BARRONS! IT IS TERRIBLE! Get Princeton Review. Pay attention to stoichometery, it’s very important.</p>
<p>Another thing, a good portion of AP testing involve BS</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Totally agree .</p>
<p>AP English Lang: Read lots of essays ranging from the historical period to the contemporary period (especially 20th century) and memorize most of the rhetorical terms and such…and don’t cram…and be sure to take lots of practice exams.</p>
<p>AP Music Theory: Self-study do-able. Memorize (not by rote) the musical terms (you can find them in the official CB site) and train your ear like crazy until you’re able to identify a note and to listen to a melody and notate it on staff paper as exactly played. And sight sing well. Easy test for me.</p>
<p>AP Art Studio: Start from the beginning of the summer. That’s all.</p>
<p>AP Comp Sci: Must, must know basic Java (obviously) and yeah…read the study book.</p>
<p>Start studying early. As in more than one day before the test early. </p>
<p>A week would be good.</p>
<p>Bio: Start looking at the review book in the beginning of the second trimester.
Calc: Start doing AP practice questions at the beginning of the second trimester.
i did neither, hurt a lot
*im on the trimester system btw haha</p>
<p>ap bio: take more practice tests. ■■■ should’ve memorized cliffs.
ap ush: i freakin love amsco. read it twice, always always always!
ap psych: don’t cram. and barrons is the best!</p>
<p>Eat bananas for patasium so that your hands do not cramp from writing.</p>
<p>Carbo load the night before and in the morning - you need energy to this three hour brain run.</p>
<p>AP Chem: learn chemistry; don’t rely on just reviewing old tests.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=sexycani]
AP tests really build your bs-ing skills, and increase the probability that even your bs answer may be correct.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well said, I’ve learned how to master the art of bs-ing through AP tests.</p>
<p>As for the tips,
Calc: Practice problems, tons and tons of them.
Physics C: Make sure you know the basics first, before going into deep calculus derivations and all. Build up from the basics, draw diagrams for everything to visualize it better and work through it.
Stat: Don’t underestimate the test. Its harder than you think (especially the MC). Study well, know your assumptions/conditions for the stuff, all you rules and basic formulas.</p>
<p>Bring a pillow to sit on. It helps tremendously.
Wear a watch to time yourself.
Bring reading glasses and wear during the test to make you look smarter.</p>
<p>Jk about the last one…or am I? The answer is yes.</p>
<p>This is a really nice thread… </p>
<p>Hopefully, I’m not doing a bad thing by bumping this back up…</p>
<p>AP Biology: Memorize Memorize Memorize. It’s often very helpful to keep a sheet of concepts that you consistently fail to remember / understand. </p>
<p>AP Eng Lang: This is a test that you CANNOT cram for. It’s most beneficial to start preparing months in advance by simply reading, writing, and thinking. </p>
<p>APUSH: If you only want to succeed on the exam, don’t bother with gaining a deep understanding of history. The AP Exam has proven to be ridiculously predictable, and can be defeated easily by understanding the AP Course Outline, and having the necessary resources (certain review outlines found online, AMSCO, Crash Course)</p>
<p>The typical CC kid probably knows all this stuff, but this goes out to all classic slackers who are prone to procrastinate, fall behind, and/or blow things off (I’m one of them, trust me):</p>
<p>[ul]
[li]GET ORGANIZED. Throwing loose papers into your backpack will not help you at all, especially if you’ll need them for future reference. Get folders, skinny binders, and spiral notebooks, and label and/or color-code them. Dividers are your friends. Keep things neat and where they’re supposed to go. I find that just being organized gets me motivated to do work.[/li][li]PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Actually use the agenda your school gives you. Or get a small notebook or planner from the drugstore. Whatever. Write all homework assignments and due dates down, even if you think you can remember them. Something will always slip past your mind. I learned this the hard way (on multiple occasions). Check things off as you complete them, it’ll make you happy. :][/li][li]BE A DOER. Don’t come home and dread all you have to get done—then waste four hours on Facebook/CC/etc. Split your work in two. Once you get the first half of it done, take a break (whether it’s for 30 minutes or two hours) and then tackle the second half. The time you spend procrastinating your work because you don’t want to do it…you could be doing it and getting it done (easier said than done, I know).[/li][li]PAY ATTENTION. Not just in class, but everywhere. Paying attention in class means taking notes that you think will help you understand the lecture/material better; at home, it means keeping track of time and everything you need to accomplish; and everywhere else, it means actively appreciating and taking in life. :]</p>[/li]
<p>Subject-specific tips
[list]
[<em>]Math: Actually ask questions during class and come in for help if you need it. (I was afraid to do this and thus, suffered). If a teacher chooses to work out a problem during class, it’s probably important and will be on a test; it wouldn’t hurt you to work it out as he/she is, or at least make sure you fully understand it. When doing homework, cover up the answers to example problems as you work them, and then check your work. (What sucks, though, is how textbooks never seem to give examples for the exercises that are actually difficult. But that’s the part where you get help :)) If you have extra time/motivation after homework, it’s always useful to casually review the next day’s lesson.
[</em>]English: All I can say for this class is, don’t blow off the reading. LOL
[<em>]Math-based science: Most of what I said about math applies here; do and understand textbook problems, ask questions. Read or skim the reading parts of the chapter, no matter how dry. (I don’t think I opened my chem book once this year [to read], and completely screwed myself over for the final.)
[</em>]History: Effective notes + reading and understanding the assigned material = success. Really. There’s not much else that needs to be done.
[/ul]
[/list]</p>
<p>I found, this year, that the AP Exam isn’t the least bit intimidating, and that the material it tests isn’t actually difficult. It just requires a little work and motivation. Use those AP course outlines! They’re ridiculously helpful. GL next year, everyone. :]</p>
<p>well, I learned this last year, but still did it some this year.</p>
<p>If you are self studying APs don’t try to cram all the material into 3 or 4 days, (I found this out with AP stats last year, still did it w/ US gov’t.)</p>
<p>Physics C, best way to study is to do past frqs and check answers, and try to understand why they got the answer that they did. The AP exam is not hard if you know what you are doing.</p>
<p>don’t procrastinate on reading, I did this with an Anthropology class, and ended up skimming over 200-300 textbook pages, and taking notes the day before the test. it sucked.</p>
<p>AP frqs, can easily be bs-ed if you have no clue what exactly they are looking for, especially for US gov’t, b/c they ask for 2 out of 5 or 6 possible answers.</p>
<p>AP Euro, try to cram everything you know into an frq (of course it has to be on topic).</p>
<p>Also, when self studying for APs don’t put your other course work aside, I did this a lot because I was self studying for 6 APs but now my grades are really terrible.</p>
<p>AP Biology - it is not necessary to read and notate all 55 chapters of Campbell/Reece.</p>
<p>AP Microeconomics - FLVS test questions are too easy relative to the AP exam, as are Princeton Review questions.</p>
<p>AP World History - minorities, minorities, minorities.</p>
<p>U.S. H- Read Amsco and read REA for some chapters to clarify and give you some varied information on subjects. If you can, you should read through Crash Course also (because it’s also pretty good) Study way before the test and review ALOT. Practice your DBQ’s and ace the multiple choice test. You will get a 5, I guarentee that you will. Still waiting for my five 
</p>
<p>Chem- Make sure you understand every concept that’s given. If you don’t you’re screwed. Take labs seriously. Enjoy life. Don’t be stressed out. Do a bunch of FRQ’s throughout the year to famliarize yourself with the type of questions that will be on the ap test.</p>
<p>Lang- uh… study some literary terms and know how to write an essay? I mean really… there isn’t really good advice for taking a english test besides that. I bet people would agree with me :)</p>
<p>ap calc ab - moderately easy to self-study</p>
<p>ap chem - should have practiced more on the free response</p>
<p>ap world history - do not buy princeton review for the exam. it is way too general. PR did not help me in the FR, my textbook did.</p>
<p>AP World History</p>
<p>Kaplan = The best for essays, only one to have any essay responses, and this has 21! Everything about the book kind of sucks.</p>
<p>Barrons = Way too much information. Some stuff even the textbook (we used Stearn’s AP Edition) doesn’t mention! If you get this, get it purely for the history review if your class sucks or you are really bad at world history. The questions are not at all like the AP test</p>
<p>Princeton = I actually enjoyed this history review the best. As the poster above said, it is the most general, but it is the easiest to read, and is one I would get if you are doing well in the class and just need a refresher. The practice exams are the best, and reflect actual AP questions very accurately.</p>
<p>Know series REALLY well for BC calc. Don’t make stupid mistakes like I did.</p>
<p>Cliffs Bio is amazing.</p>
<p>There was no need to take so many APs, as much of my credit will come from IBs. I was expecting too much.</p>