Senior Year and Major Loads of AP

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>Now that I am a Senior, I am taking as much APs as possible. My school doesn't offer a lot of AP classes and so I am going to self-study some. Here is what I am hoping my schedule for my senior is going to look like. </p>

<p>At School:</p>

<p>AP Chinese
AP Government
AP Biology
AP Calculus AB
AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>Self-Study:</p>

<p>AP Stats
AP World History
AP Euro History
AP Art History </p>

<p>With so many APs I was hoping you guys can give me a difficulty ranking on them so I know which one I should focus more of my time on. I would also like tips on how I should self-study, how long I should study each course, which books you guys will recommend, and if I should drop any of them or not. Any advice on how to score a 5 or 4 on all of them will be greatly appreciated. Any experience tips are greatly appreciated as well.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance. </p>

<p>p.s. Since I have already taken the APUSH exams, are any of the history AP exams similar to the APUSH?</p>

2

<p>No point taking that many APs as a senior. Colleges won’t give them very much thought because it’s your senior year and you have no scores to show them at the time you are admitted. Now, the only reason someone would take that many AP exams was to get college credit for them, but the more you take in one sitting, the greater the possibility you have to botch them up and not get good scores on them. I suggest you focus on fewer and try to get higher scores</p>

3

<p>^^^</p>

<p>That’s not necessarily true. Your senior course-load should reflect on what your future challenges will be in a collegiate course load. </p>

<p>At School:</p>

<p>AP Chinese: Assuming you have a strong grasp of the language as of now Language can be paramount for your success in the future. </p>

<p>AP Government: US or Comparative? Both are very important as a citizen keep</p>

<p>AP Biology: These are your three STEM AP courses. I hope you’re considering a math/science major in college? New exam for Bio, should be interesting. </p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: You’re always going to need to learn Calc, good luck. </p>

<p>AP Environmental Science: You can reconsider not taking this class, not many schools offer credit for it, the very nature of environmental science is honestly preaching the hippie progressive agenda…(not that there’s anything wrong with that :wink: (exam can be studied for in a week with PR, and BS skills.) Replace with physics maybe?</p>

<p>Self-Study:</p>

<p>AP Stats-- (don’t do it, not many colleges give credit and it’s not a very conventional course)</p>

<p>AP World History NO
AP Euro History NO
AP Art History NO</p>

<p>APUSH is NOTHING like those three… </p>

<p>You need classes for those three… i would rank them as high as Chem as far as difficulty goes. </p>

<p>If you choose to self study consider some of the baby AP’s</p>

<p>AP Government
AP English Lang
AP Environmental
AP Psychology
AP Macro/Micro</p>

4

<p>I agree with Banana. Be careful and study hard.</p>

<p>I don’t know too much about self-studying because I’m partially against it. To start, any AP Language is difficult. Chinese isn’t an easy language, and I’m jealous because your school offers Chinese lol. AP Languages require a lot work for mastery just as any AP course. AP Government is really linear and straight forward. Some stuff you may already know, so it isn’t hard, but you should study and do your work. In my school, AP Government is easy for students because all Freshman are required to take Government Honors or Merit.</p>

<p>You might be aware of this, but the AP Biology curriculum is changed, so no one really knows what this class will be like this fall. I’m taking AP Biology too this fall, so we’re the guinea pigs lol. In the past, AP Biology was a ton of memorization, but College Board said that they minimized the memorization (we’ll see :rolleyes:). This class requires a lot of reading and study time as well, so have time for this class. Biology comes easy to students while it may come challenging to some. It’s a “You know it, or you don’t” type of science. AP Calculus AB, as, you know covers the Calculus I curriculum. This class is challenging, no if, and, or but about it. This is a class, like AP Chemistry, where practice makes perfect. In this class, you will utilize your previous math skills and apply it to much difficult scenarios and will go a much slower pace than the AP Calculus AB/BC yearlong class, which is good. </p>

<p>AP Environmental Science is sometimes considered as a “soft science” because of the rigor. You’ll learn ecological and environmental issues that occur everyday. It’s definitely a fun class, but you do do some work. It’s not a lot of work, but just endless worksheets on concepts and etc. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE AP EXAM. I can’t stress this enough, some students on CC and others take this class lightly and not take it seriously. They just take it because it’s an AP class. The class maybe easy, but the exam is really difficult. Colleges really like the AP Environmental Exam and Environmental majors thought this exam was challenging and really good for students interested in Environmental Science. Just because you get an A in the class doesn’t mean you’ll land a 5 on the exam. Remember that.</p>

<p>Like I said, I don’t know too much on self-studying, but I do know about those AP classes. All the AP classes you’re self-studying require TONS of reading, except of AP Statistics, so be prepared. AP Statistics is a different kind of math the requires high level writing abilities and critical thinking skills. AP Statistics is also one of those classes that you shouldn’t take lightly. It may sound easy to the ear, but it’s a whole different story when taking the class or self-studying the material.</p>

<p>Good Luck, Mr./Mrs. Senior and have a great year and work hard lol. :)</p>

5

<p>Okay, I have taken all of the tests you are planning on taking except for AP Chinese.</p>

<p>I have a few words of advice:
Unless you are amazing at history and amazing at memorizing things, AP Art History, not a good idea.
Again, unless you love history and grasp history quickly, AP Euro isn’t for you either
I think both of those were harder than APUSH, but then again, I got 4’s and 5’s on them, but it required a lot more work than anticipated.
As far as stats goes, make sure you just do a lot of practice, the material is easy, but it’s likewise just as easy to forget little things.
AP Biology was pretty easy for me, but I’m a math and science kind of person.
AP World was surprisingly easy. Just make sure to use some common sense. If the question says who was a ruler in Europe and you see some Asian guy’s name, chances are it isn’t him</p>

<p>I think it’s very courageous of you to take on so many AP’s but I’d suggest taking on some easier self-studies unless you are a real history buff. AP Euro, APAH, and AP World aren’t the easiest due to breadth and depth of knowledge required. </p>

<p>I would suggest: AP Environmental, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Language and Composition, AP Human Geography or some of the other “easier” tests</p>

<p>Let me know if you have any questions, unless you’re asking about a language test, chances are, I’ve taken it. I took 18 tests my Junior year of high school (last year) and 3 my Sophomore. (and I passed all of them with only one 3). So, feel free to ask any questions or check out any of the information I have on my site. I know taking on a lot of APs is a lot of work and I’d love to help make things easier for you.</p>

6

<p>AP Chinese
AP Government
AP Biology
AP Calculus AB
AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>Self-Study:</p>

<p>AP Stats
AP World History
AP Euro History
AP Art History
^ Out of these, I’ve taken WH and bio. My friend has taken govt. </p>

<p>World history was a joke, and this comes from someone who rarely ever reads the news, doesn’t know her geography, and didn’t even know WWI was in the 20th century until two nights before the AP exam LOL.</p>

<p>I took a class, but I doodled through the whole period and never paid attention, and when we did assignments, I’d rush through them and never really absorb any of the information I was writing down. xD</p>

<p>Two school nights before the exam I started cramming like crazy. I read through Barron’s and Princeton Review several times, and took practice tests. I kept scoring no higher than a 59%… (I didn’t even care to take Barron’s tests, but if I had taken them I would have probably gotten a 20% from luck LOL)</p>

<p>I went in to take the test prepared for a 1. I felt direly unprepared because I didn’t sink in most of the information I crammed and I was suffering from extreme proactive interference from cramming from bio and psych. XD </p>

<p>Anyways the test, like I said earlier, was a joke. The biology exam seemed extremely difficult because of the details and facts that I had to memorize (it seemed more like obscure memorization than understanding of concepts), so I was worried that WH would be the same. It turned out that it had barely any memorization, and plus there were only 4 answer choices instead of 5, which increases the chance of getting a guess correct from 20% to 25%. The AP exam seemed to be all critical thinking, reasoning, and analysis (sort of like the insanely easy version of the SAT CR with a few really easy wh facts combined), and the essays were no different. I finished the MC early enough to triple check my answers, and I finished my essays in an hour because they were so easy. </p>

<p>The best part of WH is that the DBQ doesn’t require outside knowledge so all you need to do is know how to read quickly and effectively. I got a 5 and my friends got mad because they are 100x better at anything history related than I am LOL.</p>

<p>Biology was difficult, not because the subject seemed esoteric, but the memorization was grueling and monotonous. The topics (plants and human body systems) made me fall asleep because they were so boring, and I didn’t want to memorize how microtubules are arranged and whatnot. I did memorize everything though (I forgot it all now LOL-yay for cramming) and I went into the test feeling fairly confident… and still thought I failed. I dunno. I left one letter on the FRQ blank and guessed incorrectly on another, and still got a 5. YAY FOR CURVES!</p>

<p>Anyways, I can’t really speak for bio too much, since they are changing the exam. A week ago, I did decide to take the practice MC for bio, and they seemed extremely easy compared to the AP bio exam I took in May, and I ended up getting a ~90% on the MC that I tried there. Since you won’t have to cover a lot of the boring stuff, and AP is deciding to focus A LOT less on memorization, the bio exam should be a piece of cake.</p>

7

<p>I have decided to drop AP Art History. I might possibly drop AP Euro, though I would decide after skimming though a prep book to see the contents. I have also decided to take AP Macro or Micro and possibly AP Human Geography. Although AP English Language and Composition tickled my mind for a bit, I will not take it since I do not like writing essays as much, but I will think about it some more since I might change my mind. By the way, is it possible to self-study AP Physics without extensive knowledge on physics?</p>

8

<p>Don’t self-study AP Physics if you don’t have any background in it. It’s not the easiest one to self-study, not that it’s not possible</p>

9

<p>Ok, then I won’t self-study for physics. I don’t want to cause unnecessary burden that can affect me getting 4s and 5s on the AP exams. Thanks.</p>