<p>My teacher for apes seriously just shows us videos every day in class, no exaggeration. Then she expects us to read a chapter each night from the big text book. No one in the class can keep up with the reading. We all have other APs besides environmental along with sports and clubs and work. I usually somewhat read the chapters. I mostly skim. I bought the Princeton Review book, Cracking the AP Environmental Exam, and 5 Steps To A 5 500 Questions you should know. I've already made a study schedule and I'm going to review the released exams too but will this be enough? I'm really just aiming for 4. A 5 would be awesome but 4 is the minimum.</p>
<p>Does your teacher’s last name start with Y?</p>
<p>@Ach7DD
YES… O.o</p>
<p>Bahaha, it’s a small world after all. So what did you think of the documentary Gaslands?
Not sure whether you’re in her first or fourth block(I’m in her first XP), but judging by this and your other posts, it seems like we attend the same school (Does Home of the Rams ring a bell?) and have the same class together. But here’s from me: Try to self-study the course. I’ve taken an AP Physics online course, and I did manage to score a 5 without a teacher present, so it is entirely possible to “self-study” the exams, especially one memorization-heavy as APES. Not to mention that AP-wise, Y. is actually a good AP teacher. Last year she taught AP Bio and about four kids got 5s.
But yep, seriously do the reading. Her test banks may be saving your grade for the class, but it will not be the same for the AP exam.</p>
<p>Omg I saw your post about how she gave you a 70 on your late work! That’s so messed up! I really hate her and I wish I could have self studied and taken the exam without the class or taken a different AP. I only took this class because it was an AP and I thought that was what UNC wanted 
I didn’t sign up for bio next year just because of Y. I am not here to watch biology videos for a year. She’s THE absolute worst teacher I’ve ever had and this is the first, last, and only class I’ll ever take that he teaches.</p>
<p>I took APES with a teacher who had just graduated from college and didn’t know how to teach. Subsequently, she showed us power points she found on the Internet, videos, and instead of reviewing for tests using words, she had us draw pictures. Smh.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I took the form B AP exam in May a few months after finishing the class, reviewed the Barron’s book a week beforehand, and scored a 5 on the AP exam. Tbh it was THE easiest AP exam I’ve taken so far. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Eh, the late work was partly my fault, since my submission was a huge and chaotic mess(I pretty much posted 200+ vocab words on several pages with no real order). And I don’t technically consider her to be a “bad teacher.” Her teaching style just requires more independent and devoted work, I’m also in a little pickle since at the moment I am taking 5 AP courses (4@school+1@NCVPS) so my time is kind of short. This is why I plan on self-studying the book during Spring Break.</p>
<p>And when it comes to UNC, you’re in good track. I got accepted to UNC and my grades looked a lot like yours(95 in Mrs. F’s Chem course, 98 in H. Geo, 99 in H. Civics,a 93 on AP Stats), just make sure your SAT is ~2000 and your GPA is above a 4.6 and you’re golden.</p>
<p>Though I am still surprised to find another CCer at my school. Seriously, this is the last place I’d expect to find one.</p>
<p>@Ach7DD
Me too! I was like oh this awkward I didn’t expect to find someone from my school either. Just keep up with the vocab and your C should come up! I’ve somehow managed to get an A even though I got a D on the I Am paper. I thought my life was over that day. Haha. As long as I get at least a 4 on this exam I’m good. But a lottttt of people on here say they self study APES and get high scores on the AP exam. Literally never cracked a textbook, they just use the review books. I did the reading for a lot of chapters but there’s a lot that didn’t read too and it’s unrealistic to try to basically reread the whole thing so these review books will save my life.
& I think her bio students did well because of work they did on their own outside of class. Especially if she just showed videos like she does for environmental. That’s not teaching. At least if we were actual college students we would have more study time as we wouldn’t be in school for 7 hours straight</p>
<p>Update, I’ve talked to two of the kids that got a 5 on the exam and this is what they’ve told me. The first one told me that she did not do anything special, she did not order a test prep book or anything. But she also told me she studied about 30~40 hours/week for the class. The second one didn’t really tell me anything about how he studied, he said he just took the test (He also told me he got a 770 on the Bio SAT ST.) Though, I think you could try asking his sister, she’s an Indian girl in Mrs. Y’s 4th block class.</p>
<p>@Ach7DD
Thanks for the update! It was helpful because I do want to take ap bio before I graduate</p>