Hi everyone, I’m a current HS freshman who is self-studying AP Psych this year. As you can tell from the title, I’m kinda stressing out about AP Psych (although I heard so many times that the exam is super easy), mainly because I took a practice exam from Barron’s and I don’t think I’m very good at the FRQs. I got an 80/100 on MC (which is OK, but I feel like I could do a lot better) with no preparation other than just reading Barron’s once to learn to course (once again, I’m self-studying), but I struggled with FRQs (I think I only got like 2-5 points on each of the two FRQs). Based on some of the score calculators, I see that this is usually a 4, which is frustrating considering that I had previously thought that I had a pretty strong understanding of AP Psych. I had a few questions for people familiar with the AP Psychology Exam and the relative difficulty of Barron’s to the actual test:
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Are the Barron’s practice tests harder or easier (or pretty much the same) than the actual exam? Some of the questions on the Barron’s practice tests asked about awfully specific details, which is concerning. I was wondering if this is the same for the actual test.
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Is an 80/100 on MC, a 2-5/8 on FRQ #1, and a 2-5/10 on FRQ #2 (I think these scores are worst-case scenarios) sufficient for a 5? If Barron’s is harder than the actual exam, would you say that scoring this on the Barron’s practice test is enough for a 5?
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Where can I find an accurate score projection for the 2019 test?
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If you self-studied, how much time did you spend preparing and how easy or hard was the exam for you?
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Are there any resources you think I should review last minute to maximize my score? Any videos or articles that could help me cram in the one day remaining? Anything that could help me improve my FRQ scores?
Any help would be really appreciated. 
The AP exam is tomorrow so I would really appreciate any advice so I can study effectively today. ?
@skompella9892 It is imperative that you know a ton of information and that you can distinguish it from another theory, person, or example that seems similar. Kids say this is an easier AP but only if you have been presented a lot of the psych information prior. I liked the 5 Steps to a 5 when I was quizzing my kid. Surprisingly some questions on the exam were similar and some seemed easier on the test than those I was quizzing with from that 5 Steps to a 5 book. Good luck
Self-studying APs does not help you with admissions. They don’t really look at your AP test scores for admissions…seniors who take APs don’t get the scores back until after they are admitted.
So if you do it, you would be doing it for College credit. See if your colleges of choice would give you credit and if that credit would be useful. Like for ES…if you want to be an engineer you would take other sciences…maybe you could get elective credit?
Also realize that doing well in your HS courses is vastly more important than self studying…also would you have time to do ECs if you are self studying?
if you do this, I woudl do less than 3 to increase chance of doing well on tests.
- Love to learn - great! Take the classes
- Want college credit? Fine…but make sure it is not at the expense of your regular HS courses or ECs
- AP Scholars award with distinction…this is cool and all…but is not useful for college admissions
- College Admissions…doesn’t help. Many people take AP tests senior year after they are already admitted. Colleges don’t generally take AP scores into account. They take your GPA/SAT into account
tl;dr If you dont’ do well, it doesn’t really matter as you have not taken a class. Just don’t report that score.
@bopper @readthetealeaves Thank you so much for the replies. I wasn’t able to respond earlier because I was busy cramming for Psych haha. I took the exam yesterday and I thought I did OK. Your advice helped me in my last-minute studying. Thanks!
@skompella9892 Terrific. Hope you got a 5!
@readthetealeaves Thank you so much!
@readthetealeaves UPDATE: I got my score today and turns out I did get a 5. Thank you so much for the help!