For those who take Advanced Placement classes, the week after spring break is the start of exam study crunch time before the exams in May. With the many AP classes offered at FHS, students and teachers all have a different approach to getting ready. Whether it’s mock exams taking place after school, study groups being formed or the frantic watching of review videos on YouTube, every AP class at FHS has been hit by the AP exam jitters.
While the often best reported way to study is the way that works for you, faculty and students alike can provide key advice on how to get that five on any AP exam. Senior Alec Girbach is using the wisdom gained from AP exams his junior year to better prepare this year.
“For the first test, I completely procrastinated until the test, and that made it very hard to do well,” Girbach said. “This year I’ve already started to work on reviewing for my AP tests and have a study plan.”
Girbach is taking AP Statistics, BC Calculus, and English Literature and Composition this year, and has study plans tailored for each subject. STEM AP classes require a vastly different approach than social studies and English AP classes, and simple repetition may not work for each subject.
“One common thing people do is read through all their notes in big chunks,” Girbach said. “I personally don’t think this helps as it’s hard to remember everything you’ve read during the exam.”
Study groups tend to be more common for non-STEM classes, but they are a helpful tool for any exam. Since AP courses are college-level classes however, they require students to hold themselves accountable.
“Not all students are in the same place in terms of content and review,” said AP Statistics and AP Calculus teacher Megan King. “Your friends might not think they need to practice certain things or practice at all, but that doesn’t mean the same for you.”
College Board also offers many videos and quizzes to prepare students for exams and teachers share review packets, but that doesn’t fit every student’s study method. There are many unique sources online for AP exams, especially for the more popular courses. The majority of AP students at FHS seek out their own things to review.
“I’d say it’s about 50/50 between my own personal preparation and my in-class materials,” junior Alyssa Temple said. “In AP Language and Composition, we are given lots of impromptu essays and practice questions on AP Classroom to help us prepare.”
Studying can be overwhelming, and reviewing a year’s worth of college-level material can be hard to do alone. AP students can participate in an in-class review, but will need to use further review materials outside of the classroom. Teachers can open all modules on AP Classroom, but students need to choose to utilize it.
“Some students will do all of the practice I give them, do it again, and go find more,” King said. “Some will try some of what I provide, but are not truly engaged in the review. I try to give students multiple ways to review so that they can work in whatever way works best for them, but without specific deliverables, some students don’t engage as much as they can or should.”
Winging an AP exam is a sure-fire way to do worse than your full potential, so starting to review late or minimal review is better than nothing. Still, it’s common to feel unprepared or to have anxiety around AP exams regardless of the amount of preparation.
“I think it’s hard to ever say you’re fully prepared, but I do think before any AP exam, you should be confident in your skills and knowledge of the material for the exam,” Temple said.
Getting high grades during the semester is a sign of understanding the material, but with many year-long courses, revision is necessary, no matter what grade a person achieves in class.
“This was a year-long college-level class with huge amounts of content,” King said. “Being great at it in the moment, immediately after learning the content, is not the same as being great when that content is mixed in with other topics. Being able to identify what something is actually asking, and then applying the proper content and techniques, is certainly related to being successful during the year, but it is not the same.”
AP exams are supposed to be difficult as a high school student, but using the offered material and classmates can help one prepare. Finding a personalized study method takes time, but many students at FHS are well on their way to being ready for exams in May.
