AP tests are the current stressors of Hills students, and with more to come, here are some last-minute exam tips to score a five and remain organized and relaxed during study sessions.
Plan your test day
Most importantly, make sure you plan out your test day. Know when to arrive and where the tests are. All of this information can be found in your email sent to you by Mr. Cassamento. This will eliminate the stress of the unknown, or accidentally going to the wrong room. Make sure to be early and prepared with the necessary materials. Also, go to sleep early the night before and have a nourishing breakfast before going to school.
Know the exam format
Make sure to be familiar with the exam format. This will eliminate a lot of stress prior to your exam, so it is not a complete surprise. The AP classroom has the exam formats, including the type of questions you will see on the exam. This relates to the importance of taking practice tests. This allows you to be familiar with the types of questions and time management. It is important to know how long it takes you to complete each section so you do not run out of time.
Use resources
There are so many free and useful resources around us to take advantage of when studying. If you don’t know how to start, go to the AP classroom. Here you can find videos for each topic of each unit, as well as reviews and practice tests. Next, use a review book such as the Princeton Review. These commonly have multiple practice tests and cover all content from the course content. Also, do not hesitate to reach out to your teacher! They want you to score well on the exam, so consider making an extra help session with them to take care of specific questions.
Active recall
When studying, active recall is important to ensure you actually remember the content. Active recall is when you quiz yourself to see how much you remember and then focus on what you don’t. You can do this by making flashcards, taking practice tests, or having a friend quiz you on the material. This is extremely important because using passive recall by writing down or reading over material will not allow you to memorize and understand it. Active recall forces the brain to find the information and helps make connections between the material. It helps with overall comprehension and long-lasting memory.
Make sure to be studying in advance, so if you haven’t already, start now! These exams cover one or sometimes two years of material, so it is important to give yourself plenty of time to memorize and learn. It will not be effective to cram everything in only a few days before. This improves retention and reduces the stress of learning everything at the last minute.
Do not just memorize
It is important to understand the underlying concepts and not just memorize content. This is because the questions on the exam might not be the exact questions you practiced in class. If there is a new type of question, you will be able to problem-solve and figure it out if you understand the concept. Even for essay writing, memorizing facts is useful, but they have to support a large, underlying theme or idea. Therefore, it is important to understand the content in depth.
