Photo Credits: Ben Mullins on Unsplash
With May just around the corner, the pressure is on for all high schoolers as they prepare for their end-of-course exams. Advanced Placement (AP) students, in particular, are experiencing a highly stressful few weeks as they cram and review for the college-level classes they’re taking.
Aidan Stroud, a senior at Watauga High School and an AP Scholar with Distinction, has some valuable advice to share for everyone from first-time testers to experienced AP students looking for some extra tips before their exam date. Stroud has taken almost everything from AP Statistics to AP Language and Composition, but like every other student, she has certain subjects she prefers.
“Me, personally, I’d say I do better on math exams and the history exams, even though every single one of them is doable, despite strengths and weaknesses a student may have,” said Stroud. “It's just a reflection on how you feel about the class and the effort you put into studying, so regardless if you’re terrible at history, you can still study and get that 5 or 4 or pass the exam, or whatever you’re striving for.”
Her number one exam tip for any AP student is this: “Start studying early. Do not cram in the week before. You can still start now- that's totally fine- but don't wait until the night before.”
With 13 days left until the first AP test, the difference in performance can be how much time you give yourself to prepare.
“Some exams require more studying than others.” Stroud said, “In some classes, you’ll start review in class, which is nice, but definitely look at them a week- two weeks, preferably a month but we’re not there, in advance.”
Even with all that extra preparation time, it can be tough to decide what to do the night before the exam. Do you take a practice test or watch a three-hour-long YouTube summary of the entire course?
Stroud’s advice is simple
“Rest. You’re not going to learn anything you haven’t,” said Stroud. “You can watch a video or two, look over your review, you can braindump if you want, on like a huge whiteboard, but mainly just get that rest. Get 8 hours to 9 hours of sleep that night.”
Even after a good night’s sleep, the most stressful time for students can be the morning of the exam.
“When you go to take the exam, I’d say dress in layers- 100%. It could be seventy-five thousand degrees in there; it could be two,” said Stroud. “So, dress in layers. Wear something that’s comfortable- not something that’s showy.”
Students should also be certain to be appropriately fueled up as well.
“Eat a good- relatively good- breakfast. I know it’s hard to eat on the day before an exam,” said Stroud. “I get super stressed out as well and I get nauseous and all that, but try to eat some source of protein and fruit.”
With breakfast out of the way, it then comes down to the test itself. While there are specific test-taking methods for different courses, Stroud has a few universal tips that have helped her over the years
“Answer the questions that you know you know first. If it’s a simpler ‘what’s two plus two’, answer that quickly, and when a question’s asking ‘what’s the antiderivative of blah blah blah’ and you don’t understand that, skip it and come back to it,” said Stroud. “You are under a time constraint, and that’s something to be aware of, but also not something to stress about.”
In the middle of every AP exam, there is a break.
“I would take a snack,” Stroud said “I would take a granola bar, some goldfish and, personally, I would recommend a peppermint or a chocolate to stimulate brain activity again, because getting through that second hump is the hardest part.”
Oftentimes, that second hump involves questions like Free Response Questions (FRQs), Short Answer Questions (SAQs), and Document Based Questions (DBQs). All of these types of questions require writing.
“When it comes to written answers, I would say especially on those English, history and science FRQs…to the side of the passage, dump everything you know it’s talking about,” said Stroud. “If you’re talking about the Revolutionary War, dump dates that you know, battles, events, people, so that you can relate back to them when answering. If you just go ahead and write everything you know about the topic, it's kind of a confidence booster, as well as something you can refer back to.”
At the end of the day, every single student can achieve whatever score they’re striving for, with the proper dedication and study schedule. Good luck Watauga!