Throughout our high school careers, we start learning how to pick up studying habits that match our schedules. Many students—including myself at one point—tend to think that making big strides towards their academic goals means also making drastic changes to how they’re used to approaching academics. Especially with extracurriculars and sports, it can be difficult to balance a challenging workload with honors and AP courses. However, it can be done —  we at Firebird Digital would like to focus on what Doral Academy students should be doing to not only ace their AP class, but pass the final exam with a 5.

AP Math Courses

Although studying for a math AP exam may seem one-dimensional at first—after all, taking a practice exam over and over again seems like the only choice—there are a multitude of ways you can approach your AP test, no matter which math course it may pertain to. We often forget how important it is to understand math, but memorize it. So instead of remembering how to find the derivative of an equation, ask yourself what the derivative of an equation represents. Meaning, read about it in that textbook you always have on your desk, but never read; once you understand these mathematical principles, you won’t fail to provide the correct work—even if you’re confused at first with the question.

In addition to this, don’t focus all of your time on simple multiple choice questions, or mindless repetitions of the equations you must know; practice the Free-Response Questions, as those will be much more important in the long run. Not only will you gain practice with reading and understanding questions, but you will also gain practice with remembering those mindless formulas (killing two birds with one stone).

Of course, make sure to time yourself for each section (the calculator and non-calculator). You may be able to understand a problem after the 40th time of re-reading it, but it will be too little too late. Aside from that, show ALL of your work in the FRQ portion. Unlike the multiple
choice section, you get points for more than one step of the problem—meaning your final answer does not determine your overall success on a question. You should also check out AP Classroom for any additional help on specific units you may show some weakness in.

AP History Courses

As many of us know, the AP History courses can be intimidating to someone who has never taken this kind of class before. Centuries of history being taught in only nine months or so can be taunting. Nevertheless, the importance of knowing history still stands — in order to understand the world around us, we must learn from our mistakes from the past.

1. 1. Outline/note your chapters. This seems to be pretty self-explanatory, but it is still worth noting. History is like a story: if you miss a chapter, you won’t really understand what happens in the next three. Having that said, read your textbook. In classes with heavy content such as AP World History and AP United States History, it is essential to be aware and take note of what is going on.
   2. Make a timeline. If you are a visual learner, making a timeline can help your understanding of the connections all of the tested events have with one another. Put important events, cultural trends, political sentiments, policies, and presidents. Associating these things together into time periods will make remembering them a lot easier. Most of the time, any one question (especially a written response) will focus on one time period so make sure to cluster all of the information into its designated era.
   3. Sentiments are important. Knowing why the British colonists threw tea into the Boston Harbor or why the South seceded from the North in the 19th century will guide your reasoning. Even if you know much of nothing else, know the central themes of the society being studied (whether it may be American or not.) Understanding their sentiments can put yourself in their shoes, allowing you to give a complete response.
   4. Review videos. As someone who took both AP United States History and AP World History, I can whole-heartedly say that review videos is what helped me score 4s and 5s on these types of exams. This May, College Board released review videos going through each period/era, highlighting the most important themes and ideas. Other history teachers have also created videos that simplify the information really well, so when all else fails, YouTube is your friend for studying.

AP English Courses

The trick to approaching an English AP test, just like the SAT, is practice, practice, and even more practice. You must understand that reading and writing are skills—rather than memory games. Therefore, it is crucial that you pay attention to your English teacher throughout the academic school year if you want to truly succeed on D-day. The English exam requires scrupulous examination, which means you must familiarize yourself with as many texts as you can before the test day. The more you read, the better you will get at finding rhetorical or literary devices. Although it may seem as simple advice, many students don’t take it seriously; therefore, the passing rates for English are not always the best—even in a primarily English-speaking country.

As for the multiple choice, try to identify why you got each question wrong on a mock exam or any other exam you take on your own time. Once you discover a pattern between your answer choices, reflect on why you might’ve chosen the incorrect one instead of the correct one. Oftentimes, this constant practice of determining what leads you to make the wrong choice will allow you to notice your habits during the exam—which will then reveal the right answer for a specific question, as you will know what NOT to do when choosing an answer choice. Practice makes perfect, so the more questions you answer—the better you will become at nailing the multiple choice question.

AP Science Courses

With AP Science courses, they can usually be either a hit or a miss for a student. Much like a dissection of a frog, students have to take apart the material and understand the concepts, along with their real-life applications. Like math, many of us tend to take the short-cut and memorize theories or create silly mnemonics that help us remember. However, in order to succeed in the class, one must truly learn what is being taught at hand.

1. 1. Relearn the basics. While some tend to skip over things they already think they understand, it is important to take time to really mastering basic concepts. This is because they do come back again, with even more complex and harder material. Thus, paving a strong foundation sets you off to a great advantage.
   2. Recognize patterns. Oftentimes, science problems are all about recognizing patterns. Once you identify the type of problem it is, even if you’ve never seen the exact one or something similar before, solving it becomes way easier. Critical thinking becomes almost muscle memory for your brain.
   3. Have a formula sheet. This may seem obvious, especially to those who take mathematically inclined AP sciences like AP Physics, however it really goes a long way. Tied to the last one, once you recognize the type of problem and what concept area it is testing, you need the steps and formulas to solve it. Almost like a recipe, go through practice problems you can find on Khan Academy, AP Classroom, or released AP exams. Then, categorize them by type of problem. Once you can recognize the problem, make yourself a guide on how to solve the problem. 
   4. Write outlines/study guides. It’s been scientifically proven that writing something down enables your brain to remember it much easier. Like one would write their grocery list down, write facts that are pertinent to the unit at hand. Knowing how carbohydrates play a role in the body or understanding thermodynamics comes much easier once you can recall the information from your head.
   5. Challenge yourself. As simplistic as it sounds, don’t try to take the easy way and copy answers from a friend. Putting in the effort and the work to do your homework facilitates more effective studying, as you have been practicing the material for some time now. Whereas if you only copy homework, you will be cramming the night before, not understanding things you might have if you did the assigned readings or homework assignments. Put in the extra 30 minutes to read your textbook or watch Bozeman science videos — by doing so, there is guaranteed success in not only the class, but the test as well.

Although not the most ideal situation for learning, we can still take advantage of all the resources given to us by our teachers alongside College Board to do well with our classes. Memorizing the information is only half of the work — putting in the effort to understand the concepts and what it means can be what sets you apart from a failing test to someone who passes with flying colors. From the writers of Firebird Digital, we wish you luck on your new AP classes and hope you do more than amazing on your exams in May!