To anyone taking AP Bio next year
From a slackerâs point of view. Keep in mind Iâm no studyblr or saint. I donât study all the time or only focus on school, though I do prioritize it. My point: this is possible for all of you. Donât think this doesnât apply to you because Iâm some Goddess of Studying, because god knows Iâm not.
If you donât understand something, ask questions, I cannot stress this enough
If your teacher isnât teaching you well, tell them what issues you have and they might fix it
Some good YouTube channels for AP Bio are Crash Course, Bozeman Science, Khan Academy, and the Amoeba Sisters.
Iâd recommend Bozeman and Khan for learning the material or going into depth. Amoeba Sisters and Crash Course are more for review, and Hank Green (John Greenâs bro) always makes it more interesting. Also, I always watch Khan Academy on 2x the speed, and itâs literally the same rate as Crash Course on normal speed
Read the textbook. You donât have to analyze it. Skim parts, but READ IT. I made a GIANT FUCKING MISTAKE by not reading some chapters, and it messed up my GPA a bit, plus I was lost and stressed out a lot.
If there is extra creditâfucking. do. it.
The AP exam is much, much closer than you think it is. I recommend beginning to hardcore study like at least three months before the exam. But as soon as the class starts, review your notes for as little as 2-5 minutes a day. I didnât do that, but I wish I had. Go back to old lessons and look over them.
I got this app called Event Ticker, and it gave me a countdown of days till the big test. It kept me stressed every day for like 3.5 months, but it kept me from forgetting or slacking off, and it kept the deadline always in sight.
My lads, AP is rigorous. They werenât joking. But if you put in the right amount of work at the right times, youâll be fine. I survived. You will survive. Just please, for the love of god, do not get behind. Holy shit.
Donât decide that you donât like biology based off of this class. AP is much harder than actual college classes because you take a test based around an entire YEARâS worth of material, rather than just a semesterâs.
Study the way that works for you. I tried a couple times to do a studyblr and do fancy notes, but it tired me out and I didnât even learn anything. But for some of you, that might work. Or maybe thereâs a different method. Idk. Just do what works.
You only need a 3 to get the college credit. Donât stress. If you donât know this, the exam is graded on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best and 1 beingâŚnot the best. A 3, 4, and 5 all get you the full amount of college cred. The test itself does not bring down your high school or college GPA, nor does it in any other way affect your grades. I donât know if colleges look at your score and thatâs why the difference between 3, 4, and 5 matters? Anyone know?
The test isnât about specific things you learned. The entire test is about being able to apply those concepts, and it gives very specific examples that you have to analyze using your background knowledge.
Donât waste your time memorizing names and dates. They never ever show up.
Do practice tests. I did three of them, two of which were in a classroom setting, and they made me much more confident in my abilities to pass. I got a 3 on all of them, and was very close to a 4 twice. And I wasnât even trying my best on those. Donât be discouraged if you donât get the score you want on your practice tests, because youâre very likely to get distracted on those since your brain knows itâs not the real deal. Youâll naturally be much more focused on the actual test. Ask your teacher if you (and maybe as a class) can do the practice tests timed and everything. The kids who wanted to pass, such as myself, chose to come in on two Saturdays, four hours each time. Bring snacks, maybe have a snack potluck. Itâll make it easier.
You get 1.5 hours for the multiple choice + grid-ins, and another 1.5 hours for the free response section. Youâll get like a 10 minute break between those two. It seems long, but when youâre racing against the clock, it passes by in what seems like 10 minutes. Youâll be fine.
Keep an eye on the clock. Pace yourself.
Donât waste time on the test. If you notice youâre getting distracted, force your attention back on the test.
There were 63 multiple choice and 5 grid-ins. The multiple choice bubble sheet had 25 questions per column (well, the first two had 25, and the third had 13). I gave myself half an hour for each column. So 30 minutes twice (first two columns) is already 60. You have half an hour left to finish the other 13 multiple choice and then start on the five grid-ins where you solve math problems. I didnât finish three of the grid-ins, so this may not be the best advice. Like I said, do practice tests and find what works for you.
You wonât have time to spend forever analyzing questions. Read through them, try to think for a minute or less, and if youâre unsure, pick the best answer and move on. The test requires a lot of logic.
8 free response questions, the first 2 are very long. Write in paragraph form, not an outline or bullet points. Donât waste your time on transitional phrases or making it fancy; you have limited time. Just meet all of the requirements of the question. The things you need to do will be bolder key words such as identify, describe, explain, circle, etc. Thereâs a 10 minute reading period where you go through the questions. Itâs up to you if you want to use that. I never tried and it worked for me, but it might not work for you. I finished all the FRQs. Theyâre not as hard as you think. Theyâre also very logical and require at least a basic understanding of the concept.
If you only have like a minute left, bubble in your remaining bubbles, donât try to answer one more question. Choose just one letter to fill in for the rest of them.
Youâll be told when there are ten minutes left for each part of the test.
Jesus, people, turn your phones off COMPLETELY during the test. Seriously. One of them kept buzzing and it was very distracting. Silencing them is not enough. Donât be rude and inconsiderate.
Bring gum. Bring it. At least four stick for yourself. Donât share those. If you have more, you can share those. But keep like four for yourself.
Maybe chew gum while youâre studying and the same taste/smell might trigger memories of the things you studied. Plus it gives your body something to do to release stress and keep you clearheaded.
Itâs not as hard as you think, I swear. But that doesnât mean you can slack off. Treat it like your future depends on it, but at the same time, know that it doesnât. Does that make sense?
From what Iâve told you, the class might sound bad, but itâs really not. It can be pretty fun sometimes, and this is only a list full of warnings, it does not describe the entire class. And besides, my teacher was not the best, so our experiences could be very different.
If the teacher is bad, donât use that as an excuse to not do your best. Your grade is your responsibility and no one elseâs. You have many resources. Use them.
I got those study books from the library. Three of them. I didnât even crack one of them open once. I still think I did fine. On the other hand, my friend carried it with her everywhere and studied a LOT. Again, it depends on what works for you.
Eat breakfast the day of the test. Not something greasy though.
Make studying fun sometimes. For three weekends about 5 weeks before the test, two of my friends and I would go to the fancy library in the city using public transport, we would bring snacks, and we always went to go get boba tea before heading to the library. Then we watched biology videos, wrote on whiteboards, occasionally joked around, took short snack breaks or munched while we studied, and just had fun together.
Get enough sleep the night before the test. I swear to god, you will do SO MUCH BETTER getting enough sleep than you will only getting a little bit because you were cramming the night before. If you donât already know it, itâll be pretty hard to learn the night before. Plus that night is for REVIEW, not LEARNING. Besides, the test requires logic, not memorization of facts, so of course youâre gonna do better if you have the brain power to reason.
I had a weird nightmare the week before the test, and the night before, I woke up twice from anxiety. My friend threw up the morning of, and her sleeping patterns had been screwed up for a few weeks before. This maybe wonât happen to you, sorry if I scared you lol, just had to share that. It kind of sucked but in a funny way. And now that itâs all over, itâs even funnier. My point is, try not to suffer, and if you do, make it kinda funny.
Get enough sleep everyday so you can focus in class. If youâre dozing off, you will most likely be lost. You know when youâre actually refreshed and put energy into absorbing the info your teacher is giving? Do that, but try to do it every day. Worth it.
When the proctor is giving you instructions, actually listen, and read the instructions carefully. You donât want to mess up or accidentally do something wrong and then your test gets confiscated.
My friend almost messed up on the whole test because she missed a bubble. Luckily she caught herself. Be careful and check every now and then.
If youâre gonna skip the harder grid-in questions to finish more of them, pay attention to where youâre writing the answer, because I made the mistake of putting the answer in the wrong grid and Iâm still mad at myself.
Take physical notes, not on the computer. Itâs scientifically proven to help more. It worked for me, but maybe not for you.
Kahoot quizzes as a class were horrible. Nothing like those questions were actually on the test, and the questions were so specific that nobody remembered them, we did badly, and it made us panicked and we felt more nervous than ever. Itâs maybe good for remembering some things, but there are better ways to do that than stressing yourself out.
Ask your teacher if they can send you the slideshows.
I did a combo of study groups and solo studying. Be careful with both though. If your group is too big, itâll be messy and chaotic. If youâre going it alone, youâre more likely to put off studying, whereas you feel more obligated with a group.
Donât stess eat. Drink water instead. Stay especially hydrated the week before the test.
If you know youâre going to start your period soon, wear a pad the day of the test. Better to be safe than sorry; you donât want to be worrying about it during the test, or having to get up and wasting time because you need to go to the bathroom. You probably wonât even be able to access your backpack for the pad/tampon/whatever you use, and if youâre more reserved about your periods, itâll be weird for you to have to explain the situation in the silent room. Plus youâll distract others, and that sucks.
Be on you teacherâs good side. Never hurts, especially in AP.
Remember why youâre taking AP.
Do your fucking homework.
Sources: A tired teenage girl who just took AP Bio and is going for her Associateâs in high school.
PS: I made this sound very stressful. The class is hard, I wonât lie. But, really, you can do it. You really, really can. I believe in you. Donât decide not to take it because the class is giving you problems. My counselor told us he took it thinking heâd get a 1, and he actually got a 3. Donât wimp out. You got this.
Iâll get my score in July, and Iâll tell you guys how I did, so maybe donât take this too seriously in case I completely failed lol.
