7 Steps to Passing Your AP Exams: Tricks to Increasing Your Score

Ahh yes...the dreaded AP Exams; so evil, yet packed with so much potential. By filling in the right ovals and splashing down ink in the right patterns, you can excuse yourself from an expensive and time-consuming college course. However, the puzzle of which circles to fill and which words to write is a formidable one. I have achieved a 5 on many of the AP Exams, mainly due to the review process, which I share in this article to give you some tips that will help you pass the AP Exams this spring.

Get a Review Book.

AP Exam review books help more than you can imagine. Each teacher will cover the material in a different style; some place too much emphasis on topics not covered on the AP Exams and too little on those that are. However, AP Exam review books are designed specifically for passing the AP Exams, so they place the proper emphasis in the material that appears more frequently on the AP Exams.

While there are many AP Exam review books available, I strongly recommend The Princeton Review. I have had great experiences with those AP Exam review books. For example, I took the AP Statistics Exam without ever taking a statistics course in my life. I bought The Princeton Review book for that AP Exam, and learning solely from that book, I scored a 5 on the AP Exam. Those AP Exam review books cover every topic on the AP Exam to the proper extent.

Pace Yourself.

I recommend purchasing your AP Exam review book early on so you have enough time to read through it at a reasonable pace to absorb all the information. Make a schedule for yourself. I typically decide to read a chapter a day, every day. Find whatever works for you, but stick to it; don't slow down because you get bored (yes, it's true, AP Exam review books aren't nearly as exciting as the newest bestsellers).

Read Everything.

Read even the beginning stuff about the AP Exam. Every word in an AP Exam review book should prove beneficial in some way. For example, in the beginning section of the AP Exam review book for AP European History by The Princeton Review, the readers learn that the multiple choice section of the AP Exam is clumped in groups of questions (usually 4 - 8) that are in chronological order. Thus, if you just answered a question dealing with 1820 and the next question had answers dealing with events prior to 1820, you could rule them out without a second thought. Those few sentences of information helped me tremendously when I took that AP Exam.

Take the Practice Tests.

When you take the practice AP Exams, take the entire test at once, like it was the real AP Exam. Try to find a quiet area without distractions before you begin. Write your multiple choice answers out on a sheet of paper, and when you're finished, take the rest of the day off (unless you're like me and won't be able to sit still until you've scored yourself). The next day, look over your answers and read the explanations to those answers, even the ones you got right. Those explanations, at least in The Princeton Review, give a lot more information than just the answer itself; they could include the answer for a different question that may appear on the AP Exam.

When you've read through the answers to the practice AP Exam, take the day off, and dive into the next practice AP Exam the next day. Keep doing this until you've taken all the practice AP Exams. If, at any point, you find some difficulty in certain sections, go back and review those sections before continuing to take the other practice AP Exams.

Take Some Actual AP Exams.

When you've exhausted all the practice AP Exams from your AP Exam review book, go to www.collegeboard.com and take some of the previous years' AP Exams under the "Sample Questions and Scoring" section for each topic. You can then look to see what the correct answers are for the multiple choice questions and the guidelines for scoring the free response questions of prior AP Exams. The process for taking these AP Exams is the same: take the AP Exam one day, review the answers the next, strengthen any weak areas, and proceed to the next AP Exam the next day.

Relax.

By this time, if you didn't cut any corners, you should have a strong understanding of the material that will be on the AP Exam. From this point until the AP Exam, take it easy, maybe quickly skim over some material you had difficulty with, but allow your brain sometime to relax. Make sure you get a good night's sleep the night before (don't cram), eat a good breakfast (nothing too greasy), and bring something to munch on during the AP Exam (I usually bring a bag of pretzels). Make sure you brought everything needed for the AP Exam (even extra batteries for your calculator).

Breathe.

When you're taking the AP Exam, it will appear extremely difficult, and for a moment, you may think you don't know any of the answers. First, know that it is completely normal. When I took my AP European History Exam, I thought for sure I failed, but I ended up with a 5. On some AP Exams, getting a 60% or perhaps even lower can still earn a 5; the grading is not the same as a high school exam. So, if you feel overwhelmed, close your eyes, set your pencil down, breathe slowly, and have confidence, otherwise you will start second guessing yourself and will not score as highly as if you simply relaxed.

Good luck!