Advanced Placement Statistics Exam: Studying Advice

Studying for an advanced placement exam can be difficult if you have a poor teacher. Even if you have an amazing teacher, sometimes the teacher's goal is to help the whole class perform well on the advanced placement statistics exam, rather than focusing on individual needs.

The best way for you to succeed on the advanced placement statistics exam is to study and practice the material on your own. Studying on your own might seem intimidating at first, but it is actually extremely easy.

First, you must buy the correct books that help focus your studying rather than waste your money. I would suggest purchasing the Princeton Review Cracking the AP Statistics Exam, 2008 Edition, because it provides the best imitation of the actual advanced placement exam. Other books, such as the Barron's How to Prepare for the AP Statistics advanced placement exam only mislead you on the difficulty of the exam. Princeton Review provides questions that are comparable to the difficulty of the actual exam. They also show you strategies (that I cannot post here) that actually do help. Trust me, I went through the exam just as you did.

After you get the statistics book, be sure to create a study schedule. Since the exam is scheduled during May of each year, you will most likely still be in school. Thus, you should realize that you cannot devote all of your time to the advanced placement statistics exam. Be sure to construct a schedule that gives you adequate time to prepare for the advanced placement statistics exam.

Furthermore, ask your teacher if he or she can provide you with previous advanced placement statistics exam multiple choice problem sets or free response questions. Also, take advantage of Google! It is an important resource in all your classes and courses. If you visit the College Board at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/statistics/samp.html?stats, which provides the advanced placement exams, you will find links to previously used free response questions along with answers!

Because a huge portion of the AP statistics exam is based on the free responses, approximately 40 percent, it is to your advantage to be very familiar with the popular topics. You can always make educated guesses on the multiple choice questions, but not on the free response questions. Thus, you can guarantee yourself almost 40 percent of the points by just succeeding on the free response questions alone. Since you only need approximately 70 percent of the total points to get a 5 on the advanced placement statistics exam, you will only need to get about half of the statistics multiple choice correct.