Five Tips for Scoring a 5 on the AP Psychology Exam

The AP Psychology exam is not the most difficult Advanced Placement exam, but it still requires a good amount of dedicated study. Thanks to good preparation, I was able to score a 5 on the AP Psychology exam. In this article, I share five tips ways you can prepare for a 5 on the AP Psychology exam as well.

Buy a Good Review Book
Yes, spending money on a review book for the AP Psychology test is unappealing. But if spending $20 or $30 helps you improve your grade by a point or two, it's worth it, especially if your college of choice asks for a 4 or 5. Before buying a review book, make sure that it contains all of the information that might be on the exam. I mistakenly bought a book that omitted several major psychological theories that are always on the AP Psychology exam, that instead contained numerous spelling and grammatical errors. A good AP review book will contain all the information you need to know and will not distract you from the material or make you question its credibility.

Make Your Own Study Aides
When I prepared for the AP Psychology exam, I made a number of visual aides for myself. These included items that are always on the exam, such as Erikson's stages of psychosocial development and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Personally, having color-coded charts helped me a lot, but it's very possible that you have a different learning style than I do. You may also want to consider making and listening audio recordings of more difficult material or making up songs to remember phenomena, such as electrochemical signal transmission. Don't focus too much on obscure material, but rather on the major theories that will almost certainly show up on the AP Psych exam.

Take Practice Tests
Many questions on the AP Psychology exam are simply modified questions from years past. Taking practice tests will give you exposure to questions that will be very similar to the ones that you will encounter on exam day, so take two or three of them. It may not be fun, but it will be some of the best preparation that you can have for the AP Psych exam.

Know the Exam
Know as much as you can about the structure and formatting of the AP Psychology exam before you take it. For example, know what topics in psychology are emphasized and what topics are unlikely to show up on the exam. Know its length and how it is organized. Know how much time you'll have on each portion of the exam. You will find out all of these things again on exam day, but knowing ahead of time will reduce anxiety and allow you to focus on taking the AP Psych test itself. And remember to keep your phone off. You may wish to store your phone in your locker on exam day, just in case.

Be Prepared Physically
This is something that you've surely heard before - get enough sleep the week before, eat a good breakfast and lunch, and don't overexert yourself before taking the exam. If you're sleepy, hungry, or physically exhausted, you won't be able to focus on the exam, and your performance will be less than it could be. This goes for any Advanced Placement test, not just the AP Psychology exam.

While a lot of this advice is common sense, people still do poorly on the AP Psychology exam. Remember to distribute your review over the course of several weeks instead of cramming, and try to relax in general. If you have kept up with the material during the year and prepare well for the exam, you will do fine.

If you have any further tips for how an AP Psychology student could prepare for the exam, feel free to share your advice in the form of a comment below. Thanks for reading!