Learning effective study habits and strategies is one of the best ways to ensure a five on all AP exams. Every AP class has unique features to its exams and students and teachers have their own opinions on the best ways to study.
In the arts department, there are a variety of AP classes available in the realms of ceramics, drawing, painting, art and design, photography and art history. “My experience with AP art (AP Drawing) was really great as it didn’t feel as stressful as other AP’s since you can work more on your own time and really get to take creative liberty and have fun with whatever theme you decide and mediums to use,” senior Maddie Zincke said.
Students say that the great thing about AP drawing is that there is no formal exam with multiple choice questions and free response questions. The exam is based on a student creating a portfolio with five to six art pieces. “They create a portfolio and one component has a theme, so they can make five to six pieces and the other side is based on their skill level,” art teacher Quan Duong said.
The science department offers AP’s in chemistry, biology, environmental science and physics. “For students who are preparing for AP Physics one, I like five steps to five. If you have to go for one of those AP prep books though, most of them are pretty interchangeable as far as what they give to you. They give you some kind of a summary of the content and then the real value comes from just the practice questions,” physics teacher Gavin Kramar said.
Junior Youan Chen, a former student of Kramar’s, chose a different method of studying, and still earned a five. “I didn’t study for the exam outside of what we did in class, and I do recommend that because I got a five,” Chen said.
Kramar also likes a method of studying that most teachers loathe. “I know a lot of people use AI to help them study, which I think could be really interesting as time goes on and we get sort of better resources, like more dedicated to education as opposed to just Chat GPT. I know that some students do that for studying, which I don’t think it is a bad idea,” Kramar said.
World languages has AP classes available for French, Chinese and Spanish. Spanish teacher James Fetterman has recommendations on how AP Spanish students should prepare themselves for the AP exam. “My number one recommendation to students is to practice reading and listening at home as much as possible. The way that we acquire another language is through input (reading, listening, viewing) so the best way to prepare is to find a topic that they are interested in and read articles or watch videos, TV shows, or movies in Spanish about that topic,” Fetterman said.
While a majority of the preparation for the exam is done outside the classroom, senior Sebastian Thomas said he felt that the weekly tests in AP Spanish benefitted him the most when preparing for the exam. “I think it was really helpful because by the time of the exam I was really comfortable with the format of the exam and what to expect,” Thomas said.
