Step 6: Make a study schedule
Making an organized schedule for when and how much you are going to study is critical.All AP exams are offered during the first couple weeks of May. Mark which days you will be taking which exams on your calendar. If you plan to take two exams that are offered during the same time slot, contact your school’s AP coordinator about taking one of those AP exams on a “late testing date”.
( Click here for the AP schedule )
For AP study scheduling, you can choose between two main formats. You can schedule either by time or by section. As always, make sure to schedule AP studying along with the rest of your activities, obligations, etc. since they will invariably conflict at times. It is a good idea to use time-based scheduling (example: 4 hours on Saturday, 1 Hour on Monday, 3 hours on Thursday, etc.) on your overall schedule, since that best allows you to see how many things you can accomplish in a day. However, it is also a good idea to make a separate schedule where you list what specifically you will accomplish in that time (for example: Practice Test on Saturday, review chapter 2 on Monday, etc.).
( Click here to view general information on scheduling )
Read Instructional Sections
• Almost all AP preparation books come with a comprehensive review of the subject. Read through those sections, as they will cover the entire subject in a concise format. For the most part, what will be on the AP exam will be in the book, so study your book. Many books even have small sections of practice questions. Do them! Afterwards, the book will usually offer answer explanations and walk you through the thought process that you should have had in answering those questions.
Take Whole Practice Tests
• As we’ve said before, nothing will give you a better idea of the score you would get on the real test than a practice test. But even more importantly, practice tests give you practice. For most people, simply learning some general information will not be enough. You need to practice as many types of questions as you can, and that means taking lots and lots of practice tests. Also, simulate realistic testing conditions by making these tests timed and continuous with only a few short breaks between sections.
• Afterwards, review the questions you missed. This is one of the most helpful parts of taking practice tests. Redo every single question that you missed until you know why you missed it and why the right answer is what it is. This will not only improve your ability to do those types of questions in the future, but also your overall reasoning abilities.
Take Practice Sections
• Finally, for those times when you just can’t fit a whole practice test or for the one or two sections that you just need more work on, take practice sections. If you want to improve your free response, you can take a couple of free response sections from a practice test instead of the whole test. The downside to this is that taking apart whole tests means you’ll have less whole tests to take, so only take practice sections if you don’t plan to take all your available practice tests.
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