AP® Exam Preparation Strategies: Get Students Ready for the Big Day
Whether it’s your first year teaching an AP course or your 21st, you may find yourself wondering, “Is there more I could do to prepare my students for the AP Exam?” Read on for eight strategies to equip your students for success on exam day.
Strategy 1: Plan Course Pacing
When planning how you’ll deliver your course content for the school year, there’s one key resource that should become your best friend: the College Board website. There, you can find curricula for all AP courses.
Use the College Board website to review course content and note the relative percentage that each topic weighs toward the exam score. The time you spend on each unit should be proportionate to the relative coverage on the exam. For example, on the College Board website, the course content for AP Human Geography states that Unit 1, “Thinking Geographically,” will constitute 8-10% of the exam score, while Unit 2, “Population and Migration Patterns,” constitutes 12-17% of the exam score. Therefore, you should budget 8-10% of your class time to cover Unit 1 and 12-17% of your class time to cover Unit 2. By budgeting class time this way, you ensure that important content is prioritized over material that may not come up as often on the AP exam.
As teachers, we always need to begin with the end in mind. That’s why it’s important to budget your time appropriately. Start by finding the date for your AP exam and work backwards from there. Record Exam Day in your calendar and schedule at least one month for review and a practice exam. Next, calculate the number of days you have left in class to cover course content. Try not to get overwhelmed at this point. Time always feels too short.
Strategy 2: Discuss Test Elements and Format With Students
When approaching a high-stakes test like the AP Exam, it’s helpful for students to know what to expect in advance. Understanding the exam format will build their confidence when they walk into the testing room in May. Here again, you can refer to the College Board Website for course curricula.
Information under the “About the Exam” tab includes the exam date, testing duration, and exam components. Most AP exams consist of a multiple-choice section and free response questions (FRQs), although there are some exceptions. AP History exams, for example, include document-based questions (DBQs), while AP Language exams include a listening and speaking section. AP Music Theory even includes a sight-singing section. Communicate information about the exam elements and format with your students at the beginning of the school year. Reinforce their knowledge of exam structure throughout the year by modeling classroom tests after the format of the AP Exam. This means including FRQs on your tests, which can be a grading nightmare (more on that later). But if students have ample practice answering AP-style questions — especially free response questions — their confidence and AP scores will notably improve.
Strategy 3: Explain Weighting and Scoring
Part of preparing your students for the AP Exam is ensuring they’re aware of the relative weighting for multiple choice and free response question sections. For most AP Exams, the composite score is a 50/50 split between multiple choice and FRQ responses. Of course, some exams include DBQs, speaking, and listening sections, so the weighting on those exams would be different. Always refer to the College Board website to research the scoring protocol for your specific exam. As mentioned previously, classroom tests should be structured and scored based on AP Exam expectations, which means every test you give should include at least one FRQ. And the FRQ response(s) should count for half of the student’s test score.
Students should also know how AP questions are scored. An excellent preparation technique is reviewing published exam questions with your students. You can find previous FRQs published on the College Board website. Have students read the sample responses to the published FRQs and score them using the rubric provided. As a class, compare the official score with the grade students awarded. Discuss why each sample was given the score it received using the rubric to guide the conversation. Students will learn to think more critically about how they write if they know how FRQs are scored and are familiar with the rubrics.
Bonus Strategy
One of my favorite strategies that I used in my own classroom was administering group tests. Now, hear me out on this one, because I know it might sound crazy. For every unit test, I blocked off two 45-minute class periods. Day one consisted of 25 multiple choice questions that students took individually. Overnight, I graded the multiple-choice section. On day two, I placed students into heterogeneous groups of four based on their performance. Each group received one answer sheet and they used half of the period to take the same 25-question multiple-choice test as the day before. However, this time, they’d collaborate on the answers. The conversations I overheard during this time were incredible. I heard students debating the answer choices, citing evidence from lessons, and reasoning through their responses together. So much learning took place during these group tests as students explained their logic in choosing an answer and modeled good test-taking skills for their peers. It was magic!
Students spent the second half of the period on day two answering one free response question. During the first quarter, I allowed them to remain in their groups of four to produce one FRQ response that they worked on collaboratively using their notes. Students shared their knowledge and writing skills with others (and, as a bonus, I only had to grade ¼ as many FRQs!) By quarter two, students were writing FRQ responses in their groups without the aid of their notes, and by the second semester, students were each required to write the FRQ responses individually without the aid of notes. Sometimes, I graded all the FRQs myself, and other times, I gave students the opportunity to grade each other (with names redacted). Using the rubric to grade their classmates gave my students deeper insight into successful FRQ writing (and saved me some time on grading!)
Strategy 4: Review Test-Taking Strategies
There are so many AP review resources out there with just as many test-taking strategies — but here are some of my favorites.
The best idea I’ve heard for the multiple-choice section is to teach students to pace themselves with the “three-times through” method. As the name suggests, the “three-times through” method consists of going through the questions three times, each pass focusing attention on different questions based on the level of difficulty. On the first time reading through the multiple-choice section, students select an answer for questions they can respond to easily. They mark challenging questions for later review. Once students have read through all the questions once, answering the easiest questions, they go through the test a second time, reviewing the challenging questions they marked during the first pass. As they review the challenging questions, students should read carefully and see if they can eliminate two to three answer choices, selecting the best answer from the remaining choices. During the third pass, students should focus on answering the hardest questions, making their best guess, if necessary, since there is no penalty for incorrect answers. The “three-times through” method maximizes a student’s score by making sure students prioritize answering the questions that are easiest for them, rather than wasting time agonizing over the most difficult questions. This method also ensures that students respond to all questions they can confidently answer before they run out of time.
On the FRQ section, it’s also beneficial for students to begin by reading through all the questions before writing. Rather than answering questions in numerical order, students should begin writing an answer to the question they are best prepared to discuss.
Strategy 5: Assign a Diagnostic Test
Once all units of study are complete, begin the review period with a diagnostic test. A diagnostic test provides students with information on their content strengths and where there are gaps in knowledge. The results of the diagnostic test guide the review schedule for each student by informing them which topics require more review time and which topics they can review lightly.
Strategy 6: Develop a Review Schedule
The review schedule for your AP class will vary from year to year and student to student. Use the results from the diagnostic tests to guide what you choose to cover as a whole class, or when you may need to divide your students up into study groups for specific topics. Prepare to be flexible during this last month of class time and allow your students to take the lead in designing the program of study.
Strategy 7: Conduct Full-Length Practice Exams
No student should walk into the AP exam without having the experience of sitting for a full-length practice exam. Supplying your students with this opportunity can get tricky if you’re not on block scheduling, but a little creativity can offer solutions. A practice exam can be administered during traditional class periods if you break it up over a few days. Another option is to arrange a time after school when students can meet and sit for a full-length practice exam. Although not ideal for lack of supervision, a practice test can also be sent home with students to complete on the honor system. In my experience, most AP students are eager for the opportunity to give themselves an edge on exam day and they won’t miss a chance to practice, even if it’s at home on their own time. Regardless of the method of administration, it’s hugely beneficial to review the practice test together as a class so students can learn from their mistakes.
Strategy 8: On the Morning of the Exam, Focus on Calm
By the morning of the AP exam, there isn’t much more that can be learned, and the focus shifts to cultivating a sense of calm confidence in your students.
Remind your students:
- Don’t cram the night before, but instead go to bed early for a good night’s sleep.
- Dress comfortably in an outfit that makes you feel confident.
- Bring a second layer of clothing in case the exam room is cold.
- Bring water, a snack, pencils, pens, and calculators on exam day, but no phone.
- Eat a good breakfast.
I always invited my students to come to my classroom before school for a nourishing breakfast in case they didn’t have a chance to eat at home. Not only did this ensure my students didn’t have rumbling tummies during the exam, but it also let them know how deeply I cared about them. And knowing that I was proud of them went a long way to making them feel confident in the testing room.
There you have it: Eight tried and true strategies to prepare your students for exam day. If you’ve read all the way to the end of this blog, I commend you for your dedication. What did I miss? Which test-taking strategies have you imparted to your students, and what has worked well for your classes in the past?
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About the Author
Becca Rouch earned her undergraduate degrees cum laude in biology and spanish, with a minor focus in education, from the University of Florida. She went on to earn her Masters of Secondary Science Education from the University of Florida as well. As a Hillsborough County high school teacher, Becca has taught Honors Biology, On-Level Biology, Ecology, and AP Environmental Science (her favorite course to teach). Becca also worked for the Hillsborough County Migrant Office, creating video tutorials to supplement the curricula of migrant students.
Becca lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband and three energetic and inquisitive boys. Her hobbies include traveling, scuba diving, hiking, taking barre classes, and reading children’s novels aloud to her boys.
