With AP exams fastly approaching, the uncertainty of online exams this year seems to be stressing students out more than before. Luckily, here are some tips to prepare yourself for a good AP exam season:

• Take advantage of free AP review videos and materials, specifically this year’s prep

This is especially important for this year’s exams. The College Board has provided videos on YouTube taught by AP teachers across the country to help teach students the remaining material from the year, and review for upcoming exams. These videos are available for every subject, from AP English Language to AP Government. In fact, the videos have been live-streamed every weekday and will continue up until the day of the exam. Take advantage of them!

• Review your notes from school

It may be smart to review your notes from before our school transitioned to online learning. This includes any lecture notes or projects that contain information. After the whirlwind coronavirus has put us through, you may find it hard to remember information from before all of this. Who knows, it may help you memorize the information more because it’s simply just refreshing your memory.

• Make a study schedule and follow through with it

Just like studying for the SAT/ACT, AP exam studying is only effective with a routine schedule. Plan out the material to review every time you study, and try to pick a time of day. That way, you’ll have an established routine and you’ll be more productive. Stick with it!

• DO THE AP DEMOS FROM YOUR EMAIL!!!!

A few days ago, the College Board sent out emails to all students registered for AP exams, with information on the format of the online exam. Once you click on the link in that email, you can take a demo exam, and there are sample questions with timers so you can practice formatting. It’s imperative that we all do this. It creates one less thing to be worried about on the upcoming exam day. 

• Decide which device and submission method you will use the day of the exam

Once you’ve completed the demo exam, it’s important to make a decision on which device you’ll be taking your exam on, and your submission method. Considering we only have 5 minutes to submit our response before the end of the exam, it’s not advisable to decide the day of; there just simply isn’t enough time. Whether you handwrite, type, or attach a text file during the exam, decide which method and practice doing that, especially since the College Board has strict guidelines for each type of submission.

• PRACTICE at least once

Once you’ve completed all of the above steps, be sure to table in some practice time. If we were physically in school, we surely would’ve taken plenty of mocks to get us used to the testing conditions, so who’s to say we can’t do it from home? Pull up an old AP exam prompt, time your response time, and practice your submission, whether that be a photo, text file, or attachment. This way, you can see if you need to work on your timing or pick another submission method. 

Good luck on all of your exams jaguars! Don’t let this unpredicted ending of the year ruin all of your hard work!