5 Effective Study Habits for AP Students

5. Memorize key facts.

There’s much information that AP classes cover that do not find themselves into the tests. AP tests cover very specific takeaway facts, ones judged by the AP committees to be the most important general facts that students should know and understand from the classes. The best way to figure out what key facts the APs test is to go over practice tests from past years. You will begin to notice trends indicating areas of concentration. Focus on these areas of concentration rather than attempting to know everything. The AP tests not only require analytic thinking, but also strategy on the part of the test taker to sift through the wealth of knowledge to find the most pertinent information.

4. Muscle memory.

It’s important to concentrate during test-taking, but it’s also important to train your body to take tests on auto-pilot to make the critical thinking easier. For instance, the AP tests are timed. You can train your body to instinctively keep track of time by taking timed practice tests, so you memorize approximately how long you should spend on each section. This really works. Have you ever found out that, by waking up at the same time each morning, your body begins to naturally wake up at that time, even without aid from an alarm clock? Your muscles can do the same thing during test-taking. If you take practice tests, your body starts to register what it’s doing. The test itself no longer comes as a surprise. You can significantly raise your score by taking away the novelty value of taking the AP test. By becoming familiar with the tests, and by utilizing muscle memory, you can become a more efficient and effective test-taker.

3. Don’t freak out about what you don’t know.

Freaking out during a test wastes precious time. So don’t freak out. Teach yourself effective stress management techniques. There are three important ones to remember. First, if you don’t know a question, skip it. Stalling will only waste you time and no amount of waiting around will magically send a right answer into your brain if it isn’t already there. Second, use your powers of deduction if you believe that you know the answer. Cross out answers you know are not correct and focus on the ones that you are half and half on. Finally, take your test one question at a time. Think of it as climging a set of stairs. Don’t worry about getting to the top of the staircase; focus on each step along the way.

2. It’s only a test — no one is going to die if you don’t get a 5.

Knowing that the AP test is only a test really helps you put things in perspective. High school students beat themselves up over test scores and stress themselves out until they’re experiencing gray hairs and baldness at the age of 17, and that is definitely not healthy. Really, it’s only a test. And by putting things in perspective, you really will score higher, because you’ll be in a calm and centered state where you can perform better by quelling your negative energy and your stress. Why do you think philosophers like Sun Tzu advised meditation and zen before warfare? Because performance really does increase significantly if you put yourself in a balanced mental state.

1. Test yourself.

Practice practice practice. Take practice tests, take after school classes, quiz yourself with study cards and group study sessions. I know I sound like I’m repeating myself, but you can never get enough practice, which is why testing yourself beforehand is the numer one general study skill that will raise your AP score.