You’ve probably been working on your AP® Psychology review and studying for the exam for quite some time now. There’s bound to be so many flashcard terms running through your head at this point, ranging from abnormal behavior to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. You might even be dreaming about how to best analyze your own dreams at this point.
But have you taken any time to consider to best ways to approach studying for the AP® Psychology exam? If you haven’t, now would be a great time to start thinking about the various paths to achieving that 5 on your upcoming exam. With this goal in mind, we will be covering the best 5 Approaches to AP® Psychology Review. We will go through the tried and true study techniques and review habits that are most likely to ace your upcoming AP® Psychology exam.
We know these approaches work because they are the same kinds of techniques that AP® teachers use in their own classrooms. So, put on your AP® Psychology teacher hats and let’s get the reviewing started!
A Quick Note on Your AP® Psychology Review Process
No two study habits are made the same.
One thing you are definitely going to figure out during your AP® Psychology studies is that every brain is different. Always remember this, whether you are working on your AP® Psychology review or studying for your driver’s exam. We each have varying experiences, backgrounds, and communities shaping who we are and the ways we think.
As a student of psychology, you too have a brain that differs from others taking their AP® exams this year. And therefore, you should adapt your studying accordingly.
So, soak up the information we are sharing with you in these 5 Approaches to AP® Psychology review, but always feel free to tweak and maneuver all of our recommendations so they fit you the best. We want you to succeed too, so make these steps work for you!
1. Practice Makes Perfect
Practice. Practice. Practice.
This will become your new mantra for success. The CollegeBoard puts out very specific rules and expectations for the AP® examination process. They are so unique that, chances are, once you are done with all of your AP® coursework, you will never have another exam experience like it again.
So, the best way to get to know the exam during your AP® Psychology review time is to practice it over and over again.
Our first piece of advice here would be to read through the AP® Psychology Course Overview and to check out the actual CollegeBoard website for the AP® Psychology course and exam.
Familiarize yourself with the course expectations and all of the requirements that come along with the exam itself. For example, you are going to want to know that the exam consists of two main parts: multiple-choice and free response. You are going to want to know these exam parts like the back of your hand.
This is where the practicing comes in. There are so many great resources out there to help supply you with practice questions including study guides, your teacher, and all of our collection of resources at Albert.io.
The CollegeBoard site for the AP® Psychology course and exam is a particularly useful resource, since it lets you in on how the exam reviewers will be looking at your work.
For example, you may not be sure how to answer this Free Response Question from the year 2012 at this point in your AP® Psychology review process:
Annabelle is planning on applying to college but has not yet decided where she will apply. Describe how the following psychological concepts and terms relate to her choice.
• Availability heuristic
• Compliance
• Prefrontal cortex
• Prospective memory
The more you work on these exam questions, the easier they will become. Plus, the CollegeBoard offers Scoring Guidelines on how the question really should be answered, letting you in on the best approach.
Ultimately work on as many practice exam questions as you possibly can. Start small and do a few questions here and there in the beginning of your studies just to get used to how the questions are being asked. As exam time approaches, you are going to want to pull off full-blown practices that are timed and graded like the real deal.
Nearly every successful AP® student uses practice exams as a review strategy, and we highly recommend you do too.
2. Make Flashcards Your Best Friends
As you may or may not be aware, any AP® review is going to require some sort of term memorization. Whether it be for AP® Psychology or AP® Macroeconomics and whether you like it or not, you’re going to need to make flashcards to help you remember all those terms that are being thrown at you.
But it’s not so bad. Once you get yourself into the habit of creating and studying your flashcards, you’ll barely even notice you’re even studying anymore.
First, get yourself familiar with a flashcard making website like Quizlet. Or go the old-fashioned way, buy a bunch of 3×5 cards from your local office supply store, and use them for your flashcards. It doesn’t really matter, just choose the version you are most likely to use and stick to it.
For every key concept and term that you come across during your AP® Psychology review time, write that term down on one side of your flashcard and the definition on the other. You are also going to need to leave room for extra notes. These extra notes are going to consist of information that will help you better understand the term you are studying.
For Example:
(Side A) Cannon-Bard Theory.
(Side B) Cannon-Bard Theory is a theory of emotion that states that both the emotional and physiological reactions to a stimulus occur simultaneously rather than as a cause-and-effect relationship.
Extra Notes
• Cannon-Bard was a response to the James-Lange Theory of Emotion, which stipulates a cause-and-effect relationship between physical stimuli and emotions.
• It’s based on thalamic processes.
• The Papez-Maclean is considered another theory of emotion.
As you can see, in the “Extra Notes” section, we have not only included more details about the term itself, but also some ideas about how the Cannon-Bard Theory has been criticized alongside, alternative theories of emotion as well.
This is how you are going to want to approach flashcards when studying for your exam. Make sure that you keep on top of them as well. Try to write out at least 15 flashcard terms a week and quiz yourself on your growing stack a minimum of once a month.
3. Mix and Match
We live in an age where so much information is at your fingertips. Make use of whatever you can. You can also start off with a wide perspective on these things. You should obviously take a look at any textbook or classroom information you are getting from your school or a teacher, but look at the other options out there.
Take a crack at one of the AP® Psychology Review books that are on the market. There are quite a few out there, but take a look at a minimum of one to see if it treats you well.
Don’t stop with review books, though. There are excellent sources online. If you are a visual learner, check out any AP® Psychology videos from YouTube. You can even check out the syllabi of other teachers out there who are teaching the AP® Psychology course for another school.
Either way, it’s important that you use as much as you can. Again, start off broad and soak up as many resources as possible. This way, as you grow as a learner, you can decide on which resources simply don’t work for you and stop using them.
4. Become the Master
One of the best ways to show that you’ve mastered a topic, including AP® Psychology, is to approach it like your AP® teacher would.
To use this method as an AP® Psychology review, you will want to take a good look at the AP® Psychology Course Description from the CollegeBoard website. This will let you in on all of the information needed to structure an AP® course successfully, including every topic that should be covered, the best ways to study for each topic, and how everything relates to the exam itself.
So, no matter how you study, read this document.
Once you’ve read through the course description, think of how you would structure your own course, laying out an outline for every week of the year. Doing this will help you get the big-picture ideas needed to ace the AP® Psychology exam successfully. You may have the term memorization down, but how does each theory and idea fit into the larger psychology framework? Outlining a course will help you answer questions like this.
Once you’ve created your course outlines, go ahead and work on individual lesson plans. Choose a topic like memory or therapy and create a full-blown class period lecture on the topic. This will help you get the information down. The more of these you do, the more you will be able to connect ideas with one another, the same as your AP® teachers are doing.
Finally, get someone in on this action. This will be explained in further detail below, but remember if you can successfully teach something to another person, that means you have the concept down nearly perfectly yourself. Plus, when you teach you course to another individual, they can ask questions that can help you think about psychology from a perspective you may not have considered.
5. Bring in Friends and Family
It may take a little coaxing, but get your friends and family in on the action. Study buddies never hurt as long as you stay relatively on track with your learning. Plus, two heads are always better than one.
There are actually a couple of solid reasons to get others involved in your AP® Psychology review activities. First, having a partner in study-crime will keep you accountable. If you promise to meet once a week and study for one hour, and you start feeling a little sluggish, your AP® partner will help to keep you in line. On top of that, your partner may have interesting insights and perspectives that you never thought of.
Using friends and family in your studies can be specifically helpful for the AP® Psychology course as well. The AP® Psychology free response section will most often be about a hypothetical person in a scenario of some sort, like this question from the year 2011:
Savannah is a junior in high school and is preparing for an exam in her beginning Japanese course. The exam will consist of both written and spoken portions. Although it is her first course in Japanese, Savannah is confident that she will do very well on the exam.
The question then asks the test-taker to apply a number of theories and concepts to Savannah, ranging from self-efficacy to the use of phonemes. The AP® Psychology exam is full of hypothetical people and scenarios like this, so why not use your study buddies in a little role-playing? This will put various hypotheticals into a real-world setting for you to learn in. It’s an example of how to use your friends to your advantage when studying.
Finally, another reason to drag someone else into your AP® Psychology review time is that you can verbally explain your thoughts and ideas to another person. This is a similar idea to teaching the AP® Psychology course to another person, like we mention above.
Explaining concepts out loud is a different experience than studying solely in your own head. Use your friends to work through ideas. Encourage them to ask questions that put you on the spot. Ultimately, if you can successfully teach another person a concept, term, or theory, then you know that you have it down yourself.
No matter the method you choose, just make sure you stick with whatever AP® Psychology review regimen you have created for yourself. You also shouldn’t limit yourself to these 5 Approaches to AP® Psychology review. There are unlimited learning styles out there and there’s an approach to fit every one of them. Discover what works for you and you are guaranteed to score that 5 on your upcoming AP® Psychology exam!
Which of the 5 approaches best fit your learning style?
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