So, you’re considering taking Advanced Placement Psychology. Maybe you’re an old hand at AP® classes, and you just want an overview of what to expect. Or you’re an AP® newbie, and you want to make sure that you can handle it. Well, this article is just for you! Whether you are avidly interested in AP® Psychology or just want an AP® class that’s different from the normal route of classes, it is an excellent class to have under your belt when you are going to college. If you are considering pursuing a career in psychology, then taking AP® Psychology will be a perfect introductory overview of the field as a whole to clue you in on whether it could be something you can pursue.
In this course, you will have the opportunity to learn about humanity and the basis of our behavior. This will include everything to the extremes of abnormal psychology, to studying how we interact with each other in the branch of social psychology. You will be asked to analyze experiments for their validity and ethical considerations, and you may even be asked to create your own experiments.
AP® Psychology will round out your high school transcript by giving you a class that is not always offered before going to college, and will be a great addition to your college transcript when you get that passing grade on the exam!
Course Overview
Psychology, in general, is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. The goal of the AP® Psychology course is to introduce you to a basic overview of the different subfields of psychology. Among these subfields make biopsychology, sensation and perception, learning, cognition, developmental psychology, personality, abnormal psychology, and social psychology. You will also learn about the ethics and methods used by psychologists when conducting their research. All of the subfields of psychology are incredibly extensive; therefore, you will not go into each subfield in real detail. There won’t be enough time throughout the year to give each subject the detail you would learn in a more specialized course. Rather, you will be given a semi-detailed overview of each of the fields listed above. The goal is to give you a similar experience to an introductory psychology course offered at most colleges.
Academic Challenges by AP® Psychology
The real challenge for AP® Psychology is the sheer quantity of material that you will need to know for the exam. Although the different subfields are all technically under the broad topic of psychology, there are aspects of each that are vastly different and unique from the other. You will need to be able to understand each of these subfields, and be able to separate them all in your mind, while also seeing how they relate. This is why getting through AP® Psychology is not just about memorization of facts, but rather understanding how the different fields work together. The College Board is looking to see that you can not only define a concept but understand how it applies to different content areas, particularly to the various theoretical viewpoints that you will learn at the start of the course.
Just as with any Advanced Placement courses, it is important that you enter into the course understanding that the course load can, at times, be rigorous and include a heavier amount of reading and writing than you may be used to with your other non-AP® courses. However, this is not an English course, so it is good to note that your writing will be graded more on the quality of the information than the quality of your writing style.
By The Numbers
Advanced Placement exams are scored on a scale of 1-5, and the scores refer to how qualified you have shown yourself to be to receive college credit for the course. A score of 3 or higher is considered a passing grade for the exam; however, some colleges will only accept a 4 or a 5 for acceptable college credit.
Based on the scores reported by College Board in 2016, 64% of students who took the AP® Psychology exam received a 3 or higher, which means that over half of the students were able to pass the exam. That is a really good thing for students interested in AP® Psychology, particularly when you compare it to some of the more notoriously hard exams such as AP® Chemistry; the 2016 AP® score distribution for AP® Chemistry showed that only 52.3% of students received a 3 or higher.
Exam Structure
College Board has established a structure for the AP® exams that consists of two timed sections: a multiple-choice section and an essay based section. The structure of the Advanced Placement Psychology exam follows this structure as well.
For the multiple choice section, you are given an hour and ten minutes to answer 100 questions where you will be asked to define or explain content from the different subfields that you learn about in the course, as well as apply what you have learned to concepts and theories. This multiple choice section is 66.6% of the exam grade, and once the time is up you will not be allowed to continue working on this section.
For the free response section, you will be given fifty minutes to answer two different questions. Most likely, the questions will challenge you to design or analyze a research study, or analyze a scenario using the various concepts and theories you have learned. Just as with the multiple choice section, once the time is up you will not be able to continue working on your answers. This section is worth 33.3% of the overall exam grade.
So how should you approach these two sections? You should try to answer as many multiple choice questions as you can. What is recommended, is that you go through the multiple choice section and answer the questions you feel confident you know the answers to first. The multiple choice section is worth ⅔ of the exam grade, so it’s important to get all the answers you know down, but you won’t be penalized for an incorrect answer so it’s also important that you at least attempt the questions you don’t know. Try to narrow it down to at least two answers, and then you have a 50/50 shot with an educated guess!
For tips on the free-response questions on the AP® Psychology exam, you should check out How to Rock your AP® Psych FRQ! The article suggests reading the question twice. With nerves and anxiety about getting it done in time, you might miss a direction or a point that is important to answering the question correctly. Make sure you understand what you need to convey. Also, try to answer in the same order that the question presents itself; this will make your essay easier for the graders to understand. Make sure you were clear and specific with all your answers and don’t panic if there is something you don’t understand! With the FRQ’s it is important that you answer as much of it as you can. If you can only vaguely remember what one part means, write down as much as you know!
Content
The AP® Psychology course will be split into different chapters that correspond to various fields of psychology (listed in the Course Overview); you can view the full list and the breakdown of the corresponding percentages for the AP® exam on the College Board site here. The most important sections are:
Research methods (8-10%)
Biological basis of behavior (8-10%)
Cognition (8-10%)
Social psychology (8-10%)
The other sections are:
Abnormal psychology (7-9%),
Developmental psychology (7-9%)
Learning (7-9%)
Motivation and emotion (6-8%)
Sensation and perception (6-8%)
Personality (5-7%)
Testing and individual differences (5-7%)
Treatment of abnormal behavior (5-7%)
States of consciousness (2-4%)
History and approaches (2-4%).
As you can see from this list, you will learn about the history of psychology and how it has developed since its inception in the late 1800’s, and the major historical, psychological figures (yes, that includes Freud!). You will learn about the various processes and structures in your brain and how they relate to your emotions and personality. You’ll even learn and think about learning and thinking! Another very popular section is abnormal psychology, where you will be taught about mental disorders from the common to the severe, and how they should be treated. The AP® Psychology course covers all the relevant fields of psychology that encompass every part of what makes a person who they are and behave the way they do.
As a student of psychology, you will learn the overarching theoretical views that connect the different fields of psychology. What will be most important from the beginning of your course is making sure that you understand them. You will be asked to apply and analyze scenarios using those viewpoints.
Throughout the course, you will be able to learn about and understand reasons behind human behavior and gain a deeper understanding of the factors within us that affect our daily lives and those around us. You will certainly have to work with analyzing and critiquing experiments to learn more about proper methods to use as well as the ethical considerations that are important for psychologists now.
Skills Required
There are technically no prerequisites for AP® Psychology. In order to excel in any Advanced Placement courses, it is important that you and your teachers feel that you are capable of handling a course that is at the collegiate level. According to College Board, the skills you should have going into AP® Psychology are the ability to read a textbook at college-level and have grammatically correct and competent writing. As opposed to the English course, you won’t be graded on your ability to write beyond using grammatically correct, complete sentences.
What will be helpful for you as an AP® Psychology student is an analytical mind and good reasoning skills. You will have times when you are given a scenario or an experiment (particularly on the AP® exam) and must be able to analyze the situation by connecting different aspects of what you have learned.Although it is extremely beneficial to be able to understand and connect the different things you have learned, it can be difficult because of the very large amount of information that you need to know for the AP® exam. If you find you really struggle with memorizing facts, then research memorization strategies such as flash cards, mnemonic devices, or Venn diagrams to figure the best ways to learn and remember facts!
Benefits
Everything you learn in psychology is beneficial to your life as a whole; it can be particularly helpful as a foundational viewpoint for future classes in high school or in college. Having an understanding of psychological principles can help you, your friends, and your studies. There is hardly ever an opportunity where the things you learned in an introductory psychology course aren’t helpful.
Although AP® Psychology is not a writing based class, having to do more writing on a scientific subject can help prepare you for any science classes you may take in your future. Also, any practice with writing is going to make your writing improve and AP® Psychology is no exception to that! AP® Psychology can also help increase your awareness about different types of people and different mental health issues. The best way to decrease stigmas and stereotypes is to learn more in-depth about what is happening to someone with mental illness. Learning about mental illness, mental health problems, and ways of dealing with them can also improve your own mental health developing tools for stress management.
On top of that, after passing the exam you can receive college credit! AP® classes, such as AP® Psychology, can help you start working towards your degree before you have even been accepted to a college, let alone start at college. Many of the Advanced Placement classes correlate to different core curriculum requirements at different institutions, and if you are already beyond that by the time you get to college, often this means you can start working on your major sooner. This is especially important for people looking to save money by getting through college faster. And no one can say that’s not a serious benefit!
What to do next?
The first step you should take if you are considering taking AP® Psychology is to find out whether or not it is offered at your school. If this course is available in your school, then you will need to use the resources at your school (teachers, administrators, counselors) to determine whether it can fit into your schedule. For this course there are no particular prerequisites, but it is important that you check with the teacher who teaches the course that you will be eligible to attend should your school have a specific standard. It may also be possible to work with your school and your teachers on a type of independent study course, should your school not offer a standard AP® Psychology class.
If you are truly unable to take any form of the course through your school, you can still take the exam and receive the same benefits. While you will have to teach yourself the material and practice for the exam, it is still possible to get a passing grade or higher despite the fact that you did not sit in the class. This can be a challenging route to take since it requires dedication and determination into getting through the material.
So if you’re looking to increase your foundational knowledge, and gain a viewpoint that will help you in your future courses, then give AP® Psychology a try! It may be hard, but if you’re able to receive college credit, you will never regret putting forth the effort. And don’t be scared by the amount of material there is to know. The fact that you are reading this now suggests that you already think ahead, research, and apply your knowledge to specific decisions. These are great characteristics for a successful AP® Psychology student.
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