Practice Test Scores, Strategy and Reflection
![Picture](/uploads/4/9/7/6/49765843/3219545.jpg?1430779751)
Exam I : 52 /80
Exam II : 54 /80
Exam II : 54 /80
Studying Strategy
1. DO NOT struggle over little details. A very important strategy I learned from reviewing for AP euro is that don’t stress over little details. It is much more important to understand history rather than memorize every date, every person and every event. An effect way to capture the big idea is to understand the essential questions and the general historical background of the time period. What are the driving philosophical idea?
2. Don’t try to remember everything. The fact is, no matter how much you try there are always going to be something that you left out or just don’t remember and that is okay. If you understand the big concepts and main ideas you can get a fairly high score on the multiple choice. The worse way of reviewing (especially when you don’t have much time left) is to go back to your textbook (or even the achiever) and try to remember everything. Even if you did do that, very likely you are going to remember 30% of the material and understand 10% , and that’s not going to be helpful.
3. The achiever narrowed down the textbook but not everything on there is important. I tried go read the entire AP Achiever in two weeks and that turned out to be not helpful at all, because it’s simply too much content in too less time and I can’t remember everything. It would be better to focus on units that you know you don’t quite understand.
4. Don’t just highlight, actually take notes by writing it down. Highlighting is really the least effective way of studying. You feel like you've understood everything and absorbed the knowledge, but you really don't.
5. Create a Timeline. Understanding the chronological order of events help you understand the causes and effects. Everything in history did not exist as an individual event. It was always resulted from something happened previously.
7. Study FRQ and DBQ questions from previous exams. Studying previous prompts give you a general idea of the topics the ap exam is likely to ask. According to the prompts i've studied, absolutism, enlightenment, women's movement and renaissance are the most frequently asked units.
8. Take practice tests. Taking practice tests give you an idea of what the questions will be like on the actual exam and help you locate concepts/events that you have not fully understand.
9. Memorize the DBQ rubric.
2. Don’t try to remember everything. The fact is, no matter how much you try there are always going to be something that you left out or just don’t remember and that is okay. If you understand the big concepts and main ideas you can get a fairly high score on the multiple choice. The worse way of reviewing (especially when you don’t have much time left) is to go back to your textbook (or even the achiever) and try to remember everything. Even if you did do that, very likely you are going to remember 30% of the material and understand 10% , and that’s not going to be helpful.
3. The achiever narrowed down the textbook but not everything on there is important. I tried go read the entire AP Achiever in two weeks and that turned out to be not helpful at all, because it’s simply too much content in too less time and I can’t remember everything. It would be better to focus on units that you know you don’t quite understand.
4. Don’t just highlight, actually take notes by writing it down. Highlighting is really the least effective way of studying. You feel like you've understood everything and absorbed the knowledge, but you really don't.
5. Create a Timeline. Understanding the chronological order of events help you understand the causes and effects. Everything in history did not exist as an individual event. It was always resulted from something happened previously.
7. Study FRQ and DBQ questions from previous exams. Studying previous prompts give you a general idea of the topics the ap exam is likely to ask. According to the prompts i've studied, absolutism, enlightenment, women's movement and renaissance are the most frequently asked units.
8. Take practice tests. Taking practice tests give you an idea of what the questions will be like on the actual exam and help you locate concepts/events that you have not fully understand.
9. Memorize the DBQ rubric.
Reflection
I think the most valuable thing I learned from studying for this exam is the strategies for social study exams. I was very stressed out three weeks ago when I just started reviewing. There were simply too many things to cover in a too short amount of time. I tried to go over each chapter in the achiever every night but it didn’t turn out to be very effective because I don’t always have time and don’t always remember all the important points.
I realized this is not going to get me anywhere, so I changed strategies. I started from units that I knew I didn’t fully understand and units I think are the most frequently tests in the FRQ section. The “Lucky 100” was a very helpful guide, especially when there were only three weeks left. The other strategies I learned through the process are included above in the "studying strategy" section.
One thing I would have done differently was that I would have started earlier and gave my more time. Cramming in the last three weeks is kind of effective in the sense that everything is fresh in my brain but it is also very exhausting and there are always things I don’t have time to go over.
I realized this is not going to get me anywhere, so I changed strategies. I started from units that I knew I didn’t fully understand and units I think are the most frequently tests in the FRQ section. The “Lucky 100” was a very helpful guide, especially when there were only three weeks left. The other strategies I learned through the process are included above in the "studying strategy" section.
One thing I would have done differently was that I would have started earlier and gave my more time. Cramming in the last three weeks is kind of effective in the sense that everything is fresh in my brain but it is also very exhausting and there are always things I don’t have time to go over.