2012 ap psychology essays

Advanced Placement AP. Preparing for the AP Psychology exam shouldn't make you lose your sanity as it were. Some of the material is challenging, but overall it's not that scary compared to other AP tests. As long as you stay focused during your prep and are familiar with the format of the test, you'll have a good chance of acing it! In this article, we'll go over the structure and content of the AP Psychology exam and explain how you can make the best use of your AP Psychology review time to end up with a great score. Due to the COVID coronavirus pandemic, AP tests will now be held remotely, and information about how that will work is still evolving.

2011-2012 AP Psych

Advanced Placement AP. Preparing for the AP Psychology exam shouldn't make you lose your sanity as it were. Some of the material is challenging, but overall it's not that scary compared to other AP tests.

As long as you stay focused during your prep and are familiar with the format of the test, you'll have a good chance of acing it! In this article, we'll go over the structure and content of the AP Psychology exam and explain how you can make the best use of your AP Psychology review time to end up with a great score. Due to the COVID coronavirus pandemic, AP tests will now be held remotely, and information about how that will work is still evolving.

You'll have 70 minutes to complete multiple-choice questions and 50 minutes to answer two free-response questions. Overall, I'd say that AP Psych is one of the easiest AP tests based on its shorter length and the complexity of its content.

Here's an overview of the format of the AP Psych exam, which changed slightly in the testing year :. Since you only have 70 minutes for multiple-choice questions, you'll need to make sure you're keeping track of time. It's important that you move relatively quickly because you'll have less than a minute for each question! Try not to spend more than 30 seconds on a single multiple-choice question; you can always come back to that question later.

There is no guessing penalty on multiple choice as for all AP exams now , so incorrect answers won't hurt your score. In short, always put down something! The free-response questions shouldn't give you much trouble in terms of time. There are only two of them much fewer than most other AP tests , and they're usually very straightforward. In many cases, they will just ask you to explain how terms you've learned in AP Psychology relate to a specific situation.

You'll also need some knowledge of the scientific method for certain free-response questions that ask about the methodology of a psychological study.

In the next section, we'll take a look at actual examples of AP Psychology multiple-choice and free-response questions. No penalties for incorrect answers!

Finally, the College Board can lay off all those referees and free up some room in the budget. The AP Psychology Course and Exam Description gives a breakdown of the different units covered in the AP Psych course and what percentage of questions they make up on the test. Here are the topics you'll see on the exam:. This chart could inform how much of your AP Psychology review time you spend studying each big topic, but it's probably more important to pay attention to where you struggle the most on an individual level.

For example, if you know all there is to know about Cognitive Psychology but don't remember that much about Sensation and Perception, you should spend more time reviewing the latter topic , even though it relates to fewer questions.

Here's an example of a multiple choice question you might see on the test, taken from the Course Description :. This question is kind of wordy, and it might seem as though you need to know a lot to figure it out, but you could in fact still come up with the correct answer without having much psychology knowledge at all though it's less confusing with some background information. Here, we're told that the baby monkeys preferred the soft cloth surrogate mother over the wire surrogate with food, indicating that the comfort of the cloth was more important to them than the food when they were scared.

The answer, therefore, is B. Most multiple-choice AP Psychology questions will involve either simple logic, like this one, or basic memorization of the content in the course. Here's an example of a free-response question from the Course and Exam Description :. Here, it's easy to see how the points for this second free-response question are earned. This question is dependent on a comprehensive knowledge of specific terms and concepts from the AP Psych curriculum. You can see how to earn full points for this question in the official scoring guidelines.

Here are some tips to keep in mind before you start your AP Psychology exam review. They'll help you stay on track and make the most of your prep time. How much time do you have before the AP Psych exam? You'll need to take this into account when formulating your study plan. Think about how much time you can afford to spend studying for AP Psychology while considering the amount of other schoolwork you have. For example, if you think you'll have about 10 hours to study , your plan might look something like this:.

If you have more time before the exam, you might be able to go more in depth with your mistakes on the second practice test and even take a third or fourth test. Overall, your time should be split relatively evenly between taking practice tests and reviewing the material. Your plan could change depending on your initial scores and how much you're looking to improve. I'd say that you don't need to spend more than 20 hours in total studying for AP Psychology.

The amount of material isn't overwhelming, and it's not an especially difficult test, so this should be plenty of time. I'll get more specific on how to use practice tests effectively in the next section. You'll need reliable review materials to ensure you're getting the most out of your study sessions.

Review books cover just the information you'll need to know for the test, so they are going to be less overwhelming to study than your textbook or notes from class will be. That said, don't totally ignore the resources you've accumulated in your AP Psychology class. Your notes might include unique methods for remembering concepts and terms, which can be useful as an alternative to the information in a review book.

Your textbook could be useful as well because it might have diagrams that are better than the ones in review books. Overall, I think it's nice to have an AP review book as a backup so that you stay focused on your studying and don't spend time on topics that are less relevant to the exam.

This wise owl says, "Hoo hooo hoooooo," which translates to "Choose your review materials wisely like I would! The AP Psychology exam is centered around psychological terms and theories. Some of these can be confusing and hard to tell apart or not what they sound like intuitively. As a result, it's really important to have a solid grasp on all the terms you learned in the course , for both multiple-choice and free-response questions.

Free-response questions will often ask you to explain the relation of an obscure psychology term to a hypothetical scenario, and it's impossible to earn points if you aren't completely confident in your understanding of the meaning of the term.

Flashcards are helpful for this type of memorization. If you have time, you can make flashcards for all the important terms in the class or even just a few terms that always trip you up.

These can be physical flashcards or if that's too old-fashioned digital flashcards, such as those found on Quizlet in which case you wouldn't even need to make your own, as there are already loads of user-created study sets available!

Personally, I find that writing down the definitions of terms will help drill their meanings into your brain more effectively, so I prefer to make my own cards, but you can do whatever works best for your schedule and learning style.

To put a fun spin on studying and ensure you never forget terms, you can send flashcards that describe psychological disorders to people who seem to have them based on your expert diagnoses. They'll be sure to thank you later. Disclaimer: if you do this, you are probably a sociopath.

Before you take a practice test, you should be aware of the testing pitfalls that might impact your score. Don't sacrifice points on practice tests or the real test! Here are some strategies for different types of test questions. As I mentioned earlier, the AP Psych exam doesn't give you a ton of time for each multiple-choice question.

If you have the tendency to get stuck on difficult questions, you'll need to keep this in mind during the test. Try to avoid spending more than 30 seconds on each question 40 max , and don't worry too much about temporarily skipping a few.

You should still eventually go back to them and put something down, though, as there's no penalty for incorrect answers. It's perfectly OK to randomly guess on a question you don't know the answer to if you're running out of time. Also note that it's possible to get a 5 on the AP Psychology test, even if you get wrong around 20 to 30 multiple-choice questions. Finally, don't let yourself overthink multiple-choice questions.

The questions can sound and look complex, but most of the time they're not overly difficult if you know the material. U nderline the parts of the question that are most important so that you don't get distracted or start to second-guess yourself. If one of the answers seems as if it doesn't make sense, eliminate it. On free-response questions, remember that this isn't an English test! There's no need to write an introduction and conclusion—just go straight for the answer to the question.

That being said, you should still write in complete sentences with correct grammar. Make it as easy as possible for the graders to find your answers and give you points. Underline verbs like "describe" or "define" in the question to keep yourself focused on the task at hand. With some free-response questions, it can be easier to work backwards by putting yourself in the position of one of the people in the hypothetical scenario.

For example, with the sample question above, you might say to yourself, "If I were involved in a study that required me to punch a punching bag after being told my essay was horrible, how might I react? Here's a basic outline of the steps you should take once you've prepared your materials and made a rough study plan for AP Psychology.

The first step is to take a practice test to see how high you're currently scoring. The absolute best tests to take are those created by the College Board, since these will be most similar to what you'll see on test day. It's a smart idea to prioritize recent exams over older ones. Note, too, that the AP Psychology test has undergone some changes for , so you might need to tweak these practice exams slightly.

Here's a conversion table that shows roughly how raw composite scores from practice tests translate to the AP scoring scale :. To calculate your raw composite score, add up the number of multiple-choice questions you answered correctly. Then, consult the scoring rubric for the free-response questions to calculate the number of points you earned on each question out of 7 each.

Convert the number of points you got on the free-response questions to a value out of For example, if you got 8 out of 14 points on the two free-response questions, you would convert that to about 29 out of Finally, add the raw score numbers from the multiple-choice and free-response sections together. If you earned 75 points meaning you got 75 questions correct on the multiple-choice section and 29 points on the free-response section, your composite score would be , making your official AP Score around a 4.

See this article for more information on calculating your AP score. Once you've scored your practice test, you can set a future score goal. This is pretty simple for AP tests because the score range is just

AP Central is the official online home for the AP Program: parrotsprint.co.nzeboard​.org. Page 2. AP® PSYCHOLOGY. SCORING GUIDELINES. © The. Practice with AP Psychology Free Response Questions (FRQs) and All exams up to use question formats and rubrics that are very.

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We have links to all of the best online AP Psychology practice exams.

The AP Psychology essays or all written portions are Use this list to practice! These past prompts have been designed to help you connect concepts and ideas to each other while applying your knowledge to real-life scenarios.

AP Psychology Practice Exams

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The Course Description. Since this exam is now publicly available, you can use the questions without restriction. And for free-response questions from prior exams, along with scoring information, check out the tables below. Note: The version of the AP Psychology Exam administered internationally in — recently released to teachers as a practice exam — had been administered in to a small and randomly selected group of students in U. Given the administration, several multiple-choice questions on that exam were not aligned with DSM In order not to disadvantage students who took the international version of the exam this year, those six questions were removed from scoring. They were removed from the practice exam PDF as well, so as not to have current students practicing on outdated material. Free-Response Questions. Scoring Guidelines.

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Advanced Placement AP. Practice tests are some of the best review tools for AP Psychology.

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Advanced Placement AP is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations. The AP curriculum for each of the various subjects is created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college-level educators in that field of study. For a high school course to have the designation, the course must be audited by the College Board to ascertain that it satisfies the AP curriculum. If the course is approved, the school may use the AP designation and the course will be publicly listed on the AP Course Ledger. In they issued the report General Education in School and College: A Committee Report which recommended allowing high school seniors to study college-level material and to take achievement exams that allowed them to attain college credit for this work. A pilot program was run in which covered eleven disciplines.