Not sure where to start when it comes to prepping for your AP Calculus AB exam?
Then stay tuned.
Because in this video, we're going to go over five quick steps that you
can take to start scoring that four or that five on your AP Calc exam.
This video is brought to you by Albert.
If you haven't already created your free account to start practicing for your
AP Calc exam, you can do so using the link in the video description below.
Without further ado though, let's jump into these five steps for success.
The first step you're going to have to take is you're going
to have to assess yourself.
Whether this means taking a full lane practice test, or simply
working your way through a few practice multiple choice questions.
The purpose of this time is for you to take stock of what you know
well and what you need to study.
It's only by actually sitting down and trying some multiple choice questions,
as well as some free response questions that you'll get a better sense of how
you're doing for the AP Calc exam.
There's really no way to short circuit this, so block one to two hours and
set it aside to practice some AP Calc and take stock of where you're at.
We recommend you take a full length practice test.
That said, though, if you don't have that much time, just go
ahead and study what you can.
Set two is to reflect on your strengths and your weaknesses.
Now that you've had the chance to get some practicing, you can start
to assess what you felt really good at and what you feel like you could
use a little bit more helping.
Maybe it was the multiple choice section that required a calculator
that you felt really good in versus the multiple choice section where
you couldn't use a calculator.
Whatever the case may be, the purpose of this time is for you to take stock of
what you struggled with so that you can focus your study time on that first over
the things that you did really well in.
If you have a few months before your AP Calc exam, you can start to block
chunks of time during your school week to refresh or review on certain
content areas that you struggled with.
In the case where you're tight on time, you can block away
segments of your remaining time.
Leading up to the exam for intense study sessions, reviewing key topics or units.
We recommend that you focus on units that are tested more frequently than other
units that may not be tested as much.
For example, unit five is on analytical applications of differentiation and it
makes up 15 to 18% of your exam score.
This means that it's really important that you know this unit well.
Similarly, unit six on the integration and accumulation of change makes
up 17 to 20% of your exam score.
So just by reviewing these two units alone, you already have reviewed
up to 40% of your exams content.
Before we jump into step number three, if you're finding this video helpful
in preparing for your AP Calc exam, be sure to do us a favor and hit that
like button below so that more AP Calculus students can find this video.
Step three is to relearn the content.
Now, this doesn't mean just looking at your class notes and rereading them, or
look at your textbook and rereading that.
This means actually mastering the content.
To do so, we recommend that you pair up with a friend and you try to teach
different topics to one another.
Go from start to finish.
The reason why is because if you're able to teach a concept to another person, it
means that you've done a really good job at mastering that particular concept.
It's also helpful for your partner because they get to hear about that
concept from a different person's lens.
And also they get to either correct or clarify with you when they have
particular questions or concerns about how you're teaching that topic.
In the case where you're struggling to find a study buddy, ask your AP calc
teacher for some recommendations or your math department, or if you want
to go online, you can check out forums like College Confidential or Reddit.
Step number four is to make sure that you are drilling when it comes to AP Calc.
A lot of the AP Calc exam is honestly just knowing how the College Board
likes to phrase questions to you.
And so once you can identify the way that they ask you the questions, you
can start to formulate approaches to how you respond to those questions.
The only way you can really do that though, is if you expose
yourself to continuous practice, when it comes to your AP Calc exam.
To do so, you can use review books, questions you've seen in class or
an online resource like Albert.
The benefit of Albert is that as you are practicing, you'll be able to
get immediate feedback as to why you got that particular question right or
wrong so that you can start to learn from your mistakes and study faster.
Whatever resource you may use, it's really helpful to create a mistake log.
This is where you simply have two columns in what you write out the
question and why you got that question wrong the first time that you did it.
By doing so, you'll be able to internalize the sort of mistakes that
you commonly make and understand your tendencies leading up to test day.
It's also really important that as you're drilling, you
get used to showing your work.
Sometimes you can earn points simply by showing your work and showing that
you know the bulk of a process, even if you didn't get that particular
answer fully correct at the very end.
Step number five is to repeat this process as many times as necessary.
So once you've gone through your first practice test and isolated for those
two to three topic areas that you really need to focus on, you've studied up
on those topic areas and then you've retested that topic area, you want to
then look at what was the next topic area that you really struggled with.
By doing so, you're essentially knocking things out one by one, in terms of
highest priority to lowest priority, leading up to your AP calculus exam.
After you've isolated for all those high priority focus areas, it can be
helpful for you to take a step back, maybe wait a few days between the
last time you study and then take another full length practice test.
After you feel like you've improved on all the core areas that you struggled
with in your first practice test experience, you're going to want to
take a few days off or some time off, and then from there, take another
full length practice test if you can.
By doing so, you'll be able to then see whether or not you truly
improved from the first practice test.
And also if there are any potential new areas of strength or weakness
from the second experience.
Remember it, the key to doing well on AP Calculus is feeling confident
on test day and the only way you'll get there is through practice.
There you have it.
Five steps to helping you tackle your AP Calculus exam.
If you found this video helpful, do us a favor and smash that like button
below and also check out our channel and subscribe for more AP Calc review content.
We have another video where we go over 13 must know study tips for AP Calculus AB.
Lastly, if you haven't already created your free account on Albert to start
studying today, you can do so using the link in the video description below.
By doing so, you'll get access to a few topics to get you started and
get you that immediate feedback to help you score that four or five.
And if you're a teacher that happens to be watching this video, be sure to
apply to pilot with your school today.
By doing so, your classes will be able to try out for a month for free
to see how we might work for you.
That's it for this time though.
If you're looking for more AP review content, check out these videos
that YouTube thinks you might like.