How to Ace the 2020 AP Administration
Written by Angela Lu
As the 2020 AP Exams draw near, many Uhillians have been hard at work preparing for the ultimate challenge of the AP season: Test Day. Due to COVID-19, College Board has announced that the 2020 AP Administration is set to be vastly different from previous administrations. The arrival of this news begs the questions: What aspects of the curriculum must be studied? How can we study most effectively? Is it possible to cheat? Here, we’ve compiled key updates to the 2020 AP Exam Administration, as well as crucial studying and test-taking tips and strategies:
What are the Updates to the 2020 AP Exams?
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Image source: “Updates for AP Students Affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19).” College Board, apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/students.
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What Has Changed?
1. Curriculum The College Board has taken two measures to compensate for schools around the world being suspended before all topics within AP courses were covered. The first is that exams will only test what the majority of schools worldwide managed to cover by early March. The second is that AP Central is live streaming Online AP Classes. To access these classes, open YouTube and search for the channel: Advanced Placement. Classes follow live stream schedules; however, all classes are recorded to be referred to later. 2. Exam Format In 2020, AP Exams will be offered digitally (accessible from any device connected to the internet — phones, tablets, laptops, etcetera). There is also an option to submit a photo of handwritten work directly to the College Board. Instead of the typical 3+ hour time, 2020 exams will be 45 minutes long this year. None of the exams have multiple choice, and most exams will be composed of 3 short response questions; however, there are exceptions [specific logistics can be found here] One key difference in this year’s AP exam format is that all AP exams will be Open Book. Any class resources and individual notes (both on paper and online!) can be accessed during the exam [Tips on studying for Open Book exams can be found in our studying tips section below] 3. Skills Tested AP exams will not focus on recalling specific details within course content. Rather, they will focus on “Big Picture” concepts and trends which College Board claims are internalized by commitment to review and understanding. 4. Exam Time 2020 exam times will be standardized around the world. If you are not currently in Vancouver, you might write your exam(s) sometime sometime between 9pm and 6am (your local time). If this is your case, College Board will provide you with a CLEP voucher that you may choose to take if you feel you are unfairly disadvantaged by AP (The CLEP is an alternative college credit exam program to AP). Furthermore, there will be an alternative AP exam administration in June — if you feel unprepared by mid-May or feel unsatisfied with your performance, you can either cancel with no charge or register for an alternative test in June. Moreover, because of the delay in testing, AP score release dates have been altered. Whereas schools and students typically received AP scores on July 1st and July 8th respectively, this year those dates will be changed to July 8th and July 15th. Finally, for those taking a portfolio-based course, your portfolio submission deadline has been extended to May 26th, 2020, at 11:59 pm EST. |
What Has Not Changed?
1. Level of Difficulty College Board maintains that exam difficulty will remain the same as in previous years. That is to say that if average scores are significantly low, cut scores (score thresholds for AP scores) alike will be lowered. 2. Testing Accommodations Testing accommodations, such as extra time, will still be met in 2020. 3. Communication Policy On-and-offline communication between a student and any person, group chat, social media platform, and technological service such as language translation is prohibited during exams. All these will still be considered cheating. *disclaimer: No, webcams will not be used for the 2020 AP exams. However, the expectation to abstain from outside communication still remains. 4. College Credit College Board maintains that colleges will still grant credit or placement to AP students. Admission Officers affirm this. What About Cheating? Though it may be ironic that the same test administrator who iconically prohibits students from even glancing at the time on their phones during snack breaks is now administering millions of exams through phones, College Board is taking precautions against cheating. Currently they are equipped with plagiarism detecting software, meaning they will detect students who communicate during exams. As mentioned above, questions this year are also geared toward broad concepts, meaning that a simple google search won’t reveal answers. Moreover, they have warned that cheating on AP exams results in more difficulty completing later college courses — moral of the story: Don’t cheat on your APs. Cheating is useless. What if I get framed for cheating? Just hope you don’t. |
Study Tips/Strategies
The following is a compilation of advice from experienced AP test-takers and AP review guides:
How to Set Up Studying the Right Way
1. Break each exam into subtopics
The general consensus is that it’s easier to focus on one subtopic at a time than at an entire 500-page textbook. To break each exam into subtopics, you can reference the table of contents in the exam prep book, or conduct a Google Search in the format: (Insert AP Course Name) At a Glance. If you wish to go the extra mile, consider creating a spreadsheet, organizing all the subtopics from most important (to be studied the most) to least important (to be studied the least). Bookmark this spreadsheet on your computer. It will help keep you on track.
2. Develop a study plan
Study plans come in many different forms — bullet journals, to-do lists, spreadsheets, sticky notes, daily plans, weekly plans, monthly plans — experiment with different types, and settle for the type that boosts your productivity most.
3. Pro Tip on studying for Open-Book: Organize a “Cheating Binder”
Because this year’s APs are Open-Book, it might be useful to compile a binder of readily available notes that you can refer to at any point in your exam. Divide these notes into easily comprehensible sections and familiarize yourself with this binder while taking practice tests.
How to Review Content
1. Review actively, not passively
Though this is somewhat a cliche, reviewing actively is actually imperative this year because understanding, rather than memorization, is being tested.
Passive review looks like: Reading words in textbooks without reading their meaning, filling a notebook by copying sentences from a textbook
Active review looks like: annotating textbooks, highlighting textbooks, paraphrasing notes
2. Capitalize on Online Content Review
With in-school learning suspended, it’s vital to take advantage of online resources. Here are 3 ideas for free online AP resources:
How to Practice
1. Capitalize on Online Practice Tests
All 3 sources from above are great for practice tests as well. Logging on to AP Central gives you access to a multitude of practice as well.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Old Tests
Yes, the exam format this year is different. There will be no multiple choice. However, practicing available multiple choice questions (and other forms not tested) will still help you internalize key concepts.
3. Setting is Important
That being said, it’s extremely important to be especially well-versed in whichever format your exam(s) will be in this year. Find out which format(s) you will be tested in this year and practice extra hard within those formats. Setting is important — it often helps to imitate the real exam in practice. You can do this by familiarizing yourself with writing online, timing yourself according to your question format, and practicing at the same time of the day you are scheduled to take your test.
How to Ace the Actual Exam
Once studying and practice is over, there’s still more you can do than “hope for the best”. Certain things can still help you, even on exam day:
1. Have Confidence
Millions of other students are also experimenting with AP updates— take confidence in the fact that you’re not alone.
2. Stay Focused
You have 45 minutes to showcase a year of learning. Staying focused will help you achieve optimal flexing ability.
3. Prepare the Small Things
Have water, batteries, and a charger ready. Otherwise, it’s very much feasible that you might drop from a score of 5 to a score of 4 because of the 3 minutes wasted on restarting a laptop at 0% battery.
The Bottom Line: Maintaining confidence and preparedness can and will help you flex your knowledge and ace your questions on test day.
The following is a compilation of advice from experienced AP test-takers and AP review guides:
How to Set Up Studying the Right Way
1. Break each exam into subtopics
The general consensus is that it’s easier to focus on one subtopic at a time than at an entire 500-page textbook. To break each exam into subtopics, you can reference the table of contents in the exam prep book, or conduct a Google Search in the format: (Insert AP Course Name) At a Glance. If you wish to go the extra mile, consider creating a spreadsheet, organizing all the subtopics from most important (to be studied the most) to least important (to be studied the least). Bookmark this spreadsheet on your computer. It will help keep you on track.
2. Develop a study plan
Study plans come in many different forms — bullet journals, to-do lists, spreadsheets, sticky notes, daily plans, weekly plans, monthly plans — experiment with different types, and settle for the type that boosts your productivity most.
3. Pro Tip on studying for Open-Book: Organize a “Cheating Binder”
Because this year’s APs are Open-Book, it might be useful to compile a binder of readily available notes that you can refer to at any point in your exam. Divide these notes into easily comprehensible sections and familiarize yourself with this binder while taking practice tests.
How to Review Content
1. Review actively, not passively
Though this is somewhat a cliche, reviewing actively is actually imperative this year because understanding, rather than memorization, is being tested.
Passive review looks like: Reading words in textbooks without reading their meaning, filling a notebook by copying sentences from a textbook
Active review looks like: annotating textbooks, highlighting textbooks, paraphrasing notes
2. Capitalize on Online Content Review
With in-school learning suspended, it’s vital to take advantage of online resources. Here are 3 ideas for free online AP resources:
- College Board: Attend YouTube livestream AP classes. Objectively, these classes offer the most insight, because they’re offered by the testmakers themselves.
- Quizlet: Quizlet is especially helpful because it encourages engagement with the content in many forms. When using Quizlet, make sure to take advantage of all features — test, learn, match, etc — each is a great way to truly grasp the material at all angles.
- Khan Academy: Khan Academy organizes its AP lessons the same way College Board does, and explains concepts both precisely and comprehensively, making it perfect for clearing up areas of confusion in albeit challenging courses.
How to Practice
1. Capitalize on Online Practice Tests
All 3 sources from above are great for practice tests as well. Logging on to AP Central gives you access to a multitude of practice as well.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Old Tests
Yes, the exam format this year is different. There will be no multiple choice. However, practicing available multiple choice questions (and other forms not tested) will still help you internalize key concepts.
3. Setting is Important
That being said, it’s extremely important to be especially well-versed in whichever format your exam(s) will be in this year. Find out which format(s) you will be tested in this year and practice extra hard within those formats. Setting is important — it often helps to imitate the real exam in practice. You can do this by familiarizing yourself with writing online, timing yourself according to your question format, and practicing at the same time of the day you are scheduled to take your test.
How to Ace the Actual Exam
Once studying and practice is over, there’s still more you can do than “hope for the best”. Certain things can still help you, even on exam day:
1. Have Confidence
Millions of other students are also experimenting with AP updates— take confidence in the fact that you’re not alone.
2. Stay Focused
You have 45 minutes to showcase a year of learning. Staying focused will help you achieve optimal flexing ability.
3. Prepare the Small Things
Have water, batteries, and a charger ready. Otherwise, it’s very much feasible that you might drop from a score of 5 to a score of 4 because of the 3 minutes wasted on restarting a laptop at 0% battery.
The Bottom Line: Maintaining confidence and preparedness can and will help you flex your knowledge and ace your questions on test day.
works cited
- “Updates for AP Students Affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19).” College Board, apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/students.