For Section II, the AP Biology free-response section, you’ll have 80 minutes (after the reading period) to answer six questions. You will likely spend more time on each of the two long free-response questions than on each of the four short-response questions. A fair balance is 22 minutes per long free-response question and 9 minutes […]
There’s a good way and a bad way to skip the Introduction to Biology class in college. Here’s the good way: Skip the whole Introduction to Biology experience entirely—hundreds of students crammed into an auditorium, the tiny dot that is the professor just visible down in front of an ocean of seats—by getting a good […]
Although you might not like multiple-choice questions, there’s no denying the fact that guessing is easier on a multiple-choice question than it is on an essay question or a problem set. On a multiple-choice problem, the answer is always there in front of you; the trick is to find it amongst the forest of incorrect […]
There is more to the AP Chemistry exam than chemistry know-how. You have to be able to work around the challenges and pitfalls of the test—and there are many—if you want your score to reflect your abilities. You see, studying chemistry and preparing for the AP Chemistry exam are not the same thing. Rereading your […]
Even nonbiologists know that the world constantly changes. Fifteen years ago there weren’t many cell phones. There weren’t many standardized tests, either. Nowadays, you can’t go a semester of school without taking some letter-jumble exam like the PSAT, SAT, ACT, BLAM, ZORK, or FWOOSH (some of those tests are fake, some aren’t). And right after […]
The multiple-choice questions are numbered, but that does not mean you must answer the questions in the given order. In fact, it’s highly unlikely that the questions will be presented to you in a confidence-inspiring, point-building, time-saving order. There is good news, though: You are free to navigate the section in a manner that highlights […]
Advanced Placement exams have been around for half a century. While the format and content have changed over the years, the basic goal of the AP program remains the same: to give high school students a chance to earn college credit or advanced placement. To do this, a student needs to do two things: Find […]
Your decision to take the AP Calculus BC exam involves many factors, but in essence it boils down to a question of choosing between three hours of time spent on the AP Calculus BC exam and a significant amount of time spent in a college classroom. Depending on the college, a score of 3, 4, or 5 […]
The multiple-choice questions on the AP Calculus exam count for 50% of your total score. The multiple-choice section consists of two parts: Part A contains 30 multiple-choice questions for which you are not allowed to use your graphing calculator, and Part B contains 15 multiple-choice questions for which you may (and in fact, will most […]
Section II of the AP Chemistry exam is 105 minutes long and consists of seven questions: three long and four short free-response questions. Here are some points to review: We used the “vague party directions” to describe the information doled out before Section I. Section II goes for more of an “information overload” approach. There […]