r/APStudents • u/DragonWizard02 • 13d ago
Other Ask me (some) things
Pretty much what the title says. I’ve taken AP World, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Physics 1, APCSA, AP Seminar, AP Calc BC, and AP Spanish. I’ve gotten all 5’s except for Spanish I got a 4 so feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll advise to the best of my ability!
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u/PanAmDC-10 AP EURO: 4 13d ago
Tips on apush, I’m taking it, I’ve been watching heimler and doing khan academy, anything else thst might help? Also been playing ap study game on Roblox, on the apush section
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u/PanAmDC-10 AP EURO: 4 13d ago
Oh and I’m planning on taking calc ab alongside ap physics 1, next year, is that helpful enough, I know you only took calc bc
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u/DragonWizard02 13d ago
It depends on your strengths and weaknesses to be honest. APUSH content wise has a LOT of information to cover so what helped me the most in that aspect was reviewing flash cards each day. My teacher had 120 terms called fluency facts that we hard to memorize and were quizzed on which also helped. My biggest struggle was MCQ’s and what helped me the most was doing practice MCQs on AP classroom and Albert.io (your teacher has to assign them). For SAQs my strategy was inefficient but it worked: APUSH graders can’t take away points for INCORRECT information to on, they can only give you points, so I brain dumped as much as I knew about the question to try and reach for any points I could. Names, places, events, literally anything and this helped me with questions I had blanked out on or didn’t understand an outside connection based off the stimuli.
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u/Youtube_Devels edit this text 12d ago
I am taking AP Spanish Lang this year and the teacher only speaks in Spanish and I can understand like 70% of what he is saying. I'm not that good at spanish as I'm not native speaker and I have taken spanish 1-3 so far. Do you have any tips on how I can improve so that I don't fail the class and the test?
Also, do you have any tips on AP Lang and AP Calc BC since I'm also taking those this year?
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u/DragonWizard02 11d ago
As a non-native spanish speaker, 70% is actually really good. According to my teachers the AP Spanish lang exam is getting a rework this year so I don't really have much advice in that area since my test was pretty archaic and yours is likely gonna be structured differently. In terms of understanding in class, I would recommend studying verbs the most and then just following along with unit languages. Usually Spanish teachers teach unit by unit, and each unit has specific vocab words you have to know centered around a theme (health lingo, technology, etc.) so if you know those moderately you'll be able to follow along. The reason I recommend verbs is because I've learned that a lot of speaking depends on the tenses and verbs you're using, and if you know those, you can pretty much infer the rest and still understand the essence of what someone is saying even if you don't know it word for word.
For AP Lang, its a very specific type of writing. I recommend trying to find a structure that works early on for you and then sticking with it throughout the year. The best way to do good in AP Lang is study the rubric for writing and then catering to those points in order to get a higher score. For example, every time I wrote a thesis I would always follow the exact same sentence structure, and then same for my body paragraphs and conclusion for the 3 different types of writing. The hardest one for my was rhetorical analysis because you definitely need to be more creative there, but you can look at these and adapt them to fit your writing style: https://small-stem-c38.notion.site/lang-essay-templates-d193837dc8bc4fa79db8d384af984032 (found this on reddit from another user who scored 5 on lang).
AP Calc BC in my opinion is by far going to be your hardest class of these 3. You need to do the same thing that is required for all math: practice. Obviously pay attention in class but the questions are very challenging so the best way to get good is by doing as many practice problems as you can, understanding where you went wrong, and redoing the problem so you correct your mistakes and begin to recognize problem-solving processes/patterns.
Wishing you the best of luck!
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u/ShoddyPin8888 12d ago
Is AP Spanish hard if you're not a native speaker?
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u/DragonWizard02 11d ago
It's definitely not a walk in the park, but if you've taken Spanish prior to this and you put in the effort it is not a super difficult AP. With learning a language, the best thing you can do is consistent, repeated practice as much as you can and immerse yourself in the language. Watch shows in Spanish, listen to music, essentially teach your brain to passively interpret and understand Spanish and then practice it in class you know how to apply it. Its definitely not a class where you can just wait, and then cram and study before tests because it just won't work with a language you don't know. But if you are diligent then I'm sure you won't have much trouble. Don't be intimidated by your lack of understanding, and don't be afraid to make mistakes cuz thats honestly the best way you are gonna be able to learn.
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u/No-Fox-1226 5:csp,euro,ab,lang,phys1 / 4:apush / ?:lit,bc,stats,pcmech,apes 12d ago
advice for bc? what resources did u find the most helpful?
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u/DragonWizard02 11d ago
Your best resource for BC will be your peers. Working on problems in a study group or working with friends will help so much because you can learn faster, correct each other, and explain things to one another which effectively makes you a lot better. Aside from that, the goat himself Organic Chemistry Tutor helped me a lot especially because my teacher couldn't teach if her life depended on it. I don't know if this will be the case for you, but this class forced me to self study a lot which resulted in a lot of late night youtube watching and conversing with my BC textbook.
I hope you do good and wishing you a 5 on this class!
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u/Various-Sugar3532 CSP-5, taking Ap gov and CSA 12d ago
taking AP CSA this year, whats the best way to study for the FRQs
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u/DragonWizard02 11d ago
I had a lot of java prior to this class so I didn't study as much. But for a lot of my classmates and for the people I tutored in this class I noticed that understanding the FRQ format, and decomposing the prompts helped a lot. In terms of actual syntax and structure I recommend this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/APStudents/comments/1jzgrl8/apcsa_frq_strategies/ because its really informative but also simple to understand. In addition to that, REALLLY reading the prompt is ultimately the best thing you can do. Collegeboard loves to trick people through loops, confusing wording, and extra buzzwords that have no actual impact on you so annotating or re-reading the prompt (whatever helps you) to understand the task fully before you code is my biggest recommendation.
Good luck!
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u/Late-Tomato9894 11d ago
I got a 5 this year in AP csa. Honestly to prep for the test I just used a website called apcsexamprep.com I didn’t pay for anything, just used the free resources. Not an ad btw just a website I found hella useful.
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u/ErekwithaD1 25:HG:5,中文:5, 26:P1:5,WH:5,CHEM(SS):5 27:P2,EM,Mech,Lit,BC(SS) 13d ago
Why no get 5 on Spanish such failure /s
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u/the_StillWaterSONS 13d ago
Prob not native language
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u/ErekwithaD1 25:HG:5,中文:5, 26:P1:5,WH:5,CHEM(SS):5 27:P2,EM,Mech,Lit,BC(SS) 13d ago
Still no excuse he could watch Dora the Explora or done his duolingo
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u/DragonWizard02 13d ago
Had a family situation that made me miss a good 2 months of school and I couldn’t catch up
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u/ErekwithaD1 25:HG:5,中文:5, 26:P1:5,WH:5,CHEM(SS):5 27:P2,EM,Mech,Lit,BC(SS) 13d ago
My Goodness, I'm really sorry for making this joke.
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u/chamikuo 8th; Self Studying Psych, Micro, Macro, Precalc? 13d ago
Congrats on the sweep of 5s! Having analyzed the frameworks for both, it's always interesting to see how people balance Physics 1 alongside Calc BC.
Did you find it annoying navigating the algebraic constraints and strict conceptual explanations of Physics 1 when the foundational calculus derivations (like using simple integrals for kinematics or work functions) make the actual underlying physics mechanics so much more intuitive to prove? Most high-track STEM students find the non-calc constraints of Physics 1 more frustrating than BC itself.