AP Psychology Exam Study Guide: 14 Key Topics to Study

AP Psychology is said to be one of the easiest exam there is, as far as AP Exams go. The AP Psychology exam is all about testing students' knowledge of the 14 key topics outlined on the College Board description of the course. AP Psychology is meant to be give the students willing to take up the challenge of a college-level class. In this article, I will talk about the 14 topics as well as the percentages of the test devoted to each topic. This article will be followed with more articles about my experience and the exam.

Topics

1.History and Approaches

This topic takes up 2-4 percent of the test and talks about the different theories that psychologists used to explain the mental processes. They also talk about the different approaches used to collect data along with the important figures of psychology.

2.Research Methods

This topic takes up 8-10 percent of the test and talks about the different types of research and their importance to gather data and how to apply the research develop theories to explain behavior.

3.Biological Bases

 This topic takes up 8-10 percent of the test introduces the different physiological processes and their relationship to behavior. The different physiological processes include the brain, nervous system, and genes and how they contribute to behavior. This is one of them most parts the curriculum. This chapter also includes important figures.

4.Sensation and Perception

This topic takes up 6-8 percent of the test and talks about the different sensory processes as well sensory disorders. They also talk about how experience and culture can influence perception. This chapter also includes important figures in sensation and perception.

5.States of Consciousness

This topic takes 2-4 percent of the test and talks about the variations in conscious including the sleep cycle, dreams, hypnosis, circadian rhythms, and the effect of psychoactive drugs. This chapter also includes important figures in consciousness research.

6.Learning

This topic takes up 7-9 percent of the test and is also one of the most important topics. This topic introduces the difference of learned and unlearned behavior. It focuses on the different kinds of learning. This chapter also includes the important figures in the psychology of learning.

7.Cognition

This topic takes up 8-10 percent of the test and teaches the student how humans convert sensory inputs into information. It talks about how humans learn, remember, and retrieve information. This chapter also includes the important figures in cognitive psychology.

8.Motivation and Emotion

This topic takes up 6-8 percent of the test and allows student to learn about the biological and social factors that motivate behavior. It also talks about the biological and cultural factors that influence emotion. This chapter also includes important figures the psychology of motivation and emotion.

9.Development Psychology

This topic takes up 7-9 percent of the test and talks about the behavior from conception to death and how different processes that contribute to behavior changes. This chapter has a heavy emphasis on prenatal development to adulthood. This chapter includes important figures in development psychology.

10. Personality

This topic take up 5-7 percent of the test and explores the theories of how humans develop patterns of behavior and personal characteristics that influence how other relate them. This also discusses the research methods used to asses personality.  This chapter includes important figures is personality figures.

11.Testing and Individual Differences

This topic takes up 5-7 percent of the test and talks about the theories of intelligence and the different type of intelligence tests. This chapter includes the important figures in intelligence research and testing.

12.Abnormal Behavior

The topic takes up 7-9 percent of the test and talks the different disorders ranging from mood disorders to personality disorders. It also talks about the approaches to explaining psychological disorders. It also discusses the consequences of label and how the legal system views mental disorders.

13. Treatment of Abnormal Behavior

This topic takes up 5-7 percent of the test and talks about the treatments of psychological disorders. It talks about the different types of therapy and the effectiveness of the specific treatments. This chapter includes important figures in psychological figures.

14.Social Psychology

This topic takes up 8-10 percent of the test and discusses how people relate one another in social situations. It talks about the social psychologists and what they study such as social attitudes, social influence, etc. This chapter includes the important figures in social psychology.

I hope these tips will help you and I hope you come back for the other article. This information comes from the College Board description of the course. Leave a comment down below if you have any questions. And as always make sure you follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

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Five Steps to Studying More Effectively

When the teacher announces that there is going to be a test on said day, your first reaction may be to freak out, then the girl next to you leans over and says “we need to form a study group” you agree and next thing you know, you are now in a study group. Congratulations.

Step 1: Who?

Now that you guys have decided that you want to have a study group, the next thing you want to think about is inviting classmates to come study with you guys. Now, instinctively, your first reaction may be to invite all your best friends in class, this may be your first mistake. When you’re around your friends, you may take longer to actually study and may get off track often. This doesn’t mean take your worst enemy to go study with, all I am saying is to pick the people that are going to provide the best contributions and the people that you are least likely to completely steer from the task at hand, studying.

Step 2: When and Where?

Now that you guys have decided who is going to be in your study group, the next step is to pick a time and a location. Take a quick second to look at everyone’s schedule and choose the time where everyone can meet up, if someone is still unable to come, suggest they use FaceTime to be there, or call during the studying session to be there through phone. Now that you have a time, the next step is to choose a location. When considering a location, you want to pick somewhere where there is minimal noise, so rule out the arcade or the concert as a studying location. Some common places to study are the coffee shop (for instance Starbucks) or your local library. Make sure the location is easy for everyone in the group to meet up to, we don’t want Sally showing up late because there was traffic on the I-95! If finding a location for everyone to meet up to is getting quite hard, considering moving it to a group chat such as Kik or maybe take it old school and do three-way calling session or a Skype.

Step 3: Show up

Now this step is the most difficult, this is when you actually carryout the plans. There is probably a huge wasteland somewhere out there full of plans never actually seen through. Make sure everyone knows the plans and that everyone who is supposed to be attending, attends.

Step 4: Roles

To make sure this studying session is carried out well, make sure to establish roles. The most important roles to give are the leader, who will steer the conversation and make sure every topic is addressed, the time keeper, who will track how long you stay on a topic and when to move on, and the peace keeper (fact checker), who will settle disputes by looking things up on the web or in the book. These roles ensure that everyone is on task and the meet up is going smoothly.

Step 5: Study

Don’t forget that the main purpose for the gathering is to study, to get rid of distractions, make sure all phones are put away and make sure everyone is listening and not off on their own conversation, as you want to make sure everyone knows the material, including the girl/guy who always seems lost (you know who I’m talking about). Try using apps such as Quizlet or Khan Academy to help study, take advantage to materials like the internet to expand your knowledge, just beware of getting off topic and losing focus on the real goal, which is to pass that test!

If you follow these easy 5 steps, I ensure you that you will be able to form a study group and study effectively. Next time, when your professor announces that test, be the person who announces that there will be a studying session on said day and said time. Be the leader and take charge.

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AP Overload: 5 Tips On How To Push Through A Rigorous Course Load

TIP #1: Learn How to Properly Manage Your Time

Begin to follow a strict study schedule and set a certain time each day for each class and stick to it. If you want to begin seeing a change in your grades, it's vital that you make sure you study each week (no one said making good grades would be easy).

• Taking on a more rigorous course load does have its major drawbacks. You will have to cut some activities out of your schedule to accommodate study time. You can’t do it all and expect to be on top of your classes unless you want to feel exhausted and drained everyday. There are only have so many hours in a day, be very selective on how you use them.
• Avoid distractions (TV, phones, friends, parties etc.)
• Always stay on top of your notes, try to be ahead always so if you miss a day you won't be as far behind.

TIP #2: Know Your GPA… but Don’t Focus On It

First off, no, you didn't read that wrong and second off, I know what you're thinking, “The reason I'm reading this article is to learn how to do well in my AP classes and you're telling me to not focus on my grades?!?!?!” School is more than just numbers. It's about the actual process of learning, to educate yourself and somewhere down the road benefit others.  Don't get caught up in the numbers and forget about the actual process of learning.

• Don't focus on that one C or D. Think about what you think you could have done better. Maybe put aside more study time or take better notes. There is always something you could have improved on.
• During the beginning of the year it's ok if your grades are low. It takes some time getting used to AP classes, especially if it's your first time taking one. So don't stress out, nobody learned how to ride a bike on the first try.
• Don't drop the course, no matter how tired, irritated, annoyed or discouraged you feel. You can't always give up every time you make a bad grade or don't understand something, buckle down and fight through it. You can pass that course if you are willing to work hard and study to improve your grade.

TIP #3: Conquer Together

Who better to help you succeed, than your peers who are taking the same classes as you? Grouping with your peers can be an extra boost in studying. Sometimes two heads or more are better than one. There are plenty of benefits of this. Studying in a group can be more fun than studying alone, but it can be very easy to get distracted and not get any studying done.

• Remember your study buddies can be your friends, but not all friends make good study buddies.
• Be strategic in choosing the people you study with.  Find people who are as motivated about school as you and are performing generally well in their classes. You should surround yourself with people who are already succeeding, so you can learn and benefit from them.
  • For example: If you struggle in math, you shouldn’t create an entire study group of people who are also not doing as well as you, include some people who are doing really well in math and can help explain confusing concepts to you and others.

Tip #4: Develop Good Studying and Note Taking Habits

You could be reading your textbook front and back every night and still be making less than ideal grades on quizzes and test. Here’s some advice based on personal experience: You shouldn’t be studying harder, but studying smarter. Now, what that means is you need to learn how to read a text, analyze it, and decide which parts are important and which aren't.

• Every night you should sit down and review your notes from class, even if there’s no test or quiz. This helps you retain current and new information to build on the previous knowledge you have.

Here’s some advice I’ve received from one of my teachers about how to take notes (he’s a history teacher):

“Form and format are up to you, but they must be useful (search the almighty Google to find several note taking methods and models (outline, Cornell, etc)-- pick whichever works best or experiment with different ones on different chapters to see which one you like). There is no benefit in taking notes if you can't make sense of them, or if you just copy notes from a classmate. The whole point of taking notes is to process what you read, rearrange it in a way that makes sense to you, and then use it as a reference for review and study.”

“When taking notes you should not focus on the trivial, but rather on items of significance and change. Your notes should focus on how things change over time and cause and effect relationships.”

Tip #5: Ask For Help

This is something that is so simple, but lots of students don’t take advantage of resources available to them. If you're struggling in a class, ask your teacher for help. Teachers are there to be a resource to you and many stay extra hours after school everyday.  So why don’t you just stop by and ask about that question you didn’t understand on the homework or ask for more clarification about today’s lesson?

• Don’t feel ashamed!  Believe it or not your teachers actually care about your success and are willing to go the extra mile for you.
• If you feel like you're struggling with your course, stop by your teacher’s class and let them know your concerns, you have nothing but good things to gain from it.

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Note Taking: High School vs. College

When it came to my first semester of college, I was a little bit frazzled by vastly different being in class was.  My professors seemed to talk at the speed of light, I never wrote down everything I needed fast enough, and it was difficult to get down anything concrete before they were moving onto the next power point slide. College can be like that a lot – especially in classes where the subject is your weak point. It was different from any of the classes I’d taken in high school because I was expecting what I'd already been used to. Here, I’m going to break down just exactly how note taking in college is different from high school, as well as a guide you on the right path to excellence in note taking.

Speed

In high school -  even most AP classes – a teacher can only go so quickly with the notes. A good teacher makes sure everyone’s gotten what they needed from the slide before switching up. A good professor will probably give you an extra five seconds before moving on.

It’s the nature of the classes, really. College classes (specifically the humanities) tend to be shorter, with more talking necessary to get complex ideas across in a linear fashion. There’s also a large volume of material necessary to cover before the next test, be they every few weeks, or every few months. STEM classes go on longer, but are still just as information packed and speedy on note taking days. Your professor expects you to be jotting down those differential equations at the speed of light, quite frankly.

It’s important to be prepared for the speed, and to adjust to it. It might be tough if you’re a naturally slow writer, or if you put time into the neatness of your notes, but it’s definitely possible. Even if you're typing but enjoy spending time in properly formatting what you'd just jotted down, you might have to make sacrifices. It works in your favor if your notes are disorganized and cluttered enough to warrant a rewrite: take it as an extra studying opportunity.

Volume of Work

As I said earlier, your classes will be jam packed with information. Though, that’s kind of expected. It’s tough covering thousands of years of civilization into four months.

After all that note taking, you’ll start to realize how much work will be going into studying. There might be dozens of pages of information that you’ll have to memorize to pass your midterm, final, and all the in-betweens (if any). Many of us have the bad habit of typing down every single thing that comes out the professor’s mouth verbatim, but that’s not very conductive when you go back into your Google Docs to see a thousand words of your necessary information, littered with unnecessary fluff.

The real difficult part comes with studying. Vast amounts of knowledge are forced into your brain for several months before you spew them out onto a test paper, but most of the time, you’ll be forced to interpret that information in a coherent fashion. It doesn’t matter that you know that Alexander the Great conquered Greece – what effect did it have?

Becoming comfortable with your memorization skill takes time, especially with so much pressure put on passing your tests, but not impossible. Finding methods that work best for you is the most important part. And remember that your professor is always there to help.

Grading

You’ll hear this a lot, but college is test based. Most of the time, you’ll have very little outside assignments. Sometimes, all you’ll be left with for the semester is an email address, a syllabus, and a date for your final. (Honestly, nightmares have an awful way of finding their way into real life).

High school classes mostly grade as an relatively even amalgamation of your grades. Classwork, homework, tests, quizzes, and other arbitrary sections are calculated and graded up. If you didn’t do so well with your classwork, but aced your homework and the test, you could still end up getting an A for the semester. It goes both ways. Usually (athis rings especially true in AP classes) the most important part was getting your work done.

The most important part of a college class is passing your test(s). That’s about it. And all semester, you’re taking notes, studying, and gearing up for them.

This is where a lot of freshman in college make their mistakes. Since they have little to occupy themselves with aside from studying, they slack off all semester, only zeroing back in on their work when a sudden essay or project is assigned. That’s how it worked in high school for them, except those errant assignments are much less frequent and routine.

If you can’t take tests, and at least pass them, you won’t pass your classes. That’s sort of a terrifying fact when you either hate tests or just aren’t very good at taking them, but have no fear. If you study right, you’ll be fine. Your professors are there to help you along the way, as well as your fellow classmates, so the important part is to kick your but into gear.

Using Your Notes

Personally, the studying I did for my first semester of college was like how I studied for my SAT’s my whole year of junior year. Constantly reviewing, revising, and rewriting – although, I was an honest slacker as a high schooler, so maybe that doesn’t hold much weight. None of my classes were engaging or challenging enough for me to study at that level. Keeping up with the classwork and homework was study enough for me on most days.

Your notes in college are your literal lifeline in college for some classes. That’s why skipping a day or two can end up being detrimental. You think it’s cool to miss that Romeo & Juliet discussion for Thursday in your Early Shakesperian Literature class? Good luck writing a decent essay on the play when the prompt is “free will vs. fate” because you expected something simple like “love vs. lust”.

You have to seriously engage with the notes you take in college, and study them more than once. They have to be neatly rewritten, clear, and easy for you to digest.

And also, probably cute looking, since you’ll be looking at them a lot.

Transitioning from High School to College Note Taking

It’s tough, honestly, and you might struggle a little in the beginning. Experimentation is important. If you feel like a certain method isn’t working for you, then feel free to change it. Switch from typing to hand writing, or from a study partner to a study group. College is about exploring who you are, even things as mundane as what type of learner you are, and how to capitalize off your strengths.

So get to studying. You have A’s to collect.

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