The end of February marks the time to start thinking about those AP exams, and other major exams like the SATs in general. In this month’s blog post, let’s check out strategies to effectively calendar and create a study schedule that works for you! Here are 4 considerations. Don’t just study It’s important to create a schedule that accounts for your humanity. Make sure to include times you’ve designated for fun and for rest. Block these times regularly in your calendar. Study challenging concepts at the right time You don’t have to get up at 6AM in the morning every morning to do well on your exams. While you’re organizing your study schedule, make sure you are accounting for YOUR best work hours. If you’re an early bird, or a night owl, be sure to acknowledge your unique best hours. Not all study time needs to be long Got a 30 minute ride to hang out with friends? Waiting for dinner to cook? Use these spare moments to review your flashcards and give your brain a quick rehash of concepts that are easy to forget. Take a practice exam Whether it be for a final, an AP exam, the SATs, GRE, or other standardized test, make sure to go through a practice test at least ONCE to get all the first time exam jitters out. You may not be able to replicate the entire experience, but you WILL be able to have a better understanding of and familiarity with the exam’s logistics and format. Now that these broad considerations are in, it’s time to organize your calendar. There are 3 important steps. Calendar your exam date Add in a treat for the day after, and some last minute flashcards for the day before. The week of, make sure you’re getting a combination of rest and review. Plan out your monthly goals After taking a diagnostic test, add in monthly goals to get a sense of how far you are from your goal score. Take at least one diagnostic test during each month so you can measure your progress. Figure out the hours per week you want to study. Once you have a sense of how many hours you can put in, you can see how much time you will need per day and when you can study more complex material you’re struggling with, given timeslots that are longer. As you can read, there is a lot of strategy and planning that comes with organizing your study schedule. The biggest advice? Make sure you can stick to it!
There’s a lot going on in the world of education right now, and we are learning not only new content, but new ways to show our learning. So, February marks the time to prepare for these new formats of exams. Some of these exams are formatted in a way such that they are hybrid or online. How are this year’s exams different? Let’s start with AP exams. For some popular college credit receiving exams like AP Biology or AP Calculus, it appears the exam will retain much of its pre-Covid structure. Most AP exams will still be in person with paper and pencil, in May. The exam will be administered for many students at the same time, at their specific schools of attendance. Testing centers which host many students taking exams are also prevalent. For a comprehensive look at the policies and guidelines of these standard format exams — which remain standard from many years past, click here. Still however, the pandemic is a factor in exam administration. For AP exams like AP English literature and AP World History, there will be a selection of exams hosted still in school, but online in a digital format. The key takeaways to understand for how these exams will operate differently are: The school must have applied in fall of 2021 to administer the exam online The exam will still be taken at the school in a proctored setting Students will be able to go back and forth online with questions Schools may be able to provide Windows, Mac, Chromebooks or even Ipads for the exam Digital and paper exams will be taken in different locations within the school For graduate degrees, the online format is also variable. The GRE is a good example to understand. A grueling 3 hours and 45 minutes, this exam is known to be tough even prior to the pandemic. With the shifts in learning, the GRE averages 1.5 million test takers with a mean score of around 150 out of 170 for the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections. The exam is entirely administered online. Here are some of the considerations for GRE for adult learners of this time: You can edit your answers and preview sections There is a built-in calculator function You can mark/ review answers on the digital format You can take the exam at home or at a testing facility At home testing is available 24/7 and proctored by an online human proctor. To read more about these exams, click here. With all of these exam changes, it will be interesting to see how students this year fair with online test scores! Seems like a good time to goal-set, and get help tutoring if you need it!
