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AP Psychology Tips from the Field
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by Alan Feldman
High School Teacher of AP Psychology, AP History and Mathematics
Perth Amboy High School
Perth Amboy, New Jersey
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The Exam
Teaching Psychology Terms
Preparing Students for Essay Questions
Testing Prior to the AP Exam
Ancillary Materials
Resources for Activities
Resources for Teacher Background Knowledge
Resources for Students
Videos
The Exam
The AP Psychology Examination consists of 100 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 70 minutes and two required essays to be done in 50 minutes. The multiple-choice questions count for two-thirds of the total score, and each essay counts for one-sixth; so the two essays combined count for one-third of the total. The multiple-choice questions get progressively more difficult, and are mixed in terms of their content area. The content breakdown of the questions closely follows the percentages listed here:
| |
Approximate percentage |
| History and approaches | 2-4 |
| Methods | 6-8 |
| Biological bases of behavior |
8-10 |
| Sensation and perception | 7-9 |
| States of consciousness | 2-4 |
| Learning | 7-9 |
| Cognition | 8-10 |
| Motivation and emotion | 7-9 |
| Developmental psychology |
7-9 |
| Personality | 6-8 |
| Testing and individual differences |
5-7 |
| Abnormal psychology | 7-9 |
| Treatment of psychological disorders |
5-7 |
| Social psychology | 7-9 |
Teaching Psychology Terms
Many of the multiple-choice questions require knowledge of an important psychology term or concept. The extensive word lists for introductory psychology produced by Alan Boneau, Eugene Zechmeister, and Ludy Benjamin are particularly helpful. Students must not only know the definitions of important terms but should also be able to categorize each term along a variety of dimensions, apply it correctly, understand its nuances, and link it to other related terms and, if possible, to the term's originator or perspective. Students must be careful when comparing terms that seem similar but actually have important differences. Such terms include "negative reinforcement" and "punishment"; "random assignment" and "random sampling"; "habituation" and "sensory adaptation"; "generalization and generalizability"; "spontaneous recovery" and "reconditioning"; and "heritability" and "inherited."
One fun technique to help students with the terminology is to make many large paper cutouts of dinosaur feet (one per major psychological term), each with five large toes. Whenever you introduce a new term, have a student write it on a foot, and write five related terms on the toes. You can color-code the feet thematically and hang them around the room; seeing the terms often will enhance students' recall. You can give quick, fun quizzes by asking students to define a term or to name the five related terms and describe their relationships.
Preparing Students for Essay Questions
When beginning the essay questions, students should count the number of parts or sections for each question. Usually, each part of an essay counts as one point of that essay. The points are not connected, so a student can get any point wrong and still get credit for all the other points. Make sure to get the College Board guide to the AP Psychology Exam, as it includes two released multiple-choice tests (1994 and 1999) and most of the essays that have been given in prior years. Essays often have between six and 10 parts.
One of the two essay questions has usually been based on an analysis and critique of a research methodology. For example, students might have to find and fix flaws in an experimental design (including ethical concerns); name a hypothesis based on a question and describe the major aspects of an experimental design for the hypothesis; answer questions about a correlational study; or compare two different research methods.
It is important when answering the essays to demonstrate knowledge of psychology by using correct terminology. Often the second essay question involves the application of perspectives -- such as the biological, psychoanalytic and cognitive -- to a variety of concepts, such as anxiety or depression. Sometimes an essay will list five or six psychology terms or concepts and ask students to define them and to apply them to a major idea or concept. For example: "Define the fundamental attribution error, schema, projection, generalization in classical conditioning, and modeling, and describe how each can contribute to an individual becoming prejudiced."
One of the two essays usually includes information from a chapter near the end of the psychology textbook, usually social psychology. This emphasizes the importance of finishing the text by remaining on a schedule or giving extra reading assignments when necessary.
Students need to exercise caution when answering the essay questions. They must answer all parts of each question concisely yet completely. If the question specifically directs students to describe a behavioral outcome, they must describe a visible behavior and not a feeling (such as happiness) or a motivational state (such as "tries harder"). If the question asks students to describe an ethical concern about a research methodology, they should avoid vague statements like "The subject feels bad" and instead specify an outcome that is clearly unethical and affects the person after the research has been completed. When describing an experimental flaw, students must give a complete explanation of the flaw, rather than just a simple description.
Testing Prior to the AP Exam
Tests given to the students during the course should reflect the format of the actual AP Exam. For example, I will give my class 25 to 33 multiple-choice questions and one essay in a 45-minute testing period, which approximates actual AP testing conditions. The test should include a few questions (four to six) from prior chapters, especially on topics with which the class has had trouble. Essays should at times be integrative and include some information from prior chapters. For example, in the chapter on psychopathology, one can ask about the heritability of the disorder, the areas of the brain potentially involved, and secondary gains resulting from positive reinforcement. This reinforces the interconnections between topic areas and the importance of remembering all the material from the course.
If your school requires a final examination, it should be given to your students approximately 10 days before the AP Exam so that you have time to review it. I usually give students 500 multiple-choice questions, 120 vocabulary terms, and 20 essays just prior to their Easter vacation in April as preparatory materials for both their school final exam and the AP Exam. The final exam includes 100 multiple-choice questions and three essay questions from the 20 essays given previously, as well as a matching section that contains 50 percent of the terms. I also have students come to school two or three evenings each year; we chip in for pizza and watch a psychology video followed by an in-depth discussion afterwards. I call these evening sessions voluntarily mandatory.
Students should be given access to the accompanying practice CDs or disks that are part of the ancillary package of virtually every major college psychology textbook. They can then practice on their own questions from prior chapters during the entire school year as their schedule allows. If your school can afford it, purchase a site license from the publisher so that the practice questions can be accessed from your school's computers.
What to do after the AP Psychology Exam has been given is a question for all teachers of the course. One suggestion is to have students carry out psychology scavenger hunts in the library or on the Web. Items to look for could include the names of six stage theorists; Erikson's middle name; and answers to such questions as "Who described classical conditioning in detail at the 1902 APA convention, and why was it ignored?" Other possibilities are to have students read about a disorder in DSM IV and the accompanying case-study book and then write DSM IV diagnostic criteria for senioritis with a case study; diagnose a character in a particular movie (e.g, The Caine Mutiny) using DSM IV; create a psychology fair or display; or watch some psychology videos that you didn't have the time for during the year.
Ancillary Materials
Ancillary materials can enhance the teaching of AP Psychology. Here are a few of my favorites, grouped in four categories: resources for activities; resources for teacher background knowledge; resources for students' use in the classroom or on their own; and videos.
Resources for Activities
- The four APA activity handbooks available from APA, (800) 374-2721
- Activity handbooks available from Lawrence Erlbaum, (800) 926-6579
- Activity handbooks by Jane Halonen, Nicky Hayes, Valerie Whittlesey, and Gary Brannigan
- Teaching Introductory Psychology: Advice from the Experts, by Robert Sternberg (editor)
- Instructor manuals that come with textbooks
- In Search of the Human Mind, by Robert Sternberg, and Introduction to Psychology, by Ilana Roth. Both books include excellent activities within their text.
Resources for Teacher Background Knowledge
- Get a copy of an advanced textbook. Possibilities are the books by Sternberg, Gleitman, Grusec, Gross, Gray and Carlson.
- Look for outstanding references. Three excellent ones are Psychology in America: A Historical Survey, by Ernest Hilgard; Human Change Processes: The Scientific Foundations of Psychotherapy, by Michael Mahoney; and the four volumes of Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology.
- Subscribe to the journal Teaching of Psychology. It is available by joining Division Two of APA (the Society for the Teaching of Psychology).
- Become an affiliate member of APA by joining Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS). This will allow you to receive the Psychology Teachers Newsletter (PTN), standards for the teaching of high school psychology, curriculum units, and many other useful materials.
- Join the American Psychological Society (APS). The membership will allow you to receive two journals, Current Directions in Psychological Science and Psychological Science.
Resources for Students
- Any of the approximately eight books in print that have collections of psychology experiments. Three good ones are Key Studies in Psychology, by Richard Gross; Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research, by Roger Hock; and Introducing Psychological Research: Sixty Studies That Shape Psychology, by Philip Banyard and Andrew Grayson.
- Another outstanding collection of articles for general psychology is Psychology in Context : Voices and Perspectives, by David Sattler.
- Three books that students will enjoy are Dibs: In Search of Self, by Virginia Axline; Walden Two, by B. F. Skinner; and House of Stairs, by William Sleator.
Videos
There are a large number of psychology videos available. The following are some of my favorites:
- Discovering Psychology Modules, available from Annenburg
- The Mind: Psychology Teaching Modules (second edition) and Teaching Modules: The Brain (second edition), available from Annenburg
- Candid Camera Classics for Introductory Psychology and Candid Camera Classics for Social Psychology, published by McGraw Hill
- Childhood (a series of seven tapes), available from Ambrose Video Publishing
- Secrets of the Wild Child and Life's First Feelings, available from WGBH Videos
- Scientific American Frontiers tapes, including Pieces of Mind and It's a Kid's World
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