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Home > Features > Reviewing for the AP Exam
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Reviewing for the AP Exam
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by Barry, Bienstock
Horace Mann School
New York, New York
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| | The AP Ritual
For anyone teaching an Advanced Placement course, April is the cruelest month. While colleagues are enjoying a leisurely stroll to June and the end of another academic year, AP teachers see the clock ticking down to May exams, and the race is on to complete the curriculum and find time for review. I've taught AP United States History for the last 20 years and I've come to appreciate many of the rituals associated with an AP course. The first is our initial meeting in September, when I hand out the syllabus, tell the students about the required reading, and offer a brief roadmap of the AP Exam. The last ritual, of course, is the administration of the exam. No sooner have we embarked on the course then we embark also on review.
There is always an inherent tension within any course between how much time to spend introducing new material and how much time to spend reviewing for exams. I don't see the last two weeks prior to the AP Exam as the appropriate time for review. Review is a vital part of the ritual of preparation that enables students to achieve mastery of a subject, and it should be practiced throughout the school year. The how and why of reviewing vary by teacher and discipline, but the goal is always to promote self-confidence and to ensure that students feel in control of the subject matter.
Mastering Material
The first thing I tell my students in September is that whatever effort they put into their daily preparation will pay off when they take the exam in May. I refer throughout the year to the types of essay questions or DBQs that have appeared in the past, variations of which are going to greet them when they take the test in the spring. Periodically, I give the students past AP multiple-choice questions to familiarize them with the different types of questions they may be asked. They test their memories and learn from their mistakes. They learn what
"DBQ" stands for and how to use "the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period" to "construct a coherent essay." Initially, we may answer an essay question in class, or I'll ask the students to outline a question at home and come to class prepared to discuss it. I see this as part of a ritualized review process that instructs and also generates a class dynamic.
During the first few days of the course, I also bring in professional journals, discuss the different ways that historians approach the past, and survey historiographical debates that make the study of history so fascinating. Historiographical lessons are learned and relearned over the course of the year as we make our way through the syllabus. I see this as not only part of the process of learning but also as a reinforcing mechanism that deepens the pool of knowledge and refines skills of assessment. It is a process that enables students to master material and learn how to develop a thesis and marshal supporting evidence. It's essential that they be able to explain why they reject some theses and are won over by other interpretations.
By the spring, having written numerous analytical essays, tested their knowledge with multiple-choice exams, articulated well-formulated answers to questions raised in class, and mastered a college-level curriculum, my students should be more than prepared to take their exams. One of the joys of teaching the course is seeing students gradually hone their interpretive skills. Skills that are developed in the fall and refined in the winter enable students to fearlessly face the AP Exam in the spring.
The Final Step
Of course, we need to spend some time at the end of the year revisiting material learned in the fall and winter and seeing what connections can be made with a variety of topics mastered over the course of the year. When I finish my syllabus, I devote a couple of weeks to a more traditional review and give students the opportunity to bring in questions that their peers and I answer. The final push toward the exam gives students the opportunity to truly "own" the course -- to synthesize all they have learned into a body of knowledge that bolsters them for the last step of the AP ritual: taking the exam. |
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