Reply to How to study for AP Bio unit tests?

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[quote=Anonymous]It's hard to say since classes are taught differently by different teachers/schools.  But AP Bio is my kid's hardest class and she's been really focused on it this year.  She also enlists my help, so I actually see what she's doing.

As an aside, I was stunned to see how in depth this class is.  I can't pronounce a ton of the words and sometimes she's reciting something akin to a chemical equation that's she's memorized for the test.  Seems appropriate, I guess, for a college science class, but just wow.

1. Her teacher recommended that they come to class with all of their notes already taken.  So heading into the unit, she has a big file (she does it in Google docs) of notes.  The teacher talks fast, and so when she takes notes in class lectures (into the same google doc), she's just adding detail to what she already has in her notes.

2. In her class (this is where schools probably differ), the quizzes are pretty cut and dry material and the tests are more nuanced (like, they report the output of a lab and ask questions on the lab results).

3. For quizzes, dd usually hands me her notes (these are, no lie, about 80 pages in a google doc (but lots of repetition, probably because the teacher goes over things multiple times as she goes through the unit-- it takes hours to go through).  I ask her a question (tell me about photosynthesis) and she dumps what she knows from that section of notes and I usually then read what she's missing back to her.  This is detailed stuff.  Like which molecules (and how many) are the input and output of a fermentation process.  (Or I should says, something similar to the above... despite hours of quizzing her, I still don't have a good handle on the basics.)

4. The teacher told us at parent night that the best way to study for tests is to do practice tests on AP Classroom.  Since the tests involve things like interpreting lab outputs, you want to go beyond just the memorization of the quizzes.  I think (not positive here) they do a practice test (from AP classroom) in class before the test?

5. If there aren't enough practice questions on AP classroom, you could buy an AP test prep book and use that in lieu of the textbook.  Also, try Khan Academy. My kid doesn't do this so I'm not positive-- but they tend to have a lot of material and practice questions aligned with the college board curricula.

Finally, somehow my instagram feed started having a bunch of AP bio videos (probably because my phone spies on me while I'm quizzing dd).  I can't tell you how to find them except searching, but they are quite good.  Some of them are HS teachers who record their own class (so kind of a lecture format) and some are animated videos showing, like, molecules moving around and giving up electrons to other molecules and whatnot that I'm kind of enjoying seeing so clearly after I read the same process in dd's messy notes!  So I know there's material out there that explains these processes pretty clearly. [/quote]

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