How to Score a (High) 5 on Your AP Exam
Start studying now.
To maximize the odds of achieving a 5 on an AP exam, you should start studying about midway through the course. That means mid-schoolyear for a year-long course or mid-semester for a semester-long course. If your one-semester course is fall semester, you'll want to start reviewing the material a couple of months before the May exam.
Identify your study materials and what you need to know.
Start by identifying what you need to review. This would mean looking at the syllabus, the exam's tested concepts, and what you've gotten wrong on past assessments. If you aren't sure where to start, you should purchase a review book specifically for the AP exam.
Make a study schedule.
You'll want to create a realistic study schedule and stick to it. If you purchase a review book for your AP exam, split it into as many sections as you have weeks to prepare. Then, commit to completing a section each week. The further in advance you start, the less you have to do weekly. The closer to the exam you start, the more you have to do weekly. Be sure to plan for weeks when you can't study at all (if there are any, such as spring break).
Get feedback.
While multiple choice questions are right or wrong, it can be more difficult to determine the competency of your written response practice. Getting feedback from a tutor or your teacher, when available, can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your written response practice. Whether you can get human feedback or not, you should also look at the essay scoring rubric to see how your responses are being evaluated and what a 5 looks like.
Read examples.
Read example essay responses that have scored well, as well as those that haven't scored well. It's important you see examples and that you can identify the elements of those responses that make them exemplary or make them poor. How and where do the rubric criteria manifest? Sample free response questions, example essays, and corresponding essay scores can be found through College Board's AP Central.
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