This post is officially the smartest thing we've ever read, and we officially didn't understand any of it. Sunwave, you should work for NASA.—Sparkitors
If you’re anything like me, you’re starting to panic that the AP exams are only a few weeks away. Not to worry, though, because I’ve put together a guide for AP Chemistry that summarizes the entirety of the curriculum in a few super-fun bullet points!
Nowandforever136 knows you've got an A+ in you somewhere, and she's about to help you find it!—Sparkitors
So a bunch of people probably clicked on this post, right? I’m sure everyone wants to know the secret to acing tests, so here it is: (drumroll, please….)
Sparkler equestrienne10 has proven she can come up with smart, interesting posts, and fast! We'd take her advice on AP Exams—she knows what she's talking about. —SparkNotes editors
It’s almost May, which means it’s time for the Kentucky Derby, the Stanley Cup playoffs, my birthday, and oh yeah, AP exams. I’ve taken AP exams for three years now, so for all of you just beginning the torture, here’s how to stay sane:
As a test prep tutor, I hear lots of complaints about the SATs. The test is too long, the reading passages are the most boring things ever, and those huge test prep books—who could ever make it through all those pages and pages of long explanations and reviews in tiny print before you get to the practice tests?
Believe it or not, reading the review material in your test prep books can be very helpful. Since the books themselves don't do you any favors by making the material visually stimulating (the most you can hope for on a page are a few bullet points to break up chunks of text), it's up to you to make the important material stand out a little more. Here are a few ways to do so (assuming those test prep books belong to you and not the library, of course):
If you read this blog regularly, you know that we're fans of keeping a planner, making a homework schedule, and working ahead so that you always have plenty of time to finish assignments and prepare for your big tests.
But we also know that doesn't always happen. In fact, some of you are die-hard procrastinators. Maybe you love the adrenaline rush that kicks in when you have to write a 5-page paper in one night. Or you always mean to start your work early, but for some reason you don't. Or maybe you just think that a good night's sleep is overrated. In the end, it doesn't matter what reason you have for procrastinating. The fact is that time is running short, you've got a project due or a test to take in a few hours, and you are stressed. Here are a few tips to help you get through it:
We recently introduced a few active reading strategies to help you focus on mind-numbing reading passages. These strategies include asking questions, summarizing, and marking up passages. These strategies will help you out on any test, but Sparkler nap_attack offered the following suggestion for getting through a boring textbook reading:
If you're trying to read a textbook instead of a standardized test, read aloud using funny voices. You'd think that this would distract you and you would remember nothing that is being read, but it mysteriously works, for me at least. But do not try this during the SAT or you will probably get kicked out.
Despite your best intentions, your study efforts can occasionally get derailed. This might be all your own doing. After all, no one forced you to read Axe Cop for two hours instead of preparing your presentation, right? And if you're a consistent procrastinator, we've got some suggestions for you.
But there are certain types of friends that tend to drag down your studies. Let’s take a look at some of the usual suspects and ways to cope.
Today, we're wrapping up our discussion of the seven types of SAT reading comprehension questions by taking a look at words-in-context questions. These questions test your ability to determine how a word is being used in a specific sentence. A typical context question might ask you "which of the following is closest in meaning to the word" or say "this word could best be replaced by..."
Let's suppose you just finished reading a passage about the modernist writer Gertrude Stein. A sentence in the passage reads, "Stein's early poems were an attempt to put the principles of modernist painting into concrete form." The question regarding that sentence might look like this:
This helps, but I've noticed that all my tutors just restuff the info in my head and don't introduce "Techniques" as such. My grades are satisfactory, but I'm getting nowhere, so I have tutors. But with tutors, my grades seem to be gettin WORSE =(
=(, indeed, AishwaryaCullen. Tutors exist to improve your grades, not to make them worse, right? So I'm guessing that your problem is you haven't found the right tutor.
