AP Calculus

Helpful Links:

AP Central Calculus Homepage with links to everything you would want to ever know:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/2178.html

Course overview and goals link:

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-calculus-ab-course-overview.pdf

This is the link to all the past AP exams free response section 10 years back!

Practice, Practice, Practice:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/1997.html

AP Test Taking Advice:

1. Work as many problems as possible. That's the only way to prepare for the AP exam.

2. Keep in mind that the time allotted to these exams is not expected to be time that students use "figuring out how to work problems." The problems are all fairly standard calculus question. I can't remember seeing anything surprising on these exams. In general, the repeating primary thought that should be going through a student's mind as they move from one problem to the next on the exam is "I know how to do this." The response needs to be immediate, and that will only come through practice.

3. Don't freak out when you encounter problems that you cannot answer immediately. AP exams are not scored the same way that standard exams are scored. The top score is 5, and you don't need to get anywhere near 90% to get this score! You can miss many problems and still get a 5, so relax. Don't worry about not knowing how to work a problem. Just move to the next problem.

4. (Related to 3) Move quickly through the exam, working problems that you know how to work, and skipping ones that you don't. You can come back to those later.

5. Be careful when you input answers on the multiple choice portions of the exam.

6. You don't need to be a calculator expert. The primary calculator tools that you need are graphs, points of intersection, numerical derivatives, and numerical integrals.