AP Classroom Resources

As you begin to prepare for your AP exams, you’ll need to consider which kinds of study tools will help you make the most of your prep time and help you meet your target score.

One of the most important study tools in your arsenal is the AP practice test. This is true no matter which AP exam you’re taking. There’s one major reason to use practice tests in your studying: so you become comfortable with the exam. The truth is that knowledge can only get you so far on AP exams—you need to be able to use that knowledge the way the College Board wants you to. If you’ve never looked at an AP question or written a practice essay, you could still be totally blindsided on test day simply because you’re confused by the way questions are written or don't know how to structure your essay.

There are three main ways AP practice exams can make your preparation process more effective:

1. Practice Tests Make You More Familiar With AP Format and Question Styles

2. Practice Tests Help You Identify Gaps in Your Knowledge and Skills

3. Practice Tests Track Your Progress Over Time

So where can you find the best practice tests? The College Board has the best AP practice tests. This is because they make the test! So their practice materials are going to be the most like the real test. You can even get old AP tests on the College Board website because they release complete exams every once in a while. There are three different official College Board sources you can look for:

1. Sample Questions From the Course and Exam Description: AP Course and Exam Description” booklet that includes AP practice questions for all sections of the exam.

2. Official Released Free-Response Questions: You can get released free-response questions and sample responses from many years back into the past. From the College Board’s AP exam information page, click on your desired exam; scrolling down will take you to the released free-response questions.

3. Complete Released AP Exams: Google the name of your exam with “previously released materials college board” or “complete released exams college board.” You should then be able to find the “previously released materials” page for your given exam.

With these tips in mind, you should be able to build a robust library of practice exam resources for your AP studying purposes!

AP Classroom

AP Classroom is a digital resource provided by College Board to schools that teach AP classes. It mainly includes ways for teachers to administer assessments online, such as progress checks, quizzes, and tests, and automatic student registration for AP tests. AP Classroom mainly is for AP test preparation. It’s a searchable test generator for teachers to use in conjunction with course instruction. AP Classroom’s test material resources work to reduce the use of paper, and also increase the amount of practice questions teachers can give students.

How to Join Your AP Classroom

Your AP teacher will give you a join code so you can join his or her class section online. You’ll receive a unique code for each AP class you’re taking and will need to enter each separately. If you’re only taking an exam without taking the corresponding course, the process will be the same, but you’ll get the join code from the AP coordinator.

Instructions

Get your join code(s).

Your AP teacher will give you a join code so you can join his or her class section online. You’ll receive a unique code for each AP class you’re taking and will need to enter each separately.

Sign in to My AP.

Use your College Board username and password to sign in to My AP (myap.collegeboard.org). This is the same login you use to access your AP scores, PSAT/NMSQT® scores, or register for the SAT®--or that you used to access My AP last year.

Choose to join a course.

Click the Join a Course or Exam button.

Enter your join code.

Enter the join code your teacher or AP Coordinator gave you and click Submit.

Check the course information.

Make sure the information that comes up is for the course you are taking. If it is, click Yes.

Fill out registration information.

If this is your first time joining a class, you’ll need to provide some additional information. You only have to do this once.

AP YouTube

The AP YouTube channel has hundreds of videos that contain content reviews of all AP classes offered from AP teachers around the country selected by College Board. There are several videos on every Advanced Placement class from AP World History to AP Calculus BC.

The videos are about 45 minutes on average, and usually range from 25 minutes to an hour. Many of the videos have a similar structure. The video starts off with a general topic that will be explained over the course of the video. Then there is some sort of warm up, for example an exercise to do, or a basic question. Many of these ‘warm-up’ questions are based on the previous video in the series for each AP class. The majority of the video contains content related to the topic presented at the start of the video, with free response questions integrated throughout. Because the questions are coming from College Board, they familiarize students with the type of questions that will be asked on the new AP exam.

You will find helpful that the videos go through rubrics and sample answers for each question so you know what to expect. The videos provide a good overview of the subjects and types of problems that will be on the test. Overall, students will benefit from AP level questions that are completely aligned to the College Board curriculum and AP exams. Until mock tests from College Board are released, the free response questions provided in these videos are the closest thing AP students have to a mock test.

Below are links to more information on the AP YouTube channel itself. Check back often for the new Daily Live video!

Khan Academy

College Board and Khan Academy have teamed up to revolutionize the way millions of students get ready for AP Exams. Get free world-class test practice and see improvements. Visit the Khan Academy to find courses in math, science, Computing, economics, and the humanities.

https://www.khanacademy.org/