Help Your Student Succeed

How to Help Your Student Be a Successful AP Student

1. Quiet structured study time

Help your child to establish a study routine by setting up a quiet study area and a consistent quiet study time nightly. The routine will help them practice good study habits for college. Should the study area be their bedroom or a family area, like the dining room? That depends on your household and your child. If your child is self-motivated and can work steadily without supervision, then a quiet desk space in their bedroom would work well. However, if their bedroom is equipped with distractions like a stereo or TV, then this might not be conducive to concentrating on homework and the family area may work better.

2. Work on your AP course(s) EVERY night

For your child to stay up-to-date in this course they need to spend some time on each of their AP courses every night. The ideal would be about 1-1.5 hours per night or approximately 7-11 hours per week. Depending on the course, this might include textbook reading, lecture review, lab or writing assignments, and test preparation. On weeks when they cannot devote as much time as needed on a weeknight, they should put in extra time on weekends to make up for it. On nights where they have minimal time, your child should at least review the day’s lecture notes and/or stay up on their reading.

3. Explore AP Central

Encourage your child to regularly check http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home as a starting point for great resources that will help them succeed in each AP course for which they are enrolled. AP Central has information about AP courses and tests, as well as practice exams and graded FRQs (free response questions).

4. Support Study Groups

Encourage your child to arrange a study group with other students in the class. Each student will have different strengths and weaknesses in this course. In one unit, your child will be the teacher to other students; in a different unit they will be the student. Putting two or more heads together is always beneficial. Students learn best when they have to explain concepts to someone else. Keep in mind, while study groups and cooperative effort are strongly encouraged; on final written work, all students are required to craft their own answers and must have a uniquely worded answer for each question.

5. Use a Lifeline

Encourage your child to ask for help. All our AP students have their teacher’s e-mail addresses and they can readily e-mail us for help at any time after school hours and we will make every effort to reply to them immediately. Do not allow them to feel like they are intruding, we are here to help them understand and learn to love the subject of each AP course as much as we do. Check with each teacher to see their specific email policy.

6. Don’t Panic! Stick with it!

Some parts of AP courses will come more easily than others. Encourage your child to work steadily and not to be discouraged. Success will build as they improve their critical thinking skills and their writing ability through practice. This is a college course and they are working on more than learning a specific subject; they are working on skills that they will use to succeed academically for years to come. Your child needs to work hard and work steadily and they will be rewarded in their course or courses!