OK, this is for the Juniors that are taking the AP European History exam this year and the ACT Exam. I'm offering some tips on dealing with these two tests. AP European History Exam Study for the exam. You may think you know everything, you actually might indeed know everything, but don't take any chances. During the 2 weeks prior to your exam, you should devote at least one full week (so that makes 7 days) to studying, going over your notes, and taking practice exams from that AP European History practice test book, for at least 1-2 hours a day. During those 7 days, your book should be your Bible. No time during the weekdays? Make sure you study a little extra on the weekends, then. On the exam, they seem to focus quite a bit on the 20th century. Make sure you study that in particular, because chances are the DBQ, or at least the free-response questions, will be 20th century Europe. That's what this site is for. Use it. A score of 3 is considered to be passing the AP course. However, many of the higher-level schools such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Loyola, to name a few local universities, will only credit you for a 4 or 5. That is why you must study for it, if you want to have that college credit guaranteed. During the multiple-choice portion of the exam, use the triage method: When you get to a question, if you look at it and see that it's one you can answer easy and fast, answer it right away and move on; If you get to a question that you're unsure or even clueless about, look at it and guess, then put a little mark by the question so that you know to come back to it once you're through with the easy questions Doing this guarantees that: You will be credited for the answers you were sure of and answered correctly You have time to get to all those easy questions and answer them The ones you guessed on, by sheer luck you may have gotten right and gotten credited for getting those answers You have time to check back on the ones you marked as unsure and think about them a bit more to see if you do know the right answer after all and change your guess DO THE DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION! ACT Exam Methods of studying for this test: Go over some of your math and science notes, and to review some of the basic concepts in grammar. There is no way to study for reading except to try and increase your reading time somehow by reading 6-8-paragraph segments of books and stories and essays that you don't already know by heart. Got another book to read for your English class? You can use that. That way you're spending your time well - you're prepping for the ACT Reading test and at the same time completing your reading assignment. Don't just read whatever segment you choose, of course. Consider what you got out of the story - what was its purpose, intent, meaning, what is each paragraph about? This way, again, you're prepping for the ACT and doing your analysis assignment at the same time. You don't have to sign up for an ACT Prep class. Usually, there are free ACT Prep books available by the counselor's office 3 months or so prior to the ACT Exam. Take one and read it on your own time. Pro's of signing up The teacher or advisor will assign you "homework" in the form of doing one of the prep tests for each section (usually there are 2 prep tests per section in the ACT Prep books). While you don't get graded for doing or not doing the assignment, it certainly motivates you to get it done and not slack off on it because then you have to do those tests. For the duration of the prep class (usually several weeks), you will have free access to the most-recent ACT Prep book. This means you get to read up on many strategies, tips and tricks, and do's and don't's, which I might not have available on this site. They explain these at length as well - something I won't do for the purpose of keeping things simple enough and as short as possible. Con's of signing up Especially for the IB kids, time is always an issue. IB teachers tend to give you big assignments such as big essays or projects all at once. It's not their fault, of course, that everyone else seems to be giving you projects, but it can get overwhelming, so it might be difficult to go to the prep class and get the school assignments done. Money. Some of the AP Prep courses, you have to pay for. At our school, I know that there is a free after-school class offered at the beginning of the year, and then again in the middle of the year. However, with the school's course, you must attend each and every day that your class meets, or else you pay a fine of $50. Why you must pay the fine? I don't know. But if you sign up, you have to commit for those 6 (if I recall correctly, last year I had 6 days that my ACT class met) days to stay after school. You take your ACT Exam at school on a specific day in late-April. However, unless they're changing things this year, they don't offer the Writing Test because it's optional. Well, remember one thing: when it comes to applying to college, "optional" usually means "recommended" or even "demanded/required". You will have the option to register for a re-take on a new test date almost immediately after that first time you take it in school. Do it. And make sure you register for "ACT Plus Writing", which is self-explanatory: you take the standard ACT and the Writing part. Colleges/universities are gradually making the Writing portion mandatory. Several, including Northwestern University, have already made it mandatory. Quite a few, including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have made it "recommended", meaning that if they get your ACT score without Writing and they get someone else's ACT who got the same score with the Writing, they will consider accepting that other person more than they'll consider you, because they actually took the time to do that Writing test. Have comfort in knowing that not all post-secondary schools require or even recommend it. Even some higher-level schools, like U of C, don't recommend or require it. Check the act websites - act.org and actstudent.org - to see a list of post-secondary schools and whether they require, recommend, or don't care about the Writing portion. Especially if you can get the fee waiver, apply for the re-take. That way you re-take it (I believe if you use the waiver, you have to take the Writing portion) without paying the full $43. Even if you can't get the waiver, then you should still apply to do the ACT Plus Writing. What's $43 if you have more chance of getting into your dream school? Even if you're satisfied with your score, apply for the re-take to do the ACT Plus Writing. If your dream school requires the Writing portion, then even a 36 won't get you in because you didn't fulfill that one measly little requirement. Apply for the earliest test date, so that you can get your score back early before the deadlines for the Early-Action or Early-Decision college applications. Also, having had applied for the earliest date allows you much more time to re-apply again and still get your score before the deadline in case you're not satisfied. Warning about re-applying: If you apply, then later decide that you don't really want to re-do it, you will not get your money back. You will get the $14 back for the Writing part, but you won't get the base fee of $29 back. So once you send in the application, just do it, because you already paid for it. Use the triage method: When you get to a question, if you look at it and see that it's one you can answer easy and fast, answer it right away and move on; If you get to a question that you're unsure or even clueless about, look at it and guess, then put a little mark by the question so that you know to come back to it once you're through with the easy questions Doing this guarantees that: You will be credited for the answers you were sure of and answered correctly You have time to get to all those easy questions and answer them The ones you guessed on, by sheer luck you may have gotten right and gotten credited for getting those answers You have time to check back on the ones you marked as unsure and think about them a bit more to see if you do know the right answer after all and change your guess Chances are, the AP European History Exam will come the week after the ACT Exam, so it might be stressful. But if you prepare and use the tips and tricks I offered here and that the Prep books offer, you'll do just fine. And remember: aim for a 4 on the AP exam and apply for the ACT Plus Writing as early as possible!