if you're taking the AP environmental science exam this year you've come to the right place in this video I'm going to cover everything that you need to know about the Apes exam and share a study plan that you can use to review all of the content and practice all of the skills that you'll need to pass that exam so let's get right into it the 2024 Apes exam will be on May 9th at 8:00 a.m. local time first will be the multiple choice section which will make up 60% of your overall exam score there will be 80 questions with four answer options each and you'll get 90 minutes to answer them all if we take a look at the course and exam description we can even see a breakdown of the different types of McQ questions that you can expect to see on the exam you can see that by far the two biggest categories are concept explanation and environmental solution questions and what's nice about this is these are usually pretty straightforward do you know your stuff questions and as a quick side note I think that this straightforward nature of the Apes exam is part of the reason that chat GPT 3.5 was able to do better on that exam than any other standardized test that researchers gave it even more so than in other AP subjects doing well in the Apes exam really really comes down to reviewing as much of the course content as you can now after the McQ portion of this exam you'll have a 10-minute break and then it's on to the frq section before we go into the frq structure we need to have the context that this section is the Achilles heel of ape Scholars every year in the words of the Pac-Man himself low performance on the F frq section is what holds so many students back from passing this exam but it doesn't have to be if you use the study plan in this video you can make sure you're writing highquality F frqs by exam time and that you don't miss out on a p passing score in terms of structure the F frq section has three separate F frqs each with 10 possible points and you'll have 70 minutes to answer them now before we get into the specific structure of each of these three F frqs it's really important to establish two critical pieces of strategy on the F frq section the first piece of strategy is to find and answer the easiest questions on each frq first and I'll show you what I mean by this on this frq you could earn one point for seeing that there are more successful turtl nests in location a than location B and you could also earn one point for a complicated explanation of the conversion of mercury into methyl Mercury by microbes and Aquatic ecosystems in other words one of these points is extremely easy to earn and another one of them is really really tough to earn if you answer the easiest questions first you'll be the least fatigued and least likely to make a simple mistake that cost you a point that you should otherwise earn you also build a little confidence knowing that you've established a base of a couple points on each frq before you go on to the more challenging questions trust me I've graded thousands and thousands of f frqs for the college board over the past four years and on every frq there's two to three questions that very few students earn if you can pick out these really tough questions and save them for last you'll be making sure that you invest your limited mental time and energy on the questions you have the highest chances of earning now the second really important piece of frq strategy is that you have to be able to do the types of calculations that you'll see on the third frq if we look at the frq section exam waiting we can see that the two biggest categories are Environmental Solutions and mathematical routines six out of the 30 points or 20% of the points on the frq section will be math-based and if you know how to do these types of problems you're likely to see here these are relatively easy points to earn and I can't stress this enough it's incredible how many students completely skip the calculation questions altogether and it's so bad that the chief reader report published by the college board has explicitly asked teachers to help their students practice the math they need to do on the exam because so many students wrote quote I don't do math in their answer booklets now I don't want to come across as math shaming here I know that especially under a time setting of an exam math can be really intimidating but the good news is that even if you struggle with it I promise that you can become confident with these simple types of calculations that you know you'll see on the frq section of the exam if you check out this math review video that I put together it will teach you how to do all the types of calculations that you might see on the frq section of the exam if you practice them enough and check your answers with the worksheet in that video description you can turn the math questions on the F frq section from something to dread into six easy points now that we've talked about the importance of the F frq section and gone over a couple strategies let's take a look at the exact format of the three different F frqs that you'll see on your exam we know that question one will involve an experiment or scientific investigation and that four to five of the 10 points will directly relate to that experiment you'll most likely have to identify a scientific question or a hypothesis and possibly the variables groups or constants for the experiment you'll probably also be asked why the researchers did something that they did in the study and how the results might differ if they were repeated under different conditions question two will focus on an environmental problem and it will probably include some sort of stimulus like a graph or map there will be a couple easy identify points related to that stimulus and then there will be a few questions related to a possible solution to the environmental problem now you should also be prepared to give an unintended consequence or an additional benefit of the solution that you proposed and question three will focus on a set of calculations most likely three related math problems each worth two points one for the correct setup and one for the correct answer now that we've gone over the format and the waiting of each of the exam sections let's review the four keys to passing the Apes exam that this study plan is going to guide you through first the McQ portion of the exam is pretty straightforward and to do well you really need to spend time reviewing all of the content covered on the exam second environmental solution questions make up nearly a quarter of both sections of the exam so you really want to focus your content review on problems and solutions third the frq portion of the exam has a really straightforward and predictable format which means you can really hone in on which parts you struggle with and which parts you excel at and fourth the types of math problems on the frq section are also really predictable and with a few hours you can Master them so with these four key takeaways in mind let's take a look at the study plan that you can use to be totally ready for this Apes exam first off with the straightforward nature of the McQ portion of the exam your number one goal should be to review as much of the content as you can with 99 topics to get through you want to start as early as possible now I know not everyone will be watching this video right when it comes out so I put together eight six and 4we versions of the study plan that can help you cover all 99 topics before the exam but it's not as simple as just reviewing or covering all of this content you can't just watch videos or reread your notes and expect to recall that information when it comes time for the exam you have to store this information in your brain using a technique called active recall this means taking an information from a review book or a review video and then recalling that information on your own and ideally writing it down think of this active recall like weightlifting for your brain when you go to the gym and you want to build muscle you have to pick the weights Up Lift them and set them down over and over again you can't just roll them around on the floor or look at them and expect to gain any strength and just copying down information straight from a review video or from your textbook is kind of like just rolling the weights around on the floor you're just moving the information from the screen or the page into your notes you're not actually picking it up lifting it balancing it and learning how to manipulate it and just watching a video or reading a source of information without any active recall is even worse that's like looking at the weights on the rack or watching someone else lift weights and then going home and calling it a workout learning is supposed to be a little bit strenuous so when you're reviewing for this exam it should feel tough to accurately recall all of this information you should be working up a mental sweat you'll probably be failing to recall some of the information that you need to and need to go back to your review book or review video and then try recalling it again but in order to do active recall well it's important to have a quality source of open-ended active recall style questions practice mcqs like the ones in the ultimate review packet or AP classroom or your textbook are an okay resource to use some of the time but you shouldn't rely on multiple choice questions alone as your review method practice mcqs are sort of like lifting weights using the machines sure you do have to recall the correct information but you have this structure and these possible answers to pick from kind of guiding your process you don't really have to balance the weight or the information or work on the form that you're using you're just pushing or pulling the information and letting the structure of the McQ guide you you really want to make sure that the bulk of your review is active recall using open-ended questions these could be the study guide questions in the ultimate review packet or a study guide that your teacher gave you or it could be pulling up the mini frqs at the end of each video on this channel or even just going to AP Central and pulling up old released exam frqs what all of these methods have in common is that they require you to pull information out of your brain and format it into sentences in order to answer a prompt instead of having an McQ structure to guide you and give you possible answers to select from you actually have to sift through your brain find where that information is stored bring it to the front of your brain and then use it to answer a question so if we take a look at this study plan you'll see that in addition to reviewing content each day you need to practice answering open-ended questions like the mini frqs or the ultimate review packet study guides then when you get to the end of reviewing a unit you want to try a fulllength f frq and maybe some practice mcqs from the urp or some other resource and the nice thing about these fulllength f frqs is that I've done a video walkthrough of each one so you can check your answers and see how you did when you're finished if you take one thing away from this video it should be that reviewing as much of the content as you can with active recall is the number one way to improve your exam score but we can get a little bit more specific than this with an overarching frame that's going to help you focus on the content most likely to show up on the exam remember that key takeaway number two from the first portion of this video is that almost a quarter of the exam involves questions related to Environmental Solutions for every topic that you review try to keep in mind the related environmental problems and the possible solutions to those environmental problems and if you want some review sheets that will help you do just this check out the ultimate review packet for all nine units there are frame review sheets that will keep you focused on this theme of environmental problems and solutions you can print these sheets off and fill them out as you go through the study plan or you can complete them digitally and save them to your computer I also made a specific playlist of the 20 topics that the course and exam description indicates are most related to Environmental Solutions so if you don't have time to review all 99 topics reviewing these 20 topics might be really helpful since it's going to cover a broad range of Environmental Solutions which we know is about a quarter of the exam even though these first two keys will really help you on the McQ portion the exam remember that every year there are tons of students who don't earn a passing exam score because of the effort frq section so the third key to this study plan is to get really familiar and really comfortable with the three different types of F frqs that you'll see on that section of the exam now I'm not going to cover the structure of each of the three F frqs on the exam in this video but I did make a playlist that will cover the structure of each F frq in depth but the best way to get comfortable and familiar with the F frq section is to put on a 70-minute timer and write a full set of three released F frqs from the 2021 22 or 23 exam while you go make notes in the margin on which types of questions you really struggle with and which types of questions you find easier then go over the answers so you can score your frqs and identify your strengths and weaknesses once you know which of the three F frqs you struggle with the most and which subparts of that F frq you struggle with then you can watch the videos that I have breaking that F frq down and look for strategies to help you improve your score and from there it's right back to Step One of this F frq process which is writing another full set of released F frqs or if you find that it's one of the three F frq types that you're really struggling with you can just keep trying that type of f frq over and over again and this is really simple to do because for the 21 through 23 exam F frqs they're always in the same order one will always be experimental design number two will always be the environmental solution and number three will always be the math or calculation based question you can even try reading the chief reader report for the released F frqs that you wrote this will give you a sense for the trends that exam graders saw in student answers on that particular frq you'll learn about mistakes you can avoid like not being specific enough about government actions that can solve environmental problems you can also learn about content misconceptions that students had on the exam like the idea that increased use of groundwater leads to droughts the key to succeeding on the F frq section of the exam is getting really comfortable and really familiar with the format so that you know where your strengths and weaknesses are not only does this let you focus your limited time and energy on the points that you're most likely to earn but also gives you a sense of calm when you open that answer booklet believe me taking a deep breath opening the answer booklet and proceeding in the order of questions that you know you're most comfortable with will make a world of difference and this goes for Content as well not just the question style if you scan all three F frqs and one happens to be on a topic that you gave a class presentation or just finished a lab on start there since you'll probably have a better recall of that content on the other hand if there's a question on El Nino and L and that's the one topic you didn't study make sure you still at least answer those easiest two to three questions on that frq and then Circle back to the rest of it if you have time at the end and whatever you do do not entirely skip any of the three F frqs on every frq there's usually at least two to three points that you have a really high chance of earning no matter how unprepared you feel for that topic and speaking of not skipping entire F frqs that brings us to key number four which is to make sure that you can do the type of math you know you'll see on that third FR frq as they say only three things in life are certain death taxes and three math questions on the third fq of the Apes exam well except for 2020 but let's not go there remember that if you're not confident with the types of calculations you're seeing on the released F frqs from the 21 through 23 exams you can check out this video I made that teaches you how to do all the types of math questions you might see there's also a link in the description of that video that will take you to practice questions that go with the video so you can make sure you're comfortable with each type of calculation all right ape Scholars that is the complete study guide for passing the 2024 Apes exam now I can't promise that you'll pass your exam but if you start at least 4 weeks out and use this plan a review I think you'll dramatically increase your chances of earning a three four or five and if you're a little tardy to the party and it's more like a few weeks or a few days before the exam make sure to check out these videos that I made with last minute study advice now I know AP exams can be stressful but I also know that with this plan you can be as prepared as possible to do your best which is all you can ask of yourself as always think like a mountain and write like a scholar