By Lili Metanovic and Mason Vargas
AP Psychology is a fun and fast-paced class where you learn how the brain works and why people think, feel, and act the way they do. To do well, you should stay organized, keep up with your notes, and review vocabulary regularly. Try to connect what you’re learning to real life—like why you might get nervous before a test or why you have the tendency to do certain things. Take practice quizzes, study a little every day instead of cramming (I know, boring), and focus on really understanding the concepts. Something we cannot stress enough is making study groups to verbally review with. Verbal review is important in psychology because saying concepts out loud helps strengthen memory and makes it easier to explain ideas clearly. Talking through terms and examples with others also helps you catch mistakes and understand the material more deeply. A big part of the class is the AP Exam. Throughout the year, it’s important to make sure you’re studying efficiently for your tests as it’ll make studying for the AP exam less arduous. The exam requires you to memorize lots of content, consisting of terms, theories, concepts, etc., and developing a stronger grasp of the course’s content allows you to have better ability towards retrieving knowledge for the exam. We found utilizing your unit packets to be very useful as it allows you to review the earlier units you may need some extra time on. Overall, a mixture of individual review and discussing concepts and partaking in verbal review helps to strengthen your knowledge and aids your ability to explain the course’s contents in an easier manner. AP Psychology is one of the most interesting classes a high school can offer. Make the most of your high school years and take this class!