Get motivated! Begin your preparation for the AP Statistics Exam early by doing all of your homework on a daily basis. Doing “some” or even “most” of the work is selling yourself short of what you are capable of achieving. Manage your time and get all of your work done. You may find AP Statistics to be more a little more difficult than some other math courses you have taken, and there might be an adjustment period before you are achieving at a high level. Be patient and keep working!

Do all of the reading assignments you are assigned. If your instructor does not assign you to read this book or your textbook, take it upon yourself to do so. Not only will you learn the material, you will also strengthen your reading comprehension and your ability to write well, which is important on the free-response portion of the exam. It is imperative that you can read and interpret questions effectively in order for you to understand the information being given and what you are being asked to do for each problem. Discipline yourself to keep up with your daily work, and do the appropriate reading!

Review on a weekly basis. Even a few minutes a week spent reviewing the topics you have learned previously will help you retain the material that you will be tested on during the exam. If you do nothing else, study the glossary of this book, as it will keep your vocabulary of AP Statistics up to par. You might find it useful to review old tests and quizzes that you have taken in class. If you’re like most students, you are very busy, and you’ll need to really budget your time in order to review weekly and keep up with your daily work in this and other courses. It sounds easy enough, but again, it takes discipline!

The more you do throughout the course, the easier your review will be toward the end of it. Realize, however, that you’ll probably need to do a lot of review in the final weeks leading up to the exam. I recommend that you do “focused,” or “intense,” review in the last three to four weeks leading up to the exam. Don’t wait until two or three days before the exam. “Cramming” for an exam like the AP Statistics Exam is not a good idea. You will be tested on most if not all topics in some way, shape, or form. Again, keep up with whatever your teacher or instructor throws your way.

You should know and understand everything in this book to the best of your ability. Read it and study it! Try to go back after you have read the material and do the example problems on your own. As mentioned earlier, know the glossary. It will help you know and understand the terminology of AP Statistics. Get help on any topics that you do not understand from your instructor.

Do as many “released” exam problems as you can from the College Board’s website. Your instructor may have you do these for review, but if not, get on the website and do as many problems as you can. There are free-response exam questions there from as far back as 1997, and you’ll have plenty to choose from. This will give you a good feel for the type of problems you should expect to see on both the multiple-choice and free-response portions of the exam. You will also find it useful to read through the grading rubrics that are given along with the problems. Doing these “released” free-response questions will help you understand how partial credit works on the exam. I do, however, think it’s more important to understand the concepts of the problems that are given and what the grading rubric answers are than how many points you would have gotten if you had answered incorrectly. But it’s still worth a little time to think about how you would have scored based on your answer and the grading rubric.

Making your review for the AP Statistics Exam something you do early and often will prevent you from having to “cram” for the test in the last couple of days before the exam. By preparing in advance, you will be able to get plenty of sleep in the days leading up to the exam, which should leave you well rested and ready to achieve your maximum potential!

As you are reviewing for the AP Statistics Exam, it’s important that you understand the format of the exam and a little about the grading. Knowing the format of the exam, reading this book, and doing as many old AP Statistics Exam questions will have you prepped for success!

The AP Statistics examination is divided into two sections. You will have 90 minutes to do each section. The first section is the multiple-choice section of the exam, which consists of 40 questions. The second section of the exam is the free-response portion of the exam and consists of 6 questions. The scores on both parts of the exam are combined to obtain a composite score.

The multiple-choice portion of the exam is worth a total of 40 points but is then weighted to 50 points. The score on the multiple-choice section of the test is calculated by using the following formula:

[Number correct out of 40 − (0.25 × Number wrong)] × 1.2500 = Multiple-Choice Score

The adjustment to the number of correct answers you receive makes it unlikely that you will benefit from random guessing. If you can eliminate one of the choices, then it is probably to your benefit to guess. If you cannot eliminate at least one choice, do not guess; leave it blank.

The free-response portion of the exam is graded holistically. For that reason, it is to your advantage to try every question, if possible. Even if you don’t fully understand how to answer the question in its entirety, you should still try to answer it as best you can. Scores on individual free-response questions are as follows:

The AP readers (graders) grade free-response questions based on the specified grading rubric. If the question has multiple parts, each part is usually graded as “essentially correct,” “partially correct,” or “incorrect.” Then, depending on the rubric, you will earn a 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 for that particular question. Each score in the free-response question is weighted. Problems 1–5 on the free-response contribute 7.5 percent each to the maximum possible composite score, and question 6 contributes 12.5 percent. It is usually recommended in the directions of the free-response questions to spend more time on question 6 because it is worth more. Question 6 is considered an “investigative task” question and will probably require more in-depth thinking than the first five questions. Typically, you will be instructed to spend about 25 minutes on question 6. That will leave you with about 65 minutes to do the first 5 questions, which is about 13 minutes each.

Once both parts of your test have been graded, a composite score is formed by weighting the multiple-choice and free-response sections equally. You will not be given your composite score. Instead, you will receive an AP Exam score based on the following 5-point scale:

Don’t worry too much about how the score is calculated. Realize that there are 40 multiple-choice questions that you must get done in 90 minutes and use your time accordingly. Don’t spend a lot of time on a question that you find really difficult. Move on to the other questions and then come back to the difficult question(s) if time permits. Remember, if you cannot eliminate any of the choices, leave the answer blank. Also realize that you have 90 minutes to complete the free-response section of the exam. I recommend reading all six free-response questions quickly and starting with the one you think you have the best shot at answering completely and correctly. Be sure to read each question very carefully before you actually begin the problem. You don’t want to invest a lot of time working on a problem and later realize that your answer doesn’t really answer the question at hand.

Make no mistake about it: The AP Statistics Exam is tough. You need to be ready. By reading and studying this book, doing your daily work on a regular basis, and doing old AP Statistics Exam questions, you will be properly prepared. Remember, the exam is designed to be tough, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t know how to answer every single question. Do your best! If you work hard at it and take it seriously, you’ll leave the exam feeling good about yourself and your success. Good luck!