Now that it’s March, AP exams are only two months away (find the complete AP exam schedule at the College Board’s website). If you’re currently enrolled in an AP class, taking the AP exam in May is a great way to get college credit. However, many colleges have upped their requirements for awarding credit for AP courses, with some of the most prestigious colleges only giving credit for 5s — the top score — on the AP exam.
If you’re thinking you could use a little assistance preparing for your AP exams, AJ Tutoring is here to help! We offer a couple options for AP exam prep in 2015: group classes and one-on-one tutoring.
AP Test Prep Group Classes
AJ Tutoring offers group classes at our Palo Alto office for AP US History and AP English Language. Both the APUSH and the AP English Language prep classes are taught by our resident experts in the subjects, Dominic Booth and Emily Foster. Our group classes include 6-8 hours of classroom instruction as well as two full-length proctored practice AP exams.
For course schedules or to sign up for a class, please visit our AP exam prep page.
One-on-One AP Exam Tutoring
AJ Tutoring also offers private one-on-one tutoring for all other AP subjects. Each student meets with their tutor for 3 to 5 week
ly sessions leading up the AP exam in early May. During the sessions, the tutor focuses on timing and test-taking strategies appropriate for problem solving, essay writing, and multiple choice questions on the exam. The tutor will also review the student’s weaker content areas and potentially assign additional content review for homework (i.e. outlining important material or creating timelines). Generally, homework consists of full-length AP exams or 90-minute assignments relating to test-taking strategies or content review.
One-on-one AP tutoring students are also encouraged to take proctored AP practice tests at our Palo Alto office.
Changes to the AP US History and AP Physics Curriculum in 2014-15
If your student is currently enrolled in AP US History or AP Physics 1 or 2 (the replacement for AP Physics B), you may have heard that the AP curriculum for both courses changed significantly this year.
The AP US History course has been redesigned to focus on broader historical understandings. The College Board highlighted seven major themes: ideas, beliefs, and culture; America in the world; environment and geography; politics and power; identity; peopling and migration; and work, exchange, and technology. While students are still expected to have extensive content knowledge of American history, the course now focuses on fitting content knowledge into these major historical themes and finding causal connections between events. The AP US History exam has also been redesigned for 2015, with an increased multiple choice focus on interpreting sources, and new short answer questions.
AP Physics has also changed extensively, with the one-year AP Physics B course now split into a two-year sequence of AP Physics 1 and 2. AP Physics 1 covers Newtonian mechanics; work, energy, and power; and mechanical waves and sound. AP Physics 2 includes fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, optics, and atomic and nuclear physics. The AP Physics exams have been revamped accordingly, with more emphasis on deep conceptual understanding of physics and less emphasis on rote mathematical operations.
AJ Tutoring’s AP US History and AP Physics tutors are fully versed in the redesigned curriculum and AP exams, and we’ve created extensive proprietary material to assist students who are preparing for the first administration of these redesigned tests in 2015. If you have any questions about the AP changes or would like to sign up for tutoring, please give us a call at (650) 331-3251 or email us at info@ajtutoring.com. We’re looking forward to working with you!
