How to Study for AP Statistics: Tactics That Work

Studying for AP Statistics can feel very stressful at times. There is a lot to learn in just one year. In this article, I am going to talk you through my top tactics that I have used with my students to help them ace their exams.

Here are the techniques that I have found to actually work:

• Understand the exam and course description

• Condense your notes into smaller chunks

• Have a clear understanding of the different significance tests

• Know which formulas you are given and which you need to memorize

• Become best friends with your calculator

• Learn how to eliminate options from multiple-choice questions

• Learn how to write essentially correct answers to free-response questions

Understand the exam and course description

Your first step should be to study the Exam and Course Description document published by College Board. This states the learning objectives and essential knowledge for each topic within AP Statistics. Read my article, AP Statistics Units, to get a condensed overview.

I encourage my students to download a copy of the exam board document or print it out. Then, when they are studying a topic in class, I get them to find the description in the document and tick it off. The more you look at the document, the more familiar you will get with what is covered in the course.

Condense your notes into smaller chunks

If you are like me, you will have written down everything that your teacher said and kept every question that you have completed during the course. However, this is unnecessary! You learn more by actively doing something rather than reading through a set of notes.

Students tend to struggle to condense their notes as they are not sure what are the most important pieces of information. To help my students, I would tell them that they had a unit test the following week. I’d then give them a piece of paper and tell them they are allowed to write notes on one side of the paper, which could then be taken into the test. They soon got good at condensing notes!

If you struggle to condense your notes, then why not start with our concise study guides? You can train yourself by trying to condense all the study guides for a unit into a single side of letter-sized paper.

Have a clear understanding of the different significance tests

Not all topics are weighted equally in your exam. Between 33% and 55% of your total score will be based on sampling distributions and inference. Therefore, this should be a main area of focus when you are studying.

Deciding which significance test to use can be confusing, especially when you have a lengthy question. The trick is to learn the key differences between the tests. For example, you should know when to use a matched pair test and when to use a test for the differences in means of two populations.

A good way to learn the differences is to make a table showing the key features and assumptions required for each test. Once you know the differences, you can then look for keywords in the question. 

Know which formulas you are given and which you need to memorize

There are a lot of formulas in AP Statistics. I love trying to memorize formulas, but I struggle to remember all of them. Make sure you have a copy of the Formula Sheet and Tables; this can be found in the appendix of the Course and Exam Description by College Board.

You are given all the hard-to-remember formulas, such as the parameters of the sampling distributions. However, there are some smaller formulas that you are not given, such as the formula to identify outliers. Make sure you know which ones you are not given and memorize these. Equally, know which ones you are given so that you do not clog up your brain trying to remember them.

Become best friends with your calculator

You are allowed to use your calculator for all questions in the AP Statistics exam, so make sure you learn how to use it. Here are the key tasks that you should use your calculator for:

• Calculating statistics measures for data.

• Visualizing statistical graphs such as histograms and boxplots.

• Calculating the equation of the least-squares regression line.

• Calculating probabilities from a binomial distribution.

• Calculating probabilities from a normal distribution.

• Finding confidence intervals.

• Performing significance tests.

The focus of a lot of the questions, especially in the free-response section, is to make inferences about data. Therefore, get your calculator to do the heavy lifting in the exam so you can focus your brain power on interpreting the results.

Read your calculator’s manual to learn how to use it to its full potential. There are a vast number of tutorial videos on YouTube showing you how to use different models of calculators. Prioritize learning how to use your calculator alongside learning the knowledge for the test.

I encourage my students to use their calculators in every lesson so that they familiarize themselves with the different features. I would advise you to do the same when studying independently. Do not think of calculator skills as a separate topic to learn, incorporate calculator use when studying the other topics.

Learn how to eliminate options from multiple-choice questions

In your exam, you will have 90 minutes to answer 40 multiple-choice questions. That means you have just a little over two minutes per question. As well as learning the content of the course, you also need to learn exam skills to make sure you don’t run out of time.

If you can answer a question directly, then do it. If your answer appears as an option, then go with it! If you are unsure about a question or if it will take a long time to work it out directly, then try eliminating incorrect options. We have made some exam-aligned multiple-choice questions to help you practice.

In the classroom, when I gave my students multiple-choice questions, I would always ask them if they can spot the misconception related to each incorrect option. Try to practice doing this, as you will get better at spotting common distractors that the question writers include.

Learn how to write essentially correct answers to free-response questions

You might have mastered the knowledge; however, this is not enough to score top points in the free-response section of the exam. Each of your answers will be marked as ‘essentially correct’, ‘partially correct’ or ‘incorrect’. The more essentially correct answers you get, the higher your score will be.

To get essentially correct answers, you need to show your method. For example, if you use your calculator to find a probability using a binomial distribution, then you need to make that clear in the exam. Writing just the final probability will not get you all the points. You need to state the distribution and the inequality you are using.

Also, you need to relate your answers to the context of the question. The best way to learn how to write essentially correct answers is to read as many scoring guidelines for past exams as you can.

Summary

If you follow my top tactics, then you will ace your exams in May. Studying can be stressful, so do not be disheartened if you do not master a topic overnight; progress takes time. Study regularly and you will be sure to see an improvement. 

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References

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-statistics, AP Statistics College Board