AP Statistics: Tips and Tricks for Success!

I talk about my journey and all the resources that helped me study for the AP Statistics exam. Which ones are helpful, and which ones aren't all that effective? Learn more here.

7/31/2022
3 min
Algebra I might help

Introduction

On May 2022, I took the AP Statistics exam. It was the first AP exam I ever took, which is why I was very delighted to get a 5 on the exam! I wanted to tell people about my experience with this post and help anyone who’s thinking about taking it.

AP Statistics is a lesser known course, but I would still recommend anyone who likes math take it. While it isn’t as “mathy” as something like AP Calculus BC (in fact, the only prerequisite you need is some basic algebra), it’s very useful for the world, which requires big data (and statistics is a great foundation). Statistics can also help you understand more about experiments, which is great if you’re reviewing any research paper of any sort (e.g. if you want to know more about COVID 19 or monkeypox or any other disease).

My Experience-

If you want to write AP Stats, you should make sure you’re precise with your wording on the FRQ’s (as there are many ways to mess up when making a conclusion on a hypothesis) and put down every thing that might be of relevant importance, as the free response questions puts a lot of emphasis in mentioning certain words or certain ideas, and you can lose quite a few marks because you didn’t include a certain word.

AP Stats also tells you what free response questions you need, and it covers a little bit of everything.

How I Studied + Advice

Much like AP Calculus BC, I started studying in the middle of April. Don’t do this (try to read in advance and get it done by the end of March). Also, unlike AP Calculus BC, you can start without the last 2 units: chi square testing and inferences for linear regressions. While you should try and learn them on the go, they don’t appear that much on the test (2-5% weighting for both), so you won’t waste as many questions.

At the very beginning, I would recommend you use your textbook for problems (my textbook was AP Stats: Modeling the World). The textbook I used does a great job explaining here, but you might still run into problems (I had trouble with the “sampling distributions” unit and the entire concept of using the normal model to estimate the true proportion of a sample for a while).

The problems on the textbook are very high quality. You should also practice using your TI Calculator as you’re going to need it to do many things (e.g. let’s say you’re given 30 data values and you’re asked to describe the shape, centre and spread. You need your calculator to graph them). Here are some useful calculator tips:

I would recommend checking the AP Classroom videos as they explain things quite clearly.

You can also save a lot of time making notes. This site contains good notes.

You can find AP Statistics exams at edufilestorage.com. Much like most other AP exams, the free response questions are harder than multiple choice. Make sure to focus on all the mistakes you do and what key ideas you’re missing out of your answers.

If you need additional practice, you can use CrackAP.com as they have multiple choice and free response problems.

While you get a formula sheet on the actual exam, https://www.wlwv.k12.or.us/cms/lib8/OR01001812/Centricity/Domain/2064/Review%20AP%20Stats.pdf covers some things that aren’t on the official formula sheet (explains what the variables are) and is helpful for reviewing some terms you don’t know about.