APES Multiple Choice Hints Eric V. Muth Pell City High School

AP Grade1 No Recomm endation 2 Possibly Qualified 3 Qualified 4 Well Qualified 5 Extremely Well Qualified 2007 Global % Students 31.2% 17.6% 17.9% 22.9% 10.4% 2008 Global % Students 29.3% 17.4% 17.7% 24.2% 11.5% 2009 Global % Students 31.8% 18.6% 19.0% 20.6% 10.0% Overall Grade Distributions

AP Grade1 No Recomm endation 2 Possibly Qualified 3 Qualified 4 Well Qualified 5 Extremely Well Qualified 2010 Global % Students 32.0% 18.1% 17.0% 22.6% 10.4% 2011 Global % Students 25.1% 25.0% 15.6% 24.8% 8.7% Overall Grade Distributions 2012 Global % Students 25.6% 24.4%16.6%24.7%8.7%

Multiple Choice - # Questions Per Content Area (all figures rounded to the nearest 1/10 th ) Content Area w/ (% According to Course Outline) 2007 # Questions (% of Total) I. Earth Systems and Resources (10-15%) 13 II. The Living World (10-15%) 11 III. Population (10-15%) 14 IV. Land and Water Use (10 – 15%) 13 V. Energy Resources and Consumption (10-15%) 14 VI. Pollution (25-30%) 25 VII. Global Change (10 – 15%) 10 SECTION SUMMARY 100 (100%) 2008 # Questions (% total) 2009 # Questions (% total) (100%) 100 (100%)

Multiple Choice - # Questions Per Content Area (all figures rounded to the nearest 1/10 th ) Content Area w/ (% According to Course Outline) 2010 # Questions (% of Total) I. Earth Systems and Resources (10-15%) 13 II. The Living World (10-15%) 14 III. Population (10-15%) 11 IV. Land and Water Use (10-15%) 12 V. Energy Resources and Consumption (10-15%) 10 VI. Pollution (25-30%) 25 VII. Global Change (10 – 15%) 14 SECTION SUMMARY 100 (100%) 2011 # Questions (% total) (100%) 2012 # Questions (% total) (100%) 27

Performance on Multiple Choice (all figures rounded to the nearest 1/10 th ) Content Area w/ (% According to Course Outline) 2007 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) I. Earth Systems and Resources (10-15%) 5.9/13 (45% correct) II. The Living World (10-15%) III. Population (10-15%) 6.7/14 48% correct IV. Land and Water Use (10-15%) 6.3/13 (48% correct) V. Energy Resources and Consumption (10-15%) 5.5/14 (39% correct) VI. Pollution (25-30%) 9.7/25 (39% correct) VII. Global Change (10 – 15%) 3.4/10 (34% correct) SECTION SUMMARY 100 (100%) 5.3/11 48% correct 2008 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) 2009 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) 5.5/13 (42% correct) 6.2/12 (52% correct) 7.3/14 (52% correct) 4.3/10 (43% correct) 7.1/15 (47% correct) 11.1/23 (48% correct) 5.7/12 (48% correct) 100 (100%) 4.5/11 (41% correct) 4.5/11 (41% correct) 5.9/12 (49% correct) 6.1/12 (51% correct) 6.2 /14 (44% correct) 9.4/28 (34% correct) 5.2/12 (43% correct) 100 (100% )

Performance on Multiple Choice (all figures rounded to the nearest 1/10 th ) Content Area w/ (% According to Course Outline) 2010 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) I. Earth Systems and Resources (10-15%) 5.7/13 (44% correct) II. The Living World (10-15%) III. Population (10-15%) 6.7/11 61% correct IV. Land and Water Use (10-15%) 4.0/12 (33% correct) V. Energy Resources and Consumption (10-15%) 4.4/10 (44% correct) VI. Pollution (25-30%) 11.7/25 (47% correct) VII. Global Change (10 – 15%) 7.3/14 (52% correct) SECTION SUMMARY 100 (100%) 7.1/14 51% correct 2011 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) 6.3/12 (53% correct) 6.3/12 (53% correct) 5.4/10 (54% correct) 9.3/15 (62% correct) 7.2/13 (55% correct) 14.4/28 (51% correct) 6.4/10 (64% correct) 100 (100%) 2012 Global Mean Correct / # Questions (% Correct) 4.8/10 (48% correct) 8.4/12 (70% correct) 7.5/11 (68% correct) 6.3/11 (57% correct) 7.0/13 (54% correct) 14.9/27 (55% correct) 9.1/14 (65% correct) 100 (100%)

1.The Multiple Choice section of the AP Environmental Exam is 100 questions. 2. Time. They have 90 minutes to answer the MC section - Make sure you practice time limits with them.i.e. – I give all quizzes/tests/etc MC with a maximum of 1 minute per question. If you have a projector, you can put a giant countdown clock up. 3. Tell students to make sure to read ALL the answer choices before choosing an answer. Often times there are more than one correct answer…but there is a BETTER answer!

4. I don’t know all the answers…so I’m sure my students don’t either. The test is designed that way! There will be questions on the test that I never taught them and others that they just can’t remember. These are the ones they should skip and go back to at the end. They should only spend time on these after they have answered the ones they feel confident about. 5. The test typically gets easier as you go. According to ‘those’ that know, the first 50 are harder than the last 50. Some students like to go backwards.

Multiple Choice Hints: 6.Have students go through the entire test booklet circling all the answers they find the easiest and circle any questions that they think they know but might need to go back and spend some time thinking about. After they have done all the ones that they find easiest, then they should go back to the ones that they circled. Some may want to wait until this point to fill out their scantrons and it avoids getting off by skipping bubbles, yet others will run out of time or are just too OCD to do it this way. 7.If they have any time left over, they should go back to the ones that were really hard… usually ones that require some calculation and to see if there are any that they can figure out.

8.The students should check and make sure that they haven’t left any blank. 9.Students can write all over the test booklet, so instruct them to underline key words.. Words like “EXCEPT” or which is “NOT” the correct answer. This will help them to focus on what the question is asking. 10.You might tell them to cross out incorrect answers as they go so that they can narrow down the choices (process of elimination to improve their odds).

Multiple Choice Hints: 11. Tell them not to rush! They have 90 minutes to take the test. They will not get out early if they finish early (unless it is PCH!)… they must sit there until the 90 minutes are up. If they have time left over, they may want to go back and check answers to make sure they didn’t make a careless mistake. 12.AP test ?’s are 5 choices. 13. A large percentage of ?’s ask ‘which of the following?’

14. Use previous AP test ?’s or test generators that have AP-style questions with 5 choices  If you use a Thomson/Cengage book, the online version of the course is available to you and is the same version used by some universities for their online courses  The Miller test generator is 5 choices  Eduwizard has an APES data base  Daily warm-ups  Others?

Multiple Choice Hints: 15.Math Never let them use calculators! Practice long division, % increase/decrease, average, converting units, rule of 70, half-life