5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2014-2015 Edition (2013)

PREFACE

Welcome to the new edition of this test preparation book for AP Psychology. The book has been designed so that it is user friendly and employs the concepts psychologists know about learning and remembering to help you succeed. Each chapter begins with an advance organizer to help you understand the material. Smaller sections enable you to fit what you are learning into the framework of what you already know. Features that previous users found most helpful, such as the definitions in the glossary at the end of the book, questions very similar to those actually on the AP exam, and Rapid Review at the end of each content chapter have been retained.

If psychology were mainly common sense, as many people think, you wouldn’t need this book. You wouldn’t need to study either. In fact, many concepts in psychology are counterintuitive, the opposite of what common sense leads us to think. Actually, psychology is a real science with a substantial knowledge base. If you are currently enrolled in an Advanced Placement Psychology course, you know how much more than listening to people’s problems and analyzing them is included in the study of psychology, and you know how many hundreds of pages you need to navigate in a hard-covered course textbook. If you’re not enrolled in an AP course, you may need additional support to help you select material that is likely to be tested on the May exam. In either situation, you’ll benefit from this book which was created to help you study for the Advanced Placement Exam in Psychology®.

This book provides you with the information on which you need to focus for taking the Advanced Placement Exam in Psychology®, and gives you opportunities to practice answering AP-type questions. The multiple-choice questions count for two-thirds of your test score, and the essays count for one-third. While multiple-choice questions usually assess your understanding of one concept, essays test your understanding of numerous concepts and your ability to integrate information from more than one chapter. Practice in answering both multiple-choice and essay questions will help you do well on the AP exam. Read all of the material and answer all of the questions in all of the content chapters of this book, if you have enough time. Check your answers. Follow the study tips to help you learn and remember material you need to know. As the May exam approaches, take the two practice tests at the end of the book, and check your answers to see what you still need to learn. Since studying will help you succeed, it’s time to get started!