Jiazheng Chen
Most students who lose points on the AP® Psychology free-response section know enough psychology. They lose points because they don’t know exactly what readers reward: a design feature named when the question asked for a research method, statistics reported but not interpreted, an ethical guideline the study never mentioned, evidence repeated instead of explained, or the same concept used twice when the rubric demands two different ones. Practice to Mastery: Decoding AP® Psychology Free Response Questions shows you where every point comes from, then makes you practice until earning it is a habit.The book covers both questions on the current exam. The Article Analysis Question (AAQ) is drilled part by part, A through F: identifying the research method, stating an operational definition, interpreting a statistic, naming an ethical guideline and how it was applied, judging generalizability, and explaining how a finding supports or refutes an idea. The Evidence-Based Question (EBQ) is broken into its five scoring points, with the heaviest attention on the two reasoning points that cost students the most: explaining how evidence supports a claim, and applying a different psychological concept correctly to each source.Inside you will find:18 full Article Analysis Questions and 16 full Evidence-Based Questions, each fully decoded or followed by a complete answer check74 targeted drills on reading research summaries, single AAQ parts, planning an EBQ argument, individual EBQ points, ethics, and reasoningDecoded examples with original full-credit, mid-range, and low-credit responses, annotated sentence by sentenceTwelve error codes that name the ways students lose points, with an Error Tally at the end of every chapterA toolkit: research methods and statistics at a glance, ethics cards, a concept bank of 151 course concepts with model sentences that apply them to evidence, and a reasoning ladder with look-alike pairsThree complete timed free-response sections with score sheets and a code-to-chapter guide for targeted reviewEvery check gives a rubric, acceptable answers, the most common ways students lose each point, and a Score Yourself checklist. EBQ checks give at least two claims that take different positions and several usable concepts for every source, so you learn to build more than one full-credit answer.Every study summary in the book is an original fictional study written for practice and labeled that way. The summaries follow the structure of the summaries on the exam, the direction of each result agrees with established findings in psychological science, and the numbers in each study are internally consistent. Concepts follow the AP® Psychology Course and Exam Description.Written for students preparing for the AP® Psychology Exam and for teachers who want classroom-ready free-response practice. Use it alongside Practice to Mastery: AP® Psychology Workbook and Practice to Mastery: AP® Psychology Practice Exams.AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
