Post 9 - Dear AP Psych Students

    I'd like to preface this letter by reassuring you that earning a good grade in AP Psych isn't difficult; however, you do need to earn it. The majority of the grades you'll receive are based on completion and diligence, so if you simply complete your work, you won't need to approach the classroom feeling stressed about an project or quiz. You may be tempted to test Mrs. Halfen's generously lax approach to due dates, but I'd suggest knocking out the assignments of each unit a couple days before the target deadline. Each project has the potential to help you learn more about Psychology and thus bolster your knowledge for vocab quizzes and, later, the AP exam. The best thing you can do in this class is to be proactive and genuinely try to engage with the material - which shouldn't be difficult with Mrs. Halfen as your teacher.

    Initially, I struggled in forming interest for the first couple of units. I was expecting to take personality quizzes or analyze people or do some fun psychology thing; I certainly hadn't anticipated memorizing the ways neurons fired or parts of the brain communicated. If you're like me, then don't worry, the more socially-oriented units come at the end of the year. However, I ended up really enjoying the projects for the more biological Unit 2, where I drew an entire carnival based on different hormones. Connecting each effect to a carnival ride helped me gain a deeper understanding of what had previously been intimidatingly long words that seemed too similar to each other to distinguish. Projects like these were the reason I was able to survive the vocab quizzes, as well as the reason I advise you to choose the mastery task that interests you over the one that seems like the least amount of work. Trust me, it will help both you grades and your AP score.

    However, not every unit project was as helpful as the chemical carnival. For Unit 8, we split into small groups and created presentations on types of personality disorders, and my group further divided the material by assigning each person to a specific disorder. I can elaborate about PMDD or PMS - just don't as me about anything else in the unit, because like most of my classmates, the onslaught of information in each presentation was difficult to pay attention to. I did the vocab, even though it was optional, so I roughly understood the unit, but I could feel the disparity in knowledge between unit 8 and the other units during the AP exam. It was not a good feeling. You may not experience this unit and the presentation project in the same way I did - in fact, hopefully you don't - but either way, I would suggest spending extra time on the vocab to solidify your understanding of the types of disorders and their treatments. On that note, I also urge you to spend your time the week before the AP test seriously. Psychology is one of the earliest tests, so it's likely to be your first AP test of the year. It isn't terribly difficult assuming you were productive in class, but don't waste your time goofing off or playing a kahoot that wasn't tailored for the AP test. If you do that, I needn't wish you luck for the class nor the test; you'll do just fine.