Standardized Test

Reflections after 4 AP tests

My Predicted Score after I take those tests
AP Computer Science AB: 5
AP Statistics: 3 or 4
AP Calculus BC: 3 or 4
AP Chinese Language and Culture: 5

Mistakes I made before the test:

  1. Chose to take AP Statistics because everyone in school tell me it is so easy. A week before the AP test, the same people are complaining how hard the materials are.
  2. Start to study for the APs 1 week before it starts. Which leave me only 2 days to work on AP Calculus because AP Statistics used up more time than I expected. I only had chance to comprehend and master Calculus AB material, I did not have time to practice for the BC material.
  3. Sleep Deprived
  4. Did not made plan about special incidents. For example, I left a week for me to study. It would be enough and I could get 4 or 5 on the BC if unexpected events did not happen. I was forced to clean the lawn(total of 3 hours, enough for me to go over 2 sections and does all the practice questions for them). I cannot concentrate in school. After I realized that, I skipped school. but again, at least 3 hours was wasted due to school.
  5. I did not get familiar with my TI 89. I'm using 83+ after it was returned to me all the time except 1 day before the test.

Mistakes I made during the test:

  1. I eliminated answers and I'm suppose to guess one answer, but I tell myself to check back when I have time. I didn't have time so I didn't make the guess thats going to benefit me.
  2. Not reading the question right
  3. Did not recognize well known identities. For example, this is an variation of the AP Calculus BC question(I can't disclose the original one)
    What does this series converge to?
    1+ln(3)+\frac{ln(3)}{2!}+...+\frac{ln(3)}{n!}+...
    This question took me over 1 minute.
    First, I recognize it's a Taylor series, but I remembered the Taylor series equation wrong(due to lack of sleep and little practice). When I recognize I got the Taylor series equation wrong, I found another way to look at it. I expressed it in the summation form
    \sum_{n=0}^\infty{\frac{ln(3)^n}{n!}}
    and it's very familiar to me that
    \sum_{n=0}^\infty{\frac{x^n}{n!}}=e^x
    not because of calculus, but because of the proof of Euler's identity.
    Of course, now looking at it, I should be able to recognize the all degree of derivative is always 1 means it must e^x.

After Thoughts:

  1. I should leave myself some more time to study
  2. Don't just believe in what people(even if a lot people says that) say about something, I need to investigate myself.
  3. There are always assumptions in my plan that doesn't work. I should give me some more space so even if some assumption was wrong, I still have enough time to finish it.
  4. I'm still happy. At least I currently know how good I am.
    I know how hard is the AP calculus BC test. Since I know everything in the test, I know what exactly each question is talking about and I know what exact technique is required to solve it. The only reason I failed is I forget how to apply a technique(Euler's method. I did the day before hand), and I know how to apply a technique but I'm too slow(I forgot the formula for left Riemann sum and used some time to draw pictures and find the formula) and eventually make me chose to skip them and do the other ones instead.
  5. Actually, for all of my math tests in US, I never study for them. I never practice for my math tests. I always just understand the material, and derive the formula during the test. I'm not the first one to finish math tests in my class because of that reason. AP Calculus BC is one of the test that make this technique fail. There is simply not enough time for me to derive all the formulas, the test covers so much material. Compare to normal math test I take at school, there is only 1 chapter each time, only 1 or so formula I have to figure out. I did fast and great on the ones where I remember the formula, and failed the rest.
  6. Ads on Facebook is so retarded. Can't it figure out who is male or female?
  7. Wow, check out the synonyms. Wiktionary have a long way to go...

Hope I get a 4 on calc.
Damn you Alex, you got a 5 on your freshman year!

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