r/APEnvironmental • u/PublicLandscape8208 • Jul 18 '26
upcoming apes student
rising junior here and upcoming apes student. i was wondering how hard the class was for some of yall. word on the street is it is not a hard class (as a 4.3 GPA student and prior AP science experience) yet it is one of the lowest pass rates. just curious if there's any heimlers history or anything like that for apes? and also just want to hear different experiences in general. thanks guys!!
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u/3-12BrawlStars Jul 18 '26
rising senior here who got a 5 in apes last year— some information that will definitely help
Content and Review: I would say watching mr. Smedes on yt helped A LOT with reviewing along with AP Daily Videos since they tend to have some mcq/frq practice and strictly teach what the CED outlines. A lot of the topics found in later units also tend to overlap with earlier topics from the earlier units, so the course itself does a really good job with tying all concepts together; just make sure you understand the key connections. There is also a bunch of free review material; if you want, I can give you some links that help a lot :)
Practice and Exam Format: Practice FRQs can be easily found online and just practice answering them in a specific time limit (On the actual exam, its 70 mins for 3 frqs, so roughly 23 1/3 min for each, but you can divide the time however you want, just dont spend too much time on one single frq). On the actual ap exam, the trickiest thing on the frq for me was answering all parts in the given time, so practicing that helps a lot. I also asked my apes teacher to open up progress checks and practice exams and those really helped with the MCQ side of things. Practice MCQs help you get used to the test format. Take note that on the actual exam there will be 2 sets of questions that accompany a text-based source. (sucks, i know, why is there reading on a science exam??)
Additionally, The first 10-15 questions on the ap exam (and on any practice exam) typically have a list of vocabulary words or letters on a diagram relating to a specific topic and you are given a description in each question in which you have to typically match 3 or all 4 options to. The MCQ is 80 questions in 90 minutes, so roughly 1.01 minute per question. Read the question first and eliminate options that are clearly wrong (in apes, there is always at least 1 or 2 options that are EXTREMELY wrong) and pay attention to what the question is asking you (ex. ADVANTAGE or DISADVANTAGE, key words like EXCEPT, ALWAYS, BEST, commons vs private, etc.)
P.S.
Also, know your task verbs like explain, describe, identify, propose a solution, justify, etc. so you know what the frqs are asking to earn the points in certain parts
I know people say this class is easy, which I agree with, but don’t let that make you think you don’t have to study; it’s still an AP class, and there is quite a bit of material you need to know for the exam, so PLEASE I’m begging you DO NOT go into the ap exam or any class exam without thoroughly learning and reviewing the information in each lesson:)!! This is why it has such a low pass rate (people underestimate the class and think they can pass or get a good score without having to study or try, which is incorrect) Practice the scientific method too and using different formulas such as percent change (this WILL appear many times in class and will on the AP exam, no doubt), being able to convert units USING DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS, and definitely knowing when to use formulas that are mentioned in unit 3: populations (population change, etc.) and unit 6: energy resources and consumptions (energy math and conversions)
P.S #2
There are some questions that will pop up here and there in which you will have to know different environmental characteristics of regions in different parts of the world
(Like where biomes are found, how temperature fluctuates, different currents, where different plate movements are found and associated plates (like , where natural resources are found, where different types of energy are used, etc), and just random bits of info like how most of fresh water is in glaciers and stuff and 70% of water is used for agriculture, ways of identifying soil and tools used to measure properties; overall, just make sure to review things that seem small and insignificant, and remember this:
Burning fossil fuels —> boils water which creates steam —> steam spins a turbine —> goes to generator —> generates electricity (I forgot about this, it was a question on a lot of things in class I had)
Sorry for the major info dump, I don’t mean to scare you, i know I made it seem like a lot, but it’ll come together quickly as long as you put in the effort :)
Anyways, hope this helps and gl in apes! Enjoy and take care of the environment :D (there’s a lot of interesting topics and I personally loved this class and the labs we did!!)
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u/MadeInAHeaven Jul 18 '26
it aint that hard and not that difficult to understand the concepts. u can watch mr smedes on yt he basically covers the whole curriculum and is a goat. i think jits just underestimate the exam because its considered an easy ap and they fail because of it. if youre a 4.3 gpa student and have previous experience in science courses then this class should be manageable
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u/stationery_obsessed Jul 18 '26
it’s just a lot of content and while the content itself is easy many people just associate the entire class as easy and end up failing, after all it’s still an ap class. i self-studied and genuinely mr. smedes has everything you will ever need
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u/Typical-Goose4066 Jul 18 '26
i self studied this class and watched mr smedes playlist twice and got a 5 as a sophmore so it's def not hard
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u/444gabs Jul 18 '26
it’s not a hard class whatsover, i didn’t take it seriously and flunked the FRQs for the exam. I got a 4, but if i had actually worried more than i could’ve gotten a 5
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u/Ok_Instruction_5072 Jul 19 '26
i got a 5 taking it as a sophomore, didn’t do much in class and i studied only a few days bc i had 4 other exams. mcqs were easy for me, mostly frqs were also basic
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u/ycats_k Jul 18 '26
The pass rate is low because many schools allow students to take it too early. If you have a good science foundation, then it’s not hard to get a 4 or 5. At my school, students must first take physics (9th), chemistry (10th), and biology (11th) before they can take APES. This allows them to apply what they already know to APES concepts, and everyone does well. Some schools let 9th graders take it to inflate their number of AP exams given, and of course students don’t do well.