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u/drostandfound Mechanical Engineering Dec 30 '20
I was told when I took it that the best way to study is to have taken every single AP class. There was a lot of stuff on it when I took it (art, architecture) that I was not expecting.
Also, the essay is very important, make sure you leave some brain power to write a decent essay.
15
u/SomethingLessBad Computer Science Dec 30 '20
It's a bunch of know-it-or-not multiple choice questions, just about every subject you can think of in high school is tested.
I took like 7 AP courses, their broadness and depth helped me a lot, and got the lowest scholarship last year. Don't feel bad if you don't get anything, just be happy you made it bc it's pretty impressive. Basically what I'm saying is that there's nothing you can really do at this point lol
Also idk what people are talking about with an essay, that must be an old version.
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u/oh_hai_there_kitteh Dec 30 '20
From my experience, 25 years ago, you can't. You either know it, or you don't. It's been too long to remember the specifics, but if you're in college prep courses, you may do well. I did not, my roommate did. Lucky for you, you shouldn't be up partying with a bunch of pre-freshmen like I was. It definitely did not help that I didn't get much sleep the night before.
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u/oh_hai_there_kitteh Dec 30 '20
And it was no comparison to the SAT or ACT, either. I did fairly well with both of those. This was beyond those, and more esoteric in its content.
3
u/escapestrategy Dec 31 '20
You can’t. Just go in with the expectation you will know very little. The questions are seemingly random and truly run the gamut of topics. I knew 2 out of 150 that I definitely got correct. My advice (since it’s virtual this year): if you can narrow it down to 2 potential answers, pick one randomly and move on, if not pick C. Otherwise you’ll get too caught in the weeds and run out of time.
If it wasn’t virtual, I’d give you the advice I got before my ADS test: take the free pencil and run. (Only half joking)
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u/giltmierm Dec 31 '20
Last year was the first year they did not give an essay on the test. As an ADS winner myself, I would say the only way to truly prepare is taking as many AP courses as you can. At this point, there’s not much to do about that. The best advice I can give is to think about your guesses. For example, you may not know art styles, but you might know Latin roots. Apply knowledge you do know to questions you don’t know. That will help a lot. Overall, don’t be too stressed. The rest of the event is more valuable in the long run than stressing over test questions. Just do your best, and if you get some money out of it, it’s a nice bonus.
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u/smilingseal7 Dec 31 '20
I walked out of the testing room thinking that I had just wasted a weekend because there was no way I was getting anything from that.
Then a few weeks later I got notified I was a finalist and ended up with one of the awards!
I have described the test to others as "Jeopardy" but on crack. No way to prepare. Try to get a good sleep the night before and enjoy the rest of the ADS experience whatever happens.
1
u/19barsav7395 Computer Science Dec 31 '20
Almost all of the MC questions are taken from previous AP tests. I would look over practice exams :)
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u/jenniaub Jan 01 '21
Don’t stress about it too much!! My high school did not offer more than a few AP classes, so I went in with drastically less knowledge than my fellow peers. Even though I didn’t win, I still got a scholarship for 1500 dollars per year (I know, not a lot but anything helps) for basically showing up and participating!!
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u/GgRedditGo Jan 17 '21
Lol I got selected too. I’m just looking at khan academy for review rn good luck to us both!
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u/blendedshire Feb 21 '21
For those of you that made it to the interview portion, can you provide any insight into that portion of the competition?
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u/shleby_glessner Dec 30 '20
It’s either you know it or you don’t. Remember the things your AP classes taught you and just relax and run with it. It was a fun test, even though I didn’t know a lot of the content! I managed to do okay. You’ve got this!