Around AP season, TikTok users, including teachers and random accounts, post AP test ‘leaks’ and predictions to prepare others for the tests. Many students use this information to guide their studying, but the sources are not always credible and it generally leads students astray.
However, this gamble is not always worth the risk when it comes to scoring high on AP exams. Students tend to try and focus on certain topics because of the amount of curriculum taught throughout the year, but their main goal should be to understand every concept.
“I think students preparing for their AP exams use social media for predictions about the tests in order to dictate what they really ‘need’ to study and focus on before the exam,” junior Aleah Wolter said.
Regardless of how credible a source may seem, it is very hard to predict what will be on an AP exam due to how much content is taught throughout the year. This causes students to overstudy on an unnecessary topic when they need to focus on other content.
“For example, I kept seeing videos on TikTok that thought acid bases would be on the AP chemistry exam, so I spent a lot of time reviewing that,” junior Nia Hernandez Truong. “Unfortunately, I only got three questions overall regarding acid bases on the FRQ’s and MCQ’s.”
Though it is not always accurate, students still look to credible online sources such as teachers. Even though the guesses are based on potential logic, some of the predictions are fully luck which does not deem helpful when studying.
“Many of these online predictions stem from previous exams and teachers hypothesize what could be on the exam based on trends,” junior Katie Shepard said.
Students trust what they see on social media because it is so normalized to seek out information online. But, there are better study resources such as textbooks, online videos and class notes.
“I think this affects AP score outcomes because on social media not everything is accurate,” Wolter said. So if they base their studying solely on what social media is telling them, they might miss key details that could have been found in their books instead of social media.”
Overall, it is impossible to fully determine what topics will be tested on any AP exams so it is very important to study all the content learned throughout the year. Social media can be used to guess only after all the class content is ingrained.
“I’d advise future AP test takers to utilize TikTok as a tool but not as their sole study platform,” Wolter said. “I think they should branch out what they are studying and understand all of the curriculum before only focusing on certain topics due to speculation.”
