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Introduction: Using This Book

he purpose of this book is to provide you with the best-possible preparation for the AP Psychology
exam. Becoming familiar with the structure of the test is an essential part of your preparation.
Therefore, following this introduction we have included an overview of the exam.
The book begins with a diagnostic test to help you gauge how best to prepare for the exam. You may
wish to take this test after you have been exposed to all the information through your class but before you
begin to study. The Multiple-Choice Error Analysis Sheet is intended to help you identify your areas of
relative strength and weakness. For each of the 14 topic areas, compute the percentage of questions you
answered correctly. In this test, the number of questions on a topic is indicative of the amount of attention
it typically receives on the exam. Therefore, you should spend the most time studying the areas on which
many questions were asked and you got a relatively low percentage of them correct.
In addition, we have included two full-length practice exams at the end of the book. If you purchased
the book/CD-ROM package, you will have the opportunity to take two more full-length exams in
computerized format. Keep in mind that taking a practice exam under actual testing conditions (all at once
and within the time limit) is always best. Every exam includes an explanation of the correct answers as
well as an Error Analysis Sheet.
We devoted most of the book to a topical review of the main areas of psychology. The content is
organized in such a way that it mirrors the format of the exam. These areas and their relative coverage on
the AP exam are listed below:

History and Approaches 2–4  percent

Methods 8–10    percent

Biological  Bases   of  Behavior 8–10   percent

Sensation   and Perception 6–8  percent

States  of  Consciousness 2–4   percent

Learning 7–9    percent

Cognition 8–10  percent

Motivation  and Emotion 6–8 percent

Developmental   Psychology 7–9  percent

Personality 5–7 percent

Testing and Individual  Differences 5–7 percent

Abnormal    Psychology 7–9  percent

Treatment   of  Psychological   Disorders 5–7   percent

Social  Psychology 8–10 percent

The College Board recently revised the AP Psychology course to include specific course objectives
(your AP Psychology instructor can provide more information about these objectives). We are not
reproducing these course objectives in this review book for legal reasons, but the content of this book
corresponds closely to these new course objectives.
Because this is a review book, our aim is to include only that information you need to know for the
exam. Nonetheless, some of this information is particularly important, and we convey that fact by
highlighting such material as Tips. Important terms and people appear at the beginning of each chapter and
are set in italics in the text. They can also be found in the index.
The College Board dramatically increased the number of psychologists named in their most recent
revision of their course outline and all those people are described in this review book. However, we
recommend that you do NOT spend a large part of your studying time memorizing all these names. The AP
Psychology exam primarily focuses on psychological concepts and ideas, not people. We included a list