Alone

Alone I spent winter break in MIT. I thought I wouldn’t be alone. After all, it’s not as if everyone’s going to go home, right? I thought that maybe some of my friends who were international students wouldn’t go home because it’s too far, or because there’s only a break of two weeks before IAP began. The week before finals week, I started asking people for their plans over winter break. It turned out that almost all of my friends were going home for the holidays, and that I only knew six people who would be staying for the whole winter break. So I braced myself for winter break, expecting to be mostly alone, knowing that it’d be really different from the semester. And I  was alone. My roommate left the Saturday of finals week, and by Christmas Eve, most of the people living in our hall were gone. The lounges and kitchen were deserted for hours. Lobby 10 was empty. The Stud was closed. The Infinite didn’t have that endless activity, even in the middle of the day. There wasn’t any classes, or square dancing, or ESP worksessionsâ€"all events where I saw people, where I talked to people. It’s gotten to me. It’s not that there aren’t people around, it’s that there aren’t enough people around. And it’s made me feel bad. I spent a lot of the past two weeks writing. I made three blog posts, one of which is over five thousand words long. I made write-ups for the Philippine Mathematical Olympiad, I wrote problems for our National Olympiad in Informatics, and I started working on a new competition math handout. By all measures, I was productive. Somehow, it feels as if I wasn’t productive enough. A friend and I finished watching all 44 episodes of 3-gatsu no Lion (which was great), and I watched the entire second season of Kakegurui in an afternoon (which wasn’t that great). I’ve spent hours scrolling through my Facebook feed and my Twitter feed, watching random YouTube clips and reading random articles. Waking up in the morning is a struggle, so I often don’t, choosing to spend another hour or two in bed. I couldn’t help but feel I should be doing more, if not more work, then at least spending my free time more constructively.  I should be going to museums, I think.  I should spend more time cooking instead of eating out once a day, I think.  At the very least, I should finish reading Taming the Infinite. I don’t do as much work as I want to because I feel bad, but then I feel bad because I don’t do work. But there are the little things that save my sanity. Like how a friend came over last Monday and we cooked dinner together. And then he came back on Friday and we cooked dinner again, and I invited a bunch of other people too, and three other people showed up, and we played lots of board games. Or the many times I’ve eaten out with friends who were around. On the night of Christmas Eve, a friend and I went to Chinatown, knowing that somewhere had to be open. We started off heading in the wrong direction, realized that five minutes in, and then turned around. And for a couple minutes, we just walked in silence. There weren’t any cars or other pedestrians. It was just lights, all around us. On New Year’s, another friend and I went to get lunch. We walked all the way to Central Square, surprised at the number of places that were open, before deciding to walk back and get Saloniki. As we walked back to East Campus, we stopped by Killian Court to enjoy the weather. I said that I’ve never gotten a picture in front of the dome before. He took several. Or how, after eating dinner for the third time in Chinatown this break, I decided to walk home rather than taking the train. I looked quickly at a map, and committed not to open it unless I got lost. After a few minutes of walking, I saw Boston Commons. I knew the quickest way back, but I decided to take a different route, choosing to pass through a neighborhood. It was a part of Boston I haven’t been to before. It was quiet. Narrow, uneven roads sloped gently upwards. Lampposts were rare. There were towering houses were made of brick, with windows that had amber light peaking through. Most had blinds. One window was only partly covered with blinds, and the bottom showed the base of a Christmas tree. Another was a window to an empty laundromat, the only window with white light coming out of it. And one uncovered window showed a dining room. The table had two chairs, and soft light streamed in from the entryway. The room was empty.

Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life

Cure of the Streets - 757 Words

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke says that a work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity† (Farley). Hip Hop was born on the poor and dangerous streets of the USA. Minorities such as African-Americans and Hispanics dominated these streets, and they felt the need to address their long-standing common issues. Therefore, a new form of art, hip hop was born, and became the method of self-expression for these minorities. Lyrics have presented what they have been through. While rap has turned from a tool of self-expression to a multi-billion dollar industry, it has continued to constructively affect the social and economic structure of the society. While serving as a good alternative to the streets, hip hop positively uplifts the cultural barriers within the society and educates the youth. In order to better understand the necessity and the influence of hip hop, the history of how and where this music emerged is highly important. In the 1970s, Hip hop was born in the â€Å"immensely impoverished, crime-ridden, drug-infested streets of the Bronx†, which were often called â€Å"America’s worst slum† or â€Å"the epitome of urban failure† (Price 4). Emmett Price III, the writer of Hip Hop Culture, says that the â€Å"ostracized, marginalized, and oppressed† youth started hip hop as â€Å"a liberation movement†, and they aimed to combat against â€Å"issues of racial prejudice, cultural persecution, and social, economic, and political disparities† (Price 1). From the 1970s to the 1990s, hip hop had increasedShow MoreRelatedCure of the Streets540 Words   |  2 Pageswere facing were the same. These problems were â€Å"a lack of access to justice, health care, voting rights, employment, and other everyday privileges of cit izenship† (Price 2). Having come out of this environment, while serving as an alternative to the streets, hip hop positively uplifts the cultural barriers within the society and educates the youth. This paper argues this important topic, because in contrast to the common belief that rap is harmful to the society, it has many benefits to our youth, andRead MoreThe Violence Throughout American Culture858 Words   |  4 Pagesthe model of Cure Violence. UIC’s epidemiologist Gary Slutkin established the non-profit organization. His approach was to stop the spread of violence in communities with high levels of violent behavior. His methods and strategies are based with disease control-detecting conflicts, identifying high risk in areas, treating high risk in individuals, and changing the social norms of a community. This model has become popular and is being used in various places other than Chicago. The Cure Violence modelRead MoreThe Problem Of Homeless People1278 Words à ‚  |  6 Pagestreat someone with disrespect for. Even if a person is homeless and it is there fault, they still deserve respect and help to get them on their feet, no one has any idea of what they could turn out to be. They could turn out to be the one to find a cure for cancer. Who knows! â€Å"In 2015, we do not have a homeless crisis. We have a housing crisis. Los Angeles County needs 527,722 additional affordable rental units to meet the housing needs of the many homeless, it’s the big cities the bigs states thatRead MoreEssay on Street Smarts versus Book Smarts706 Words   |  3 Pagespaying job, you need both â€Å"street smarts† and â€Å"book smarts.† The combination of practical knowledge and explicit knowledge is the key to a successful career. Both types of knowledge have distinct advantages. They have both used their experiences in life to achieve their goals. For example, if a street smart mart person had a severe cough they would ask friends, family about how they could make the cough better. Book smart person would check or search internet to find the cure. They are both determineRead MoreThe Plague Of Bubonic Plague1714 Words   |  7 Pages â€Å"Some victims reportedly went to bed healthy and died in their sleep† (Gale). This terrible epidemic is known all over the world for it’s deadly and unique characteristics. The diffusion, history, and cure are just a couple universal aspects that contribute to the well known, yet unforgiving disease known as the Bubonic Plague. The Bubonic Plague diffused to many people during its time of dominance. To start, the Bubonic Plague is transmitted to other living organisms in a distinct way. The plagueRead MoreLu Xun’s Medicine Essay examples823 Words   |  4 Pagestuberculosis. In the story you can tell that his family tries everything to cure him, they event tried the â€Å"guarantied cure† which is a mantou (roll) that is covered with the blood that was from someone how has been executed. Little bolt ate the mantou (roll), but it seemed like it had no effect on him but his parents still had high hopes, eventually he ended up dyeing from tuberculosis. I believe that the mantou (roll) didn’t cure Little Bolt because the blood on the mantou (roll) was from a boy whoRead MoreWas Public Health Better in the Roman Era or the Middle Ages?613 Words   |  3 Pagesplanned and built than those in the Middle Ages, which often placed wells and sources of drinking and bathing water in close proximity to cesspits and sewers, which led to infected water and cholera and typhoid outbreaks. Furthermore, many Medieval streets were filled with filth, such as animal carcasses, human and animal excrement, waste from butchers and tanners, and many more sources of disease, as bacteria could grow freely and infect people very easily. As well as this, there were also very poorRead MoreArgumentative Essay On Medical Marijuana1128 Words   |  5 Pagesheroin, cocaine, and meth is consi dered and tested to be the least dangerous of all those drugs. Marijuana is also a nonaddictive drug and nonlethal meaning no matter how much THC you put in your body you will never overdose. We can band a drug that cures medical problems, no overdoses and is nonaddictive, but continue to advertise alcohol that kills 6 Americans daily from alcohol poisoning. Continue to have commercials on cigarettes that have on average 480,000 deaths per year. Also, cigarettesRead MoreRyan Hoffm A College Football Player Essay926 Words   |  4 Pageslose the ability to have strong thinking skills. By losing the ability of having strong thinking skills, Hoffman lost his dream of becoming a N.F.L player. He became aggressive and lost self-control, which caused him to him to eventually live on the streets. His family took him to several psychologists, but he never went back after the first visit because he did not want to find out the truth about his illness. Ryan Hoffman wants to be independent and improve his lifestyle, but he does not have the initiativeRead MoreThe Problem Of Gangs And Violence995 Words   |  4 Pageslaunched a ‘cure violence’ program to help prevent the violence, and this program is managed by the Chicago Project. The social problem this community intervention is trying to remedy is to lower down the cases of shooting and killings on the streets. As it could be challenging to cha nge the individuals’ behaviors within a short period of time, this program focuses on developing protecting services towards the population that may have an immediate danger within the near future. The Cure violence paid

Eating and ‘preparing’ foods that require no art whatsoever in making Free Essays

It is definitely true that our society has become accustomed to eating and ‘preparing’ foods that require no art whatsoever in making. Canned goods and microwave products are rampant in today’s everyday menu. The reason for this, I believe, lies in the characteristic of this generation of being unwilling to learn anything difficult or time-consuming. We will write a custom essay sample on Eating and ‘preparing’ foods that require no art whatsoever in making or any similar topic only for you Order Now Art unquestionably comes from things that take time and require effort: sculptures that take weeks to finish, movies that take months to film and hundreds of people to accomplish, and poems that ask for concentration, time, and effort. People nowadays want to learn things quickly, finish objectives within eight hours, and forget about them in less time. They want their food delivered in less than half an hour. They want massages in under half an hour. In fact most of the services today can be taken out or delivered. Taking time and effort to learn, master, and perfect things are no longer of interest to most of us. To add on to this already non-conducive situation of quick surface learning, poverty fans the flame of the lost tradition of home cooking. Although a long and artful process of preparing food is ideal and very high-culture, most people simply do not have the luxury of cooking such fancy and multi-ingredient meals. Most of the population, classified as low income families, has to make do with meals that are simply fried and not really ‘cooked’ as much as they are heated. These over-processed foods are quick to prepare and simple, such that they lower the costs of a family. The effect of this is very bad for our culture. The rich heritage of unique methods and ingredients of cooking are lost due to lack of motivation and lack of financial capability. I agree with this. There can be no doubt as to the reality of the slow dying of the tradition of cooking within a family. Most families share these throughout generations via the practice of cooking meals together and transferring their knowledge. However, due to the younger generations’ lack of interest in anything artful and effortful such as cooking, this transference is being impeded and ultimately ended. Less and less people inherit their family’s unique recipes and family dishes. Also it is clear that poverty does play a role in limiting a family’s participation in cooking tradition. Baking for example is a very expensive activity and only those who have the luxury of eating pricey desserts engage in it. However, I believe that time also plays a role in the death of the cooking tradition. Families seem to hold less and less time together (another cultural issue altogether) and one of the first things that suffer from this is the time spent preparing, cooking, and eating dinner together. How to cite Eating and ‘preparing’ foods that require no art whatsoever in making, Essays

Mesopotamia and Gilgamesh Assignment Instructions free essay sample

Assignment Instructions: Read the summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh in the Near East/Mesopotamia Packet and the â€Å"Death of Gilgamesh† passage in the Benton/Diyanni textbook: In response to the reading, please write the following in essay format: First consider the character of Gilgamesh. Do you think his character and actions are to be emulated, or pitied? Depending on how you feel about Gilgamesh on the whole, please respond 1st paragraph: Lead with the viewpoint that you ultimately side against. For example, if you think that Gilgamesh’s actions, when all is considered, are admirable, then lead this paragraph as follows: Gilgamesh was in pitiable character in that his behavior was†¦Ã¢â‚¬  You then must demonstrate how his specific actions in the text are reflective of this. Obviously, if you take the alternate view then you would write the following: â€Å"Gilgamesh is an admirable figure in that†¦. † 2nd paragraph: You now lead with what is your position. We will write a custom essay sample on Mesopotamia and Gilgamesh Assignment Instructions or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page For example: â€Å"In spite of his heroism and courage, Gilgamesh is a pitiable figure in that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Or â€Å"Even though Gilgamesh does display some negative qualities, he his still to be viewed as a hero because†¦Ã¢â‚¬  3rd Paragraph: Having expressed your view of Gilgamesh, you now need to answer the following: What was the message that was meant to be imparted to Ancient Mesopotamian peoples via the Epic of Gilgamesh? You need to support your answer with both respect to the story and the culture as a whole. Lead sentence example: â€Å"For Ancient Mesopotamians the message of Gilgamesh was†¦Ã¢â‚¬  NOTE: I CANNOT BE MORE CLEAR ON THIS. NO USE OF 1ST OR 2ND PERSON IN YOUR WRITE UP. IF I SEE IT, YOU PAPER WILL BE RETURNED WITHOUT A GRADE OR CORRECTIONS. THE PAPER SHOULD ALSO BE TYPED AND DOUBLE-SPACED. THREE PARAGRAPHS ONLY. NO INTRODUCTORY OR CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS. PAPER SHOULD BE APPROXIMATELY 1 ? PAPGES IN LENGTH.

Free Essays on FBI Internal Aspect

Personal Value System: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice. The FBI’s investigative authority can be found in Title 28, Section 533 of the US Code. The rule of law and the rights conferred to all under the US Constitution allows the FBI to protect and defend the United States against terrorist & foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership & criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies & partners. The FBI will strive for excellence in all aspects of its missions. In pursuing these missions and vision, the FBI and its employees will be true to, and exemplify the core values. FBI agents and employees are to show integrity through everyday ethical behavior, show accountability by accepting responsibility for their actions and decisions and the consequences of their actions and decisions. They are to show fairness in dealing with people and show leadership through example, both at work and in the community. Following these values allow the FBI to keep their motto of â€Å"Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity†. Agency Command Structure: The FBI is a component of the United States Department of Justice. A Director heads the FBI. During the time period under review, the second in command is the Deputy Director. Included in the FBI's organizational structure are its Headquarters operations, which are located in Washington, D.C., 56 field offices, and 44 foreign offices, known as Legal Attachà © offices or Legats. The field offices are located in major cities throughout the United States. Each is headed by a Special Agent in Charge (SAC). The field offices are also known as divisions, and they use the terms interchangeably. A field office consists of an office in the "Headquarters City," which is the primary office, and Resident Agencies. The Resident Agencie... Free Essays on FBI Internal Aspect Free Essays on FBI Internal Aspect Personal Value System: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice. The FBI’s investigative authority can be found in Title 28, Section 533 of the US Code. The rule of law and the rights conferred to all under the US Constitution allows the FBI to protect and defend the United States against terrorist & foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership & criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies & partners. The FBI will strive for excellence in all aspects of its missions. In pursuing these missions and vision, the FBI and its employees will be true to, and exemplify the core values. FBI agents and employees are to show integrity through everyday ethical behavior, show accountability by accepting responsibility for their actions and decisions and the consequences of their actions and decisions. They are to show fairness in dealing with people and show leadership through example, both at work and in the community. Following these values allow the FBI to keep their motto of â€Å"Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity†. Agency Command Structure: The FBI is a component of the United States Department of Justice. A Director heads the FBI. During the time period under review, the second in command is the Deputy Director. Included in the FBI's organizational structure are its Headquarters operations, which are located in Washington, D.C., 56 field offices, and 44 foreign offices, known as Legal Attachà © offices or Legats. The field offices are located in major cities throughout the United States. Each is headed by a Special Agent in Charge (SAC). The field offices are also known as divisions, and they use the terms interchangeably. A field office consists of an office in the "Headquarters City," which is the primary office, and Resident Agencies. The Resident Agencie...

4 Top Tips for AP Statistics Free-Response Questions

4 Top Tips for AP Statistics Free-Response Questions SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The free-response section is usually the most intimidating part of the AP Statistics exam. You’ll need to answer questions with multiple parts, show off your stats skills, and be able to explain each of your answers.However, once you understand the types of questions you'll be asked, the free-response section is actually pretty straightforward. In this in-depth guide to the AP Statistics free-response section, we go over the types of questions you can expect to see, give sample questions with complete answer explanations, explain how you’ll be graded, and provide tips to help you ace this section of the exam. What’s the Format of AP Statistics Free-Response Section? On the day of the AP Stats exam, your test will have two sections. First, you will have 90 minutes to answer 40 multiple-choice questions, then you’ll move onto the free-response section. You'll be able to use a graphing calculator for the entire test. For a more in-depth look at exam format and content it tests, check out our complete guide to the AP Stats Exam. Here's the format of the free-response section: 90 minutes long 5 short-answer questions 1 Investigative Task The five short-answer questions are meant to each be solved in about 12 minutes, and the Investigative Task is meant to be solved in about 30 minutes. However, you’ll be free to spend as much time on each question as you want (although we recommend sticking close to those guidelines to make sure you don’t run out of time before you get to all the questions). The free-response section is worth 50% of your total AP Statistics score.For each free-response question, you’ll receive a score from 0 to 4 depending on the accuracy and completeness of your answer.Your Investigative Task score will be scaled so that it’s worth about three times as much as a single short-answer question. AP Stats Free-Response Sample Questions Below is an example of each of the two types of free-response questions you’ll see on the AP Statistics exam. These questions both come from the 2016 AP Statistics exam. For each question, I’ll go through the answer step-by-step so you can see what a strong answer looks like. I’ll also include what information graders are looking for so you can see exactly where you earn points. Short-Answer Question There will be five short-answer questions on the AP Stats exam, and each will include several different parts you need to answer. You’re expected to spend about 12 minutes on each short-answer question. Part A To answer this question, you’ll need to analyze the histogram and see what information you can get from it. This can include the distribution of the histogram, its range, and its center. From the histogram, you can see that the distribution of Robin’s tip amounts is skewed to the right.The range is from $0 to $22.50, with most tips (47 of them) between $0 and $5. You can also see that there’s a gap between the largest tip amount (which is between $20 and $22.50) and the second-largest tip amount (which is between $12.50 and $15).This makes the largest tip amount appear to be an outlier since no other tip amounts are near it. You can also calculate the median and determine that it is a tip between $2.50 and $5. Additionally, the mean is between $2.62 and $5.13. Include all these components in your answer. What the Graders Are Looking For Shape Mention of the outlier Correctly calculating the center (either median or mean) Variability: Mention either the range of the histogram or that most tip amounts are between $0 and $5. Context: Providing the correct numbers/data in the above answers Part B The mean: If the $8 tip was changed to $18, the effect that would have on the mean is equal to $10/60. (60 because that’s the number of tips included in the histogram, and $10 because that’s how much the tip increased by). $10/60= $â…™ or about 17 cents. So the mean will increase by about 17 cents. The median: From part a, we already know that the median is between $2.50 and $5. Since both $8 and $18 are greater than the median (and the total number of tips is staying the same), the median would be unchanged. What the Graders Are Looking For Mentioning the mean will increase Correctly justifying why the mean will increase Mentioning the median will not change Correctly justifying why the median won’t change Investigative Task The final question on your AP Statistics Exam is the Investigative Task. It’s the most in-depth question on the test, and you should spend about 30 minutes completing it. The Investigative Task will have several parts you need to answer and require multiple statistics skills. There’s a lot going on here, but let’s break the question down and go through it part by part. Part A This question wants to know if the scatterplot supports the newspaper’s report about number of semesters and starting salary. Looking back at the question, we can see that the newspaper reported that the more semesters needed to complete an academic program at a university, the higher the starting salary for the first year at a job. Does the scatterplot support this? If it did, we’d see a positive association between starting salary and number of semesters: if one increases, the other would as well. Looking at the scatterplot, there is a clear positive association between starting salary and number of semesters, so the scatterplot does support the newspaper’s report. What Graders Are Looking For Mentioning positive correlation Using positive correlation to justify that the scatterplot supports the newspaper report Part B There’s a lot of information in the table, but we’re interested in the numbers under the Coef (or coefficient) column since they are what apply to the least-squares regression line. For y=mx + b, we know that m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. As the constant, we know that 34.018 is b. Therefore, 1.1594 is the slope. If you want to visualize it better, you can write out y= 1.1594x + 34.018 So the slope of the line is 1.1594. We know that slope is the change in y over the change in x, or, in this case, the change in starting salary over the change in number of semesters. So the slope is telling us how much starting salary changes for each additional semester. Our slope is 1.1594, but since the units for the y-axis is thousands of euros, we have to multiply the slope by a thousand and add the euros unit. This gives us 1,159.40 euros. This means that, for every additional semester a program requires, predicted starting salary increases by 1,159.40 euros. What Graders Are Looking For Correctly identifies the slope is 1.1594 Correctly interprets the slope as the change in starting salary for each additional semester The interpretation of the slope includes non-deterministic language, such as â€Å"predicted starting salary† or â€Å"estimated starting salary† when interpreting the slope Part C For the next part of the question, we have the same scatterplot, but it has been revised to show three different groups of majors. For part C, we’re looking specifically at business majors, indicated by circles on the scatterplot. From the scatterplot, we can see that the more semesters a student takes, the lower their starting salary typically is. For example, we can see that a business major who took ten semesters has a lower average starting salary than someone who only took five semesters. Since as one variable increases the other decreases, that means there is a negative linear association between number of semesters and starting salary for business majors. What Graders Are Looking For States the association is negative States the association is strong or linear or both Refers to both variables (salary and semesters) in context Part D For this question you’re being asked to compare the median starting salaries for the three majors. The first step to doing this is finding the median starting salary for each major. Since there are eight data points for each major, the median will be between the fourth and fifth largest starting salaries for each major. You don’t need to be exact here; you can just eyeball the answer, and sketch in a line to the y-axis if it helps. For business majors, the fourth-highest salary looks to hit the y-axis around 39 and the fifth-highest salary to be around 37. So the median starting salary for business majors would be about 38,000 euros (remembering the y-axis unit is thousands of euros). Physics majors look to have a starting salary around 48,000 euros, and for chemistry majors the median is around 55,000 euros. Since you need to compare them, you’d mention that chemistry majors have the highest starting salary, physics majors are in the middle, and business majors have the lowest median starting salary. What Graders Are Looking For Correctly compares the three majors and which has the highest and which has the lowest median salary Gives reasonable values for the median salaries Part E How could the newspaper report be improved? Looking at the first scatterplot, it appears as though there is a positive correlation between number of semesters a student takes and their starting salary. We saw this in Part A. However, in the second scatter plot, which breaks average starting salary down by major, it’s clear that, within a major, there is actually a negative correlation between the number of semesters a student completes and their average starting salary. We saw this in Part C. We saw in Part D that majors that require more semesters to complete tend to have higher starting salaries (with chemistry having both the highest number of semesters and the highest starting salary). Within a major, students who take more semesters tend to have lower average starting salaries. The newspaper report should be modified to account for major so that readers can see that majors that require more semesters have higher average starting salaries, but, within a major, students who take a greater number of semesters tend to have lower average starting salaries. What Graders Are Looking For Must note that there is a negative association for each of the majors Also must note that there is an overall positive association 4 Tips for Solving AP Statistics Free-Response Questions Below are four of the most helpful tips you can follow to make it easier to score high on the free-response section of the AP Stats test. #1: Always Explain Your Answer As you could see from the scoring guidelines for the sample questions, your explanation for your answer is often worth at least as much as the correct answer itself. In statistics, using the proper equation isn’t worth much unless you can justify your answer. This means that you should always include a detailed explanation when asked for it in AP Stats free response. If you’re asked to compare three medians, don’t just solve for the medians and list them; be sure to explain which is largest, which is smallest, and what that means in greater context. If you skimp on your responses, even if your math is perfect, you’ll end up disappointed with your score. #2: Answer Questions One Part at a Time The AP Statistics free-response questions can sometimes appear overwhelming, especially the Investigative Task questions which always include many different parts. Don’t be intimidated by long questions! Just focus on one part of the question at a time.You’ll often discover that the individual parts of a question aren’t that hard to solve on their own; it just looks like a lot at first glance. Also, while for other AP exams we sometimes recommend skipping around to whichever parts of different questions you feel most comfortable answering, for AP Statistics, we recommend starting at the beginning of each free-response question and methodically working your way through it. The answers you get for earlier parts of the question are often needed to answer later parts, so jumping around could cause you to waste time and end up confused. #3: Know Your Vocabulary You might think that since AP Stats is a math course, vocabulary won’t be an important part of the test, but you need to know a good amount of vocab to do well on this exam. Confusing right- and left-skewed or random sampling and random allocation, for example, could cause to you to lose lots of points on the exam. To avoid these types of mistakes, stay on top of any new statistics terms you learn in class throughout the school year. Making flashcards of key vocab and quizzing yourself regularly is a great way to stay up-to-date on new terms. Many AP Stats prep books also include a glossary of important terms you should know. Before the AP Stats exam, you should know all important vocab words like the back of your hand. Having a general idea isn’t good enough. As we mentioned earlier, a big part of stats is being able to support your answers, and to do this you’ll often need to use stats vocab in your explanations. Just stating the term won’t earn you nearly as many points as being able to explain what the term is and how it supports your answer. #4: Don't Leave the Investigative Task for the End The Investigative Task is the final question in the AP Statistics free-response section, but we don't recommend saving it for last. Because this question is worth three times as much as any of the other free-response questions, you want to make sure you answer it well, or it could really impact your final score. Leaving this question until the end could mean you run out of time before you answer it. We recommend answering the Investigative Task question second, after you've completed one of the shorter free-response questions. This ensures you have enough time to complete it. And remember, don't lose track of time on this section! You'll want to spend about 30 minutes on the Investigative Task and about 12 minutes on each of the other questions. When this section starts, write down the times you should wrap up each question if you think this will help you stay on track. How to Practice AP Statistics Free-Response Questions The best way to study for the AP Stats Free-Response section is to answer lots of practice free-response questions. Fortunately, the College Board makes this easy to do!On their website, you can find official free-response questions from 1998-2017. This means you have access to dozens of high-quality free-response questions! Because there are so many AP Stats free-response problems, you can begin completing practice problems a few months into your class (say around November) and continue up until the AP exam.At the beginning of the year, when you’re still learning a lot of the course material, you can read through the questions to find the ones that focus on topics you’ve already covered. In order to get the most of these practice problems, use a timer and give yourself the same timing limitations the real exam will have. For additional practice question sources for both free-response and multiple-choice questions, check out our guide to every AP Statistics practice test available online. What's Next? Want more information about the AP Statistics Exam?Check out our in-depth guide to the AP Stats test and learn all about the exam format, what types of questions you'll see, and the topics you need to know to get a great score! How many AP classes should you take?Get your answer based on your interests and your college goals. Wonderingwhich other math classes you should take? Math is often the trickiest subject to choose classes for, but our guide will help you figure out exactly which math classes to take for each year of high school. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: