How to

When writing a Free Response in AP Psychology, you do not need to write an essay the way you would in an English class.  

You DO NOT need: 

~ an opening paragraph or a concluding paragraph

~ a thesis statement

You should jump right in and start answering the Prompt (question) from the very first sentence.

Pay attention to what the Prompt tells you to do.  Look at the verbs!  You will only earn points for doing what the Prompt tells you to do.  The only exception is: if you mention a vocabulary term that is not mentioned in the Prompt, YOU MUST DEFINE THE VOCAB TERM.

DO NOT assume that the person who grades your Free Response knows what you are talking about.  You should explain everything you say. 

The person who grades your Free Response will have a checklist of things you must have in your Free Response.  If you have something on the list, you get a point.  If something is missing, you do not get a point.  You should try to imagine what is on that checklist.  Then write sentences that will earn you each of the possible points.



Here’s the type of prompt you might see on the AP Psychology Exam:

Suppose you were designing an experiment to test whether a new drug was effective at decreasing hyperactive behaviors among children with ADHD.  Before actually designing the complete experiment, identify the population and your sample.  Then identify the experimental group and the control group.  Identify the dependent variable and the two levels of the independent variable.  Describe your method of selecting a sample and the method of assigning people to groups.  Describe at least one control technique you should use in this experiment.  And describe how you would evaluate the effectiveness of the new drug at reducing hyperactive behaviors. 


Here’s what you should do:

Pre-writing (invest 5 minutes for this):

Step 1- Find the verbs in the Prompt that tell you what you should write.

Focus on the verbs that tell you what to write because, you get one point for each thing you are supposed to write.  There is no point writing anything that does not earn you a point.



Step 2 – Imagine what is on the checklist.  What is the grader looking for in your Free Response?  Make checklist or even a table of your own to organize your thoughts:

  1. Identify the population

  2. Identify the sample

  3. Identify the experimental group

  4. Identify the control group

  5. Identify the one levels of the independent variable

  6. Identify the another level of the independent variable

  7. Describe how you will select your sample

  8. Describe how you will assign your sample to groups 

  9. Describe at least one control technique you should use 

  10. Describe how you would evaluate the effectiveness of the new drug



Step 3 – Guess how many points is the Free Response worth?  Based on the number of items on your imagined checklist.  Assume you will get one point for each item on the checklist.



Step 4 –Write the Free Response! (you have about 20 minutes for this):

Do not use numbered or bulleted sentences.  Write it in paragraph form.  Your first sentence should identify the population; the second sentence should identify the sample, etc.

Here’s how I would write it:

If I were testing a new drug to see if it was effective at reducing hyperactive behavior among children with ADHD, I would identify my population as all children with ADHD.  My sample would be 30 children with ADHD randomly chosen from this population to participate in an experiment.  To select this sample, I will write the names of every kid with ADHD on little strips of paper, put the strips in a hat, and draw 30 names from the hat to be my sample.

My experimental group would be about half of the sample who actually take the new drug.  The control group would be the other half of the participants who do not take the drug.  They can take a placebo, an ineffective pill.  We will use the strips of paper again and put the names of everyone in the sample into a hat to randomly assign half to each group.  

One level of the independent variable is the new drug while the other level is the placebo.  

To prevent biases, we will use a double-blind procedure, so that neither the experimenter nor the subjects know who has taken the pill and who has taken the placebo.  An assistant will give the kids either the new drug or the placebo.  

After students have taken either the new drug or the placebo, I will measure some hyperactive behavior.  This will be our dependent variable.  For example, I could count the number of times each of the children look up from their paper while taking a test.

To determine whether the new drug was effective at reducing the hyperactive behavior, we will compare the average number of times the two groups look up from their tests.  If we see a statistically significant difference between the two groups, we can conclude that this difference was caused by the drug and did not happen by chance. 


Use your checklist to grade mine.  How many points did I earn? ________________



Notice some interesting things about the Free Response.  

  1. You can write in the first person!  Your English teacher would hate this.  

  2. You don’t have to put things in the same order that they appear on the checklist.  As long as the grader finds it in the Free Response, they will give you the point.

  3. You should be as specific as possible (I said “random”, but then I tried to be more specific by describing the strips of paper and the hat.  Also, I specified what I would observe for the dependent variable). 

Now you try it:                                     Name: Abby M.  Period: 6  


Instructions Answer this question in complete sentences.  Do NOT use bulleted or numbered points.  Write it on this paper!  You may use the front and back:


Prompt:

Suppose you were designing an experiment to test whether drinking a glass of orange juice each day was effective at improving memory among people over 80 years-old.  Before actually designing the complete experiment, identify the population and your sample.  Then identify the experimental group and the control group.  Identify the dependent variable and the two levels of the independent variable.  Describe your method of selecting a sample and the method of assigning people to groups.  Describe at least one control technique you should use in this experiment.  And describe how you would evaluate the effectiveness of orange juice at improving memory. 


Wait! Before you even do that, do the pre-writing as described in this packet: Step 1-- underline the verbs in the prompt that tell you what to write for this free response, step 2-- make a checklist, step 3-- guess how many points this free response is worth_______.

      



Step 2:

  1. Identify the population and your sample.

  2. Identify the experimental group and the control group.

  3. Identify the dependent variable and the two levels of the independent variable.

  4. Describe your method of selecting a sample and the method of assigning people to groups.

  5. Describe at least one control technique you should use in this experiment.

  6. Describe how you would evaluate the effectiveness of orange juice at improving memory.



Step 3:

      To test whether drinking a glass of orange juice each day is effective at improving the memory of people above 80 years of age, I would identify my population as all 80 year-old people. My sample would be 40 people chosen randomly from the population.


    My experimental group would half of the sample group given the orange juice on a daily basis, while the other half of the sample, the control group would take a placebo. The placebo would consist of orange juice flavored water with none of the nutritional values offered by orange juice. Who would enter the experiment or placebo group would be determined at random, with their names put on separate pieces of paper that would be mixed together then divided into two equal groups.


  One level of the independent variable is the orange juice while the other is the placebo


  During the experiment, I will use the double-blind procedure, where neither I nor the the subjects will know who is the control group or the experimental group, in order to prevent biases. Instead, I will give have an assistant give the sample group either the placebo or the orange juice.


After a period of one month carrying out this experiment, I would compare the present memory of the participants by giving them a game-like memory test both before and after the experiment to see if there is a statistically larger difference between the two. If this difference is large enough, we can conclude that the improvement in memory is due to the orange juice and did not happen by chance.