Hannah+Litwa

During the beginning two weeks of school I've taken the 1999 AP Psychology Exam in order to see what areas I need to focus on during the course. After grading my exam and using an online AP Psychology Exam Score Calculator I have found that I would have gotten a 3, which is decent for my first try! Of course, I'm aiming for a 5 when I actually take the exam in May and I've deduced that I should focus on personality, memory, psychological theories, brain biology and structure, body biology and structure, psychoanalysis, and schemas. I think the Human Anatomy and Physiology course that I am taking will help me in some of these areas. I've also completed chapter one of my textbook. I've outlined the chapter, completed a worksheet from the textbook's website, completed practice AP multiple choice and essay questions, and taken two quizzes from the textbook's website. Unit One was a broad introduction to psychology and some of the different psychological perspectives. I have begun outlining Unit Two and I hope to complete outlining that unit by the end of next week. This has been a great start to my independent study and I hope I can increase my pace!
 * - Hannah Litwa - Independent Study - AP Psychology - Mr. Harvey - Period 3 - **
 * Week of September 9th - September 13th: **

I've been able to get a lot done this week. I finished up Unit Two by creating a mock experiment and writing details about the procedure I would use if I was the researcher and how I would find the data. In this assignment, I also said what the independent variable, dependent variable, control group, experimental group, possible confounding variable, and the rules of ethics outlined by the American Psychological Association that I would have to abide by. I then printed out the worksheets I want to work on throughout Unit Three and I have started this unit. I'm on section three of Unit 3A and I will probably have to assign myself homework over the weekend so I can get all of Unit 3 done by the middle of October. This Unit is on the brain so it is both very long and very important for the rest of the course. We hopefully will be dissecting a sheep brain in Human Anatomy and Physiology so I can use that as an assessment for this Unit.
 * Week of September 16th - September 20th: **

This week I completed Unit 3A, which was an introduction about the brain. I remember learning most of this information in Psychology last year but it was a good review. I've begun Unit 3B which I will hopefully be completed by next Friday. I worked on a worksheet from the textbook's website labeled "Neural Messages" that reinforced what I learned about the parts of a neuron and their functions. What was new to me in this Unit was the chemistry of how neurons communicate which I fond very interesting. I was unaware that neural communication is widely aided by Sodium ions that flow in and out of the neuron's selectively permeable membrane. The information about synapses was also very clear and easy to understand. The textbook that I am utilizing is very helpful in that it often relates topic to real world examples. For instance, it called dendrites "listeners" and axons "talkers" to personify these parts of a neuron.
 * Week of September 23rd - September 27th: **

On Tuesday I missed my Independent Study period to assist with the Freshmen Panel, but to make up for the lost time I outlined the rest of Unit 3B at home and completed the AP Practice Questions for this Unit. I didn't like the Open Ended AP Practice Problem that was included so I replaced it with three critical thinking questions instead. on Wednesday I began outlining Unit 3C which I hope to have done by the middle of next week so I can begin Unit 4 and have that completed by the end of October. Unit 3B is about the brain structure and the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain which is incredibly interesting! The textbook included some very intriguing information about how, without a functioning corpus callosum, the two hemispheres can act almost independently.
 * Week of September 30th - October 4th: **

I've completed Unit 3C and have completely wrapped up Unit 3 by completing the AP Practice Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions! I'm about a quarter the way through Unit 4 which deals with the eye and it's involvement in perception and sensation. Over the weekend I hope to get at least half way done the Unit and I hope to be completed Unit 4 and Unit 5 by the end of October. Today, I will print out some worksheets that will help me check my understanding of this topic. I hope to come up with a creative project or essay to complete as my assessment for the end of this unit, however, if I do not then I will just take the online quizzes to make sure I understand the information in the unit.
 * Week of October 7th - October 11th: **

This week I was able to complete half of Unit 4. I assigned myself some work over the weekend last weekend and I finished a couple sections about sight at home. This Unit is very interesting because it is relatable to everyone. The book has a lot of illusions and diagrams in the margins to demonstrate the information in the Unit. I've started one of the Unit 4 worksheets from the textbook website and I feel confident in my understanding of this Unit. Hopefully I can get all of Unit 4 done by the end of next week so I can start Unit 5 and hopefully complete it by the end of October. As of now, I'm still planning on just doing the quizzes on the textbook's website to assess myself for this chapter. Unit 4 is a very long Unit which is why it has been taking me so long, hopefully I'll get some work done over the weekend to speed up my progress!
 * Week of October 15th - October 18th: **

I am completely finished reading and outlining Unit 4 and today I will take the online quizzes as my assessment and then do the practice AP Multiple Choice and Free Response questions out of the book for homework this weekend. I completed two worksheets from the textbook's website;one was about hearing and the other about color perception and sight. This Unit was very biologically as well as psychologically interesting. The textbook went in depth about how the body physically processes our senses and then described our perception of the sensation. I remembered a lot of this information from Psychology last year so I think that really helped my understanding. The most difficult thing about this Unit was trying to remember all the parts of the eyes and ears as well as their functions.I am going to try to get Unit 5 (States of Consciousness) finished by the end of this month.
 * Week of October 21st - October 25th: **

I still have about twenty pages left in Unit 5 but I'm going to try to get it done over the weekend since I won't have my Independent Study again until next Wednesday. I'm really enjoying this Unit (States of Consciousness). Right now I'm reading about dreams and what causes them/what their purpose is. This week was really productive and I'm glad that I've gotten so far into Unit 5 so I'm not too off track. By the end of November I hope to be completed all of Units 6 and 7. It would be nice to finish them all before Thanksgiving break but I'm not sure if that will happen or not! There is also and online activity for Unit 5 that seems interesting. It focuses on the effects of drugs on Humans' Consciousness and Awareness. If I do pursue a career in psychiatry, I think it will be important to know the effects of drugs. I think so many doctors resort to drugs as a first option and they don't give talk-therapy a chance.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of October 28th - November 1st: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I'm still completing Unit 5 but I'm almost finished, over the weekend I will wrap up the unit so I can move onto Unit 6 next week. I also worked on the online activity about the stages of sleep and how the body reacts during each stage. The activity was really helpful because it helped me make a lot of connections between the brain's rhythm of activity, the body's reaction, and how these both effect the dreaming. It really went in depth about how the stage that we wake up during impacts what we remember from our dreams. REM stage is ver interesting because our body is both incredibly active yet inactive. It is the closest stage to being awake (other than Stage 1) yet we still must pass through Stage 4 - Deep Sleep - to enter it. Also, it is more challenging to wake someone up during this stage, despite the fact that their bodies are so active and their heart rate is increased. In addition it is during REM sleep that we remember most of our dreams!
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of November 4th - November 8th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I completed Unit 5 over the weekend and now I've moved onto Unit 6! I'm almost halfway done already because I've done some work at home. Although, on Tuesday I was at the blood drive donating blood during this period so I wish I was a little further. This unit explains Learning and Conditioning so a lot of the information in the textbook was already taught to me in Psychology last year. The textbook offers a lot of information about B.F. Skinner (Operant Conditioning) and James Watson/ Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning) and how these men all contributed to our understanding of learning today. I hope to be done this Unit by middle of next week because I really want to get Unit 7 done before Thanksgiving Break which would put me back on track. I did leave room in April in case I don't get everything done as planned but I really wanted to use that time to study from a Princeton Review or some other AP Psychology Exam Study Booklet.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of November 11th - November 15th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have been really productive this week and I finished all of Unit 6 and I am about one-third the way through Unit 7A! I'm going to try to get all of Unit 7A done this weekend (that won't be an easy task) so that I can at least begin Unit 7B before Thanksgiving Break. This week I've mainly been outlining Unit 7A but I also completed the online assessments for Unit 6 and printed them out. Unit 7A is about memory and I am still at the stage of Encoding the memories into our conscious and unconscious brains. This Unit also talks about long versus short term memory and how serotonin and CREB proteins can inhance one's short-term memory. I'm about a chapter off of my original tentative curriculum but I do have time at the end of the year that I can spare!
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of November 18th - November 22nd: **


 * <span style="color: #f97e2f; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Thanksgiving Break! :) **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Over Thanksgiving Break, I finished Unit 7 so that I could start Unit 8 when I returned. This week I have been able to get a lot of Unit 8A done. Unit 8A is about Motivation including Maslow's Hierarchy which I already learned a lot about in Psychology last year. The new information in this Unit is about people's motivation to eat and what biologically makes them hungry. I love learning about the chemistry of the body and why things happen. In Human Anatomy we are learning about the nervous system so it has given me the opportunity to review a lot of the material that I've learned in my Independent Study this year. On the last week of school before break we will be dissecting brains in Human Anatomy so I am really excited to test what I know! I hope to be completely finished Unit 8 by the end of next week and then I can start Unit 9 before break!
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of December 3rd - December 6th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Unfortunately due to the snow days I wasn't able to get much work done this week. I left my Psychology textbook in my locker over the weekend because I wasn't planning on doing any work but then I was stuck without it over the snow days on Monday and Tuesday. Then Wednesday was a C day so I didn't have my Indepedent Study. However, yesterday I did outline 10 pages of the textbook that discribed the psychological, biological, and societal/cultural factors that influence individuals, especially adolescent females, to develop Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Bing-Eating Disorder. I think I've also decided to change my curriculum to finish Unit 8 and 9 before we come back from break, to instead finish Unit 8 and 12 and then come back to Unit 9. I'm planning on doing this because for my midterm I want to read the novel //I Know This Much is True// by Wally Lamb and write an essay on it that reflects the different abnormal psychological disorders that the characters suffer with. The novel explores the suffering of an individual suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia and the implications that has on his family.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of December 9th - December 13th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week was really productive! I've spent a lot of time out of school to get caught up because of the snow days and the lost time last week. I'm almost finished Unit 8, hopefully I'll finish in school today but if not I can finish it up for homework tonight! Over the Holiday Break I am planning on starting and finishing Unit 12 so I will be completeley caught up with my tenative schedule that I made over summer. I only have about 10-12 pages left to outline in Unit 8 and then I have to do the Practice AP Multiple Choice and Free Response questions at the end of the Unit. I'm really excited about what I decided to do for my midterm. //I Know This Much is True// is about 900 pages long so hopefully I'll finish that up over break and I can start my midterm essay when I get back to school in 2014! :)
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of December 16th - December 20th: **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Over break I completed //I Know This Much is True// as well as all of Unit 12 including the practice AP Multiple Choice and Free Response questions. I also wrote the midterm essay that I decided to do which analysis the course of one of the character's schizophrenia and other abnormal psychological disorers found in the novel. Yesterday I started Unit 9, but because of the two hour delays this week I've missed out on a lot of in school time for my independent study so I'm only about 17 pages into the unit. I'm hoping to complete both Unit 9 and Unit 10 this month so keep on track with my schedule. When I have my scheduled midterm for this period I will be taking another practice AP Exam and compare it to my score from the beginning of the year. I still have a lot of information to cover before the AP Exam in May so I'm hoiping for a high 3 or a 4.
 * <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Holiday Break! :) **
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of January 6th - January 10th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week I've continued working on Unit 9 but I still have about 10 pages left so I'm going to work on it over the weekend so I can finish outlining, work on the AP Practice Multiple Choice and Free Response questions, and then take two of the unit quizzes on the textbook's website. This unit is about Developmental Psychology so it's a lot of review of what I did in psychology last year with Ms. Basia. The most difficult component of this unit is differentiating the many psychologists and their numerous theories. Erik Erikson, Kohlberg, and Piaget all have multiple stages to their theories that have some similarities so it's easy to confuse them. This unit is very applicable to anyone's life though so I can relate this information to my own life.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of January 13th - January 17th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the snow days and two-hour delay we had this week only allowed me one day in school to work on my independent study. However, over the weekend I completed Unit 9 and finished the Practice AP Multiple Choice and Free Response Questions as well as the online quizzes for this Unit. On one of the snow days I started Unit 10 and worked on it more on Friday. This Unit is about personality and talks a lot about the ideas of Freud and his antiquated theories. It is interesting how in the media and in movies Freud's theories are still perceived as having a substantial effect in modern psychology, while in reality, very few of his theories are recognized at all. Freud's studies were all very circumstantial and not quantitative enough for the scientific path of modern psychology. I'm optimistic that by the end of next week I will have a good portion of Unit 10 done and I'll be able to finish it within the first week of February!
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of January 21st - January 24th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week was midterm week so I did another practice AP Psychology Exam to represent a half-year examination of how I have progressed during my independent study. Unfortuantely the AP Practice book that I used only had multiple choice but I did so much better than my initial test which is great! I got 20 out of the 100 questions wrong and since I still have three more Units that I have not even started yet I feel really confident for the AP Exam in May. I've also been able to get a lot of Unit 10 complete so I should be able to complete the outlining of the unit along with the practice multiple choice and Unit 10 quizzes on the textbook's online quizzes. After this Unit I just have to complete Units 11, 13, and 14 and then I will be done with the textbook and spend the rest of the year on test review and preperation.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of January 27th - January 31st: **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">We only had school on Tuesday this week and I did not have my independent study AP Psychology textbook at home so I could not do any work. On Tuesday I took notes on Unit 11 because I finished Unit 10 over the weekend.
 * <span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Week of February 3rd - February 7th: **

<span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Week of February 10th - February 14th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Unfortunately we had more snow days this week so I got even more behind. I decided to take my Psychology textbook home with me on Wednesday in anticipation of the snow storm so I should be able to take some notes this weekend to make up for all this lost time!

**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">February 18th - February 21st: ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">As a result from the number of snow days we have had recently I had to do some weekend work to get caught up with my tentative schedule! Over the weekend I finished Unit 11 including the outlining, the practice AP questions, and my assessment for this Unit. For my assessment, I decided do something different that would both be relatable to my independent study and my life in general. Since this unit was about intelligence I used an online IQ test and an online EQ test to measure both my intelligence and emotional intelligence. The results were actually very fascinating and I enjoying marking what I'm learning in psychology to my life. On the IQ test I scored a 126 which is higher than about 85% of adults who have taken the test. The EQ results were less impressive as I scored a 26 (out of 45) which was higher than only 59% of adults who have taken the assessment. The difference in my scored really demonstrate the difference in intelligence and emotional intelligence and how they are not always one in the same. I've started outlining Unit 13 (because I've already completed Unit 12) and it's very interesting. It's very applicable to psychiatry which is a field that I'm interested in pursuing. I hope to complete that be the end of February and then I only have two units after that to complete!

<span style="color: #c368fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**February 24th - Febru****ary 28th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have completely finished Unit 13 including: outlining the unit, taking the online unit quizzes, and doing both the Practice Multiple Choice AP Questions and Free Response AP Questions. This unit was so interesting! It talked about the different ways to treat psychiatric disorders including techniques that are not conventional but are still practiced. It even spoke about electroshock therapy, and how its barbaric reputation is misleading because it is actually effective, in some cases, in treating serious depression. I love learning the science behind the drugs used to treat abnormal psychological disorders too. In the unit it explained how scientists know that drugs that mimic serotonin can fill those serotonin receptors in synapses but scientists still do not know how Lithium effectively treats bipolar disorder. It's so fasinating to me to learn about the advancements that have been made in pschology, but all the developments that could still benefit society. Unit 14 is the final unit in my textbook so I hope to have it finished within the next two weeks and I'll start reviewing for the AP Exam in May!

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I've been able to outline a lot this week in Unit 14! Thankfully, we covered a lot of this unit last year in Psychology so this unit ha mostly been review and a lot of it is relevant to my every day life so it is kind of common sense. This unit is about social psychology so as a read and study the different theories and facts I can see how it applies to my every day life. Hopefully I'll be able to finish outline this unit within the next two weeks so I can start reviewing for the AP Exam but I have so much time left that I'm not going to rush. This chapter is one of the longest in my textbook and it's one of the most covered topics on the exam so I'd rather be conident on this chapter than get an extra couple days of review time.
 * <span style="color: #c268fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">March 3rd - March 7th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I have completed outline my last unit! I'm still working on the Practice AP Multiple Choice and Free Response questions and then I have to take the online quiz for the unit but then I am done with the textbook for the year! After I finish the textbook I want to take a look at good examples of AP Free Response questions on the College Board Website because I feel like that's where I am struggling the most with this class. I just want to get a good idea of the layout of the exam and how much time I will have to answer each section. I also never know how long I should make all of my free response. I'll probably spend a week or two just analyzing that then I'll go over general review from an exam review book and take some more practice exams.
 * <span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">March ****<span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> 10th - March 14th: **

I<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">'ve completely finished my textbook by outlining the final sections, completing the practice AP multiple choice and free response questions, and taking the online quizzes! Now I want to start focusing on more free response questions and going over the notes that I've taken throughout the year. The next couple of weeks will just be a lot of review and hopefully I can start getting 5s on practice exams.
 * <span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">March 17th - March 21st: **

<span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**March 24th - March 28th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This week I focused mainly on doing vocab review because I realized it would probably be smart to s <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">review the first couple of chapters before I started doing the essay review that would require my familiarity with the entire course. I'm feeling really confident for having this be a self study course, I am scoring 70%s on the practice quizzes for the earlier chaptered which I think it great for this being the oldest stuff I've covered. Next week will be more review, I'll probably focus on the perspectives of psychology next week.

<span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**March 31st - April 4th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I found some great flash cards that go over a general review of the entire course. I've been trying to get through them but I am only on 100 of the total 700 flash cards in the set. Within the next two weeks I'm going to try to get through them so I can save plenty of time for FRQ review. The FRQ is only 1/3 of the total score while multiple choice makes up the rest of the 2/3 so I've decided to focus more on that.

<span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**April 7th - April 11th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I am still trying to finish up these endless flash cards! It's reassuring me though because I know most of this information but it is also covering topics outside of the textbook that I am using. Next week I will probably start going through the AP Psychology review book that the library has and read through the information. That book is so dense with information so it should be beneficial and really highlight common topics on the exam. AP Exams start in just three weeks so I have to get a lot of review time in!

<span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**April 14th - April 17th:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I've been reading through the Barron's AP Psychology review book in the library and it is helping so much. It is really clarifiying all the different theories and significant people in psychology so I'm really glad that I'm reading it. It seems to progress in the same order that my textbook does to that's helpful too. The review book has some practice questions and tips for the exam so that's really helping me prepare for what to expect when I actually take it in May. If I can do well on the multiple choice I feel confident that I will pass the exam and hopefully get a four or five so I can get a college credit for Bucknell!

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The AP Exam is coming up! The AP Psych Exam is on May 5th so I'm starting to get anxious! Next B day I'm going to try to administer myself the timed test so I can get a feel as to how much timing I should permit myself for each question. I'm still getting through the Barron AP Psychology review book, I'm on the chapter about Sensation and Perception and that is something that I have found to be confusing so it's really clearing up a lot of cloudy information for me. The review book is great, it's so good at shortly condensing so much information. I'm going to check the review book out of the library this weekend so I can get some work done over the weekend and hopefully start hardcore practicing more open ended questions.
 * <span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">April 22nd - April 25th: **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The AP Exam is on Monday! I still have a couple chapters to read through in the Barron review book and I want to do one more practice exam but I feel pretty prepared. The Exam is composed of two sections: 100 multiple choice (2/3 of the grade) and 2 Free Response Questions (1/3 of the grade). We will be given 70 minutes to finish the multiple choice and 50 minutes to finish the Free Response Questions. My biggest concern is my timing for the Free Response Questions but if I pace myself I'm sure I'll be okay. I definitely want to go over Social Psychology this weekend because that's probably my biggest weakness. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The Exam is over! I guess this will be my last entry since all I have left to do is make my presentation for Mr. Taylor. I feel pretty confident about my score on the Exam, there was nothing on the exam (except maybe a term or two) that I had never seen before so I am really proud of my ability to self study the material. The Free Response Questions have actually already been released so I will include the link to them below. I felt really confident about the first one as I was anticipating a question about testing. The second one was a little more difficult but I still think I managed an acceptable score. I loved the ability to self study AP Psychology because it's honestly a subject I love. I will probably spend the rest of the year reading more about neurology or planning for college!
 * <span style="color: #c168fd; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">April 28th - May 2nd: **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">May 5th - May 9th: **

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap14_frq_psychology.pdf