Episode 337 | Lizz Wilson | Lizz Wilson Tutoring | Part 2 | The EdisonOS Podcast

Key Topics Covered

Early preparation and daily consistency separate the fives from everyone else. Lizz says the biggest factor separating students who score a five from those who just get by is starting early, ideally by January or beginning of February, doing a little every day including something as simple as flashcards on a busy day, managing time across multiple AP exams at once, and actually reviewing the FRQ scoring guidelines to understand how graders approach the answers rather than just taking tests.

Physics C requires concurrent calculus, physics one does not. Lizz explains that physics C is designed to incorporate calculus concepts and that the majority of students take calculus concurrently, but that physics one is more conceptual and requires essentially algebraic knowledge, which is why freshmen and sophomores can take it, and that in practice most schools simply offer physics C if they offer any AP physics at all because physics one is considered too conceptual for most school settings.

There is no need to rush from AB to BC. Lizz says that for a junior deciding between AB and BC, the biggest factors are grade level, math comfort, and what they plan to do in college, and that students who are going into a real STEM field and have strong foundations can jump directly from pre-calc to BC since BC covers the AB topics at the start anyway, but that she herself took AB senior year, pursued a math major, and was still accepted to college, so there is no reason to push ahead if it does not fit.

The sweet spot for AP prep is four months, finishing content by mid-March. Lizz says that three to four months is the ideal window, that the first month and a half should be content review and teaching, that her personal goal is always to finish content by the middle of March, and that the last month and a half should be entirely practice tests, aiming for roughly one per week starting at the end of March for a total of six to eight tests, with the final practice test taken four to five days before the real exam.

Practice tests must eventually be taken under real conditions. Lizz says that early on students do not need to take practice tests all at once or under strict timing, but that by mid-April students need to sit down and take them in one sitting, and she uses the example of her sister who woke up every Sunday at seven thirty, ate breakfast, sat at the dining room table by eight, and took a full-length SAT for three months straight, so that when she walked in on test day she felt like it was easy and still had energy.

Missing the layups and over-focusing on deep understanding are the most common AP mistakes. Lizz says students sometimes focus so much on conceptual mastery that they miss the fact that getting a five does not require a perfect score, that learning the keywords and specific language in the scoring guidelines can tell you what the answer should reference even if you do not fully understand why, and that every single multiple choice question is worth the same so the small pieces of knowledge that feel random are just as important as the harder conceptual questions.

College Board tells you exactly which topics to prioritize. Lizz says that the AP course manual available on the College Board website breaks down every content area by percentage weight, and that if a topic is eight percent of the exam, there are only about three multiple choice questions on it, so students should focus the majority of their energy on the high percentage topics like chemical equilibrium or related rates rather than spreading effort evenly across everything.

Time management during the exam means breaking sections into thirds and skipping strategically. Lizz says she has students divide their total section time and total number of multiple choice questions into thirds as a pacing gauge, that they should never spend too long on a single question since every question is worth the same, that skipping a question and coming back is a skill that must be practiced beforehand so students are comfortable doing it under pressure, and that questions are not ordered from easier to harder so students should move to whatever jumps out at them and come back to the harder ones with banked time.

A thirty-day crash course is possible but requires honest expectations. Lizz says she never discourages students who reach out at the end of March or start of April, but she has an honest conversation about where they are and what is realistically achievable, that a five is going to be challenging if they are not already confident in the material, and that a crash course requires at least two hours a day three to four times a week, with the first two weeks on content review and the remaining time on two practice tests per week all taken under true test conditions, and that she has seen last-minute students get threes and fours but has never seen one pull out a five.
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Conclusion

This conversation is a thorough and experience-grounded return visit packed with specific, actionable guidance on every stage of AP preparation, from choosing between AB and BC to surviving a thirty-day crash course. Lizz brings the same precision she applies to every student's roadmap, covering course selection, weekly study design, practice test pacing, exam-day time management, and the honest truth about what a five actually requires. Listen to the full episode for the complete methodology and actionable strategies that could transform how any student approaches AP subject choices, study scheduling, practice test timing, scoring guideline strategy, and the mindset needed to walk into exam day feeling prepared rather than overwhelmed.