The most important part of AP Psychology: Unit 0

The most important part of AP Psychology: Unit 0

The most important part of AP Psychology: Unit 0

It’s half of the entire FRQ portion of the AP Psychology test. It makes up a large percentage of the MCQs. And yet the single most important part of AP Psychology isn’t even an officially numbered Unit in College Board: Unit 0. While College Board starts with Unit 1 and brain anatomy, it’s not too late to introduce a unit explicity designed to help students pass the AAQ!

Why is it important? The AAQ

One third of the AP Test will be about Unit 0. What is Unit 0? It covers the major types of psychological studies:

With an entire portion of the test designed around Unit 0, it should be a dedicated unit, not an afterthought. And yet College Board doesn’t even have a section for Unit 0 in the online AP classroom!

So we designed our own: Use AAQ guides with color-coded sentence starters to help students understand exactly how they should write an answer to pass the test. Sometimes, students may know information, but not know how to word it–or word it in a way that may actually cost them their points! This is especially true for the question about a study’s generalizability (which student’s can lose points on for answering both ways!). We’ve previously discussed how to answer an AAQ in a past blog, but these sentence starter guides give students hands-on practice for any test they encounter.

Making AP Psychology Fun!

With AI access so common, putting learning back into students’ hands (literally) is more important than ever. You can do fun, interactive games such as a Types of Study matching game. The included posters help reinforce learning the concepts when they see them daily as you teach other topics.

Or, allow students to play detective and use their Psychology knowledge to solve a crime and see if a psychological study is good enough to prove a suspect’s innocence with the AP Psychology Unit 0 Murder Mystery Psychology Activity. This one is great for observations because the students are engaged, having fun, talking with each other (instead of on their computers) and learning the skills they need to pass the AP Psychology test.

It’s not just the AAQ: MCQs, too!

Remember, it’s not just the AAQ! Many of the MCQs will also ask about these same topics: When asking about depression, the question may be framed as follows:

A researcher studying depression thinks a medicine can help. All participants agree to be in the study and understand their real names won’t be published, and understand that some will be given real medicine, and others will be in a control group without real medicine. He gives one group 10 mg of a medicine, another group 15 mg, and another group takes a placebo. At the end of the study, he never tells the participants whether they had the placebo or not. What ethical guideline is he breaking?

A. No harm, because he didn’t give one group real medicine

B. Informed consent, because some subjects didn’t know if they had the real medicine

C. Debriefing, because he never explained if they had the medicine at the conclusion of the study

D. Confidentiality, because it was a secret if they had the medicine or not

While the question might seem like it’s about depression or mental health (Unit 5), it’s actually a Unit 0 question! You can practice doing them with your students by taking a mock exam to see exactly what we mean. You should also be doing Unit exams after each unit to give students the practice they need.

Check out Diogenes Education’s AP Psychology Unit 0 resources

AP Psychology Unit 0: Full lessons, activities, games, review, AAQ guide, and test

Full AP Psychology Bundle: All units, tests, activities, and more

AP Psychology Unit 0: AAQ Murder Mystery

AP Psychology Unit 0: AAQ guide toolbox

AP Psychology Unit 0: Types of Study Matching Game and Posters

AP Psychology Full Mock Exam: AAQ, EBQ, and MCQs with answer keys

AP Psychology Unit tests: AAQ, EBQ, and MCQs with answer keys

Get a FREE SAMPLE of one of our lessons HERE