Totally get your frustration – learning a whole new academic writing style like APA, especially for an exam, can feel overwhelming! It's a common hurdle, so you're definitely not alone.

For the body of your paper:

• Perspective: APA prioritizes objective, impartial reporting. Stick to third-person ('the study found,' 'research indicates'). First-person ('I believe') is generally avoided, except in very specific contexts like certain methods sections ('we conducted the experiment'), which is usually for empirical research papers.
• Structure/Index: Beyond Intro/Body/Conclusion, APA papers use a standardized set of headings (not an index in the traditional sense) to organize the main text. Common sections are Introduction, Literature Review, Method, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Each section has a very clear, specific purpose and content.
• Topic: A more specific approach is almost always better for your first APA paper. It lets you delve deeper, provide strong scientific backing, and avoids overwhelming scope.

Many students find that understanding the purpose behind each APA element, rather than just memorizing rules, makes it click. Breaking down complex requirements into personalized study steps can really help navigate these new academic demands. Good luck!

You are mixing two issues: APA is mainly a formatting and citation system, while the intellectual structure depends on the kind of paper your instructor expects; given your description and the phrase “with scientific backing,” this is almost certainly a short literature review rather than an empirical report. A workable template for a student APA paper is title page, then an abstract only if the instructor requires it, then an introduction that states the focused research question or claim and explains why it matters, then a body organized by themes or subquestions rather than by individual sources, then a brief conclusion that states the take‑home answer and limits, and finally the reference list. Within the body, use APA’s heading system to signal the structure to the reader; Level 1 headings are centered and bolded for your main sections, and Level 2 headings are flush left and bolded for subsections, which keeps the flow clear without a table of contents. APA student papers do not include an index or table of contents unless your instructor explicitly asks for one. Voice in APA is straightforward: use active voice and author‑date citations to ground each claim; first person is acceptable when describing your own actions in the paper (for example, “I reviewed studies on X and evaluated Y”) but avoid opinion language like “I think” or “I feel,” and keep evaluative statements tied to evidence. For tense, present tense suits established facts or theory, while past tense suits the specific methods and results of a published study you summarize; when you synthesize a set of findings, present perfect can signal a general trend.

i mean i can go on and on but this should be enough

The main thing is:

Referencing style Indentation Citation style DOIs

Thats pretty much it. Just see a sample paper written in apa format.

If you still don't get it you can dm me. Ill provide you some reference papers.

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I think there should be strict rules. I found it stressful, but sometimes I use online generators or try to type myself. I also keep forgetting the format. Silly me!

Here's an APA guide that you might find helpful.

I apologize for my grammar

you have to cite everything from a source, even if it's paraphrased.

There's a sample paper here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

It has comments and explanations.

And always always ALWAYS remember to define your terms clearly. And for the love of god stress test those definitions too!

Going into my Fall 2025 semester of undergrad as a Freshman... saving this post hahaha

Thank you very much, I appreciate posts like these🙏

Here are mine for those interested:

• How to write undergrad assignments
• How to present findings
• How to write papers for publication
• Bonus: How to review papers during your PhD
• Bonus: other content here.

Sure, I can help with that. What's thhe specific question?

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Use AI. Best use of it. 

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/documents/APA%207%20Student%20Sample%20Paper.pdf

This is also another great resource as well for APA 7 formatting!

I only just started doing this last semester yeah. Thank you

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There's an APA workshop every week— Wed & Thurs 6 pm EST. It's a 15 minute presentation and Q&A afterwards. If you can't attend, click Book Now in Academic Support and you can access the recording later.

Mybib.com/tools/apa-citation-generator is a life saver. One of the teachers provided it to me. It’s a free citation generator. If I need in text, I usually take what this site gives me ask other sites how to in text citation it using this

https://www.owl.purdue.edu/index.html

It helps you format your sources too.

The SNHU Shapiro Library has online resources as well.

https://libguides.snhu.edu/apa

The APA handbook helped me a lot. It costs a little but it’s worth it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Suss/s/KhL46X0B3G

https://www.reddit.com/r/Suss/comments/1msk866/various_guides_for_suss_freshiesexisting_students/

This won’t help you now, but this may help you in the future… get a reference management software like endnote (or a free software like zotero). As far as I know this is the only way to do something like what you are describing. They also have tons of other helpful features that help with managing citations and keeping track of interesting papers.

Look up an example online and mirror it

You’re probably better off looking at the Purdue OWL‘s APA guide and fixing it yourself.