<p>Hey guys. I was just wondering about something. The other day my schools ap gov teacher was in my apush room giving a speech on why we should take the class. And I'm not sure if I heard her correctly by I thought she said that you don't write any dbqs or essays in Ap gov like in a push or ap world. Is this true? Thanks. </p>
<p>Yes. The essays are much more brief and straightforward.</p>
<p>you can check out past essays on collegeboard’s website. There are four essays and you have 25 minutes to do each one. They are simple and straight to the point and your answer is expected to be as well. Its different APUSH and WORLD because in Gov you don’t get any extra points for being an excellent writer. The readers literally have checklists of information that could be accepted as correct so the scoring is fairly objective compared to other AP exams. Sometimes you evenn get historical essays where just remembering Federalist vs. Antifederalist from APUSH will get you full points (happened this year). The essays are very straightforward and easy if you know what you are talking about and use a lot of vocab in your response. Most people also do not write formal essays. The questions are broken up into A,B,C,etc. so some kids just write down A and then put a one-paragraph response next to the A and do the same for B and C. You can do this and still get full points but it is better to leave the labeling off because if you label the reader cannot give you credit for part D for something said in part A. I wrote my FRQs by just writing one paragraph about part A and so on. These FRQs are really much easier than any other history course.</p>
<p>So as a whole how would you describe the level of difficulty of Ap gov as compared to a class like a push or ap world? </p>
<p>AP gov is significantly easier. There are 4 essays, but they don’t have to be in essay form and are more short answer than anything else. You answer the questions, usually involving “define, explain, or identify”.</p>
<p>Three common types of questions in FRQ section are:
- Identify - expected to point to a specific vocab term that answers the question. Also, expected to define in these identify questions. Only has to be 1 sentence
- describe - You have to show how a term applies to a situation or impacts situations. Goes beyond definition and usually requires an example. Has to be at least two sentences.
- Explain - Has to be at least 3 sentences and has to go more in depth as to the importance of the term.</p>
<p>The FRQ’s are usually easier than APUSH or World FRQs</p>
<p>I took AP Gov and APUSH this year. AP Gov was significantly easier than APUSH. The essays were also a breeze. 25 minutes per question is plenty of time to get the question answered.</p>
<p>AP Government FRQs are not essays - they are short answer responses. 4 questions appear on the test, and each question has anywhere from 3 to 5 parts - you can answer each part in singular sentences. So long as whatever you write answers the question, there’s no need for any sort of stylistic elements common to essays. You are essentially writing a series of thesis statements. </p>
<p>AP Government is less challenging than AP World and AP US in that the content is a lot less dense - APUSH is very detail oriented while AP World is very thematic. AP Government is far less overwhelming in the information it presents, it is neither nitty gritty nor is it conceptually challenging.</p>
<p>Anybody know anything about the work load for ap phsyc? I’m trying to decide between Ap world, ap gov, and ap phsyc as my fourth ap on top of ap comp sci ap calc ab and ap physics c. Since I want to go into engineering I want to concentrate my energy and so I’m looking for a fourth ap that will not give me to big of a work load (especially hw wise). </p>
<p>AP psych is a joke. I would take gov if I were you.</p>
<p>That’s a terrible thing to say. Psych is a very informative class.</p>
<p>At my school, AP psych is a joke. A lot of people take it though because it interests them and gets them out of a requirement for college. I almost took it myself (couldn’t fit it in). However, I would take gov if I were you because you do not currently have a humanities and AP psych is seen more as an elective. </p>
<p>@mrnephew sorry (that came out wrong), I have posted this to clarify my position, but I missed the timeframe for editing the previous one.</p>
<p>At our school, it’s one of the most fun and popular classes, and everyone ends up learning something and gaining a lot out of it.</p>
<p>And just because a class interests people and gets them out of a requirement for college doesn’t mean that the class is a joke. It means that the reason people take it is a joke (For the college req part because a class being interesting is a good thing.). </p>
<p>@mrnephew no one has ever gotten below a B+ in the class. The majority of people get As…
Everyone knows it’s a joke, but they take it for the above 2 reasons.</p>
<p>That still doesn’t make it a joke…</p>