Hey guys. I’m taking AP U.S. Gov’t next year as a senior. I took APUSH as a junior, and I loved it. I’m confident that I did very well on its AP exam. However, at my school, the program for AP Gov’t is only one semester long, and is RIDICULOUSLY work-intensive with busy work. As such, I’m looking for summer prep that I can do to help jump start me for the class. My APUSH teacher recommended making notecards of all the major court cases and dissecting the 14th Amendment in extreme detail. What would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>I am taking AP Gov. next year as well and was wondering exactly the same thing. I never really took any of my classes seriously before, even the AP classes, but since next year is my last year I am hoping to do very well and boost up my terrible GPA to a 4.0. I was going to learn some government materials over the summer so it would be less overwhelming when I actually take the course (I heard the teacher is really tough) so I kind of figured I would use the Princeton Review books and hopefully some notes from friends who took the course once. Maybe you can do the same?</p>
<p>TBH US Gov isn’t that difficult of an exam, a lot of it is common sense. Jordan, I would suggest looking over what material your class will cover and trying to highlight the things which the course won’t review (specifically pay attention to court cases, powers of congress, and the amendments). Also it may be helpful to look at stuff about voter behavior (which is fairly simple but they hit it pretty hard this past year). Finnimbrun, is your course a semester or is it year long? Again, I’d suggest knowing basic powers of each branch. Also it may be helpful to learn about the bureaucracy. Hope this helps! I took the course last year and did fine on the exam so if you have any specific questions let me know</p>
<p>How much material does this website have in terms of the AP US Gov test?</p>
<p>[HippoCampus</a> U.S. History & American Government - Homework and Study Help - Free help with your US History homework](<a href=“HippoCampus - Homework and Study Help - Free help with your algebra, biology, environmental science, American government, US history, physics and religion homework”>HippoCampus - Homework and Study Help - Free help with your algebra, biology, environmental science, American government, US history, physics and religion homework)</p>
<p>Oh wow, that looks like an excellent website. Obviously I didn’t look through it all but it seems to have a lot of information on the things the AP covers.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that understanding federalism is really important, so make sure you have a firm grasp of it before you take the exam. Again, I found of the three branches that both my class and the exam seemed to focus the most on Legislative (this might change from exam to exam though, I’m really not sure). Last thing- also pay attention to interest groups; the AP seems to love the fact that they’re becoming more relevant than parties. If you have any questions (most of the material is still fresh in my head) just let me know!</p>
<p>Summer prep won’t really help you with busy work, though it will help you on tests. I don’t mean this to sound too shady, but see if you can talk to other students who’ve taken AP Gov with the same teacher and, if so, ask them how thoroughly the teacher checks and grades busy work. My Physics teacher for this past year “assigned” about an hour of homework a night but never checked it and openly admitted that he never would. I still got a better grade in the class than I ever had in Biology or Chemistry, so it’s questionable whether busy work is that important for skill building if you don’t have to do it.</p>
<p>I’d recommend looking over outlines of the AP to familiarize yourself with what will be covered and then work from there, looking through books and such to get the material into your head so that when you encounter it in class it seems more familiar. That’s what I’ll be doing this summer for AP Gov and AP Physics.</p>
<p>I’m taking the class too! High five! History has never been one of my favorite subjects, but from what I’ve heard a lot of the material is common sense.</p>
<p>@emberjed High five! I’ve heard the teacher does not check the assignments very well at all. I hope to not take advantage of this too much, but it does mean I can have a little leeway in scrutinizing and detail.</p>
<p>After self-studying this last year, my advice would be to brush up on important court cases, most of which you already know from APUSH. I’d familiarize myself with the 3 branches of government, PACs, federalism, civil rights, civil liberties, and the constitution of course. Most of the material you already know. It’s just a matter of applying it and seeing how it all works.</p>
<p>Shoot, I just realized I don’t know what federalism is… Then again, I haven’t taken APUSH, only Honors.</p>
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<p>Actually the old AP Government teacher just retired this year. I took regular US History (AP Gov and AP Calc AB are the only AP classes at my school.) and self studied APUSH. I ended up getting a 4. Do you think I will be prepared for AP Gov next year. </p>
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<p>Where would you find these materials (besides the collegeboard website)???</p>
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<p>[Federalism</a> in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism_in_the_United_States]Federalism”>Federalism in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I took it this past year and had an amazing teacher, she forced us to watch the pbs news hour as a summer assignment and tested on it. I found it very helpful to have real life events to draw from for in-class discussions and Free Response Questions. Over the course of the year we answered all released free response question, making it clear what CB wanted for each type of question, since you have to answer all the one’s they give you come test day.</p>
<p>try this book: AP US History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination.
It was a lifesaver for me. I took a practice test 2 weeks before the test and got a 2. I read that whole book briefly the weekend before and got a 5 on the actual exam.</p>