I’ll be taking this class next year and I guess it’s never too early to get the thread going… (right?) </p>
Some points of discussion:</p>
-What are the best prep books?
-What textbook are you using?
-Previous students: what did you think of the test?
-How are you going to prepare for the test?
-Good APUSH related books?
-Do you enjoy APUSH?</p>
After scores are received/Students who have taken it already:
-How did you do?
-What did you think of the MC?
-What did you think of the Writing?
-What advice would you give to someone taking the class/test?</p>
<p>Yeah I’m taking the class too next year. Compared to World, I’ve heard the exam was easier (Hope so, the world exam was pretty easy, especially the DBQ). APUSH is supposed to be very time consuming at my school and supposed to be decently hard, not overly, but still to an extent</p>
<p>Sounds like my school. APWH was very broad and covered a lot of material. I bet APUSH will be less material (1 country vs the world), but way more in depth</p>
<p>No clue though, maybe because covering 4000+ years of the history of the entire world constitutes 5 extra questions than covering 400ish years if a single country</p>
<p>Good luck next year! I can only speak from my own experience taking apush this past school year, but it was rigorous but definitely manageable. If you make sure to keep up with all of your assignments and study for your tests then studying for the AP exam isn’t too bad and the exam itself wasn’t either; I felt very prepared. </p>
<p>I’ll have to take the subject test this fall though because of conflicting dates this spring… can’t wait to study all over again…</p>
<p>I’m taking IB History of the Americas and I WAS planning on maybe partially self-studying for the APUSH test, but apparently, the APUSH curriculum is changing, so I’m not taking any chances.</p>
<p>As a junior who took this class last year and was quite successful in it, I’ll offer some advice.</p>
<ol>
<li>APUSH is a lecture class. It just suits the content. So if you’re used to worksheets and assignments like that, please let go of that.</li>
<li>You will read A LOT. Develop concentration and good time management. Merica hasn’t been around that long but you’ll be going pretty depth. My textbook was upwards of 900 pgs. Though the curriculum is changing this year so who knows.</li>
<li>Always take notes in lecture. Even if you’re like me and swear you’ll remember it, do it anyways. Even if you never look at them again, writing down notes is getting the material into your head.</li>
<li>Mark up your textbook. If your school doesn’t actually allow you to write/highlight in your books, buy some post-its. Having key points condensed will help very much come assignment time when you have to write about them. And hey if you’re nice, leave em in the book for the next person, like I did and the person before me did.</li>
<li>This isn’t about memorization. Yes, you will need to learn and remember a lot of material, but APUSH is more about common themes and how things connect. For example, I’m awful with dates, but if you can remember generally what things came before others and what things caused other things, you can connect the dots without having to know the dates of every single event.</li>
<li>You’re probably going to write in paragraph form. Almost every hw assignment we had this year was done in paragraph form, full sentences. The time of short answer and fill in the blank worksheets is gone.</li>
<li>You will write A LOT. Answering your homework in paragraphs is great practice for the FRQs many people struggle with. If you’re not a good writer or have trouble coming up with a thesis, etc. do something about it. Go to tutoring, practice your essays because these tend to be weighted a lot in your grade and essays are a huge part of the exam.</li>
<li>In between reading and writing and wanting to pull your hair out, get acquainted with John Green’s crash course on YouTube.</li>
<li>Your first few test grades may upset you, but take it as a lesson and use them to improve. Ask your teacher what you did wrong and write it down. AP teachers tend to reuse test questions later. Don’t make the same mistake twice.</li>
<li>Engage in class. Take an interest! Even if you don’t like history, your teacher will appreciate the initiative (a great quality to be associated with come recommendation time) Just don’t be that person that has to answer every single question/be first just to emphasize how smart you are.</li>
<li>Form a study group. I’m normally an independent worker, but when it comes to analytical subjects like APUSH, bouncing ideas off someone else is helpful. They may have noticed a theme you didn’t used a different fact to support their thesis, and you can help each other.</li>
<li>This may be class-specific to me, but I know many AP teachers don’t give that many grades (even though they really enjoy giving work). Make every grade count. This IS a difficult class. It ain’t called aPUSH for nothing. If you’re the kid that never had to study before, now’s a fabulous time to start. </li>
<li>Most of all, be confident. You wouldn’t be in this class if you/your counselor/teacher didn’t think you could handle it. The thing that surprised me on exam day was how much more I knew than I thought I did. I had a great teacher and really enjoyed APUSH. I hope you will too.</li>
</ol>
<p>If anyone has questions about anything APUSH related or needs an opinion on an essay or anything, I’d be happy to help!</p>
<p>-I actually didn’t think APUSH was that hard (and I’m not just saying that). As long as you do the reading every night, you should be fine. However, if you don’t consistently read the textbooks, you’ll basically fail every test. </p>
<p>-Definitely form a study group because it helps a lot and helps spread out the work and notes between more people. </p>
<p>-My school uses the American Pageant textbooks and I also personally bought the Princeton Review APUSH review book and the AMSCO one later on as well. DO NOT buy the Princeton Review one. AMSCO is so much more helpful and presents the information much more logically. However, the AMSCO practice tests are terrible as the questions aren’t anything like the ones you’ll see on the exam (in terms of format). I also bought flashcards but didn’t really need them. As long as you’ve kept up with the reading throughout the year you should be fine for the exam. </p>
<p>-The only real prep I did in the week before the test was going to my teacher’s three after school review sessions. One of the best things that we did was an activity where she named a decade/time period and we had to write down everything we could think of associated with that period. It definitely helps a lot because although you’ll remember a lot of information, there will be some things that you’ll completely forget about.</p>
<p>-I had A’s all 4 quarters (mainly because my teacher was amazing) and am also pretty confident that I got a 5 on the AP exam. I took the SAT Subject Test for U.S. History and got a 780, but the MC’s from the two tests are very different. </p>
<p>-Work on your writing a lot because the essays are 50% of the exam and if you do bad on them, there’s no way you’re getting a 5. At first, DBQ’s are hard to right but by the end of the year they should be much easier.</p>
<p>-If you’re not willing to put in around 2-3 hours of reading and taking notes a night, then APUSH isn’t for you. However, I think that if you do put in the work you’ll do great in the class. </p>
<p>Anyone know any online resources that helped APUSH students last year? I know for World that helped me a lot because of the ample amount of review websites. </p>
<p>@ElusivelyGreat98 check out the crash course videos on John Green’s Youtube channel and histnotes website if for concise chapter summaries (especially if you’re using the Alan Brinkley textbook) Life savers. </p>
<p>There’s another apush 2015 thread that me and another poster wrote some helpful things in. Check that out too.</p>
<p>I want do buy a review book to help me through the school year. I can find a lot of good used ones online but is it still worth it since the test format will be changing?</p>
<p>So apperently the course is being redesigned. Anyone know how this will affect the exam and curriculum? Will the exam’s MC be more reading based? Will the curricullum become bigger or smaller, or just take some away and put some in?</p>
<p>As someone who took APUSH 2013-2014 and is expecting a 4/5, my advice for you guys is just to make sure you actually read the textbook, do the classwork, and pay attention throughout the year. Then come review time, read REA’s Crash Course or find a PDF of it and do at least two practice tests. Guaranteed pass on the AP exam if you do this.</p>
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