hii so i’m a rising junior and i want to take AP US Gov and Politics (want a 5). I plan on studying all the way from september to may. can i self-study and get a 5? i’m very dedicated and studious, but the thing is i have little to none background on us politics in general… which i heard you need to get a 5… soo will studying for a year make up for that loss? any tips and advice appreciated,thanks!
The poli sci test is a joke tbh, it’s mostly just memorizing vocab terms/some basic concepts. Buy a prep book and read through all the material, but really focus on vocab. I used Cliff notes, which had a really good glossary with all the terms, but the rest of the book was pretty mediocre. Heard Princeton review is good, and Barron’s is always good for self-studying. And a year is more than enough time.
One tip for the actual test- make sure you use the vocab terms on the essays. The graders aren’t so much as reading as they are skimming; they are looking for those key terms, and those are what get you the points.
okay thanks!
hey one more question: do i need to know apush for ap us gov?? i plan on taking either apush or ap stats… and right now my only motivation for taking apush over ap stats is does it help/is it required for ap gov and poli? thank youuu if ya can help me outt
It’s definitely not required, nor is it a huge help. For us gov, you’ll need to know a few historical events that demonstrate political concepts (key court cases and things like that) that are in apush. Just be sure to review the bit of history that is tested (the prep books will have everything you need).
Everybody at our school takes us gov before apush, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.