AP US History

<p>CC's who took APUSH this year, would you guys like to leave sum advice for us rising juniors taking it next year?</p>

<p>Learn how to write DBQ's early and often. Keep up with the reading.</p>

<p>whats dbq??</p>

<p>document based question</p>

<p>The DBQ on the APUSH exam this year wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. But it was on the Revolution so there weren't as many specific facts that had to be memorized.</p>

<p>I struggled a lot with this class because I hated to do the reading.
If you do the reading early, and pay attention, you'll do superb on the tests and everything, and reviewing everything at the end will be easy.
Listen in class too, I kinda daydreamed a lot.
REA is the best book to review at the end, even if you didn't keep up all year (but you still should try)
Read all of it, do all of the practice tests
AMSCO is good if you read it throughout the year.
Unfortunately I didn't discover it until about March and I had no time to read it. </p>

<p>Here are some sites you can use for help:
<a href="http://www.course-notes.org/us_history/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.course-notes.org/us_history/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://ap_history_online.tripod.com/apushreviews.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ap_history_online.tripod.com/apushreviews.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://college.hmco.com/history/us/bailey/american_pageant/11e/students/ace/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://college.hmco.com/history/us/bailey/american_pageant/11e/students/ace/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.historystuff.net/apscore.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historystuff.net/apscore.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.polytechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/DBQ.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.polytechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/DBQ.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://odur.let.rug.nl/%7Eusa/H/1994/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/index.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/history/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sparknotes.com/history/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.fcpsteach.org/docs/AS2%20Units%2004-051.doc%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fcpsteach.org/docs/AS2%20Units%2004-051.doc&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/brief_review/us_history/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/brief_review/us_history/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.mrburnett.net/APUSHistory/APUSHistory.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mrburnett.net/APUSHistory/APUSHistory.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.africanamericans.com/CivilRightsHistory.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.africanamericans.com/CivilRightsHistory.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Readings/THE%20GIANT%20AHAP%20REVIEW.doc%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Readings/THE%20GIANT%20AHAP%20REVIEW.doc&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/APReviewPacket-JM.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/APReviewPacket-JM.pdf&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/magicroy2000/hw/us/Outlines.doc%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.geocities.com/magicroy2000/hw/us/Outlines.doc&lt;/a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases&lt;/a>
<a href="http://chaos1.hypermart.net/pres/tusp.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://chaos1.hypermart.net/pres/tusp.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.u-s-history.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.u-s-history.com&lt;/a> --> Also has search engine for vocab and people, places, and events. </p>

<p>Now I didn't use all of these resources because I procrastinated. A lot. Some of these sites are very specific, like the civil rights history site. Browse over all the sites, some will give you good info for later essays during the year, some have tips to help you throughout the year, and some have good reviews, etc.</p>

<p>A lot of these resources I found too late, so you're lucky to have me on these boards to gather them up for you ;)</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

<ul>
<li>Read "The American Pageant" (if this is the textbook your school uses)</li>
<li>Use the AMSCO cram book</li>
<li>Write lots of practice essays (hopefully your teacher will assign a good number) and DBQs</li>
</ul>

<p>I know, that's pretty generic advice, but if you feel good about most of the information in the AMSCO cram book and have had enough practice with essays and DBQs, you'll do fine.</p>

<p>i skipped school the day before the test and read REA. I didnt even finish the book actually. Got a 5. I had a good teacher though. But we still didnt cover anything past like The Depression. THe curve is cool.</p>

<p>I took it my freshman year, and had a ball. That was mostly because of my teacher, but still. My advice: spell "some" correctly, as people tend to respect you more when you use proper English. Oh, and don't fall behind in reading/outlining, especially if you aren't a very fast reader, because the material piles up fast. Oh, and DEFINITELY practice those DBQs, they're vital.</p>

<p>I disagree with all the advice about practicing DBQs...if you know how to write and you know the general format (which isn't difficult to master at all), you'll do well - you don't need to write 15 to figure it out. The multiple choice is the part most people need to focus on, and I would recommend the American Pageant textbook and the Princeton Review AP study guide. REA tends to be verbose, but if your school's textbook isn't sufficient I guess it'd be the best way to go. If you know the information for MC you'll be more than prepared for the essays.</p>

<p>Yeah, I also would recommend Princeton Review and the American Pageant.</p>

<p>Your textbook and your teacher are your best friends. Taking notes and making study guides not necessary. Pay careful attention in class.</p>

<p>"Don't Know Much About History" is a great book that prepped me along with my teacher's lectures and a brief skimming of Princeton Review's AP US history summery</p>

<p>Don't wait until the day before the AP test to start studying.</p>

<p>Yeah. I did that for all my tests and then wondered why I didn't make any 5s.</p>

<p>Find trends! (Ex. Farmers support xyz because of abc, yadda yadda...)</p>

<p>Ew, we used Pageant last year for American Studies I Honors. I hated that book more than anything. Well, I didn't read most of it. I just used these chapter outlines: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/theamericanpageant%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.geocities.com/theamericanpageant&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Umm yeah I don't know anything about the exam though cause I'm taking it next year, too!</p>

<p>I didn't read much out of my textbook, but I studied out of the Princeton Review book a bit. I got a 5.</p>

<p>Buy the PR book.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Your textbook and your teacher are your best friends. Taking notes and making study guides not necessary. Pay careful attention in class.

[/quote]

that depends on the type of student you are...I dont learn anything history-related (mainly because I hate it!) unless I take notes and then make big poster-sized outlines which I hang on my closet door the week before the exam...</p>

<p>anyway, my advice (though I still haven't received my score!):
-learn to write DBQs; they need to be WELL organized!
-for essays, know SPECIFICS - general trends are not enough for a good essay, though they do help with the multiple choice
-there is close to nothing on the test past 1980 or so; the vast majority of the mc and essays do not extend past the Vietnam War. our class basically crammed the post-Depression era the week before and we were fine, though I was panicking at the time. For 1970 on, just read the sections in the REA book.
-make SURE at the end of the year you review colonialism and the revolution (I know I thought while I was reviewing: "oh, I covered this every year in elementary and middle school. it's not a big deal, I know it"). With all the stuff you jam into that head of yours throughout the year, you're likely to forget the specifics you need to know for the exam
-when studying the cold war - even if your teacher doesn't assign it, try to read at least chapters 4 and 5 ("beginnings of the cold war" and "Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan") of Rise to Globalism by Stephen Ambrose. Just get it from the local library or something. He makes everything SO clear, and it's important that you're clear on the cold war strategies because you may very well be cramming it in the last few weeks.
-When learning the information for different time periods, divide the material into categories. the essay questions nearly always ask you to categorize information. Our class drew charts on manila folders, color-coordinated and everything. it definitely helped when we had to review everything at the end of the year, because we already had everything organized for us. The types of categories we used: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, Economics, Society and Culture,the Supreme Court, Elections...
-Do ALL the multiple choice practice tests in the REA book in the two weeks prior to the exam, but don't do them all in the same day because a lot of the questions are reused. Don't be upset if you realize you're only getting about half the questions right; you will improve especially as you learn late 20th century material. LOOK UP ALL YOUR WRONG OR OMITTED ANSWERS!</p>

<p>umm..I'm done for now...</p>

<p>
[quote]
that depends on the type of student you are...I dont learn anything history-related (mainly because I hate it!) unless I take notes and then make big poster-sized outlines which I hang on my closet door the week before the exam...

[/quote]

Also depends a lot on what kind of teacher you have. We sorta caught a break with ours, he was ridiculously easy, I remember one day he needed to fail us all on a quiz grade just so he could bring down the student averages below a 100, because people had averages of like 107%, and the school computer couldn't recognize that high a grade.</p>

<p>My teacher was horrendous and it was really like a self study for me...
All I did was use REA and I got a 4</p>