I am taking AP Physics, AP English 11, AP Chinese. Should I take APUSH as I heard it was the hardest class? Chinese is a joke, it basically is my easiest class, and I’m decent at the others, but I don’t know. I am taking AP World History this year and even though I have a great teacher it is slowly k-ill-in-g me. I have approx an 86, but I’m sure I can get it up by the end of the year. Anyone know how much harder APUSH is than World History? So thoughts?
Things vary from school to school, but APUSH is generally much harder than AP World History, especially in terms of the amount of homework and required reading. If you are able to pull off an A in AP World History, then I would go for APUSH; if not, stick to Honors US History if it’s offered.
I had a different experience than the user above in terms of difficulty–my school taught APUSH easier than AP World.
Anyways, I’d go for it.
In my school’s sequence APUSH comes before AP World, so I’m in AP World this year and was in APUSH last year. I would say that APUSH had a much harder work load and in comparison AP World has been really easy so far. If you are really struggling in AP World I would say be very cautious about APUSH - you can probably do it but maybe don’t expect a seriously stellar grade.
reading on CC I think they are both difficult…but the first you take is the worst because you have to make the jump from HS level classes to College level history and there is much reading, writing and analyzing.
I took AP Euro last year as a sophomore and I thought euro was harder (due to the fact that I have never learned about european history) but it was also more interesting (especially the french revolution my favorite topic in that class haha). But I’m in APUSH this year, an even though I think it’s still interesting and very fascinating, I do not think it is as interesting as euro. I think that it is because this is my third time learning us history but honestly I’m still learning a lot and I love my teacher.
In my opinion, I think APUSH is easier than AP World because instead of covering the history of the entire world from thousands and millions of years, APUSH covers American history from 1492, still a lot but a lot less compared to whap. Honestly, I think you should take APUSH if you have an interest of history; even though I have learned American history, I always learn something new. If you don’t like history and are just taking APUSH for the GPA boost, do not take the class, I repeat, do not take the class. If I were not interested in history, I could not even imagine the pain I would go through because of the amount of work involved.
Good luck with your decision!
At my HS APUSH was usually the class they tried to push you into if you wanted/needed 1 AP class (that or stats, if you were more math-oriented.) It was also a million times easier than Euro, and I boiled it down to two reasons:
- I (and you, if you take it) have already taken an AP history class. You know what to expect and don't have to go through that learning curve again.
- Most US schools push US history all through elementary and middle school, even up through freshman year, so most of the basic content you already know, it's just filling in gaps or making intelligent statements about that information. Less grinding.
APUSH easy? Not at all. The standard textbook (American Pageant) has been the book used since at least the 1970’s. Back in the dark ages when I took APUSH the book was 700 pages and now it’s 1200 pages at least.
If you’re not used to how to do FRQs and DBQs then I would advise you not to take the class.
APUSH was very challenging at my school and I would say most people had Bs. I learned how to study for it though and had an A the whole year. My quizlets should get you through with flying colors. HMU if you take it next year and want my username
It really all depends on the teacher. My DS chose not to take APUSH because he was getting a little burned out so he opted for the Regents level instead. His regents teacher was very demanding and his class ended up harder than his friend’s class who were taking APUSH. DS has another AP class and loved that the class essentially ended in May when the AP exam was although school ended the third week in June. The AP classes continued to meet but the bulk of the work was over and they were more or less just putting in time. There are many variables none of which can be answered on this board. It all depends on the individual teacher for any class.
In our hs ap physics is the hardest. Ap world is horrible. Apush is very manageable. Ask your counselor. Our counseling office has a chart that weights the relative difficulty of each ap class.