I have just finished my 2nd unit of APUSH and I am being crushed by the workload. I am barely able to do it and keep up nightly. Along with some other hard classes; pre calculus and chemistry. With this combo I have no free time to do anything with friends or have a social life. As I usually get home at 6pm from Cross Country. The part that takes me average 3 hours nightly is taking book notes. I am required to read each section of each chapter and write a summary of it. Roughly 10-15 pages a night.
Anyone who has taken APUSH and finished with a 90 or higher. (Trying to maintain 4.0). Please give any advice. Thanks!
(Also I’m new here)
I had a similar schedule during my sophomore year. Try to limit the amount of notes you take, and don’t procrastinate. Use weekends to your advantage as well as any blow off classes
Hey there! Current college student. Although I took APUSH during my sophomore year of high school, I got a 5 on the Exam and got an A+ in the class, so maybe I’ll be able to help you?
First of all, take a deep breath. I know that college apps are seeming more and more stressful, but you’re already doing really well, to be honest. The fact that you even took the time to go on here and ask for help shows a lot about who you are. Also - congrats on balancing 3 AP courses and a sport as a 10th grader! The thing that you should be focusing on is avoiding burnout from stress. It might help to look up de-stressing/self care techniques, but otherwise, here are some academic tips…
- If your teachers have supplied you with syllabi outlining due dates for the whole semester, I highly suggest that you take some time this weekend to look through all the due dates for each class and write them down on a big calendar (one of those big desk-top ones, or a digital version) so that you can budget your time.
- Get assignments started as early as possible. If there's an essay due at the end of the unit, try at least thinking about your thesis tomorrow, etc. This may seem like more work for you at first, but it'll help you get a handle on things in the long run. College pretty much necessitates that I at least start thinking about an essay the day it's assigned, even if it's not due until the end of the semester, so this will help you establish good habits for college.
- From what I remember, APUSH places a lot of emphasis on being able to identify major historical trends and patterns, as opposed to simply memorizing extraneous historical info. For instance, it's more important to remember the effect that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, rather than the specific model of car he was riding in.
- Going off of that, how has your teacher been grading your notes so far? If you can get away with it, try skimming each chapter for the most important points/events, and prove (through your notes) that you can "connect the dots" through an annotated timeline, chart, or vocab list. This will help your prioritize important info, and will help you on the exam, as well. If your teacher cares about specific facts, you could take the time to select a few specific facts and add them to your pre-existing notes before turning them in, rather than sifting through the whole chapter for hours.
- This is a little nerdy, but if you're able to meld social life with studying, that could help a lot. In high school, my entire class would get together and study for AP exams or work on essays. This was even helpful for people like me (I almost always need to study alone) because there was always going to be someone who knew a lot about one specific subject than with everyone else. I guarantee that there will be things you understand a lot better than some others, and you can help them out , ultimately, yourself, because teaching the content to other people is one of the best ways to learn something). It also helps to show that everybody is in the same stressed-out mindset.
- Are your teachers approachable? If you think that you can talk to them (especially your APUSH teacher) I advise you to approach them and ask if they're free to discuss your current progress in the class. In my experience, even super tough teachers will offer some sort of guidance and help if you a) take the time to tell them how important the class is to you b) make it seem like you're genuinely interested in the content, even if it's actually super boring to you and c) communicate with them honestly. The fact that you've been writing 10-15 pages of notes for each chapter should tell your teachers that you're not some slacker looking for an easy A.
In college, the only people who don’t ask the Prof for help (or to at least talk about how they’re doing in the class) are the people who don’t care about the class. Being able to talk to Professors is a big skill in college which can lead to a lot of opportunities, so I would start practicing by talking to my high school teachers, if you are not already.
Sorry for the long-winded response! I hope that you find these points useful. Either way, give yourself a pat on the back - you’re already doing very well!