Hi everyone! I got an 800 on the May subject test and thought I would repay some of my debts to this website by sharing how. I really did not do an excessive amount of review, and I’m sure you won’t have to either. This guide will be most helpful to those who are taking the corresponding AP class.
MATERIALS I USED
-Princeton Review Cracking the AP US History Exam
-AMSCO US History: Preparing for the AP Exam
-College Board’s The Official SAT Subject Tests in U.S. and World History Study Guide
-Princeton Review Cracking the SAT US History Subject Test
I’ll explain specifically how later on, but in general I used the AP books for content review and the subject test books for practice tests. I’m not going to pretend that you need to have all of these to do well on the test or that all parts of them are even useful. I’m a firm believer in the fact that most review books are very similar in terms of how well they prepare you for tests and that whatever has worked for you historically will work again. My preferred review book is Princeton Review, but if you’re a Barron’s fan or something, by all means use that. Whichever books looks best on your shelf is fine.
THE SUBJECT TEST AND THE AP EXAM
As you can probably tell based on the books I used, I took the subject test and the AP exam in the same month (actually on consecutive days), and even though others may tell you otherwise, prepping for one test will make you well-prepared for the other. With that said, there are some major differences between the tests.
The AP has made a shift from being fact-based to being trend-based. This means that you don’t need to spend a lot of time memorizing obscure details to do well on the test. Luckily, I didn’t totally realize this until I took the test and didn’t struggle on a single question. You are, unfortunately, going to need to know those details to do well on the subject test and they will come in handy on the free response sections of the AP, so you will be doing yourself a huge favor by learning them anyway.
The thematic focus of the AP does help to some extent on the subject test. You will see a handful of questions that require knowledge of major themes throughout American history. Some questions will get at very general themes by being very specific. For example, imagine a question showing the population of a state in 1955, the population of the state in 1985, the 1955/1985 birth rates, the 1955/1985 death rates, and the net migration rate over the time period. Based on all this data, you can see that the population is rising because of a high net migration rate. The question then asks which state this data represents. Your choices are Washington, Georgia, Maine, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. There are a few ways to go about this question, but as always, the best and most reliable is straight knowledge. No, you aren’t expected to have memorized population figures for every state during every time period (but I mean if you did that, more power to you). Instead, ask yourself what was happening with populations during this time period. The best answer? The Sun Belt Migration. It’s then an easy step to choosing Georgia, the only one of those states in the Sun Belt. The data may have seemed oddly specific, but it was just asking you to know regional trends.
WHEN TO TAKE THE TEST
As I mentioned, I did my subject test review and AP exam review simultaneously. I strongly believe that this was key to motivating me to actually study and preventing me from forgetting the material. Do yourself a favor and take the May subject test if you’re taking the AP class and are not a senior. I can’t even tell you how many of my friends took the test in June and regretted it because they had forgotten everything on the AP exam by the time an entire month had elapsed. I was one of a few at my school who took it in May, and I really can’t see any reason not to. If you are not in an AP class, June is probably the best time because the year will over or ending and the material will be fresh in your mind. The one exception is seniors… If you want EA and ED schools to see your scores, take the test in October. Sure, some schools might take November scores or whatever, but do yourself a favor and just do it.
MY ROUTINE
Ah, now we get to what you came for. As you can see, the materials I used can be divided into two groups: AP review books and subject test review books. Before any of you say that the only reason I got an 800 was by being crazy enough to actually read and memorize all of AMSCO, guess what? I didn’t do that. Actually, I barely even touched AMSCO. My main source of content review was the Princeton Review AP review book. I started reading about two or three weeks before the AP and made online flashcards for just about all of the terms in the book. A lot of the tiny details won’t come up on the AP, but expect to see them on the subject test! This is the part of my method where there’s a little more flexibility. Online flashcards work really well for me. I usually don’t even look back at them (and for this test I didn’t), but the process of typing out all of the information in an easily readable format helps me tremendously. Just do whatever you normally do to get information from your book to your brain.
Wait until you feel confident that you know the material before you start taking practice tests. There aren’t that many good ones available, so it’s best to save them until they’ll be of the most use. I wasted a College Board practice test and got a 680 before actually learning the material… Big mistake. I’d recommend sandwiching your practice tests College Board, PR, PR, College Board so you can start and end on the most accurate. Remember that you can get ~eight wrong and still get an 800. Please don’t take this as an excuse to ignore eight questions that you don’t want to do or stop reviewing questions once you get eight or fewer wrong.
After each practice test, look at the questions you got wrong. A lot of them are going to be straight fact recall, so ask yourself why you didn’t know or remember the answer. It’s also worth going over any questions you weren’t sure about, but I usually forgot to do this and was just fine. Now is the part where AMSCO comes into play. If PR wasn’t enough to help you answer a question, read through that part in AMSCO. You’ll suddenly know it in an absurd amount of detail. Honestly, if you have the time to read through and memorize all of AMSCO, you’re almost guaranteed an 800, but it’s so not worth it considering how long the book is and how extraneous most of the information is. Once you’ve reviewed any material you feel like you need to, it’s time to take another practice test.
To summarize: Practice test → Why you got questions wrong → AMSCO review → Practice test
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you have worked hard in your history class all year and studied a bit, the test should be a breeze. I didn’t pay attention at all in class, but read through the PR book before tests, which made reviewing for the AP and subject test pretty easy. With enough prep and review, you can ace this test! Best of luck and if anyone else wants to chip in with advice, by all means go ahead.