<p>Hi! I took APUSH this May, and I'm thinking about self studying for AP Gov't this year.</p>
<p>Right now, I'm taking a summer class at the local community college for American Government (had to do that along with economics to fulfill the requiremnts for junior yr- I'll be a junior this fall- and with ap bio being a double pd, i didnt have room in my schedule)</p>
<p>I figured with apush knowledge along with this summer class, I could just buy a prep book and take the exam? I'm kinda concerned though because this school year will be so busy, I'm not sure if I'll have the time...</p>
<p>Any thoughts? Tips? anything would be helpful :) Thanks!</p>
<p>Your summer government class should be fine. A lot of the information is stuff that you may know from bills, Congress, the President, etc. The information is on the easier end of most of the APs, but the curve is pretty harsh. You should be fine even with the busy schedule, you will just need a little review before the exam.</p>
<p>It is possible to self-study AP Gov’t. You need PR and Crash Course and constant revision. Then you’ll be good for the exam</p>
<p>I think instead of self studying you should use that time
to have fun and relax. You don’t want to be to stressed
out. Thats a bad thing.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone for your suggestions</p>
<p>@copyxmkii- I was thinking about that too… :\ After all, you’re only 16 once…</p>
<p>I’m still not quite sure what I’m going to end up doing. Hopefully if i do decide yes, I’ll decide with enough time to actually study! XD haha</p>
<p>Don’t worry about being stressed out; it’s a really easy AP to self study. The course should do it. But to be on the safer side, I’d just glance through/maybe carefully read depending on how much of the course you remember the PR review guide. I pretty much flipped through the review guide this year and took the test (note I also followed the 08 elections pretty closely so I knew a lot about US Politics before). Don’t know what I got, but of all the AP tests I took, I walked out of this one the most confident.</p>
<p>use my teachers site:
[AP</a> Government](<a href=“http://www.jsher.myclassupdates.com/mnhsapgovernmentmacroeconomics/]AP”>AP Government)</p>
<p>(the links on the left)</p>
<p>i used that throughout the year and I got a five. he gives you everything you need to know.</p>
<p>If you buy PR and Crash Course and took APUSH and have that summer class you’re basically guaranteeing yourself a 5. If you have PR you’re basically guaranteeing yourself a 5. I’d just get PR and crash course and take maybe one or 2 past exams and you’ll definitely get at least a 4 (and only that low if basically everything goes wrong the day you take the test…)</p>
<p>AP U.S. Government and Politics is the easiest AP exam in my opinion. It’s even easier than AP Human Geo. Just read the Princeton Review before the exam and you should be able to get a 4 or 5 easy. The test only tests the institution of American government and the theory behind a two party system. No knowledge of current U.S. politics is needed.</p>
<p>Final Verdict: Go for it dawg!</p>
<p>(Be sure to study previous Free Response Qs though, AP Gov essays are very different from APUSH ones.)</p>
<p>^true. The annoying thing about the essays is how specific they seem to be sometimes, but the essays we had this year were great overall. Some were bascially repeats of past years…</p>
<p>^ I agree with 110percentwahoo- I only read the crash course guide to AP U.S. Government and got a 5. You should be fine with the summer course.</p>
<p>Definitely dont JUST read the crash course though if you have no class. It doesnt cover everything, just most of the major/moderate things. If you’re completely self-studying get crash course adn PR</p>
<p>Thanks everyone ((: thanks for the advice and the sites too! :)</p>
<p>i think i’ll do it now… haha you guys raised my confidence XD</p>
<p>how exactly are the essays different from apush?</p>
<p>girlofpurple - they’re complete opposites. On APUSH, you write legitimate essays with theses. On AP Gov, you write the answer concisely. You can generally answer in one or two very short paragraphs.</p>
<p>^^And you can bullet your “essay” answers in AP US Gov as long as you answer the question. I’ll be honest, for the first essay, I felt weird bulleting my answers lol.</p>
<p>Woah that doesss sound really weird! haha</p>
<p>soo… no thesis at all?!? gosh that goes against all that apush practice! lol</p>
<p>no quotes or background info or anything like that? just the straight fwd answer? O_o</p>
<p>^Yep, just the straight forward answer will suffice. Make sure you answer the entire question well though. You could include a thesis/background info such as a modern example if it is appropriate to the question.</p>
<p>Thank you (:</p>
<p>When would you guys suggest to start studying? I was thinking january-ish…?</p>
<p>(also, sorry for the endless amount of questions!! haha)</p>
<p>I had a half semester class starting in mid january but I didnt pay attention AT ALL until I realized in April I knew absolutely nothing. Then I basically learned it all. So January would defintely be good, later if you wanted. There is nto too much content.</p>
<p>@chess94: thank you :)</p>
<p>I’m going to the book store today to flip through a few books on it (you guys suggested princeton and crash course)</p>
<p>Do I have to ask my guidance counselor if I can self study this, or is it a given? (The school board usually pays for the ap exams, but thisll be a self study so I’d have to pay for this one)</p>