<p>I know what history is, the themes, and what I need to know, but I want to know is how you all study history. Do you take flashcards for basic terms? Do make large timelines? Do you do twenty page outlines for each chapter? Or do you just read?</p>
<p>i just read my textbook. i didn't even take notes. there are couple websites online that have notes/outlines/vocab terms for my textbook so i didn't need to do anything.</p>
<p>read.
terms i guess could work (kaplan's apush in a box is amazing) but I, myself, don't see them as working as much w. history, but more so with science.
timelines are worthless.</p>
<p>outline is best of those listed.</p>
<p>history is about is themes. "continuity and change" is often what the study of history is described as. If you havent taken AP US History, the class is about themes and time periods. Our textbook (great btw) the American experiment, even had chapters that jumped around chronologically. its all about the themes and periods... many people fail to see that and get beyond 'dates and events'. </p>
<p>one way of studying we did in AP US was called branching. the teacher would name a period, theme or topic and we would branch off with all the information we knew. you could do this with chapter titles in your books.</p>
<p>in summary, know the themes, periods, etc. and know all of the info related to them. make sure you know things in relation to the theme or period, not just as a stand alone event.</p>
<p>I just read, but that is why I got a 4 on APUSH.</p>
<p>^ same here.</p>
<p>personally: read, make flashcards (don't buy them), take notes when needed, pay attention in class, and take things seriously.</p>
<p>As has been said before, don't worry so much on actual content as much as the general trend of events at any place or time. If you can split up whatever your topic is into a few general but all encompassing ideas you've almost guaranteed yourself a 4. The last point comes from the ability to remember key facts. I don't mean the random things like the name of every person who appears in the glossary of your book. Rather, once you identify your themes, be able to identify anyone or any terms who made a "significant" impact on those things. For example, my strategy for US history was break it off into 10 different time periods, pick 1 person and event to remember neurotic details about for the essay, and then maybe 10 other specifics to help fill in the blanks. Using this strategy, I got a 5.</p>
<p>If you need to actually learn the stuff (for the first time anyways), I can't stress enough how important it is to actually READ your textbook in full though. No one expects you to pull out every fact at any given moment, but eventually you'll find that certain facts just randomly click, and you'll remember them for almost no reason.</p>
<p>I was a sophomore last year and im not as smart as a lot of he people on CC and i got a 5 on Euro. What we did was that our teacher counted notes as a certain percentage of our grade and would assign a chapter to read and outline every week. What she did though was that she only graded the notes about 3 times a quarter but wouldnt tell us when she was going to collect it and since it was only 3 times, if you missed one youll get about 4 points off of your average so everyone did them. I think it helped tremendously because if it wasnt for that i wouldnt of read the chapters most of the time. I never did flash cards or anything liek that(way to lazy). Before a test i would just read over my notes and read over the chapter. For the AP test i just went over some sheets my teacher gave me to study and i read PR and i ended up with a 5. The thing what i noticed about Euro was that you have to understand CONCEPTS to do well. Its kind of similar to chemistry you have to understand the concepts and the details will follow. The thing with Euro and probably US as well is that a lot of the questions are completely random, like major topics barely get brought up(execpt on essays. Most essays except for DBQs are on major topics). I never really knew that much details but since i understood the concepts of things well i was able to kind of guess the answer and i would end up with a good grade on my test</p>
<p>For me, the whole reading it once (or couple times) dosen't cut it for me. I have to take notes and study the notes over and over (to become memorized/learned by repetition). I wish there was a BETTER way to study. I'm weak in History.
If anyone have tips OTHERTHAN just reading the textbook--it'd be awesome =]</p>
<p>Sparknotes PowerPack and a textbook. I also took previous years' tests.</p>
<p>I got a 5 on the APUSH exam.</p>
<p>read the news about politics, read the textbook, took lots and lots of lecture notes..lots! ;)</p>
<p>^You know, I would take LOTS and LOTS of lecture notes.. if we HAD lecture notes.</p>
<p>The first week of APUSH went by and still our teacher hasn't lectured us about the two chapters we've read..</p>
<p>just random stuff about "thinking like a historian" and such.</p>
<p>AND for my text book, there is NO outline for it. It' sucks major time. And it takes over 5 hours to read/take notes.</p>
<p>think of it as a story</p>
<p>i personally think it is a good idea to make notecards of authors and famous works, as the AP was very heavy in that aspect. otherwise, read, and make sure you get all the way through the 1980s even if your teacher doesn't. do practice essays timed, practice reading DBQs, and take notes.</p>
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think of it as a story
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<p>This is the best advice, I believe. Think of your history textbook as one big story and it all pieces together. In fact, there are always different sides to the story as well. After taking AP US History first semester of junior year, I took the exam in May and scored a 5. After realizing that US History is so much more than the story of the dead white man, I looked into a more "revisionist" perspective of history. This deviates from the main topic a bit, but I believe that everyone who took AP US History and did well on the exam should read Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It tells the STORY of the U.S. from the "loser's" perspective. It's long, but it's amazing.</p>