I’ll probably finish the Five Steps to a Five book (note-taking wise) by first semester (January). I plan on focusing third quarter (January - March) on reading AMSCO and adding to my notes. </p>
For me, just skimming through my Five Steps to a Five book, it seems like a lot of the knowledge on the test is basic knowledge on steroids; meaning, we all know about the civil war and such, but I guess APUSH goes into depth.</p>
Anyways, my question is; I’m hoping to get an average score of 4 on my AP’s, and currently my average is a 3.4 (stupid Spanish Language…) </p>
I calculated it, and I think I could easily get a 5 in AP Stat, AP Bio (I’m taking IB), AP Calculus BC (I have probably one of the best teachers in my county, and a lot of my friends got 4+) and AP English Lit (I take IB English, which easily covers everything Lit does) </p>
Will it be possible, through self-study, to get a 3-4 on APUSH? My abridged plan:</p>
I agree the homework is already hard! We have two study guides already and have to write a reaction (how we felt) about a reading in our Zinn book!</p>
Ouch. We mostly just have a lot of reading (looking like an hour or two per night right now; the first two weeks, it was about 4 hours a night) and a few questions per chapter so far.</p>
@staffofmoonlite: That should be enough for a 4, and probably a 5.</p>
Okay so basically…I hate the work I have to do for that class. But it’s SO FUN. The class discussions are the best And really, it isn’t htat bad if you do the work I guess…</p>
It’s so nice to know that there are a bunch of people out there suffering through the massive workload of APUSH. at first I felt like it might have been a mistake to take the class - we had to read Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin over the summer. for those of you who haven’t read it, it’s actually pretty good, but it’s 754 pages long, and kind of dry so you have to read in small chunks at a time. How are your guy’s classes formatted? ours is pretty discussion/test based. We have reading every night and discussion grades every day, and tests about twice a week. Our teacher is really good, and he formatted the final AP multiple choice style - 100 questions in 71 minutes, all over chapters 18 and 19. I’m really enjoying the class so far, although the American Pageant is pretty annoying at times. Have you guys done any practice DBQs yet? And has anybody started studying for the AP test yet?</p>
Our class has reading every night, quiz every day or every other day depending on how he feels, and tests over every 4 chapters. Our last test was over 5 chapters, and it was my highest grade…eurgh. Anyways over the summer we just read chapters 1 through 8, did a HUGE packet on it, and tested on it when we got back.
We do DBQs pretty much every two weeks lol. Occasionally we do an FRQ. But I just use my REA book throughout class except for quizzes because the questions come straight from the book. The American pageant kills me.
I told myself id start studying over the break…hasn’t happened yet lol.</p>
Oh, and our classes are only 45 minutes long (except for 5th period) so our final wasn’t that long.</p>
^^heh, my teacher mentioned Team of Rivals a lot and even pondered the possibility of required outside reading, but we persuaded him not to do that</p>
Our class is pretty much lecture + occasional video + test + DBQ. Reading notes required (due at the end of the unit) and a few questions, but otherwise nothing much.</p>
I’m terrible at essays because I don’t retain much information very well just from taking notes and reading… I should start making more of an effort. (I do quite well at multiple choice for some reason, though, which is why I have an A in the class.)</p>
I ended the semester with an 84 C. Gah I’m so disappointed in myself…being deathly sick and not being able to make up work in APUSH + working + orchestra + school = bad combination. I’m determined to get an A next semester though :)</p>
APUSH has been pretty tough for me so far. I’m really nervous for the test. I feel like when I learn new stuff, I’m forgetting past events from previous chapters. I know this is bad but I can’t help it. Any suggestions?</p>
Also, does anyone know the breakdown of what you can score for each section (MC and Essays) on the exam, and still receive a 5, 4, 3, etc.? And how specifically the DBQ and two Free Responses are graded to get that half of the score?</p>
And really, it isn’t htat bad if you do the work I guess…</p>
our schools grading system SUCKS.