By now, many of us on CC know which AP classes we are taking. I was bored and decided to make a thread. This should be a center where we can come for help and guidance. I cannot wait until May 12’!
Did anyone get their summer assignment yet? I will get mine next week</p>
I’m signed up for APUSH. I feel out of the loop for this AP class. I’ve been focusing on AP Chem a lot more. However, I talked to my APUSH teacher about the class today, and I feel like I’m ready. My AP World History teacher was killer. I feel like he truly prepared us for the workload that I’m going to have in APUSH.</p>
I’m reading 1776 - by David McCullough for my summer assignment. I’m also reading the first 9 chapters of America: A Narrative History on my own time so I can really be prepared before day 1.</p>
Good luck. This class is relatively easy if you have a head for history and research.
I recommend DirectHits and Crash Course, those books are popular and useful.</p>
getting mine soon… from what i heard its a DBQ on the puritans. I’m undecided between AMSCO, Crash Course, and Direct Hits for next year as prep books</p>
What day in May is the APUSH exam?</p>
And what books and review material are you guys using? I’m talking about both textbooks and review books. I have:</p>
- American Pageant (12th and 13th edition)
- 5 Steps to a 5 - both the review book and the “500 questions” book
- Crash Course
- Old school REA book (blue … 6 tests …)
- Peterson’s Master APUSH
- Cliffs APUSH
- Lies My Teacher Told Me
- America - A Narrative History (Tindall and Shi)
- The Teaching Company - American History lectures (audio files)</p>
Last year, they had to memorize all of the presidents, years they were in office, political party and who they ran against for a quiz the first day of class. They also had to take notes from the first 5 chapters of the textbook and write an essay on some primary source documents. I’m taking it next year and we are getting the assignment next week. I’m praying that they change it!</p>
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Ah, I’m signed up for it but really don’t want to be. I guess I have to do it for colleges though. This summer we are assigned to read “The Wordy Shipmates”.</p>
Isn’t it a bit… early for this? We haven’t even gotten back this year’s scores.</p>
IceQube: You’re definitely over-prepping.
APUSH is generally easy. If you have experience with any other social science class, it’s especially beneficial.</p>
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Friday morning, first week.</p>
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…I crammed all of DH in a week (including the second half the night before the test until about 12:30) and should be a 5. You’re going way overboard if you’re learning purely for the AP exam.</p>
Is it possible to self-study this using review books?</p>
Yes, it is.</p>
^Did you self? What did you get? What review books did you use? AMSCO?</p>
I actually had a class, but I also used Direct Hits.</p>
For those of you taking the class, what is your summer work?</p>
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I took APUSH this year. Over the summer we had to read chapters 3-5 from Out of Many, a boring and lengthy book. Then we had to write 6 mini-essays and define about 40 terms.</p>
For those of you who are taking the class next year, doing well on the exam is really just a matter of forcing yourself to learn the information. Although I took APUSH as a class, I learned almost nothing from the teacher or from tests/quizzes we took. I just did all of his ridiculous homework assignments that almost no one else did and studied outside of school for the AP. The test ended up being extremely easy, and I am confidently hoping for a 5.</p>
What I did throughout the year and how I studied for the AP:
I read every chapter of Out of Many: A History of the American People except for the first two. I also outlined nearly every chapter so I could stay focused on the reading. This is the most annoying part because it took me SO LONG to do, but I got through it.</p>
I used the Sparknotes Guide to AP US History ([BARNES</a> & NOBLE | SparkNotes Guide to AP U.S. History (SparkNotes Test Prep) by SparkNotes Editors | Paperback](<a href=“http://search.barnesandnoble.com/SparkNotes-Guide-to-AP-US-History/SparkNotes-Editors/e/9781411405172]BARNES”>http://search.barnesandnoble.com/SparkNotes-Guide-to-AP-US-History/SparkNotes-Editors/e/9781411405172)) throughout the year to clarify anything I was confused about and to review.</p>
I did all of the horrible homework assignments that he had (with the textbook outlines, I was usually typing 1500-2000 for each night I had homework). Make sure that you don’t do assignments with minimal effort if they are potentially useful for study. Over Christmas break, one of my assignments was to find the titles and dates of publication for about 50 books. I went ahead and added a few books to the list and wrote 4-5 sentence blurbs for each one. It was extremely useful for studying for the AP and for doing my final project, which was on literary criticism.</p>
I read through the Crash Course and Direct Hits to study for the AP. I would have been so lost had I not read Direct Hits. I also did the online questions for Direct Hits and looked up any that I got wrong.</p>
I did several practice tests. Along with the practice multiple choice for Direct Hits, I did 2-3 official exams, the 2008 AP Audit, a test from the huge REA book, the 2 tests from my Sparknotes book, and other online practice questions. These definitely helped the most with familiarizing myself for the AP. I did no practice essays (I hate writing essays), but I knew a lot of outside information, so I had no problem on the AP.</p>
Hopefully this helps anyone who is taking APUSH next year. Even though I dislike history, I am glad that I took the class and learned so much about American history. Good luck :D</p>
Thank you burgerking316. This helps so much. I’ve been trying to get motivated for this class and you made me realize that I really need to start getting motivated - at this point.</p>
Can we agree that AMSCO is the review book to go with? or has that changed?</p>
^Definitely changed to Direct Hits, IMO.</p>
DH is very useful. Although I never used it, my friends constantly tell me how useful it was for them</p>