Should I take the AP US History exam?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’m currently a junior in high school and I am taking AP US History and AP Spanish Language. I feel pretty confident about my Spanish test but NOT APUSH. I know I’m going to fail miserably in the written portion. Everytime I see an LEQ prompt or DBQ prompt I completely blank out. There’s about a month left before the exam and I feel like if I take it I’m going to get a 2 because I am not going to do good on the written portion. I should mention I will not even major in history since I will be entering the medical field. I just thought of taking this class to get some credits for general ed. Clearly, my options of scoring a 3 are not that great. I really struggle with the writing portion, always. My high school does not require that I take the test but I don’t know if it will still be weighted to my GPA if I don’t take the exam. Any advice?

2

Here’s some advice:

  1. Try and connect times in history that are generally similar, this will help you with your synthesis AND information outside the docs/support points.
  2. Don't worry about reading everything in the book.
  3. Watch Adam Norris.
  4. Make a Quizlet of the vocabulary in your textbook.
3

Find out your school’s policy. If you’re not required to take the AP exam, it would not seem logical that there could be a GPA impact one way or the other. Since the scores aren’t released until July, it seems unlikely that a school would somehow factor the AP score into GPA. But you need to find out for sure.

One way there could be a GPA impact: if you don’t take the AP exam, are you required to take a comprehensive final exam in the class? Some schools exempt AP students from the course’s final if they take the AP exam. My son’s school does this, so nearly everyone takes the AP exam because it doesn’t impact their GPA while a final in the course would. And the AP teachers really want the students to take the AP exams, so they usually warn that their comprehensive final will be very difficult.

4

THANK YOU all for your helpful advice and tips! I ended up taking the exam after all and I GOT A 4 ON THE APUSH EXAM!! :smiley: