I am a junior and I am in regular US History, not AP. I was recommended for AP but decided to take regular because I already had a tough course load. History has always been one of my best subjects and I have an A (97) in the class but wasn’t sure if I would be fully prepared to get a good score since it was regular US history. The colleges I am looking at don’t require SAT subject tests but they are considered if they help me. I would be taking the subject test on June 3rd, a couple weeks after my regular US history exam. If anyone has any advice that would be nice!
No subject test requires an AP class as preparation. Whether or not your class fully prepares you for the test is a question for your teacher, since the is no standard way to teach USH. In all probability, you would do well to pick up a prep book.
Even if you are good at history, the SAT US History Subject Test is brutal. Many of my friends got a 5 on the exam but failed to achieve a good subject test score (710-760). A prep book is incredibly useful. However, you don’t need the AP class. I took the AP Biology Exam and the SAT Biology Subject Test without taking any biology classes in school and got a 5 and 800 on each respective test.
^ I would agree that the USH is a brutal test, especially if you aren’t good with memorizing lots of seemingly trivial information. I thought it would be more thematic (like the AP exam), but it is ridiculously specific–dates, crops, supreme court decisions, authors, acts, etc. are the sorts of things that will appear on the test. I had to work really hard to even pull off a 710, haha! If those kind of facts “stick” well with you, though, you should be fine. I think part of it is luck. Either you know it, or you don’t.
Take a practice test and see how you do. As noted, a prep book helps a lot. My D made a 4 on AP but 740 on US History SAT II. She was in a college level class that didn’t teach to AP test so maybe better prepared for subject test than AP. She took subject test a year after class so not ideal.