So I start apush really soon (junior year) and I’m really nervous about it. This is my first experience with an AP class (I’m also taking AP English language, but I think I’ll be okay there, it’s not the essays I’m worried about). Everyone’s saying that it’s going to be really overwhelming and stressful and I’m scared I don’t have what it takes to do well. I’m a pretty good essay writer (very prolific and thorough, and I’ve been doing well in other history classes, but they were honors level, had very few actual tests, and barely required effort aside from one research term paper a year). However, memorization and applying all these historical concepts and knowing enough to elaborate on them is scaring me so much. I’m honestly terrified of how much of a shock it’s gonna be. Does it get better once you get used to it? How long does that take? What’s an average amount of homework per night and what do you have to do? Do you find out what the DBQs and FRQs on the exam will cover beforehand, even generally? I get you have to memorize a lot but do you really have to know every little detail? I just wanna feel a little more comforted and confident that I can do this is all I’m asking really.
You don’t need to know every detail - focus on learning the details for units that are covered the most on the exam. Somewhere online there should be a breakdown of what percentage of the AP exam is based on each unit - I know the first and last units are covered the least in the exam. I found the worst part of APUSH to be the workload - there is a lot of homework, but the homework does tend to help a lot with comprehension of each unit. If you are worried about the exam, make sure to get a review book of some sort, my teacher recommended the AMSCO one. You don’t know what the DBQ/FRQs will be beforehand, but for the FRQs, iirc, you choose one of three + a required one, so you have some freedom to choose the FRQ based on what you know the best.
At my school, it was a class that started easy and over time, we were assigned more homework but we were used to the class by then. Do your readings and listen to the lectures and you’ll be fine.