I am currently a sophomore who took my school’s APHG class this school year and am about to take the AP exam on May 18th which is this coming Friday and needless to say, I am FREAKING OUT. This is my first AP class I ever took and therefore my first ever AP exam. I’ve been studying for about a month now; I purchased the Barron’s AP prep book for this course, taken multiple practice exams, and have reviewed all of the powerpoints of my APHG teacher’s yet I still feel worried, like I understudied or forgotten a crucial piece of information. I know many people say that this is a fairly easy AP exam but I feel like I am at a disadvantage compared to my fellow students who are juniors and seniors because at my school, the sophomore and freshmen history classes have only taught us up to World War I (in US history) and the Gilded Age (APUSH) and I am worried that many questions on the exam will require possession of previous knowledge of history to be able to guess a country’s current status. So should I just review the history of the world up to the present day or is that just overkill? Okay maybe not review the entire history of the world but like is there specific points in time that I should review? Because on many of the practice tests I took online asked about random things like “which president created the department of agriculture” and I def don’t remember learning that.
I really enjoy this class and really, really, really want to get a 5 on this exam.
Any advice/strategies to score higher/calming words are welcomed and greatly appreciated.
I AM GOING CRAZY.
How have you been doing in the practice exams? Your practice test scores are usually a good indicator of how well you’ll do on the actual test. I took AP HUG last year as a sophmore as well (offered to mainly sophmores at my school) and didn’t think the lack of history knowledge put me at a disadvantage.
If I remember correctly, there was little to no previous history knowledge needed. The biggest thing is to connect concepts. I remember population was a big part (birth/death rate, r/k population, carrying capacity, etc). If you’ve been doing well in practice and have been studying for a month, I think you’ll be fine!
Best of luck!
Thank you so much!
We just did a practice test for it last class and I got an 89% on the multiple choice which my teacher said indicated I was in good shape so I hope she’s right haha. I think I’m stressing out because I know getting a “5” on this exam is so attainable and a lot of people do get it so I’ll be very disappointed if I get anything lower. It’s in three days now so fingers crossed that I do good.
Don’t stress too much, you’ve been preparing enough and seem very dedicated. I took ap human geo as a freshman and passed the exam so I don’t think not taking the other history classes are an issue. You’ve done very well on multiple choice questions so make sure you practice for the frqs as well. Jusy do your best and good luck!
@cynth028 Actually, not a lot of people obtain 5s on the test. Only 10.6% (https://www.totalregistration.net/AP-Exam-Registration-Service/2017-AP-Exam-Score-Distributions.php) of test takers did so last year. However, some say it is because so many students expect the test to be super easy and therefore, do not study much. As a result, most people who take the test actually get 1s. Nethertheless, if you got 89% on the MC, you are doing well and will most likely be perfectly fine!
Update: thanks guys for your replies and kind words. I ended up getting a 5 so I’m happy lol. What a late conclusion but I completely forgot about this thread I started until tonight because I couldn’t go to bed.
Do you have any advice for future AP HUG students, which I am taking now, for obtaining a 5 and studying for our exam in a May?
Get the practice book! I always crammed the day before tests so I didn’t retain any of the information I learned throughout the year and had to reteach it to myself in time for the exam lol. Don’t do that