<p>Hi!.. I am taking U.S History on Jan 27th.</p>
<p>People who got higher than 650!!! What would be effective preparation until january testing date?
What book should I use?
When should I start solving problems?
etc..............</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>US History AP: 5
SAT II: 800</p>
<p>I wouldn't use a kaplan/pr/barron's book, they are way too sketchy with the details. Use your textbook if it's not too long. Use it if it is too long, too. Trust me, the textbook is the way to go.</p>
<p>I also took notes on my entire textbook, resulting in 213 pages of information that is now useless to me. This may have been overkill. However, I was incredibly confident going in, which helps bc i get nervous.</p>
<p>This is all going to take a very long time. START NOW.</p>
<p>^this sounds intense, doesnt it? okay, well, if your goal is 650, then go ahead and use a kaplan book. it all depends on how high of a score you need.</p>
<p>well i only have a 780 but here's wat i did. I took US AP sophomore year so i basically took the amsco book and read over the chapters I'm sketchy on. Then I borrow my teacher's barron's flashcards and just went over them. This took about 3 weeks. It really helps if you go over the flashcards the day bfore the test...just a nice review. Here are the links to the stuff i mentioned:</p>
<p>I got an 800 using the REA and Kaplan books, they curve it a bit.</p>
<p>I had a semester of APUSH, and used Kaplan, and got a 700.</p>
<p>I just bought REA and am going to study from there for 750+ hopefully.</p>
<p>whats REA???</p>
<p>i did the same thing as ky9742 (except i didnt take that many notes!) and got the same scores as him.</p>
<p>REA is Research and Education Association...its a prep book company. Excellent US history prep I've heard.</p>
<p>Get a (comprehensive) textbook, Idiot's Guide and Kaplan (or Barron's, but I've never used that personally)!</p>
<p>I'm a Canadian who had NEVER learned any American history before Sept. 06 - when I decided to take the SAT II in US history (yes, crazy, I know). So I read my school's 1031-page-long US history textbook (Face of a Free Nation, I think, never heard it mentioned on CC though), then read through a 1999-edition of the Idiot Guide to U.S. History, and lastly went through the Kaplan study guide. </p>
<p>Result? 2 months of studying (not even studying really hard) - and I got a 740 on the Nov. test.</p>
<p>The people above are correct. Just reading through one textbook, one Idiot's Guide, and one test prep book (actually, read through the test prep book first so you have the big picture before all the little details are forced on you) will give you a way better score than what you'd normally get. You won't remember most of the little facts, sure, but you will certainly remember quite a few more than you would otherwise know. The only trick to this, which is not really a trick at all, is sacrificing your time in order to do the reading. If you don't have enough time for a big textbook, skip that and just use the Idiot's Guide and a test prep book.</p>
<p>i read my textbook and used prep books. The thing was that i took in my sohomore year and i didnt take US history 2 yet so i covered the whole curriculum in less than a month. I got a 790. I would use PR and Mcgraw Hill. Know every little detail. Rememorize the book. Do practice tests and memorize that too.</p>
<p>I've managed to squeeze in the REA reading in a week. Its not too bad, except for some jarring grammatical errors. They have 6 practice tests, which should be extremely helpful. I'm also planning to read through PR's APUSH guide a few days before the test just to get a last minute brush up.</p>