These are the AP Classes I plan to take during my junior year:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics 1
AP English Language
AP US History
AP Spanish Literature
AP Microeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
What is the best prepbook for each class?
What did you think of the class or AP test?
What is something I should know about one of those classes?
How can I pieper for these classes over the summer?
I’d like to her all your opinions on these AP classes.
Thank You!
I’ve only taken AP Lang and APUSH, both classes I loved. Your schedule does seem a bit loaded though, so I would make sure you have adequate time for each class and its required readings and study time. Definitely invest in the crash course for APUSH. For AP Lang make sure you understand what each type of essay wants, and also practice MC. Timing is crucial, and it goes by fast on the exam. APUSH includes a lot of information, and it was only easy for me because I LOVE history. If you don’t have an extreme love for it, I would recommend paying close attention in class, actually reading the assignments, watching videos, etc. There isn’t an exact way to prepare for Lang over the summer, maybe you could take a look on the college board website and study the types of essays and become familiar with the techniques, etc. For APUSH start studying the first few time periods so when you start the class you’re familiar with the content. Also, your APUSH teacher can’t possibly cover everything themselves. Although a small part of the exam, make sure you know post WW2 as most classes run out of time before the exam to cover it thoroughly.
A tip for both Lang and USH: look on the collegeboard and see what the structure of the exam is.
I also took APUSH and AP Lang and Comp and for me APUSH was a terrible class. I had taken AP World the previous year and that got me into history with all the mock trials and historical readings but I found APUSH to be nothing like that. My teacher didn’t teach us the material in class, opting rather to assign all the chapters from the textbook as homework and testing us on them each class. Whenever she didn’t assign a chapter from the book we would do busy work in class, things like practice dbqs and historical document analysis. So a lot depends on how your teacher teaches. AP Lang on the other hand was very manageable. As long as you take notes in class and do the reading I think you should be fine. To prepare for Lang over the summer you should practice the multiple choice and essay writing. Definitely look through your APUSH textbook before school starts and consider getting a book from The Princeton Review.
Got a 4 on APUSH and 5 on Lang without much studying. As long as you try they’re not too bad.
As for the econ courses they are not to great an undertaking if you take an interest the real challenge is in retaining the information if you take them first semester.
5 on both.
I’ve taken APUSH and I love history so the class came very easy to me. However, if you want a prep book I would definitely recommend the Princeton review book. You don’t have to get the most current version, I borrowed the 2016 version from my public library for the 2018 test. It has a really good review of the content & includes practice tests that are helpful. If you want to watch videos I would recommend crash course on YouTube as the correlate almost perfectly with apush content and they helped me with some topics I was kinda confused on. I think the best prep you can do though is take a full length practice test in the allotted time you’ll have during the real test. My school actually administers one so if yours does definitely take advantage of that, but if not, you can find a bunch of practice tests online. To be honest the practice test was the only review I really did and I still got a 5 on the ap exam. Hope that helps!
Has anyone taken AP Biology. If so how is it?
I took AP Calculus BC. Be prepared for a LOT of work. The class itself was not awful once I realized I had to study for multiple days in order to do well on tests. The actual AP exam was the worst experience of my life. I studied for a month prior and it was excruciatingly hard. I used Barron’s as a test prep book as well as Khan Academy in order to study.
I made an 89 first semester and a 93 second semester.
I got a 4 on the AP exam with a 5 AB subscore. (Thank goodness for the curve).
I would say if you set aside specific time to study and prepare, you will do fine. Do all of the homework and then extra problems. If you are having a hard time with a certain topic, Khan Academy is a blessing.
If you want to prepare over the summer (I don’t know if you’ve taken Calc AB) then I would say focus on learning and understanding limits and derivatives, and if you have time basic integrals. These are the foundation of the entire class.
Good Luck!