Since the school year is fastly approaching I’ve started to do more research on the classes i’m taking, which in retrospect I should have done before deciding to take them. The only class that makes my palms sweat is APUSH. I’ve never taken an AP and don’t really know what I am in for. Any advice on the class or insight into the content would be greatly appreciated
While the curriculum is the same at every school the workload varies by teacher. You may need to talk to people in your school who have taken the class.
I took APUSH last year (as a junior). It wasn’t that bad. There are a few things that I wish I had known before taking APUSH. It is extremely important to avoid procrastinating! My APUSH teacher would always give my class work ahead of time, and he would make it due a while later. So, he would give the class a bunch of work at one time (such as 5-8 assignments at once), and then have the work all due 1.5-2 weeks later. If you procrastinate and wait to do all of the work at one time, then it becomes extremely stressful. Do NOT procrastinate on DBQs and long essays. My teacher would assign those a long time before they were due, but everyone ended up waiting until the last minute to do them. Time management here is key. My teacher never gave out tests- he would only give us take home tests (usually 1 per marking period). Another tip that I have is to review what you are learning, while you are learning it. In my high school, APUSH is a lecture class. My teacher would stand in front of the board and give us notes, and we would spend the entire class writing notes down. That is why all of the actual work/homework that we had was to be completed on our own. You don’t want to wait until the spring to start preparing for the AP exam in May. You’ll really regret waiting so long. 
There is so much material to cover, so it’s really essential to make sure that you actually understand what you are learning. The class is fast-paced (at least it was in my school) because there are tons of centuries to learn in a matter of a few months. Overall, APUSH isn’t unmanageable at all, it is just important to manage your time wisely. If you do this, then I don’t think you’ll have a problem. Obviously, I would ask people who have taken APUSH in your school in the past, as that is the most accurate (for what to expect).
At my CA public school, we read the first 8 chapters of our textbook over the summer, and we took a test our second week of school. The first month was review of summer work and then a test and DBQ. Homework for us was merely busy work, but at times we did have rapid fire tests (DBQs, LEQs, SAQs, etc). I read 41/46 chapters in my textbook, and most was usually the night before a reading quiz. I struggled in the beginning, but I got used to it as my brain started to adjust to the influx of material. I strongly recommend gathering a close group of around 4 people so you can all study together and make notes. I was never good at MC tests (highest score was 94 on my first semester final) but I did get better at the writing tasks (from failing to acing DBQs) as the year went on. Needless to say, despite my B first semester, I did get a 5 on the AP test and an A in the class second semester.