Why AMSCO + Crash Course?

Test Preparation AP History & Social Sciences
1

I’ve been reading in numerous places that AMSCO & Crash Course are the two best books (when used together) to prepare for the APUSH exam.</p>

  1. Why do you think those two books make a great review?
  2. How long/thick is AMSCO? I’ve been thinking about ordering it, but I want to make sure I’m not ordering something as dense as a textbook.
  3. Is AMSCO foremost a REVIEW book, or a TEXTbook? </p>

Thanks…</p>

2

bumppppppp</p>

3
  1. According to others, they pretty much tell you what you need to know on the test and exclude excess info
  2. Including the index, it’s 704 pages long.
  3. It’s a review book, but some have used it in lieu of a textbook. I do lol.</p>
4

AMSCO = summary of a textbook + 10 MC/chapter + essay questions + a bunch of essay-writing tips and exercises + one practice test
Crash Course = bare essentials and vocab, good for last-minute review</p>

AMSCO (2010 edition) is 734 + 24 (introduction) = 758 pages (including index). It’s not as dense as a textbook, as far as I can tell from my textbook. It could be used as a substitute for a textbook in maybe a regular U.S. history class, but for a teacher who really wanted to get in depth, it wouldn’t make the cut as a textbook.</p>

5

Great! Thanks for the advice! I just recently bought the AMSCO book - it looks really helpful! </p>

Does anyone have the answers to the multiple choice questions at the end of the chapters?</p>

6

Google it. [AP</a> Flag Book/AMSCO Chapter Review Answers – History Learner](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>HugeDomains.com)</p>

7

Thanks apn00b. Just trying to make sure I found the answers to the latest edition. </p>

Anyway, any AMSCO success stories? Best way to learn from it (just read it through, outline, notes)?</p>

8

Success story here, although I don’t recommend people do what I did. I hadn’t heard of AMSCO until a few days before the exam, and one of my friends gave me his old copy three days before the exam. I then spent the next two days quickly reading through AMSCO (reading through most of my classes too, since we had the whole class just to review quietly on our own for those AP tests). I ended up reading everything up through Reagan, and got a 5 on the test.</p>

As for reading style, I read best without any outlines/notes/etc. Your style may vary, but regardless, I would recommend reading each chapter as your class covers it, and then reading through all of AMSCO before the exam (maybe the two weeks before the exam or so, depending on how fast you can read and how much time you can spend per day on reading).</p>

9

Haha nice… Glad it worked out! </p>

I think I’ll just keep up with class, read AMSCO while taking brief notes/outlines, and then read Crash Course a few times in the couple weeks leading up to the AP exam. </p>

Let’s keep going with this; any other “success stories”?</p>

10

These two books are the only reason I got a 5 on that test - I am ridiculously bad at history (no long term memory for it, my knowledge of the basics is now atrocious, sadly). Anyway, AMSCO is great, but really long - it’s good you got it this early. I didn’t start reading it until way later, and never ended up finishing it. I read the Crash Course the night before, and it saved. my. life. Not the recommended strategy at all; I really would have liked to finish it if I had time (and would have probably been better prepared). But if there’s an emergency…just in case ;)</p>

11

I’m a fairly good history student, and was able to get a 5 on U.S. and Euro last year without studying too much. That said, I do think that Crash Course + AMSCO are the way to go for APUSH. AMSCO is good because it literally covers everything you need to know for the exam, and Crash Course is good because it’s a concise version of AMSCO and is also based off of past exams. The two books are also a good combo for the SAT II subject test.</p>

12

I feel like AMSCO + Crash Course might be too excessive for the student studying for multiple AP exams. Last year, I read the textbook (The American Pageant) and took chapter outlines for my class. Our teacher also gave good lectures in which I actively participated, reinforcing the material in my head. I read AMSCO twice in the two months before the exam. The day before the exam, I read a cram packet twice. Bingo, easy 5. I let the information sit in my head before the SAT subject test in June; the night before that, I read the same cram packet twice. Bingo, easy 800.</p>

If you’re self-studying or if you’re in a class with a poor teacher, perhaps AMSCO + Crash Course is the way to go. Otherwise, you could probably make a better use of your time.</p>

13

Good points. Anyone else?</p>

14

bump… also, I heard Larry Krieger (the author of the Crash Course series) is coming out with a new, more comprehensive AP US History book soon… I hope it comes before the May exam!</p>