#apush help

My Exam Score: 5

Let me preface all of this by saying that my perspective on this course is coming from someone who is very much a humanities person and who had already taken an AP History (World) before taking this course. That said, let’s begin.

Disclaimer: None of these are mine, these are just all the documents that I have found that should help me for this class, because it’s probably going to be one of the most challenging ones. 

Powerpoint of student advice:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17QVjJZPTuY-H_QFW1EIXsG_DaVX84mdRjFFNqe104Xw/edit?hl=en#slide=id.gc74758bd_0365

AP History Rubrics:

https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/rubrics-ap-histories-historical-thinking-skills.pdf

Exam Info:

Link to more help here!: http://www.bashfullynerdy.tumblr.com/study-help

Here is a bunch of information that I have collected, from experience, for the AP US History Exam (as well as things to help for the class).

Books That Help:

Crash Course AP US History: This book is great for short review sessions and can be found practically anywhere. However, I found a link, which is below.

5 Steps To A 5: great for review

Princeton Review AP US History: This is the book that I primarily used and it was great! This book is great for reviewing a lot of material, since you must know tons for the exam.

Barron’s AP US History Flashcards: I got these pretty late, but these flashcards are great for reviewing and practicing quick recall. These are kind of expensive, so if you can’t buy them, ask around from people who had the class before or even the teacher (I know my APUSH teacher had tons of flashcards, so your teacher might too!)

Tips:

Review often for this exam, since it is heavy on knowing material such as dates and events. By reviewing notes, books, etc, it will help you remember things and be able to recall them faster during the exam.

Actually read the textbook! I know, it might suck, but it will help you in the long run.

Practice pre-released questions, or even questions in the books above! I suggest Princeton Review, since it had questions that were similar to the exam.

Multiple Choice: For MC section, it’s SUPER important to know your stuff, so having material to review/reviewing them often will help (this might sound repetitive, but for APUSH, it is one of those classes that you need to know specific details)

FRQ: The FRQ section is where you need to show what you know! When given the question, it is not important to have amazing sentences to make it “sound good”. AP Graders really care about if you know it or not, so skip the fluff and write the material. Plus, try to add material that will support the answer; it’s not just write everything you know, it actually has to pertain to the question!

APUSH is one of those classes that you need to know your material on specific dates and events, so stressing and procrastinating might not help for recall.

Overall, (with any AP Classes), DON’T STRESS! You know the material :)

Links:

1. List of all AP Books! (APUSH is in there, but there are also other books if needed!) https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byxoof4V9z7lM28xUmlXSWsyanc&usp=sharing

2. The Crash Course Book (suggested) https://www.killeenisd.org/teacherDocs/c2/e24908/documents/APCrashCourseBook-125870.pdf

3. Crash Course Videos! Great review material, and fun to watch (well, as much fun as US History can get) https://youtu.be/6E9WU9TGrec?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s

4. AP Study Notes: great for review https://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/

5. Course Notes: TONS of material (not only for APUSH). Plus, if you click the notes section, it will take you to a list of Textbooks. Click your textbook and it will have notes for every chapter. If your textbook is not listed, I recommend using “American Pageant 11th Edition” (this is the one I used and it was super helpful!)

http://www.course-notes.org/US_History

I need a good AP US History (or any U.S History) studyblr to follow, or a studyblr with great APUSH resources/tags!

throughout the year

remember that apush is more detail oriented than other ap histories

take really good notes

try to recognize common themes and major turning points

practice writing essays/dbqs/short answers a lot (your teacher should take care of this in class hopefully)

crash course it out

review

start studying two-ish months before the exam (if your class is on track, you should start studying when the teacher starts reviewing)

review in reverse so that you can better understand historical causality and the last thing you study will be what you learned in august/september

buy a box of flashcards (barron or 5 steps) 

do lots of practice tests, at least one of which should be done in a realistic setting (at a desk, in the morning, timed, all parts of the test)

i really love the ap us history crash course book by larry krieger to read the last couple days before the exam because it’s got the simplified information and lots of helpful hints

don’t study the night before the exam -- relax

general

know your periods (reconstruction, great depression, gilded age, etc)

change and continuity over time!!! (slavery >> civil rights // republican motherhood >> 1970s women’s lib)

don’t memorize every battle of every war just know really important ones/turning points

please please please use synthesis when writing essays it’s one sentence worth a full point seriously even if you think it’s a terrible synthesis WRITE IT DOWN

while on the topic of writing, learn how to write an apush-specific thesis it is the foundation for your entire essay/dbq

don’t get too scared of dbqs they literally do half the work for you all you have to do is line up the documents and add a bit of background information/a few examples