Warning: This blog post is extremely long.
Introduction:
AP U.S. History (APUSH for short) is one of the most popular AP courses that students take all over the country. Although it is not the hardest AP class, APUSH still requires daily commitment and a lot of effort to score a 5 on the exam. According to the score distributions on Collegeboard, around 50% of students fail the exam (1 or 2), and around 10% (12% in 2019) score a 5 on the exam. If you are not happy with your other history exams and will be taking APUSH next school year, do not worry! The following blog post will go in depth on how to get a 5 on the exam. My blog post may make you have to work more than you need to get the minimum score for a 5, but it is still good to give you some advice. My learning journey is an individual one, so it may not fit you perfectly.
Mental Mindset:
First, we need to start with mental mindset because it is an important factor that is sometimes overlooked. The mindset is prevalent in learning, studying, and testing. If you don't have a strong mind, you are less likely going to perform well on the exam. Everything counts! You probably heard it a million of times before on how you need a growth mindset, blah blah blah. In short, don't let the first test drop the class. If you reflect on what you did well and what you didn't do well, it will help you make quicker progress. The first failure does not guarantee the final result.
Notetaking Habits:
There are many ways to take notes and there shouldn't be an assumption that there is only one correct way to take notes. Personally, I took Cornell notes and you probably heard this style before because some teachers force you to take Cornell notes. Cornell notes requires more work than jotting down bullet points and headings. The other parts include writing an essential question, questions for each heading or large paragraph, and a summary that answers the essential question. Although Cornell notes requires more time, I found it to be very effective when it came to APUSH. When I wrote questions and the essential question, I became more attentive when I read the textbook and asked questions in my head to check if I was actually absorbing the information. In addition, the summary practice allowed me to have a clearer idea of what the chapter was talking about. Most of my essential questions asked about causes/effects or the significance of historical era/events. Some involved compare and contrast, while others were in the format "Evaluate the extent of..."
Study habits:
Memorization:
A significant part of APUSH is memorization and if you can't memorize important facts, then you can't write a good essay. In order to memorize all the detailed facts, I would download online powerpoints and watch videos that were organized based on my textbook's table of contents. There are a lot of resources out there for APUSH and they all are helpful.
For me, I used Adam Norris. I highly recommend using his content. His videos are not that long and they go straight to the point. If I forgot everything I learned, I would watch a video to refresh my memory. Then, I would use the powerpoint slides in presentation mode. I would not mindlessly press the arrow key to read through all the bullet points. Before clicking on the arrow key (did not see any bullet points, only the title of the slide), I used the active recall method. I would lecture about a specific historical theme based on the title that I saw on the powerpoint (ex. Union vs. Confederate in Civil War). If what I said aloud was not on the Powerpoint, that would mean that I had some missing gaps. Then, I would use my pen and write on a blank piece of paper my corrections. The corrections page helped point out what I needed to work on. It let me refer back to the notes I took without wasting time figuring out what I didn't know. Then, I would cover the corrections page and restate what I originally forgot. Eventually, I would remember it. The process I do may sound mentally draining to you, but in the end you will get used to it.
Multiple Choice:
I mentioned in the introduction that my tips are probably going to make you work a lot more than what is necessary. The APUSH exam multiple choice are primary sources and not like the old APUSH questions where they ask you a very detailed question that is based on memorization. For the multiple choice, I would anticipate the answers before reading them. This sounds like a lot of a waste of time, but I would annotate the primary source by identifying the title, date, point of view, and physicality (first and last sentence). From this, I would have a better idea of what was the author's purpose and point of view. The point of view can be positive, neutral, or negative in most cases. There can be a mix of positive and negative but in history people tend to have strong opinions and lean towards one end. After that, I would read the answer choices and see if any matched what I stated. You may not need to do this for every single primary source, but it honestly does not take up too much time and is quite helpful. On the AP exam, I did this and still had around 15 minutes remaining. Reading the answer choices first is not the best way because you fill your brain with wrong information as 75% of the answer choices are wrong.
Obvious advice on multiple choice is to first do the easy problems and then do the harder ones.
Short Answer Questions:
Short answer questions were the hardest ones for me. These require skills such as concision and clarity. What makes the SAQs kind of nerve wracking is that there are no such thing as half points. In order to score a 3/3, I would write my SAQs in this format that consisted of 3 sentences.
1. Claim, or topic sentence. Pretty much, it answers "What?"
2. Evidence. In order to not lose points for being vague and general, try to throw in some specific historical evidence (event, law, court case, figure, vocabulary, etc.) so it helps to support your topic sentence.
3. Importance. History is not simply memorizing facts. They have significance. Therefore, you need to explain the importance by pointing out cause/effect, contradictions, compare/contrast, etc. A good way to point out importance is using continuity as it helps to point out historical consequences.
Long Essay Questions:
In September, I carefully analyzed the Collegeboard essays to understand why the high scoring essay got all the points whereas the medium scoring essay missed some points. Because my APUSH class would have tests that test one aspect of the AP exam, there were some times where it was only an essay. After the active recall method, I would do practice LEQs by using this very useful document that I found online. This document complied all the LEQs and DBQs based on the order of the American Pageant textbook chapters. The practice LEQs would be writing a thesis, an outline of the 3 body paragraphs, and a brief outline of the conclusion where I stated the importance. Then, I would compare it to the actual essays on Collegeboard and see what I got right and what I didn't point out. For my body paragraphs, I found it easier to organize it based on broad themes (social, political, economic, religious, geographic) or chronological themes (time A, time B). The organization would depend on the way the prompt was structured.
Document Based Questions:
I think I am going into too much detail on how to do well on APUSH and I assume that you have prior knowledge on how to write an essay. Before I would write a DBQ, I would NOT read the documents. Instead, I would try to answer the prompt myself and make a practice thesis statement. By doing so, it would help me have a clearer idea on how to organize the documents and what my claim should be. For the quotations, you don't need to read the entire body. Because they are making a point, the first and last sentence would give away their argument. If you have enough time, then you can go back and read the entire paragraph. For analyzing the documents, I would use the annotation techniques like I used on multiple choice and group them based on the type of body paragraphs that I pointed out on the LEQs.
Preparing for the Exam:
I started preparing during spring break, which is around the first week of April. I got out a monthly calendar and planned out how I would allocate my time to study for APUSH within 30-40 days. You can probably still do well without having to take a lot of practice exams, but if you want to feel safe, taking 3-4 exams is a good idea. Doing that allowed me to reflect on what I needed to work on so I wouldn't freak out on test day. When it comes to prep books, I heard that the Princeton Review was pretty good because it was organized in a different fashion compared to the Barron's book. I used Barron's and found it to be helpful but it was not organized chronologically. Instead, it was organized based on the Collegeboard themes that made things messier. Still, it was a decent book. When reading through the prep book, I used the active recall method again and took notes on parts that I did not cover when doing active recall. To be productive when I didn't have my prep book, I would bring flashcards around me. I bought Barron's 500 Flashcards for APUSH and they really helped me reinforce some words that I forgot.
On the night before the APUSH exam, I got a good night's rest and had a hearty breakfast. No matter how often the teacher tells students to not cram, some still cram because they have not studied yet. Personally, I find cramming very stressful. I do not recommend cramming if you already studied the entire prep book. The extra hours during the early morning are not going to help you a lot.
This sounds irrelevant and random, but please do not be that kid who believes that the Reddit predicted prompts are the actual AP exam prompts. It would be quite unfortunate if you only crammed for topics that were on Reddit when the actual AP exam had nothing to do what showed up on Reddit.
Conclusion:
If you finished reading this blog, congratulations! It is summer and I don't think any high schooler is interested in reading about how to do well on AP exams. If you work hard and maintain a good mindset, you will yield good results. Good luck to readers who will take APUSH! The main takeaway is to use the active recall method so you don't mindlessly scroll through your notes or textbook inefficiently.
Introduction:
AP U.S. History (APUSH for short) is one of the most popular AP courses that students take all over the country. Although it is not the hardest AP class, APUSH still requires daily commitment and a lot of effort to score a 5 on the exam. According to the score distributions on Collegeboard, around 50% of students fail the exam (1 or 2), and around 10% (12% in 2019) score a 5 on the exam. If you are not happy with your other history exams and will be taking APUSH next school year, do not worry! The following blog post will go in depth on how to get a 5 on the exam. My blog post may make you have to work more than you need to get the minimum score for a 5, but it is still good to give you some advice. My learning journey is an individual one, so it may not fit you perfectly.
Mental Mindset:
First, we need to start with mental mindset because it is an important factor that is sometimes overlooked. The mindset is prevalent in learning, studying, and testing. If you don't have a strong mind, you are less likely going to perform well on the exam. Everything counts! You probably heard it a million of times before on how you need a growth mindset, blah blah blah. In short, don't let the first test drop the class. If you reflect on what you did well and what you didn't do well, it will help you make quicker progress. The first failure does not guarantee the final result.
Notetaking Habits:
There are many ways to take notes and there shouldn't be an assumption that there is only one correct way to take notes. Personally, I took Cornell notes and you probably heard this style before because some teachers force you to take Cornell notes. Cornell notes requires more work than jotting down bullet points and headings. The other parts include writing an essential question, questions for each heading or large paragraph, and a summary that answers the essential question. Although Cornell notes requires more time, I found it to be very effective when it came to APUSH. When I wrote questions and the essential question, I became more attentive when I read the textbook and asked questions in my head to check if I was actually absorbing the information. In addition, the summary practice allowed me to have a clearer idea of what the chapter was talking about. Most of my essential questions asked about causes/effects or the significance of historical era/events. Some involved compare and contrast, while others were in the format "Evaluate the extent of..."
Study habits:
Memorization:
A significant part of APUSH is memorization and if you can't memorize important facts, then you can't write a good essay. In order to memorize all the detailed facts, I would download online powerpoints and watch videos that were organized based on my textbook's table of contents. There are a lot of resources out there for APUSH and they all are helpful.
For me, I used Adam Norris. I highly recommend using his content. His videos are not that long and they go straight to the point. If I forgot everything I learned, I would watch a video to refresh my memory. Then, I would use the powerpoint slides in presentation mode. I would not mindlessly press the arrow key to read through all the bullet points. Before clicking on the arrow key (did not see any bullet points, only the title of the slide), I used the active recall method. I would lecture about a specific historical theme based on the title that I saw on the powerpoint (ex. Union vs. Confederate in Civil War). If what I said aloud was not on the Powerpoint, that would mean that I had some missing gaps. Then, I would use my pen and write on a blank piece of paper my corrections. The corrections page helped point out what I needed to work on. It let me refer back to the notes I took without wasting time figuring out what I didn't know. Then, I would cover the corrections page and restate what I originally forgot. Eventually, I would remember it. The process I do may sound mentally draining to you, but in the end you will get used to it.
Multiple Choice:
I mentioned in the introduction that my tips are probably going to make you work a lot more than what is necessary. The APUSH exam multiple choice are primary sources and not like the old APUSH questions where they ask you a very detailed question that is based on memorization. For the multiple choice, I would anticipate the answers before reading them. This sounds like a lot of a waste of time, but I would annotate the primary source by identifying the title, date, point of view, and physicality (first and last sentence). From this, I would have a better idea of what was the author's purpose and point of view. The point of view can be positive, neutral, or negative in most cases. There can be a mix of positive and negative but in history people tend to have strong opinions and lean towards one end. After that, I would read the answer choices and see if any matched what I stated. You may not need to do this for every single primary source, but it honestly does not take up too much time and is quite helpful. On the AP exam, I did this and still had around 15 minutes remaining. Reading the answer choices first is not the best way because you fill your brain with wrong information as 75% of the answer choices are wrong.
Obvious advice on multiple choice is to first do the easy problems and then do the harder ones.
Short Answer Questions:
Short answer questions were the hardest ones for me. These require skills such as concision and clarity. What makes the SAQs kind of nerve wracking is that there are no such thing as half points. In order to score a 3/3, I would write my SAQs in this format that consisted of 3 sentences.
1. Claim, or topic sentence. Pretty much, it answers "What?"
2. Evidence. In order to not lose points for being vague and general, try to throw in some specific historical evidence (event, law, court case, figure, vocabulary, etc.) so it helps to support your topic sentence.
3. Importance. History is not simply memorizing facts. They have significance. Therefore, you need to explain the importance by pointing out cause/effect, contradictions, compare/contrast, etc. A good way to point out importance is using continuity as it helps to point out historical consequences.
Long Essay Questions:
In September, I carefully analyzed the Collegeboard essays to understand why the high scoring essay got all the points whereas the medium scoring essay missed some points. Because my APUSH class would have tests that test one aspect of the AP exam, there were some times where it was only an essay. After the active recall method, I would do practice LEQs by using this very useful document that I found online. This document complied all the LEQs and DBQs based on the order of the American Pageant textbook chapters. The practice LEQs would be writing a thesis, an outline of the 3 body paragraphs, and a brief outline of the conclusion where I stated the importance. Then, I would compare it to the actual essays on Collegeboard and see what I got right and what I didn't point out. For my body paragraphs, I found it easier to organize it based on broad themes (social, political, economic, religious, geographic) or chronological themes (time A, time B). The organization would depend on the way the prompt was structured.
Document Based Questions:
I think I am going into too much detail on how to do well on APUSH and I assume that you have prior knowledge on how to write an essay. Before I would write a DBQ, I would NOT read the documents. Instead, I would try to answer the prompt myself and make a practice thesis statement. By doing so, it would help me have a clearer idea on how to organize the documents and what my claim should be. For the quotations, you don't need to read the entire body. Because they are making a point, the first and last sentence would give away their argument. If you have enough time, then you can go back and read the entire paragraph. For analyzing the documents, I would use the annotation techniques like I used on multiple choice and group them based on the type of body paragraphs that I pointed out on the LEQs.
Preparing for the Exam:
I started preparing during spring break, which is around the first week of April. I got out a monthly calendar and planned out how I would allocate my time to study for APUSH within 30-40 days. You can probably still do well without having to take a lot of practice exams, but if you want to feel safe, taking 3-4 exams is a good idea. Doing that allowed me to reflect on what I needed to work on so I wouldn't freak out on test day. When it comes to prep books, I heard that the Princeton Review was pretty good because it was organized in a different fashion compared to the Barron's book. I used Barron's and found it to be helpful but it was not organized chronologically. Instead, it was organized based on the Collegeboard themes that made things messier. Still, it was a decent book. When reading through the prep book, I used the active recall method again and took notes on parts that I did not cover when doing active recall. To be productive when I didn't have my prep book, I would bring flashcards around me. I bought Barron's 500 Flashcards for APUSH and they really helped me reinforce some words that I forgot.
On the night before the APUSH exam, I got a good night's rest and had a hearty breakfast. No matter how often the teacher tells students to not cram, some still cram because they have not studied yet. Personally, I find cramming very stressful. I do not recommend cramming if you already studied the entire prep book. The extra hours during the early morning are not going to help you a lot.
This sounds irrelevant and random, but please do not be that kid who believes that the Reddit predicted prompts are the actual AP exam prompts. It would be quite unfortunate if you only crammed for topics that were on Reddit when the actual AP exam had nothing to do what showed up on Reddit.
Conclusion:
If you finished reading this blog, congratulations! It is summer and I don't think any high schooler is interested in reading about how to do well on AP exams. If you work hard and maintain a good mindset, you will yield good results. Good luck to readers who will take APUSH! The main takeaway is to use the active recall method so you don't mindlessly scroll through your notes or textbook inefficiently.
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