Anyone here have APUSH? (AP usa history)

[Lego lad]

/title
I was really good at regular World History, and I decided to take APUSH this year. The problem is, it's much harder than my teacher said it would be, and i'm always struggling on tests and quizes because I can remember the main idea of chapters well, but the tests and quizes always ask weird questions that I never thought of, and I end up failing them. This led me to taking excessive notes on like, literally everything in the textbook, but it ended up being way too much info for me to remember for the test and I still did bad. The only thing keeping my B in the class is the essays and discussions which I'm pretty good at, but I don't know it that will be enough to maintain a B for the class this semester. So my question is, for you APUSH students that are good at it, what's your technique?

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[Char]

i had AP US history last year
but our teacher's class was easy & i don't think it prepared us for the AP exam that much but i ended up with a 3

[Daswiruch]

ap classes are forgetin stupid

[Shazoo]

I have no experience with APUSH, but with IB US history (similar curriculum, different way of teaching it, and tests focus more on open ended questions), find a way you learn best. It's pretty clear the textbook isn't helping you much, so try finding some online texts or videos about what you're learning in class to help you understand the material better. In general, history textbooks do a great job at being stuffty for actually learning the context of historical events, and they're usually filled with useless fillers. Usually the last paragraph of the chapter/section gives a decent summary of the historical event, so just look up things relating to the topic, their context, and how the event shaped future events.

Also feel free to pm me if you need help in the class or someone to explain stuff to you.

[WaterOre]

I'm in an APUSH class, but I'm not very good at it (even though I have a b). If your teacher has a unit curriculum sheet (ours calls it nuts and bolts), you should focus on the stuff listed in it and try to answer the questions to the best of your ability. Also, don't be afraid of highlighting and writing annotations on any printout readings that are assigned.

[AutoBahn]

ap classes are completely random experiences from what i've heard for my school, but that probably has to also do with the fact the normal classes are too, depending on subject
AP sciences tend to be easier than most normal ones for example

[log]

i didn't want to take apush bc i'm not really good at history, so i just went with regular us history. funny thing is the teacher i ended up with also teaches an AP course and he's not going to write two lesson plans so i'm basically taking an ap just w/o credit

try to make connections between the small facts and the big picture when you're studying i guess

[Jairo]

I'm in apush right now. my teacher has us outline every chapter and do notecards, plus he gives us the essay prompts in advance so we can chart a decent thesis

I can't give very many tips other than notecarding and a strong interest in history. also, try to relate what you're currently learning to other points in time (whether in the past or in the present). it'll help with synthesizing

[McZealot]

i just recently graduated from APUSH but while i was in the class it wasn't that bad. in my experience the teacher always prepared the tests and as a side-effect he would always drill over the test questions in the powerpoints. so rather than listening to the book it's best to listen to what the teacher and powerpoints speak about, because they pick your grade, not the book.

i didn't want to take apush bc i'm not really good at history, so i just went with regular us history. funny thing is the teacher i ended up with also teaches an AP course and he's not going to write two lesson plans so i'm basically taking an ap just w/o credit

this is usually what happens unless the schools are overcrowded. always take AP unless you are absolutely terrible at something

[Daedalus]

key vocab terms are the most important part - to get a 5 on the exam, you've gotta use outside information as well as what they provide on the DBQs. so just citing the docs won't get you there.
quizlet is godsend for reviewing keywords. otherwise, just know generally what order things happened in; there are a ton of cause/effect type questions on the exam.

[log]

there's probably a ton of youtube videos for any 1 subject in history--if you're having trouble with remembering small facts, the images and inflections in videos might be helpful

[kanew2000]

i personally so not but i hope the others can give you apush in the right direction

[tber123]

There's a website called APUSH Review or something by Adam Norris. Really helpful website, too.

[Lego lad]

There's a website called APUSH Review or something by Adam Norris. Really helpful website, too.

Already use him, I watch his videos of the power points in YouTube and they do help, but I don't think they go in depth as much as the quizes do so I still do poorly, but they really help on the final do there that

[Cubed Root]

Although I'm not in AP US History yet, I am taking AP world history. I get straight A's on all the tests simply by rereading my notes or rereading the entire chapter via textbook.