How's APUSH?

Perspective as of End of Semester 1:

So you are considering about taking APUSH. Or ditching APUSH O=. Or you don't know anything about APUSH, and just want an AP.

For those who already do not know, APUSH = Advanced Placement United States History (my, what a mouthful). For those who don't know what the AP is, first check out what its basics in the AP Info Section

So how's life like? Well, I'm currently a sophomore taking APUSH, and it is the only AP course I am taking "officially" (I am considering self-studying some other APs) -- officially, as in "in school". Even with that however, it is quite challenging.

I remember when I was a freshman and I had no idea what an AP is, having only really heard endless lectures of its difference with the IB program. We were told that we could sign up for one AP next year, and that was APUSH (our school is a bit weird in that it offers APUSH as a "gateway AP" as opposed to the AP Bio/AP Euro that other schools offer. Quite frankly, I agree with the other schools -- why start hard?).

"It'll kill you", the upperclassmen told you. "Really consider what you're getting yourself into", teachers added, with a hint of ominousity (animosity =P). Furthermore, it was a requirement that we had an A- or above in English and History. Gulp -- I barely passed the requirement.

Well, are those warnings true?

I could frustrate everyone and deliver the classic answer of "yes and no", but I'm afraid that while others use it to achieve the former, it is really the better answer for this question.

You've got to work hard. This may sound obvious. Oh, I'll just quickly BS my way through the essay and hand it in tomorrow morning.

See, there is such a thing as taking an AP just so you can get it "over with", but APUSH is not part of the same equation. Sure you can try it out. You'll just, I don't know. Get a C? In the first day of my APUSH class, my teacher proudly claims that she is teaching "one of the hardest APs, and the hardest History/Social Science AP there is". That doesn't scare us at all.

Yet they hold some truth in this, forming the "yes" part of this answer. Be warned: getting back your first grade in APUSH may shatter your dreams of a 4.0 or a high honor roll (non-weighted). As APUSH is a college-level course, as all APs are, teachers expect a lot more, in writing style, in homework load every day, in the quality of all the work. Where's the good news? Enough of the bad stuff.

Good news? Chances are, if you are considering any AP, you are somewhat, very, or extremely academically motivated. You deserve better, and with the high chances that you'll probably work your head off in APUSH anyways, you'll get better, both in personal skill, and in your future. Semester 1 is a trial, in semester 2 there's improvement. If you work hard, chances are you will not be disappointed wth your results, either short-term, long-term, or both. Yes, this may seem a bit contradictory to my previous "warnings" -- but that is just the first grade. Many of us will trip in the first few weeks, even the first quarter of school.

It's what you do to get back up, and I guess this also applies to all APs. You can get the grasp -- basically what I am saying is, APUSH is for those who work hard and I mean real hard.

Again, this sounds obvious, and what comes up will sound obvious. You must work hard and not procrastinate. You hear it from your friends, your parents, your teachers, maybe even yourself. The thing is, I have procrastinated before, and okay, I'll give you an idea of the homework (again, this varies from school to school) -- we read approximately 20 pages every night. And I don't mean the one night in between each classes, I mean 20 X 180 school days = approximately the amount of pages that the textbook American Pageant has.

I procrastinate before, and the pages caught up reaaal well. I ended up having to dedicate an entire weekend to finish approximately 100 pages of good reading. Nothing but history. The best!

Now you may be asking, well why can't I just dedicate a weekend for APUSH? It really depends on a) what you want in the course as well as b) how "skilled" you are in "cramming".

For a), if you want a B, then there's a different "workload" in a sense, that you'll have to do as opposed to getting a semester grade of A, where you will have to work ten times as hard. Again, as one that is viewing this blog entry, chances are you want that A. So in summary? Do not procrastinate because cramming is not effective. This leads to an "exception" of B.

There are some of us who can do it. We don't know how. They read the text book last night, and today they aced the test. For those of you who can do it, I do not suggest you try it; last year in 9th grade "regular" history, perhaps all of us employed this highly "useful" technique of last minute cramming. Some even went into the extreme of studying the morning of the test, or even taking their first glance at their notes right before a test.

In APUSH? Happens much less. There is the common "culture" floating around right now about how when we ask another peer "hey, did you study?", we almost expect a "oh my God I did not! I'm sooo dead". But didn't you just see them yesterday in that study group, testing each other in APUSH?

Not "cram" studying is better for you and for your grade.

You must not hate history - There will be facts. Facts facts, and more facts. There will be quotes, dates to remember. There won't be as much of the focus on battle specifics, but APUSH is "infamous" for its attention to detail.

Personally, I know my strength isn't in history but history has never bored me. It's very interesting to see how the United States today came to be that way, and we can learn why starting from its very beginning and before.

Now I know that many others do not share the same perspective. "Ugh, stupid Hamilton. Why did he have to make the stupid debt assumption scheme?" was a common phrase months ago when we were studying the early presidencies.

That's why it's not a "requirement" to "like" history, but a "requirement" not to "hate" it any more than the person above =P. Liking history would be a plus, as there will be a lot of information to know.

Note I do not say memorize, because history shouldn't be about memorizing. We should come to appreciate how each of the figures in history interacted and started a series of events which would lead to today. Is there memorizing? Yes. Buuuut it wouldn't benefit you here. You both shouldn't memorize, and can't really memorize and expect to get a good grade, especially with APUSH's emphasis on your understanding of "change over time" (in DBQs) as well as themes in essay questions.

So how's APUSH?

Not bad.