A Word on Pacing...

Oh yes.

So you probably know, it's 55 minutes for 80 multiple choice, a break, and then you're going 2 hr 10 minutes for the whole haul.

That's 15 minutes for reading the DBQ, 45 minutes recommended for writing it, 35 and 35 each for the two essays.

Now I can't believe I made it. But I did.

Here's a few.

With the multiple choice... time went a lot faster with the SAT. Or rather, I went a lot slower because the questions were harder. OR I had the experience gained from the SAT and knew that the best thing was actually to NOT read word for word and use a "multiple choice" test taking approach -- that is, know how to FLY read. Read very fast.

Bottom line. Chances are, you have time to check over your answers. For me, I guess I knew my stuff (hey... :)), and I managed to check about 3/5 the way through before the proctor announced time stop.

But of course, keep a time on the watch. Mark, and do all that stuff you were told to do by the review books. Mark, go back, skip, blah blah. You know the drill.

I remember I went "WHAT?" with the prompt.

With the DBQ, you're going to expect something weird. Usually. I know I probably shouldn't be acting like an APUSH veteran (well... I am :D) just because I took one APUSH exam. But the documents are there to help you. They jog your memory. So DBQ pretty much is taken care of :D.

Though... read over documents quite carefully, but not too carefully. Literally this happened for me during the test:

[me thinking to myself... wait. Do we ever think to anyone other than ourselves? o=]
"Doc A... OK.... wait. I'm not registering"
"OK, I'll read it again"
"Wait... I see text, but I'm not absorbing their meaning"
"It's not sinking in!"
"OMG if I don't do good on the DBQ..."
"OK, now's not the time! One last time"
"I DON'T GET IT! What???"
"OK, you know what??! This is the ABSOLUTE last time! Or else you're NOT using this document!!"
"Ok! Ok! I think I get it. But wait... can I have one more try?"
"No."
[And no, I'm not weird. I bet you do it too]

I ended up wasting about 2 minutes...and not really using the document. Oh wait I did, but you could tell it was ... very ambiguously referred to. Something you should avoid :)

The FRQ... that will take some luck. But you can do it. The thing with the DBQ is, I wanted to add in one last thing in so I went 5 minutes into my essay time. Remember, this time accumulates. That just means not only do you have to finish on time for the essays, you have to finish 5 minutes early.

Lesson learned? You never stop writing in an APUSH exam!

It may get a bit panicky. You're searching for that term, but you just can't seem to get it. For me, I usually list out all the terms I can list associated with the question, even if I know that it isn't directly related (you can always talk about the history of some theme too), and then use these terms to guide you.

Of course, one of the biggest questions I find myself getting marks off is that you have to answer the question. This may sound obvious, and you may even heard of the statement "answer the question asked", or maybe even heard of "answer the question asked. This may sound obvious".

Bottom line, answer the question for real. Sometimes you feel like you aren't answering the question. When you get that feeling, you're probably right. USE the words in the actual prompt! Use word for word!

Even when in meaning, you aren't answering the question... if you use the words in your answer, even if it doesn't answer the actual question ... you sound relevant, and that may be the factor that gives you the extra few marks needed.

So, good luck, APUSHers of 2010 and beyond! I hope I've left behind something.