AP American history questions

[rmiz]

Hello,

I do not frequently ask questions but I lurk regularly.

I am in the planning stages for next year. I would like my dd to take the AP test for American history and have begun researching. THis is my oldest child so this is all new to me. I could use some help!!

 

If your student took the AP exam in Am. Hist.:

-what textbook did you use?

-did you use a study guide?

-did you purchase practice tests from previous years for extra practice?

 

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

tia

rmiz

[In The Great White North]

We didn't do APUSH but have done a few others. I recommend(for any AP test):

 

1. Check out the College Board website and look at the sample syllabi for that subject.

 

2. Buy the previously released tests (Unless the test changed like French did this year:glare:)

 

3. Buy a study guide or two.

 

4. Google it. I found several schools with the complete syllabus, including assignments and labs, for most of the APs I was interested in. You can also get a feel for what are the most common texts and what ancillary materials were used.

 

5. Plan to finish the course by the end of March, so dc can concentrate on the test study guide in April, not new material.

[mims]

Thanks! I'm planning this for next year too so that was helpful.

[mamato4]

http://www.hippocampus.org/History%20%26%20Government;jsessionid=5E30766E347627ED58A48A9F432FC72C?view=Courses

 

We are using this syllabus for my dd this year with the plan of taking the AP USH in the spring. It has multiple choice end-of-chapter tests with answer keys. The writing work is up to you to check. This means I am also doing the "class" along with dd so I know whether what she wrote is acceptable or not.

[In The Great White North]

BTW, APUSH has a type of essay question that wasn't around back in the day: the document based question. You might want to have her practice this particular type of essay. The documents are PROVIDED.

 

It seems more like an English exercise than history, but the local high school only teaches nonfiction writing in the history department, not the English department, so apparently, this is the trend.

[Caroline]

BTW, APUSH has a type of essay question that wasn't around back in the day: the document based question. You might want to have her practice this particular type of essay. The documents are PROVIDED.

 

It seems more like an English exercise than history, but the local high school only teaches nonfiction writing in the history department, not the English department, so apparently, this is the trend.

 

:iagree: And the scoring rubric is formulaic. You must do certain things in order to get the highest score.

[rmiz]

As I said, this is my oldest so everything is new to us/me.

 

I have not heard about APUSH yet. I will research it.

I have already downloaded a topic outline from CB site.

I am beginning to look at what texts have the highest recommendations.

 

It sure seems like a heap of work!!!

 

rmiz

[OSUBuckeye]

I agree with the previous poster: the DBQ essay is formulaic. There should be a fluff opening sentence, then the thesis (Something like, "America entered World War II for political, social, and economic factors.") Then each of the three body paragraphs (no less than three, but a bonus fourth is fine) should start with an intro that covers a specific piece of the thesis. Thus, in your political paragraph, you'll use AT LEAST two pieces of documents that prove the overall point. Repeat for paragraph 2 and 3. Try to use all of the documents (or all but one).

 

The Documents and their authors are usually pretty recognizable. They might say "Joseph McCarthy, in a speech to Congress, 1954." They only say that so that your child can add in what they call outside information, as well as point of view. Something along the lines of "Joseph McCarthy was a fervent anti-communist who led the Senate's crusade against Communist sympathizers. This heightened Cold War sentiments." Three outside pieces of information (i.e. facts, name-dropping, time period or event-dropping) is the standard.

 

This sounds like a lot, but it's actually pretty easy after five or ten practice essays (they don't have to be timed when you're starting out). The more rules your child follows, the better their essay will meet the rubric criteria and gain points.

 

(source: scored a 5 on the AP exam, and taught the course)

[mamato4]

What about the Free-response questions? Is there a formula to follow like the DBQ?

 

BTW, thanks for the insight about the DBQ. Now I can help dd be able to frame her response better.

[OSUBuckeye]

American Pageant is the most commonly used textbook. It's overly wordy in my opinion, but if you go that route, get the American Pageant Guidebook as well. The guidebook has all the activities you need for the AP memorization part of the course. It has the famous people (matching them with their description), matching of events and vocabulary terms with their descriptions, and critical thinking short response questions.

 

I honestly would rather have a student read a more enjoyable, standard high-school U.S. history book, still 800 pages, than struggle and not comprehend American Pageant. Yes, the high-school book covers 80%, not 100% of the AP topics, but that's what the American Pageant Guidebook, or an AP Study Guide, and the trusty internet is for.

 

Other useful things - America's Women: 400 years ... by Gail Collins is a great social history overview. It's a funny, enjoyable read, and when I assigned a chapter to my kids they were shocked that babies rolled off the roof during hot summer nights in the tenements, or that moms would tie their babies to the chair all day so they wouldn't burn themselves in the fire. It's crazy thinking that people lived in the same country they do today, but that life was so very different on the frontiers, or in the Victorian era, or during the Civil War.

 

PERSIA - Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, and Artistic. Each unit (week or two), I had my students fill out a one page chart that listed everything they could in these categories. (Sometimes we added a T for technology, M for military, or D for diplomatic) When finished, it really helps you understand an era. The social temperance movement makes sense when you realize that the cities were growing into dirty slums where drunkards would get their arms chopped off in machinery. Maybe drinking isn't such a good idea.... And with those new machines, men like Rockefeller and Carnegie could get wealthy. This social and economic divide led to Jacob Riis' muckraking, taking photographs of poor immigrant children. Everything's connected.

 

http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm - has quizzes on each unit. These, along with the American Pageant Guidebook, are great places for practice for the multiple choice items. The test really focuses on the small nuances of events, so practicing what makes an answer choice right or wrong is great, especially during the first month or two of the course.

 

I also have some AP study guides if you want them. Just PM me.

 

Another thing is that the course has three objectives - 1) learn content to score well on the test, 2) learn important "fluffy" skills like note-taking, studying, understanding fine details and overall concepts, essay-writting, and 3) exploring history for fun. Decide what is the appropriate amount of content drilling and essay/note stuff, and then the rest of the time have fun with America's Women and exploring your own fun rabbit holes. Some kids get sucked into the military strategy of the battles, some love the famous people, some the politics of each era, some the recipes and music and funny fashions. There's no harm in giving historical persons your own nicknames or pretending that you know them personally... The point is that the class isn't kill and drill, but also a lot of interesting self-driven exploration of other historical time periods.

[OSUBuckeye]

What about the Free-response questions? Is there a formula to follow like the DBQ?

 

BTW, thanks for the insight about the DBQ. Now I can help dd be able to frame her response better.

 

Nope, free response is just data-dumping. It still needs a thesis statement and a sense of organization just so the grader doesn't take one look at the essay and think lowly of it, and instead goes "wow this essay is well-written, and subliminally that must mean they're smart at history". [The graders generally take less than two minutes to reach each essay.] However, it's not the same dog-and-pony show as the DBQ.

 

The big thing with the Free -Response is staying within the time frame of the question. When they say "Discuss the development of Political Parties from 1789 to 1800", they will not give you credit for the decline of the Whigs in 1812, or the rise of the Radical Republicans in the 1850s. It could be a great essay, but no credit. :001_huh: The times they give are listed for a specific reason, so it might even give you a clue as to what they're looking for. "Discuss U.S.'s decision for involvement into WWII from 1935 to 1941." 1941 - um, Pearl Harbor?!?! In 1935, Hitler hadn't happened yet, so that's making me remember Japanese imperialism in Manchuria and China. These facts spawned just from the dates, not from actually thinking about how I would answer the question. My normal answer about this topic would fill out the rest of my essay. Now, I don't NEED to talk about Pearl Harbor to get full points, but it certainly is a significant and relevant event during this time period, and one that was strongly hinted at by their end date.

 

The other tip I learned in trainings was that in Free-Response questions, ALWAYS try your best to reference the president, time period, or major contemporary events, etc. Kids will talk about WWII but never mention FDR's name. Or they'll talk about McCarthyism or Vietnam but not tie it in with the larger era - the Cold War. Thinking about adding in the time period will also help the student link back to their memories about the larger time period (PERSIA!!!). Some teachers have an on-going assignment where students place important events in a list with the president with which the events occurred to get a good sense of what events fit in with what.

 

For this presidents/time period purpose, the History Channel documentary The Presidents, with Edward Hermann ($15 on Amazon) gives a 5-10 minute overview of each president, with photographs, footage for the later presidents, historians' analysis, and trivia facts at where the commercial breaks used to be (like the Modern Marvels ones). 6 hours total - I showed it twenty minutes at a time throughout the course of the year.

 

 

Also, two more tips I forgot about the DBQ: your child should always underline their thesis sentence (easier for the grader to find), and when they cite the documents they should make some sort of notation at the end of their sentence [Doc. B]. These two stylistic things ensure that they get credit for the hard work they've put into their essay.

[Elinor Everywhere]

This is extremely helpful - thank you!

[rmiz]

Thank you so, so much ladies!!!

 

This really gives me a good glimpse of the level of commitment that this would demand from me as well as my daughter.

 

I am beginning to realize that it would be difficult to do if we start it in late Aug. or Sept. I might want to get going in early summer and work through the summer. That means I need to make my purchases in April or May and get my planning done in advance.

 

uuuffff sounds like tons of work!!!

 

 

thanks again

rmiz