mims Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I am planning a course to prepare my son for the AP text next year. I've seen the open source course recomended a number of times. I love how it is all laid out and it looks like what we need. So three questions. Which book would you use with it? I've seen The American Pageant recomended but also have seen comments about it being too wordy. I've also seen America: A Narrative History mentioned. So pros or cons of these or other suggestions? My son absolutely hates listening to lectures. The Open course seems to have some good on line reading and then recommends which pages to use in the suggested text books. Would this reading (and doing all the activities) be enough without listening to the lectures? He is a quick learner and I know just feels he can read and understand way quicker than he can when he listens to lectures. The writing practice looks real solid to me. Any comments on it? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancy in nj Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 For writing practice, I would highly recommend using real past AP essay questions from the college board site. Every question is available for at least the last 10 years along with exact scoring guidelines for the essays and samples of those essays that scored high, medium and low. Since each test has 7 essays (1 dbq and 2 essays that are a choice among 3 each) there is plenty of practice opportunities, and they can easily be arranged by topic as you cover it through the year. I can e-mail you a link to the questions if you need it. Nancy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Just wondering... Are you referring to UCCP Open Access? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 I have found two open access sites. one is ucopenaccess.org and one is montereyinstitute.org. Both have the same material although I can't find the answer key for the quizes on the first one. I found them through old threads on here. That is twice I have had the Tindall (A Narrative History) recomended. I will lean that way unless I hear otherwise. Nancy, I'll try to track down the link and let you know if I have issues. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamato4 Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 This is our first year dealing with AP. We went with Brinkley's text, An Unfinished Nation, since I was able to find that book for dirt cheap and it's the same book used in my niece's school for their AP USH class. We went with the montereyinstitute,org site because it has the answer keys. But dd did say at times there are questions on the tests that were not covered. I don't know if that has anything to do with the book used. Anna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommyThrice Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 This whole open source thing is new to me. I see the UC website. The Monterrey Inst. link takes me to HippoCampus - is that right? I don't see quizzes on either site, just lectures. Are they hiding somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Can you link the threads you found with the quiz information? I am doing US History with my 8th grader, and I am using UCCP. We are Using K12's History Odyssey, because this is not going to be an AP class for my ds. It has forced me to do some extra work, but he is loving the books so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 http://www.montereyi...ursestartc.html Go to Unit 1, chapter 1 and at the bottom is a link to the quiz and answer key. Hope that works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommyThrice Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 http://www.montereyi...ursestartc.html Go to Unit 1, chapter 1 and at the bottom is a link to the quiz and answer key. Hope that works! Ah-ha! Not Hippo Campus. Thanks so much!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 The national endowment for the humanities (neh.org) has great APUS history stuff on their website. Primary documents, etc. It's geared for classrooms, so I don't do many of the activities, but we use something from there every week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 The main thing with APUSH is that you really need to also use a good practice study guide and resources from the College Board. I've seen some homeschoolers who were really well versed in US history stumble on this exam because they didn't spend enough time with practice questions, DBQs, etc. Their public school counterparts may have not been learning as much about history but they really learned the format of the exam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 The main thing with APUSH is that you really need to also use a good practice study guide and resources from the College Board. I've seen some homeschoolers who were really well versed in US history stumble on this exam because they didn't spend enough time with practice questions, DBQs, etc. Their public school counterparts may have not been learning as much about history but they really learned the format of the exam. Do you know specifically about this course? It has writing prompts for every chapter and to me it looks good but we have not yet taken an AP. I'm wondering if we will need more. I am planning on using the advise from this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/434412-ap-american-history-questions/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Mims, I haven't used this course. Just my gut reaction from looking at it for five minutes - what is there is fine, but I'm not sure for most students there is going to be enough there for a full course that will lead to a good APUSH score. There is less content, fewer assignments, fewer free response, fewer DBQs, etc. It may be a good starting place but I'd strongly encourage your student to use all of the past test information on the College Board site and get a good test prep book too. I don't love it and I know it doesn't sit well with most homeschoolers, but there really is a lot of teaching to the format of the test for APUSH and APWorld especially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Thanks, I still have some months to work on it so I will poke around more on the college board. Definitely planning on a test prep book etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamato4 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I agree with Barbara H about the fewer DBQ and fewer FRQ practice. As for content, between the online lectures and the readings, IMHO, it is enough. Nancy in NJ posted about looking at previous exams and finding the DBQs and FRQs that go along with the topic for the week. Those then get assigned to the student. This part you would have to do yourself. Afterwards, both of you have to go over the samples given to see where your child can improve in her essays. I am also supplementing with the Kaplan test prep book. http://forums.welltr...bq#entry4421507 Check out this discussion and read OSUBuckeye's posts about the DBQs and FRQs. She has great suggestions about tackling those questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mims Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Thanks so much momato4 (and others). I had already found that thread - what wonderful advice on it! So my plan then is to use the NROC site for my core, add in some more DBQ and FRQ questions from previous tests, and finish early enough that he can use a prep book. I feel like I saw some flashcards specifically designed for the APUSH. Anyone used these or have any to suggest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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