The AP United States History (APUSH for short) test is administered to students nationwide. Many of the students taking the test thought it would be more challenging than it was. After taking the test though they felt that it was easier than what they were expecting. Jacob Scherber said
“I feel like the test went better than I thought it would, I was not feeling to good about it going in, but afterwards I felt like it went alright.”
Leading up to the test, students prepared using a variety of resources at their disposal from their textbooks, notecards, Youtube videos and even practice questions. AP United States History Student Megan Lowell said she, “used crash course . . . [the] APUSH textbook, American Pageant . . . and practice questions etc. I also have a friend on the basketball team who took APUSH, [and] I used her study tests . . .“
Students agree that the over the summer readings and homework plus the three quarters of the AP U.S. History class prepared them well for the test.
“The class helped me prepare for the test,” said Sophomore Bailee Larson, “because there was a lot of hard information and activities that helped me learn more about the subject.”
The 3 hour and 15 minutes long test consisted of a first section of 55 multiple choice questions in 55 minutes, 4 short answer questions in 50 minutes and a second section that included a document based question plus a choice of one of two long essay questions in 90 minutes. After taking the test, some of the students had advice for future of APUSH test takers.
“It’s hard, so don’t blow it off or put off studying till the last minute,” Larson said.
Taylor Valek agrees that you should not leave studying to the last minute and Megan Lowell advises that students should,“Be confident . . . [and] pay a lot of attention in class”
According to administrators, students should be aware that this course will be changed to a CIS course instead of AP and will be two quarters instead of three starting the 2016-17 school year. Students will still have the opportunity to take the AP test in the spring, though.
