AP classes information for Comp. and US Hist?

Question

What is involved in those two classes?

Any tips? I heard that our Comp teacher is really cruddy, and our history teacher is really hard...I'm deciding between the two. What sorts if things will be done in class? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

i personally really like history, and i have to say that if you do too, then APUSH won't be that bad. there was definitely A LOT of reading, outlining, memorizing, and researching in that class but if you like the material then it'll be a lot easier. my teacher said that most APUSH classes memorize all the US presidents, their political affiliations, and the years of their terms. that's what we did at the beginning of the year so maybe you will too. but i really did learn a lot...so i say it's worth taking. i've heard it's a lot harder than other AP histories because US history connects events...like, every event and person is connected somehow. you won't regret it though! good luck!

Answer 2

I took AP US History and I thought it was horrible. All our teacher did was make us read like 30 pages of small print in the book every night, then she'd talk about it the next day. It went on like that for a whole year. I cannot promise that your class will be the same because obviously you have a different teacher.

My friends who took AP English/comp were drowned in work and were stressing out every week.

Take AP History if you are really good at history or if you can retain information well.

Take Comp if you are not a procrastinator or if you are really good at writing.

For less out-of-class work, take history.

Answer 3

i heard collegeboard is taking out the ap comp sci exam; the test won't exist next year...no test means no class for it...

apush is tough no matter who you have and where you live.

Answer 4

If you are a history geek like me you wont care how hard the teacher is. My teacher was also hard but I loved her and i passed the AP test

I also took AP English and i HATED the teacher but i passed the AP Test. There isnt exactly a great AP English Teacher (most of them suck)

BOTH classes will require a lot of reading but in the long run it does help a person out and there are no short cuts so dont waste your time trying to find them (like other did in my school) But if you love history and you love english I would recommend both classes. And in the end if you dont like them just drop during second semester. Hope this helps!!!

Answer 5

AHAHA i got into AP Hist and it kicked my ***. Don't do it, it isn't worth it unless you are an over achiever.

Answer 6

it depends if you like technical courses like math and science, or nontechnical courses like history and english more.. us history is one of the hardest ap exams to take because you have to know sooo much detail, you will be expected to know eeeverything, you wouldnt have to go as far as being able to know what happened in every battle in every war, but you will be familiar with them (especially the revolutionary and civil wars) and im not sure about comp but im sure youll have to know a lot of little details as well. the difference, is that in history, you have to analyze the results of what happened and you have to be able to recall events and things from just being given a date or a name.

my advice is to find some people who took the courses at your school and chose which sounds like you would do better in.. my history teacher was really hard as well, but in the end, he turned out to be my favorite teacher because he helped me understand everything and i ended up doing really well on the test. if you chose that one, try staying after class for a minute and just ask him for advice on what you can do to help you in his class.. or something like that. teacher love students who want to be helped! thats why they got into teaching. after he finds out you really want to do well in his class he probably will be nicer to you and try to help you out.

and either way, heres some advice i have about taking notes... good notes are key in ap classes! im telling you, keep good notes and keep track of them!! because reviewing is supppper important in ap classes.

in technical classes like science and math. try to write as many examples as you can in your notes. write the question, and answer specifically. and then on at least one question of each kind, you want to get the steps in between. then when it comes time to take the test, you can just pick out the sample questions from your notes that will be the same kind of questions on your test and make your own study test. go through each problem, saying the steps out loud and completing the problems on paper and making sure you are memorizing the steps to the problem, not just that specific problem.

for non technical courses like english and history, you want to write your notes in question-evidence-conclusion form. while the teachers lecturing, try and pick out the question in the lecture.. (like, if the teachers talking about how the colonists affected the lives of the early native americans.. then the question in the lecture would be "how did the colonists affect the lives of the early native americans?") if you cant find the question in the lecture right away, then just write "QUESTION:" in your notes, skip a line, and come back to it when you figure it out, if you cant figure it out by the end of the lecture, ask your teacher questions that will help you figure it out. during the lecture, your teacher will give a lot of facts, you can write down these facts in a list form under the question in the "evidence" section. then try and sum up the lecture into a conclusion. and put this statement at the bottem of your notes.. something like "CONCLUSION: the colonists affected the native americans in that they forcibly moved them from their settlements, and caused a loss of tradition throughout the tribes" then above that as evidence you could have a few facts about riots and religious converting lol or something.. idk i just made that up. then when a test comes, you can just take the notes from the subjects that the test will be on and make your own study guide with the questions from your lecture notes!

these note taking strategies are great because it makes the most out of your class time and minimizes the work you have to do when it comes to studying for tests.

i hope this helps, you can email me if you want more tips on time organization, writing papers, taking tests... anything.

Answer 7

I took AP European History, and I LOVED it. Granted, it's different from American, but if you're a history buff you will love it :) We didn't honestly have that much reading.. just a lot of class discussion and questions. You were expected to read the textbook quicker and cover more material, but that's the case with any AP class. We only had a few projects, and not too many papers. What you do in class really depends on how your teacher sees things (for example, do they prefer projects or papers? class discussions or written assignments?). AP is a lot of work but I think AP classes are great to take. From the information you gave, I'd recommend AP American History. It might be hard, but it will force you to learn and it's also really good for more college-like experience (since it's a college-level course). You say the computer teacher is crappy, so I wouldn't take that class if I were you. But that's just me :)

Answer 8

Lots of reading in US HISt.

Answer 9

Go with the computer course as it reveloves more of what is around u and gives u an understanding of he present and the future. Its more HANDS on than reading and memorizing. You can do Comp in many diffrent ways while HIS is ONE WAY and its the way history was wrote. Good luck girl and make the right choice

Answer 10

us history was alot of u.s. history, just that, specially acts and presidents and what each one did, embargos against the british, the revolution, the stages of revolution, famous battles, the whole manifest destiny travel, alot of detail and alot of emphasis on presidents and stuff like prohobition and civil rights with women and african americans, or atleast my class was like this

for comp. i 'm not sure what you mean? comparative politics or english and composition?????

Answer 11

Well it all depends on what you want to go to college for. I took AP Comp. and AP Gov. last year and they both required a lot of time and hard work.

AP Comp. required that we wrote at least an essay every week and if the essay was more than 5 pages it was every two weeks. (This may depend on the type of school you go to and what its curriculum is.) But all AP courses are challenging and show colleges that you're the type of person who challenges themselves academically rather than being required to take such courses.

My AP Gov., although a little diff. from AP History required tons of reading. It was always vocab and events that I had to watch out for. It def. was a lot more fun than my comp class (but that's because I want to major in political science =), so it was a give away class,lol)

But make sure you choose wisely, so you don't spend the rest of the year wishing you had tooken the other class. So, if you love writing about random topics such as analyzing a advertisement from the news paper or a paper that explains the difference between two words that mean the same but used in different context, then take AP comp. But if you like history and love learning about major turning events in the society, then take AP history. Which ever you choose, you'll have an amazing adventure that leads you to a world of understanding =) things that never made any sense...lol!!