APUSH BREAKDOWN

ok. so this is what APUSH is:
Advanced Placement United States History

AP is a college-board backed program, equal to college-level studies. APUSH in particular is worth ONE semester's credit in college (IF you pass the APUSH exam, AND IF your college chooses to accept your credit; it's frustrating, like getting elementary school credit for algebra--YOU DID IT! YOU TOOK THE CLASS! YOU DIDN'T FAIL THE CLASS!! you just didn't meet that particular school's standards. but that's how it is.)

so, you basically take this class to pass ONE test: the AP exam. that's what it all comes down to--if you fail, it means there's no chance you're going to get college credit. that's all that matters--the AP exam.

here's the breakdown of the exam: it's
3hrs 5 min. exam total (185 min)
TWO parts:

1.) 80 multiple choice questions, 55 min. worth 50%

• 20% = 16 questions 1550-1789 (up to END of Am. Rev; Aztecs [cortez], incas, peru, columbus [hispaniola], 13 colonies [pocahontas, john rolfe, George II, Glorious Revolution, slavery, triangular trade, Navigation acts, Intolerable acts, boston tea party, lexington/concord, thomas paine, sons/daughters of liberty, olive branch petition, 1st/2nd continental congress, Constitution, bill of rights])
• 45%= 36 questions 1790-1914 (up to BEGINNING of WWI; War of 1812 [US v. GB; treaty of Ghent], Jefferson [louisiana purchase], Spanish-Am. War, Jackson, Mexican war [Texas; Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago], Civil warn [Lincoln, slavery, Ghettysburg Adress], McKinley [annexing Philippines/Hawaii], Teddy Roosevelt [Big Stick], Taft [dollar diplomacy], Wilson [WWI])
• 35% = 28 questions 1915-present (Post WWI-today; Wilson [14 points], Harding, WWII [FDR], Truman, Korea [Eisenhower], JFK, LBJ, Vietnam [Nixon ended], Carter, Reagan [conservatism])

2.) 3 Essays, 130 min. worth 50%

• 45% (60 min.): DBQ ea. 15min. REQ. READING time +45 min. SUGGESTED WRITING time x1 =60 min. worth 45% of your 50% essay grade; meaning 22.5% of entire exam grade
• 55% (70 min. total) Free Response 5 SUGGESTED thinking/brainstorm +30 SUGGESTED WRITING time= SUGGESTED to spend 35min. on each free response essay x2 =70 min. 55% (27.5% each); meaning it's worth 27.5% of entire exam grade; each is worth 13.75% of entire exam grade.

Scoring for MULTIPLE CHOICE:
1pt for every question right
-1/4 pt. for every question wrong (so there IS a punishment for guessing! but you also have to think about it: for every FOUR questions you get wrong = every ONE question you get right)
0 pts. for every question left blank (NO penalty for ommision)

Scoring For Exam:
Formula:

Mutiple Choice: Number Correct - (number incorrect x 0.25) = raw score (rounded to nearest whole #)

Essays: (DBQ score x4) + [(free response1+ free response2) x 2.44] =raw score (rounded to nearest whole number)

COMPOSITE SCORE:

Raw Multiple choice score (rounded) x 1.13 = weighted raw score

Raw Essay score (rounded) x 2.73 = weighted raw score

Last step: add up your two weighted scores.

Ranges:
180-114: 5 (dif. of 66) so it's the easiest to get a 5/5!!
113-91: 4 (diff of 22)
90-74: 3 (diff of 16)
73-49: 2 (diff of 24)
48-0: 1 (diff of 48)

here is the College Board Link for scoring/grade distribution: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/history_us/exam.html?ushist



i herd from friends that college board determines the ranges for scores every year in order for students to be evenly distributed, like a bell curve.
and it's true!! http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/history_us/dist.html?ushist
HERE IS A STRATEGY FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE:

• there are FIVE choices.
• if you can eliminate even ONE CHOICE then you should go for it. if you can't, then it's better for you to leave it blank.

AP is very strict. they give you a list of books you can use to teach the class, and you have to adapt to writing DBQs, and AP-styled questions.

Here are the recomended study guides from my friends: the Kaplan, and the Princeton Review. I would buy the newest ones, b/c they offer more experience as to old exam questions/DBQs. The one that I used was Fast Track to a 5: AP US History, but Barron's is what's most popular, and widely available. Flash cards sound VERY nice, esp. with writing essays--you need to remember key events, people, elections, laws, wars, treaties--NOTHING is given to you for the free response except for a question, which gives you the setting and topic, but you're on your own from there, so in a way the free-response is the harder one of the essays.

but MANY students consider the DBQ to be hardest because you have to ANALYZE and use given documents, AND use OUTSIDE information from your own knowledge to write it.
a good essay has:

1. a good thesis. it's basically what you're saying. it just answers the question/promt
2. a good introduction that presents the setting: the period, what's going on, ect.
3. 1:1 ratio of given information (documents) and outside information from your head
4. uses MOST of the given documents (normally there are ~15 given) to support/refute claim; DO NOT SUMMARIZE documents--which i also tend to do--say why they are relevant/important.
5. don't forget about a conclusion! you don't want to repeat your thesis, but you do want to recap...the intro and conclusions are the hardest parts of any essay, i would say, b/c you've already said what you wanted to, and you don't want to sound redundant/repetitive.

but MANY students consider the DBQ to be hardest because you have to ANALYZE and use given documents, AND use OUTSIDE information from your own knowledge to write it.


a good essay has:

1.  a good thesis. it just answers the question/promt
2. a good introduction that presents the setting: the period, what's going on, ect.
3. 1:1 ratio of given information (documents) and outside information from your head
4. uses MOST of the given documents (normally there are ~15 given) to support/refute claim; DO NOT SUMMARIZE documents--which i also tend to do--say why they are relevant/important.
5. don't forget about a conclusion! you don't want to repeat your thesis, but you do want to recap...the intro and conclusions are the hardest parts of any essay, i would say, b/c you've already said what you wanted to, and you don't want to sound redundant/repetitive.

**they USED announce the time period for the DBQ, but college board stopped doing that a few years back (2000, 2002-3) b/c teachers would only focus on that time period. it's sad.**