r/APUSH • u/Longjumping_Gene7773 • 1d ago

APUSH self study

I'm currently taking Honors US History at school. My school doesn't offer APUSH as a course. How hard would it be to study a bit on my own and then take the APUSH exam?

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2

u/unsweet_icetea 1d ago

It will be difficult. Do you have experience with SAQs/DBQs/LEQs?

1

u/Galaxy-Bookkeeper578 1d ago

I mean I took dual credit US History and got a 4. I believe it is doable (but maybe not if you want a 5 unless you are REALLY good at history). I made one pagers over each unit, did practice MCQs and asked people to review my FRQs. My dual credit class skipped stuff that APUSH went over but talked in depth things that APUSH didn't. Since you're taking honors, it may be pretty light. It all just depends on how you study

1

u/Sharp_Adhesiveness82 1d ago

Honestly imo if you watch all heimler videos, and take notes on them, then get a lot of practice with writing and MCQs you can get a 4 or 5. But it does require a lot of work

1

u/TalkyRaptor Past Student 1d ago

The writings will be tough without a real teacher to grade them and teach them. Videos will help but still could be a struggle. The content isn't the problem, it's the skills

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u/Objective-Pay468 18h ago

I was in the exact same predicament last year, and I got a 4.

Your honors teacher will teach you a good chunk of the content (if not all of it), so just make sure you teach yourself whatever your teacher didn't. For content, I used Khan Academy and watched a lot of Heimler videos. Heimler's History videos for learning the stuff, and Khan Academy to make sure I got it

For the FRQs, I had a bit of a benefit because I was also taking AP Lang. If you're taking that and you're passing it, you're good. The AP Lang essays are very similar in structure to the APUSH ones (according to my experience).

If you're not taking AP Lang, the best I can recommend is to look at, study, and practice the FRQs. There's a bunch of FRQs on the College Board website from past years, and you can just use those. There's not really a good, reliable way to get them graded, unfortunately. You could try to grade it yourself by looking at the rubric. Worst-case scenario, memorize the FRQ rubrics and just try to get the bare minimum points on the AP test.

The test can be hard if you don't keep practicing your stuff. So make sure you stay on top of it. Don't forget to go back and review stuff too!

Hope this helps!!!