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Should You Take AP U.S. History

EVERYTHING the rising sophomores need to know about the AP U.S. History course at EHS before choosing their classes:

*All of this information- except for the insider views and student opinions- and more is available on the EHS Website and the official College Board site (all sources will be linked at the bottom)*

AP U.S. History at EHS

As the current freshmen go through their first year in Exeter High School, they should be aware of the opportunity that is about to be presented to them. AP U.S. History (APUSH) is one of the only AP classes available for Sophomores. With this being said, it is important to keep in mind that even though it is a rare opportunity, it isn’t always worth it. Here’s what the Rising Sophomores need to know before choosing their classes in the upcoming months.

An AP (Advanced Placement) class is a class taken in high school that will give you college credit. However, not all colleges accept an APUSH credit and you will have to take the class again. That being said, universities still love seeing that a student has taken an AP class.

At Exeter High School, CP and Honors U.S. History will consist of a curriculum that starts at the end of the Civil War (if you remember, that’s where you most likely stopped learning U.S. History in eighth grade). The reason APUSH is much more difficult is because it starts in 1491 (it starts a year before Christopher Columbus first arrived in North America). It continues until the present, which was just updated in 2019.

APUSH has 9 units and the first two have to be completed over the summer so you have enough time to learn the other 7 units during the school year before the test. These two units are short and not too difficult to complete and understand.

Throughout the course, students use a website called LaunchPad. LaunchPad will give you the online AP textbook readings that you should read before taking a chapter quiz (called Learning Curves). These quizzes are usually taken over the weekends but don’t take too long to complete.

Often, students will choose to not take a class because of the teacher. This should not be the case for APUSH. All APUSH students will be taught by Mr. Tardif. Mr. Tardif is an excellent teacher, he has a complex understanding of the information in the curriculum and will help you with any questions or concerns you have.

Every unit is ended with 2 summative assessments. One part is around 12 MCQs and 1-2 SAQs. The second part will alternate between an LEQ and a DBQ at the end of each unit. Those terms will be explored more in the next section.

The AP Test

At the end of the course, you will take the AP test. This will be in May. AP tests are graded on a scale of 1-5, 1 being the lowest possible grade and 5 being the highest. A 3 is passing, to get college credit, you need at least a 3, though some colleges will only accept the credit if you get a 4 or 5.

The AP test for U.S. History consists of 4 parts: the MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions), the SAQs (Short Answer Questions), the DBQ (Document-Based Question), and the LEQ (Long Essay Question). The total duration of this test is 3 hours and 15 minutes unless, of course, you finish early. But each section is strictly timed and that is the maximum amount of time that can be taken for the test.

The MCQs are the first part of the test, they take 55 minutes and are worth 40% of a student’s score. 55 questions are to be answered in this section of the test. The MCQs are usually grouped into 4-6 questions surrounding a document, or they could not be grouped and be without a document.

The SAQs consist of three questions and are worth 20% of your score. The fact that it’s three questions is deceiving because technically, there are nine questions. Each SAQ will have three questions and you answer all three and then move to the next one. There are 40 minutes to take this portion of the test which leaves roughly 13 minutes for each question (approximately four minutes for each ‘sub-question’). When taking the test, students will be given four questions- the first two are mandatory, but students choose between the third and fourth. The first question (first three questions) will provide 1-2 secondary sources and will focus on historical developments from the years 1754-1980. The second one will provide a primary source and will again focus on a development from the years 1754-1980. The third one (one of the ones you choose from) is about historical developments from 1461-1877. The fourth one (the other one you choose between) centers around historical developments from 1865-2001.

The final part has two questions, the LEQ and the DBQ. Together, they take up 1 hour and 40 minutes and are worth 40% of your score. The DBQ comes first, it is 25% of the grade and takes 60 minutes (an hour). Then, follows the LEQ. Which is 15% of the score and takes 40 minutes. The essays are graded differently than the rest of the test. The DBQ is graded on a scale of 0-7 and the LEQ is graded on a scale of 0-6.

The Document-Based Question will be given to the student with seven documents. The 60 minutes includes a 15-minute reading time. Technically, no one will stop you from reading for more than 15 minutes, but it is important to pace yourself. Reading for more than 15 minutes can cause you to fall behind on your writing and you might lose points. Speaking of points, the grading is different for the DBQ. There are seven possible points to be earned and they go as such: one for thesis, one for contextualization, three for evidence, and two for analysis and reasoning. This seems extensive but gets quite simple once you study it in class. And 45 minutes to write an essay seems scary, but you get a lot of practice in class so it’s not too daunting.

Finally, the LEQ is the last part of the test. With it, the student is presented with a choice between three options for the essay. As previously stated, the LEQ takes 40 minutes and is worth 15% of the score. The 40 minutes are not particularly broken up like the DBQ. But, similarly to the DBQ, it is graded differently. On a scale of 0-6, students will have their LEQs graded. One point is for the thesis, one is for contextualization, two for evidence, and two for analysis and reasoning.

Exam Advice From Past Students:

Zoe O'Kane is a current senior at EHS and took APUSH in her sophomore year. She rates the AP Exam with a 6/10 difficulty wise. She said, "Don't be scared of the AP test because it's not part of your grade. If you take a class or not, it should be based on your comfort and strength in the subject matter." She continues, "If you feel qualified to take the class, you will be qualified to take the test when the time comes."

Zoe also stated "Be aware, [the] APUSH test was the hardest AP test I've taken. But Mr. Tardif told me they made it way easier the year after."

Advice From Current Students:

Alex Dobbins is a student in Mr. Tardif's 6th-period AP U.S. History class. When asked how he would rate the difficulty of APUSH on a scale from 1-10, "I would rate APUSH 4/10 after the first quarter." Dobbins says, "During the first quarter, I would rate it an 8/10 in difficulty... [APUSH] gets drastically easier after the first quarter. My grade increased [by] ten points from the first to [the] second quarter."

Dobbins was asked if he would recommend APUSH for students and he said, "I would recommend APUSH for any upcoming sophomore that is good at writing essays but most importantly, has good time management." Alex continues talking about time management and says, "It's all about managing your time, especially when you're writing essays that are timed." Dobbins says "You also start getting into a rhythm with the essays, weekend homework, etc."

Some advice Dobbins would give to students interested in APUSH is, "You go through stuff very quickly, so taking notes in some form is a good idea, or reviewing before writing essays is a great idea."

Lucy Bickford, another student from Mr. Tardif's period 6 class, says "I think if you have an interest in history then it's fine but if you don't, it's a bit of a struggle. But it won't kill your GPA."

Emma Ruset is in the 3rd-period APUSH class this year and rates it a 6/10 in difficulty. When asked if she recommends it for freshmen she says, "I recommend it if you're passionate about history and learning more about our country's history and how it's affected us today."

Ruset was asked what she noticed about APUSH so far, "Some things I've noticed are this class takes a lot more work than normal honors classes but it's worth the effort because it's a fun class and you learn a lot.

Emily Houde claims that APUSH is a 7/10 in difficulty, "I think they should take it if they like history and are willing to study and put in the work. It is a lot of reading"

Sebastian Barone recommends APUSH for rising sophomores and says, "I have noticed that every time period goes by very fast in class, and outside studying time is very helpful to supplement." Barone also says that it is an 8/10 difficulty.

When asked what his favorite thing about APUSH was, Barone said, "My favorite thing about APUSH is the class itself, and the activities/projects we do." Barone was also asked what methods he used to manage the work and he said, "Some methods I use to handle the work of APUSH is to watch Heimler's History on YouTube because he gives a lot of good information on the topics, but also APUSH specific guides (like LEQ, DBQ, SAQ, formatting and what test reviewers are looking for)."

Barone also gives this warning: "APUSH is fun, but difficult. The level of difficulty varies from person to person, but from my experience, it takes a lot of effort in order to excel in this class. A lot, and I mean a lot of memorization is involved." Barone continues with this advice, "When it comes to choosing an answer in a multiple choice question, or using evidence in an essay, remembering dates, purpose, important people, and more of the event is needed. This is very hard as over 500 years [are] covered in this class (1461-present)."

Sophomore senator and APUSH student, Bobby Pace claims that the class is a 6/10 difficulty. He recommends it for Freshmen and says that he noticed "APUSH is all about doing work outside of class. Especially the weekly readings."

When asked what his thoughts on Mr. Tardif as a teacher for this course he positively stated, "Mr. Tardif as a teacher helps by presenting the information in an accessible way."

Aastha Patel is another student from 3rd-period AP U.S. History with Mr. Tardif. She recommends that students who want to take APUSH next year shouldn't procrastinate: "Don't procrastinate, especially with those learning curves. You get, like, a formative 100 [grade] by just completing them."

She rated APUSH a 7/10 difficulty and says that she's noticed that "You watch a lot of videos and take notes on them... He [doesn't] even grade those things... [It's] not recognized." She also says, "A lot of topics are covered over in a day."

Amelia Chandler rates APUSH a 7/10 for difficulty but recommends it for students. She warns, "The classroom environment is competitive and it's taken very seriously." She later says, "My least favorite thing is the amount of homework we have, my favorite thing is that you can make new friends with similar interests." Something she does to manage work is "expecting homework every day and setting aside time to work on it."

Sophomore class president Charles Morris gave a written statement about APUSH and he said, "In all honesty, APUSH is no harder than Honors World History. The work, is at first hard to complete but once you get the hang of it, things get pretty easy." On the topic of World History, he said "World History was a warm summer breeze for me, which my grades reflected. Therefore, I rate APUSH a 4/10 [difficulty wise]."

Charles was asked what advice he would give to a student interested in APUSH and he said "APUSH work has a steep learning curve but since the work is repetitive it becomes easier. Be expected to receive C's or B's on your first DBQ, LEQ, SAQ, and MCQs." Charles continues to talk about something he's noticed in APUSH, "I noticed that my grades gradually rose as I got acclimated to these tests. Also, there are no projects. Instead, there are Harkness Discussions, court cases, and debates."

Morris complains that "Weekly chapter reading is the hardest part of APUSH. I just bunker down and get to reading. Which only takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours."

Charles spoke about Mr. Tardif and said, "Mr. Tardif is a solid teacher, he gave my Minecraft world for a project a 9/10 and the one point off was due to the misspelling of his name." He goes on by saying, "In all seriousness, he is a respectable teacher, he does not yell at students and is fair."

Finally, Morris ends his remarks with this: "It should be noted that after May 10thm the day of the AP Test, there is literally no more work. And it hasn't been confirmed, but apparently we get to go on field trips, yes, multiple. But Tardif has only mentioned it once."

What To Take Away:

There was a lot of information thrown at you today, but this is the minimum because AP U.S. History is a complicated course, but all of this should help guide you through it. Keep this article around as you decide if you want to take AP U.S. History, as well as during the course for some free advice.

Also keep in mind, that your teacher knows best. If your teacher recommends you for APUSH, they think you're ready. If they don't, and you are wondering why, it is completely normal to ask and be curious. Start a discussion with them and try to work out a solution. If you have more questions, also remember that your teacher will most likely have the answer.

If you're worried about APUSH, bear in mind that this is equal to a college course, it's going to be difficult. But it is completely worth it if you are passionate about history and want colleges to see that.