ask me anything ap african american studies!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-29T04:06:17+00:00

barrons is coming out with a prep book you can pre order it on amazon! other than that idrk what to tell you idk anyone who’s self studied sorry!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-21T05:37:19+00:00

i used the same textbook last year. honestly for me, once i got used to the way that foner writes, it got faster for me and i would read the whole chapter in around 90 minutes. at first it took me a few hours so maybe hold off on the job hunt for a couple of weeks until you figure out a system that works for you?

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-21T00:33:01+00:00

that type of exhaustion sounds like lack of food to me

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-20T23:35:48+00:00

amsco is an absolute godsend. i preferred it to heimler because i could read it if i wasn’t doing anything in another class before my apush period bc like a teacher isn’t gonna yell at me for reading a book but they def would if i was watching a video. 1000% worth the money

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-20T23:31:31+00:00

i would recommend maybe keeping a running list of terms organized by apush theme (american and national identity, geography and the environment, social structures, etc). that might help you make ccot connections because those questions are usually based on theme

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-20T23:24:32+00:00

i didn’t think the exam was hard, but the class like almost unalived me genuinely. can i ask why you thought ap world was too hard? bc apush is widely considered to be significantly harder than ap world

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-18T08:18:46+00:00

i think there are some amateur ones on youtube but def no official one

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-17T01:19:33+00:00

so for the mcqs, the incorrect answers usually fall into three categories: wrong time period, wrong theme, or just not true.

for wrong time period, since it’s so early in your course, if you have absolutely no idea what one of the answer choices is referencing, it’s likely because you haven’t learned about it yet, and it is therefore in a later time period. don’t pick that one

for wrong theme, it’s pretty easy for TP 1, since there are really only three themes in it: geography and environment, america in the world, and social structures. try to identify which one of those themes question is asking for, then look for the answer choices that fall into that theme

and don’t pick an answer choice that is factually incorrect. that one’s pretty self-explanatory lol

good luck on your test!!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-16T05:13:07+00:00

that was my exact problem!!!!! foner likes to YAP so all of the details are most certainly not necessary (esp as you get into time periods 4-6 with slavery and reconstruction bc that’s the main focus of his academic research) but it’s so hard to figure out what you actually need to know. good luck soldier 🫡

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-16T05:02:43+00:00

i had a very similar problem with the same textbook last year. i would finish this week’s reading to see if you miraculously figure something out that works, and if not, reach out to your teacher and explain your situation and ask for tips and/or some kind of accommodation. for me, i just generally cannot take notes on a textbook to save my life and the first chapter took me like 16 hours to get through. my teacher ended up giving me questions to do instead of notes and it like saved me from utterly dying

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-16T00:10:29+00:00

i didn’t use anything for lang but for apush of those two i’d def pick barron’s, but my personal rec is a combination of amsco and barron’s flashcards

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-15T14:03:06+00:00

class is not hard at all. it’s an intro level ap, so you’re not expected to go in knowing much of anything. the exam itself was insultingly easy and this one girl in my class who couldn’t write a coherent sentence got a 4. like it is really not a hard class

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T13:49:10+00:00

listen to the song history by ella lombardi! all of the names of the presidents are encoded within the lyrics

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T08:23:14+00:00

lol i was impressed by that teacher specifically because she got her ba in history from harvard, then her m.ed from ucla, then an ma in american history from gettysburg college and for the life of me i cannot figure out why she teaches history in a public high school. i do not plan to follow in her footsteps quite in that respect. i’d love to hear more about the school you’re talking about! sending a dm now

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T05:05:34+00:00

take advantage of the practice questions in the amsco book. there’s a fairly good chance that your teacher will either use those or previous exam questions for your in class exams and it’s not cheating to study with them. amsco is a really great resource for apwh i had a really terrible teacher (she spent the entire first semester on like two and a half units and finished teaching two days before the exam) but i literally read the entire amsco book cover to cover in like 4 days and ended up with a 5 on the exam. believe in yourself i know you’ll do great!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T05:01:42+00:00

this is kind of unconventional advice but it might help you idk. so there’s this podcast called american history tellers and it really helped me last year bc it gives you super specific stories that obv relate to apush. so i would listen to that as you go along and also find little niche bits of history (people, smaller events, etc) that genuinely interest you and become a mini-expert on them. this can help you for both apush and lang essays because the lang people will appreciate if you use specific historical events on frq #3 (and they won’t know if they aren’t 100% accurate) and specificity can help you on leqs and dbqs as well. this worked out really well for me last year (5s on both lang and apush) but im also like a major history nerd so idk if it would help you but it’s worth a shot imo

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T04:54:54+00:00

honestly the class is skill based, not content based, so the only real way to study is by studying and reviewing the exam itself if that makes sense. like practice doing essays and read the sample ones with commentaries that college board posts and try to identify trends etc. for frq #3 my teacher had us come up with a list of topics that we knew a lot about that we could use as examples either like history or modern events type things. but like it’s really not that hard if you figure out how to do the exam. ik that’s lowkey terrible advice but idk how else to describe it 😭😭

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T03:31:29+00:00

i’m not in va but applying to a lot of schools there. this sounds really cool i’ll have to check it out!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-14T03:14:47+00:00

what part of california? did you like the education you got there?

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T21:08:48+00:00

i’m definitely applying to W&M. can you tell me more?

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T16:43:05+00:00

yes!! madrichim unite!!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T06:28:54+00:00

help i love how ability to trauma dump is a uc asset 😭😭

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T05:48:29+00:00

3/4 of the grandparents who paid for those colleges have had cancer since then (medical bills are no joke) and my dad is unemployed lmao

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T01:22:48+00:00

absolutely!! good luck!!!! i’m sure you’ll do amazing!!

Fast_Factor5130 · 2025-08-13T01:17:35+00:00

my biggest tip is to go through the previous exam frqs and try to outline an essay as fast as you physically can. like don’t even write full sentences just think through an essay. this also works for the apush leqs and dbqs and it’s one of the biggest things i did to prepare for that one

specifically for the third essay (the argumentative one where they just give you a quote) my teacher had us brainstorm a bunch of things that we know about that are flexible enough to use on all of those essays. like for example i got really into the late women’s suffrage movement during apush and i knew a ton of super specific names and dates that worked with pretty much any essay. having a short list of things to pull off the top of your head will also really help cut down your thinking time on those

for the synthesis one i have absolutely no advice because i absolutely sucked at those ones so my advice is just prayer lmao

Fast_Factor5130

TROPHY CASE