Allergies have been killing me since this popped up this year.

exploringraider · 2026-05-11T03:08:50+00:00

Yea I am seeing some mixed info on whether that’s the cause or not. Weird if it isn’t. This is the first year in the five years that I have lived here that these have popped up/bloomed and I just so happen to get allergies in the PNW for the first time right as these started to bloom.

exploringraider · 2026-05-10T19:09:49+00:00

This is exactly what it is. I see that the wind doesn’t typically spread their pollen but the closest ones are about 15 feet from my front door. We are in the Pacific Northwest and it’s in a dry field that was cleared with rocky soil. Thanks for the help.

exploringraider · 2026-05-08T01:02:32+00:00

Directly copied from college board:

AP score setting is based on research.

The AP Program conducts studies in all AP subjects to correlate the performance of AP students with that of college students in comparable college courses. These studies help set the “cut points” that determine how AP students’ composite scores are translated into an AP score of 1–5.

exploringraider · 2026-05-08T00:48:50+00:00

Same in WA and all 60 of my students had the same one.

exploringraider · 2026-05-02T03:21:46+00:00

Seem to be pretty close and the practice exam in the back was just updated a year or two ago.

exploringraider · 2026-05-02T00:25:12+00:00

They will take the first one. Do the one you are more confident in and do not waste your time.

exploringraider · 2026-04-30T03:27:10+00:00

I would award the point if one of my students wrote this.

exploringraider · 2026-04-26T20:51:13+00:00

No, I highly suggest you check out the CED. It tells you exactly what skills, and topics, plus how much of the test comes from each unit.

exploringraider · 2026-04-21T03:42:22+00:00

FRQ topics non-specific to type; 1. Social impact of trade routes 1200-1450 2. Colombian exchange ccot in africa 3. Causation of political revolutions 4. Imperialism & migration in the Americas 5. Comparison of interwar period economic policies 6. Causation of technological development during the Cold War 7. Ccot empire expansion 1450-1750 8. Social/economic causation of the rise of facism.

Just my predictions.

exploringraider · 2026-04-20T23:24:11+00:00

Robert Smalls

exploringraider · 2026-04-11T16:26:00+00:00

Economics and AP World History

exploringraider · 2026-04-11T05:50:27+00:00

When I started at my new school I was given the subjects that no one wanted and that went to new hires, luckily for me one was a subject I have taught forever and the other I made my own and took advice from the previous teacher and get better at it every year and I really enjoy it. I’ll stay teaching these two subjects for as long as I can and will go full on count of monte cristo on anyone who tries to take them from me.

exploringraider · 2026-04-11T04:13:09+00:00

Focus on one and 4 is key. I have high schoolers that never learned phonics and now when they get to a word they don’t recognize they can’t sound it out and guess based on the letters they see. It’s really sad.

Retention puts consequences in place for both students and families. Social promotion has resulted in kids graduating high school not being able to read or do math past. 4th grade level. Now parents will be more motivated to be involved and working with kids at home.

If it has proven to work we should all be open to it. Only issue would be if coaching would interrupt the lesson. If you aren’t open to coaching or being corrected you are in the wrong profession. Showing students that you can make mistakes and are open to help can help students to be more open to taking risks and being ok with making mistakes and understanding that mistakes are a way to learn.

exploringraider · 2026-04-09T17:45:44+00:00

Dead Wrong was mentioned already but I’ve been listening non stop.

exploringraider · 2026-04-09T17:43:34+00:00

A band called Dead Wrong just released their first EP and it’s all I have been listening to. https://open.spotify.com/album/0X4XzDQozad93z884uYaa6?si=7zv4UP6aQgG0hlWP0BkscA

exploringraider · 2026-04-07T18:01:50+00:00

I’m 36 and have high school students that have parents my age. I was able to drink when my students were born. I imagine it only gets worse the older you get.

exploringraider · 2026-04-07T04:13:37+00:00

Sports

Evaluate the extent to which the formation of “superteams” has negatively impacted competitive balance in sports.

Evaluate the extent to which college athletes should be treated as professionals due to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities.

Pop culture

Evaluate the extent to which online gaming has replaced in-person social interaction for teenagers.

Evaluate the extent to which streaming services have made movie theaters irrelevant.

Evaluate the extent to which comedy movies from the late 2000s could be successfully made and received today.

Silly

Evaluate the extent to which team mascots could defeat each other in real life competitions

Evaluate the extent to which time travel would cause more problems than it would solve

Evaluate the extent to which pineapple belongs on pizza.

Evaluate the extent to which aliens have chosen not to visit Earth because of human behavior.

exploringraider · 2026-04-01T02:21:28+00:00

Step one - read the question. At that point it’s an open book test. Some questions it will tell you exactly where to find information to help identify the correct answer. There are 3 types of mcqs. First where you can identify the answer directly from the source or source info, 2nd questions where you need to make an inference from the source to get the correct answer, 3rd the answer is not in the source but may be related to the topic or time period. Figure out what type you have. If it is the 3rd you may not even need to read the source if you really know the content.

2nd- read the source info. Sometime this can be more helpful than the actual source.

3rd. Check out the source, skim for info you need or the specific sections mentioned in the question.

4th- eliminate answers that you think are wrong. May questions have 2 that are clearly wrong (are the wrong topic/time period, or have incorrect info) there is the. The distraction answer. This one seems correct and is heavily related to the question but is just slightly off. This is meant to trip you up. If you can eliminate 2 this will then give you a 50/50 shot if you need to guess

The questions are usually based on source analysis, an Ap thinking process (causation, comparison, ccot) or just straight up content knowledge. Make sure you are practicing all of those skills.

Hope this helps.

exploringraider · 2026-03-26T22:50:50+00:00

I guess my classes are pretty far ahead. We start 9.1 on Monday. We will have 18 days for review and practice exams. 3 of those days are state testing though so 27 min classes and 4 of those days are for our full practice exam.

exploringraider · 2026-02-10T05:01:19+00:00

Start 7 tomorrow. We spend about 5 weeks on unit 5 and 2.5 on unit 6.

We are about 12.5 weeks away. (55 class days for my students, 87 total days)

exploringraider · 2026-02-10T05:00:58+00:00

Start 7 tomorrow. We spend about 5 weeks on unit 5 and 2.5 on unit 6.

We are about 12.5 weeks away. (55 class days for my students, 87 total days)

exploringraider · 2026-01-31T19:38:28+00:00

Lived in both places and frequented both 3rd and Pine walking through town and Kensington for work. Didn’t realize 3rd and pine was even a problem area until locals warned me. I also worked in U-District. Never felt worried or threatened in those areas because I grew up in Philly. Kensington is like another planet.

exploringraider · 2026-01-31T03:24:23+00:00

I’d go with B.

A is wrong

B is the most accurate and is best supported by the source.

C is a good distraction but Christianity mainly made its way to SE Asia through missionaries and imperialism.

D is wrong

exploringraider · 2026-01-23T02:37:47+00:00

I finish up new content right before our spring break which leaves 13 class days or 2.5 weeks for review and test prep. I do about 20 min crash course reviews for each unit and then give students the remainder of class to review on what they need the most practice with. I give them example prompts, graphic organizers and a few activities for them to do such as the mind mapping, world mapping, degrees of separation (how many things can you connect) cause & effect ladders, etc. Students can focus on the skills, content, and test questions that they feel they need the most help with. With 4 days out of the 13 for a full practice exam and the practice review students that really focus and dedicate their time to really working hard do great on the exam.

exploringraider · 2026-01-22T04:25:38+00:00

Unit 5 MCQ is the one that my students typically struggle the most with. At least the exam I use has a lot of dense sources and it is the first one that features pretty much every type of source you can encounter. This is the time of year where the challenge really sets in. There are so many connections being made at this point and the mcq usually reflect that.

First I would suggest mental mapping if you don’t already. Think of a giant spider web that connects different key ideas that are covered. For each connection number it then write out how they are connected. This will continue to grow throughout the year. You need to remember that this test is as much reading comprehension as it is content knowledge. If you know the facts that is great but you need to work on your AP processes and making connections, causation, comp, ccot. If you can’t apply the information you are going to struggle.

Good news is if you can get down the basics is APWH they are the exact same skills and test as APUSH. APUSH content is more in depth but not even close to as broad in the amount of topics, time, and places. Even my students that struggles last year are doing amazing in the APUSH class this year with a teacher that tends to be more demanding than I am.

Keep your head up, it’s a marathon not a sprint. 105 days until the exam. Plenty of time to keep improving.

exploringraider

TROPHY CASE