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what is my teacher doing wrong? :/

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denise xx's picture
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Joined: Nov 2005
what is my teacher doing wrong? :/

i have this AP US History teacher that everyone hates, because she makes us do PERSIAs. Thats where you divide each chapter by Political, Economic, Religous, Social, Intelligent, and Arts. Everyone hates her because she's really sarcastic and mean, and the workload in that class is crazy, like 150 vocab cards per section (like 5 chapters). It seems crazy, but I understand because AP US History is supposed to be the hardest subject. Here's the thing...

You'd think, with all that work, everyone would be really prepared for the AP test, right? Well, last year, 6 kids passed the AP test. She had 70 students (I don't know if they all took it), but that seems ridiculous. Do your teachers correct essays the same way as her? She typically gives 3 or 4s, but the annoying thing is that she goes through and like, changes all of the words you chose to use (for instance, motives instead of reasons). I understand that I do need to work a lot on my essays (although essays have always been my best subject, so meh, I know I have to try harder). I don't know what going on, but I'm afraid I'm not going to pass the AP test. Any advice?

myopichappiness's picture
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Joined: Oct 2005

Political, Economic, Religous, Social, Intelligent, and Arts - probably because you might not be going into chronological order -> thus you probably wouldn't be able to analyze cause and effect as well as other schools/classes. But next time when you're reading the book look over and try to make a list of cause v. effect. a lot of the AP is based on "what was the major cause of..." or "what was one major effect of..."

MistressMagick13's picture
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Joined: Nov 2005

One point of advice....essays for the AP US test are scored out of 9, not 5.....

good luck

denise xx's picture
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MistressMagick13 wrote:One point of advice....essays for the AP US test are scored out of 9, not 5.....

good luck

I know...Those scores are out of 9. Lol.

verruckte87's picture
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Joined: Apr 2005

Yeah, in my class we did MAYBE 3 essays during the year and multiple choice every few chapters. I got a 3. I read the book and read the review, one would think I would do better >_<, honestly...it is a harrowing test but as long as you know the material you'll be fine.

pianogirl2422's picture
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Joined: Mar 2005

First of all, I have to say that I didn't like last year's AP test. The DBQ was on women's rights in colonial times...we NEVER discussed that, and our class never got past WWII, which of course was two of the three FRQ choices.

Anyways, I think the problem may be that people didn't get to see enough of the big picture. And it's like myopichappiness said (sort of) vocabulary doesn't help you analyze. You can know every word of the English, Latin, and Spanish Languages, but still not be able to know why something happened.

Keep in mind, AP social science classes tend to concentrate more on the how's, why's and effects, not the when's and what's. If you keep having trouble with your essays, I can look over one for you and give you my opinion if you would like.

Good Luck!

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osian19's picture
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Joined: Nov 2005

I have a similar problem. I go to a smaller school, so there's one US History class of about 30 students, and last year, two of whom passed the test. My teacher will not go into depth out of context of the book. He will lecture from beginning to end of each class and test us over four chapters, most of which's questions aren't covered in his lectures. I'm trying to figure out ways to improve the class and then give a written report to him. Who knows how that turns out. But we're not going into whether I should do this or not. In my position at the present moment, I see the main goals in history as being able to remember, retain, and recall the information, as well as to comprehend it in a way where you can make logical arguments and predictions from the time period. Am I correct in saying that, or is there another goal?

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