AP United States History (APUSH)
APUSH will NOT be offered in the 2021-22 school year.
Course Description
AP United States History focuses on developing students’ abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present and apply historical thinking skills as they learn about the past. Seven themes of equal importance — identity; peopling; politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; America in the world; environment and geography; and ideas, beliefs, and culture — provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places.
As a bonus, successful completion of the APUSH course will give students credit for American History 1 AND 2. This leaves space for an elective course during senior year instead of American History 2!
Course Description
AP United States History focuses on developing students’ abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present and apply historical thinking skills as they learn about the past. Seven themes of equal importance — identity; peopling; politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; America in the world; environment and geography; and ideas, beliefs, and culture — provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places.
As a bonus, successful completion of the APUSH course will give students credit for American History 1 AND 2. This leaves space for an elective course during senior year instead of American History 2!
What are the prerequisites for the course?
Teacher approval is required. This is based on past performance in English and history courses. Students may also be approved based on PLAN or PSAT scores. Students must complete a summer assignment related to six chapters of the textbook as well as read Founding Brothers and complete an assignment related to the book.
**Please note that the summer assignment is often worth multiple grades. Students who do not complete the assignment by the due date will receive zeros for that work.**
This course is taken junior year and satisfies the graduation requirement for American History 1 and an additional history course.
**Please note that the summer assignment is often worth multiple grades. Students who do not complete the assignment by the due date will receive zeros for that work.**
This course is taken junior year and satisfies the graduation requirement for American History 1 and an additional history course.
How is the class scheduled?
APUSH is a 90 minute, 180 day course. The first semester students receive credit for United States History Seminar Honors and in the second semester credit is earned for APUSH. In the upcoming school year, APUSH will be 2nd block the entire school year.
What is the class like?
Class is lecture based along with activities that involve working with primary source documents and ending with group or independent work. Students complete 10-12 writing assignments and read one additional book per grading period. It takes 1-3 days to cover one chapter in the textbook, so the class maintains a very fast pace to cover the curriculum. There are 3 tests per grading period which are given over two days. Day 1 is the multiple choice and short answer test and on Day 2 students complete an essay. Students should expect to spend about 2 hours per night completing homework in order to be successful.
View the free response questions from a past AP exam: |
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