Blog #172 – Reflections on a year in APUSH
This blog is part of your final exam, so please take some time and think about your answers.
400 words minimum for your total response of all of the questions. Please number your answers in the comment section.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
1. My favorite learning style was the presentations and reading from the review book. I found the presentations to be engaging and the review book to be simple but effective. My least favorite learning style was the chapter quizzes we did and the packets for them. It felt like too much work to me, so I decided to give up on doing the notes by the end of the second trimester. The dates quizzes also felt unnecessary to me. I guess they were good to know about which events fall into a specific time period, but it felt tedious and overwhelming, in all honesty.
2. I wish we had spent more time on World War 2. It felt too rushed to me, in all honesty. It would have been nice to go deeper into the Axis powers, the USSR, the UK, and the US at the time and how they intertwined with each other. I also wish we got further into American history. I don’t think we covered Reagan at all, for example. We didn’t cover George W Bush or George H.W. Bush and how certain policies Reagan and George H. W. Bush took led to the fall of the Soviet Union. I know we had a limited amount of time. Still, I wish we had gotten slightly farther into American history, especially since later American history is more fun to learn than early American history, at least in my personal opinion.
3. I wish we had spent less time on certain social aspects. For example, the whole thing about women’s underwear. I don’t think it is completely unnecessary, and it is important to study how oppressed groups like women expressed themselves for liberation, but I feel like we spent too much time on this topic. The time we spent on this could have been spent on World War 2 or the Cold War, for example, which were much more important. If we had spent less time on certain social aspects, we could have also probably gotten at least a little bit farther in American history.
4. I learned many things about American History. We covered very vital parts of American history, such as the Cold War, World War 2, World War 1, the Civil War, the Jim Crow era, the Prohibition era, and Reconstruction. We covered stuff from tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States and tension between slave states and free states. It is hard to condense it all, but it was a fun experience for me because I love history, including American history.
One thing that I liked to do when studying was watching the heimler videos. Another thing that was very effective for me was doing the review terms and looking over other classmates’ review terms. Also doing the dates quizzes and memorizing the dates was super helpful especially during the time I was studying for the AP test to remember what events happened in each period. My least favorite way we learned was the notes packets. Although the quizzes were helpful for my grade I felt that it was a ton of time consuming writing that had so much information that I was finding myself forgetting half of what I wrote down. I can see how they can be successful for other students but personally I really had a hard time with the amount of information that I was cramming. It also was really difficult to complete them while also balancing sports and other assignments. Maybe next time I suggest just shortening them down because some things were sometimes unuseful.
I wish we had spent more time on the last period of APUSH. It was a lot to have to teach myself what felt like a whole other unit while also studying for the AP test. I was able to fit in a good amount of information about the unit but I did feel lost on some things because I did not know a good chunk of information.
I wish we had spent less time on the first period of APUSH. I know that it is important but when on the AP test there were way more questions about other periods rather than the first period. I think we still needed to know it but we could’ve spent way less time on it. I still think it is very important to touch on the subject because there was some multiple choice questions on the subject but I do think that just lightly covering the material and having a test on it is good because while I was studying for the AP exam it was the unit I could learn quickly because it is a shorter unit.
APUSH really taught me more than anything how to perform as a student, I feel that I truly learned how to study and improve my time management skills. I also learned so much about history and I feel extremely knowledgeable about my ability to recite what I know about history.
1. My favorite learning style was to make quizlets with what I thought were the most important dates. I then studied and memorized these dates, which helped me a lot with date quizzes and with being able to get evidence for my writing in every time period. I also thought that the writing experiences that we got in class were extremely helpful and allowed me to get better and more comfortable with writing in a short amount of time. My least favorite learning style was the note packets, I thought that the information in them was very important but I felt like the way that the note packets were set up took a long time to do and the amount of time it took to do them took a lot of time away for studying for the actual AP test.
2. I wish that we had spent more time on the Cold War because I felt like we had very little time to review this topic and there were questions on the exam about this time period and I had to use other knowledge to try to answer these questions. I ended up using a process of elimination on the last few questions of multiple choice because they were based on the time period that we didn’t cover. The attempt to cover it at the one Sunday review session was helpful but I think that if we had learned it in class for even just a few days that would’ve helped me prepare better for the exam.
3. I think that we could’ve studied less about the first period of APUSH. The first period of APUSH was barely on the AP exam and in the AP classroom it said that it was only about 4% of the exam, which based on my experience seemed correct. I think that if there was this little information about the first unit on the AP exam then we should have spent less time learning this and spent more time on the last few units like unit 8 and the Cold War. I also thought that we could’ve studied a little less about all of the railroads. Yes, transportation is important and helped to form society, but I felt like we spent an unnecessarily large amount of time learning about the railroads being built and how they started with being built.
4. I learned that there are a lot of myths and false information circling around the topic of American history. A lot of what I heard about American history in previous years was not completely true and I learned a lot about the specifics and causes of different things which I found really interesting. Lastly, I think that my biggest improvement was to learn my time management skills by studying and doing my homework. APUSH was a big responsibility especially with the sports that I play and my family’s trips that we had this year. Whenever I missed school, I learned how to manage my time to make up for work and tests and quizzes.
1. My favorite learning style this year was taking notes on my own time and watching Heimler’s History videos. Taking notes in class was sometimes beneficial, but I often found I retained the information better when I had to physically read it, process it, and write it down all by myself. My least favorite way of learning was watching videos that went in-depth on ultra specific topics within a unit, such as the full episode on the transcontinental railroad. I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time, as that was an important part of American history, but, especially with the time crunch we were in, our class could potentially have spent it learning about something else. However, a fun, immersive break is sometimes needed, and I think the Oregon Trail game was definitely a good way to learn about that time period and western migration.
2. The obvious answer is the later periods, specifically 8 and 9. We attempted to rush through a general overview in the final days leading up to the AP exam, but I would’ve liked to have a more confident grasp of those topics. With the lack of focus on the later periods due to time constraints, we are somewhat limited in what to write about when test day finally comes around. For example, in the SAQ and LEQ writing choices, many students likely feel unable to write about the option covering more recent events. This potentially limits students to just the first two prompts, which can still be something they might not remember. All in all, it feels much better to have all the options.
3. The earlier units are hard to remember, but I felt like we started the year off kind of slow. While Period 1 is important to know about and does somewhat show up on the test, we could’ve sped through that much faster than we did. Along the same lines, though we were still just getting into APUSH, Period 2 also felt a little sluggish. Overall, I feel like tangents about hyper specific topics, random videos, and other unnecessary things throughout all units can be reduced in order to make it to the final chapters before the actual test comes up.
4. This course has been incredibly beneficial to me, and I do think I learned a lot about APUSH. Prior to this year, I barely had any grasp on time periods and what happened to the various groups of Americans throughout history. Now, I have a much better understanding of the various movements for rights, the economy, the origins of government policies, and more. The most important takeaway, however, will always be the James K. Polk song.
1. My favorite learning style this year was reading the review book and filling in the notes. This approach significantly improved my understanding of the material. Because I don’t typically study, this method forced me to engage with the content beyond a superficial skim. The open-note quizzes were very helpful as they incentivized me to complete the work instead of procrastinating. However, one issue with this learning style is that it made the class lectures feel superfluous since we had already familiarized ourselves with the material through reading. It would have been more useful to use class time to practice skills needed to do well on the AP test, such as analyzing primary sources, writing essays, and engaging in discussions. My least favorite learning style was watching videos. I found it challenging to retain information from them without the ability to easily review and reflect on the content. Videos felt more passive and less engaging compared to active learning.
2. I wish we had spent more time on the Civil Rights Movement and its aftermath. This period is crucial for understanding the struggle for equality and social justice in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement brought about significant legal and social changes. Spending more time here would have allowed us to learn more about the key figures, events, and strategies that shaped the movement. Additionally, understanding the Civil Rights Movement in greater detail would provide valuable context for current social and political issues. By examining the successes and challenges of this era, we could better appreciate the progress made and recognize the work that still needs to be done.
3. While we covered a vast amount of material this year, I think we could have spent less time on the Colonial Era, particularly the early settlements and interactions between European settlers and Native Americans. Reducing the time spent on this unit would not have significantly impacted our ability to perform well on tests, as the core concepts and major events could still be covered adequately. This would have allowed us to allocate more time to later periods, such as the post-Cold War era, which we were not able to cover. Streamlining the Colonial Era would help us focus on understanding the broader themes of early American history without getting bogged down in the period.
4. American history is complicated, always changing, and shaped by diverse perspectives and events. While I may not remember the material in a year, or even a month, the skills I learned will help me forever.
My favorite learning style in AP United States History this year was reading articles and the review book then having big class discussions about what we read and learned. This was good because I could see what my peers and classmates took away from the reading that I might not have. Also, the open note quizzes pushed me to learn outside of school and had an incentive for free points. These learning styles were effective for me because it pushed me to learn on my own time to truly understand the material. My least favorite way of learning was the power points and lectures. It was hard to stay focused without structure notes in front of me. Also, lectures for how to write the different free response questions were very hard to follow and were all over the place.
I wish we would have spent more time and gotten to the civil rights movements in the late 1900s. This is something that we have always touched on throughout elementary and middle school but never dug deep into more about the time and more people involved. In APUSH all year we have gotten deeper into the history of the US than years prior in schooling where we have just touched on it. We never got to this time in history and I think that it is a very important time. I also wish we could have focussed more on the indigenous people and nations before the europeans because that was a good section of the test.
Something I wish we would not have studied and took so much time on was the colonies. We had to learn all of them and who was a part of them and it was not on the test, nor on anything in the future that we were tested on. I don’t think that information was necessary and took time out of class that we could have used to learn more in the 1900s.
I learned that many things we learned in the past about US history are normally sugar coated. The United States history is messy, complex, and full of important stories and information that everyone that lives here should know. Every citizen should know how non-white people were treated throughout the decades up until now and recognize the mistakes made and try to change them. This class is very important and should be a requirement to know this information.
Although they sucked, the thing that helped me the most was probably the open note quizzes because they forced me to closely read the review book and always be analyzing new material, furthermore I thought that it helped me learn to budget my time as they took forever to do and if i procrastinated, they were really hard to finish on time and the whole thing was really stressful. My least favorite thing and the thing that I believed helped me the least was easily the portraits, they never seemed to be at all relevant, and were painfully boring to read and the questions were annoying to answer, on top of that, they didn’t help at all with the writing, they just took up time and effort.
I wish that we spent more time on World War Two. I think that There is so much else going on in American history even besides the war and the policies that would help with contextualization. It is also probably the most important period in the world’s and America’s history, so if we had more time it would be cool to learn about it. I also wish that we took more time to look into what was going on elsewhere at the time, especially in Germany and Japan because that really helps us understand what makes the war happen and how people could support evil like that. The final thing that I would have liked to cover more extensively was a more extensive explanation of the Bolshevik revolution and the reactions by everyone because it seems to set the tone for the future cold war
I thought that all units were necessary but the one thing that seemed to take up too much time was Warren G Harding and his affairs. It was fun to learn about it all but I just never really saw any of it on any of the tests or the AP test and it just kind of seemed irrelevant.
I learned that all throughout American history, Bad humans have shaped the country just as much if not more as the good ones, which makes it necessary for us to stay educated and keep eachother i check. In other words, if we see a pattern repeating itself we should do something about it to prevent catastrophe and this class teaches us ultimately how to be smart citizens and voters.
My favorite learning style was when we did an activity related to what we were going to learn to make the learning experience more enjoyable and somewhat fun. I also liked when you presented the slideshows and we wrote notes about what you were saying because it helped me memorize the information about that chapter easier. Also, the notes about the chapters that we took open note quizzes on helped me summarize each section of the chapter quicker, thus, studying quicker. I didn’t like learning through articles or books because sometimes they didn’t make sense and other times I just forgot the information after taking the quiz for that book or article.
The chapter I wish we studied for a longer period of time was World War Two because it is an interesting topic and there is a ton of information we could learn about it like war strategies and recruitment methods that got people to help fight for their country. We also could have taken a look at the Axis sides of the war and their methods of fighting more into depth. We could also have watched movies about World War Two and then analyze them to see what the movies represented well and what wasn’t represented that well.
I wish we had studied less about the Second Great Awakening because it was kind of repetitive to the First Great Awakening. Also, I feel we didn’t need to go as in-depth into the topic as we had because all it was was the changing ideas of religion that occurred during the time period and the various methods that preachers utilized to help portray their message and sway the listeners of their speeches into believing their version of religion. Overall, the Second Great Awakening was boring due to repetitiveness and it didn’t really change the way America’s economy was built in a massive way.
My takeaway from this year in APUSH was all the history we had learned, specifically the dates on the dates quiz because those dates seemed to be the most important changes in American history and had the biggest impact on the creation, development, or change in how people lived in this country. Also, I learned a ton more details about topics I already knew and what caused these things to happen and what came out of them, for example, World War Two was started due to Hitler wanting to expand Germany’s land back to what it had before World War One and more.
My favorite learning style we’ve used this year is game-like activities we’ve done. A good example of this is the Shark Tank style activity with the industrial inventions we did a while ago. In doing that activity, it not only was a much-needed break from more typical (and boring) learning styles, I also retained much more information. As a shark, I was forced to learn a lot about each invention, and because the way I learned it was unique, I was able to recall the information much better than I would’ve from a powerpoint. That retention of information also immensely helped me on tests. Diversifying the methods of learning helps remember more, getting us more out of the year.
I wish that we had spent more time on post WW2 America. I feel that as voting citizens of the US, it’s much better to understand the events in the last 50 years that have brought us to the point where we are today than to know random events that happened 200 years ago, holding no current effect on society. I’m not saying those events aren’t important, but I think many of the in-depth, intricate details we learned about US history would have benefitted us more if we had learned them about more recent times.
Like I just mentioned, many of the intricate details we learned times 200 years ago aren’t extremely relevant to society today. Although it was an important time, I think we spent too long covering the 1830s. It’s important to know the Jacksonian Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and societal changes, but I think we spent around a month on that decade – not one of the top 5 most important decades in US history – alone. I feel like that time would’ve been much better used advancing forward in the curriculum, because I know there was a time when Seaholm were 5 or 6 chapters ahead of us.
It’s hard to put 400 years (Jamestown to today) into just a few sentences. While I can’t encapsulate that history in a few sentences, I can say the most important thing in my eyes that I took away from APUSH. This country has had some horrible leaders, done some horrible things, and still survived. People are too pessimistic with the current state of America, things will be fine. Through every hardship, we’ve just needed 1 good leader to put us on track to thrive as a nation. No matter what happens in this election, I can bet that America will be fine.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
One of my favorite ways to learn this year was through listening to Mr. Wickersham’s lectures while taking notes on the powerpoint presentations because hearing it as a story helped me understand the content more and I think it was the best way to get a lot of information. I think writing helped a lot and one of the ways I did that was through taking notes from the review book for the open note quizzes. I know that this was the first time the open note quizzes were incorporated and I think this is a very good idea that should be continued to make sure people actually read the review book and take in the information. I think writing practice for the various essays that are on the AP exam is also very important to do in class even though everybody hates it. The more practice and repetition we have, the better we will be by test day. I cannot find the name of the website we used but it helped me in writing when we would write
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
In this school year when studying APUSH I wished we spent more time on the period after World War 2 like the 1950s and onward because we did cover it a little but did not end up having much time on it. I think it would have been interesting to learn more about the Vietnam War because my maternal grandfather served in the war and I would have liked to learn more about what his experience may have been like or what he went through. Other than that period I think that most things that we did covered were explained pretty thoroughly.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
My first thought was to say that I wish we spent less time on the first and second periods because they are generally topics that we have been learning about in school for years. But I think it was helpful to be learning this familiar content at the beginning of the year in order for us new APUSH students to get used to the class. I also wish we spent less time on projects. For me personally and my own learning style I would have preferred if we skipped projects/presentations that were supposed to be fun in order to get through more content by the AP test and the end of the class.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
I learned a lot about American history this year and APUSH was a lot of work but was not as terrible as some people made it out to be.
1. My favorite way to learn APUSH this year was by writing about it. This method doesn’t work for everyone, and it doesn’t even work for me in every subject, but it was especially helpful in this class. When it came to studying for the AP test and remembering things from the beginning of the year, I found that I best remembered topics that we had written blogs/portraits about. While I definitely had to study things from the start of the year more than recent topics, there were certain areas that I had an easier time remembering because of various writing assignments we had done. Next to writing, reading was very useful, as I had an easier time remembering topics that we had done article quizzes or Socratic seminars about. My least favorite way to learn this year was by watching videos, as I feel like I often forget what I learned soon after watching it. Videos helped me study for tests a few nights before, but when it came to the AP test, I didn’t remember things that I had watched in videos near the start of the year. To help myself remember better, I took notes on every Hiemler video I watched throughout the year. I didn’t ever look back on notes I had taken, but the act of writing them was crucial to help me retain information, further proving that writing was the best way for me to learn APUSH this year.
2. I wish that we had spent more time learning about the 1960s to 2000s/periods 8-9, because I don’t really have a clear understanding of any event during this time. Since we hardly had time to cover it in class, I spent a lot of time studying it on my own the week of the AP test by watching videos and looking at important terms to know. However, I don’t think that I ever fully grasped this particular time period as much as I did the rest of the course, which may have hurt me on the AP test.
3. Since we got so behind, I think there are definitely many things that we could have spent less time learning about. First, I think less time spent on everything before the American Revolution would be helpful for future students. If I am remembering correctly, it was the middle of October before we began learning about the Revolution, which I feel put us behind for the rest of the year. Additionally, I think that less time could have been spent on the early 1800s.
4. This year, I learned so much about American history, and although I will probably forget most of it by the time next school year begins, I will not forget the effort that I put into this class. I know that because I took APUSH, I will be more prepared for other AP classes in the future due to the studying skills and work ethic that I learned in this class.
My favorite learning style this year was taking quizzes after every chapter. Regular quizzes helped me identify areas needing improvement and reinforced my understanding of key concepts. The competitive element also motivated me to study harder for better scores. My least favorite learning style was watching videos, which often moved too slowly or too quickly, making it difficult to take thorough notes or reflect in real-time. I retained less information from videos compared to interactive activities that required active participation.
I wish we had spent more time on the Cold War. This complex period profoundly impacted global politics, economics, and culture. The ideological battle between the United States and the Soviet Union shaped many aspects of the contemporary world. Understanding the Cold War’s intricacies, such as proxy wars, espionage, the nuclear arms race, and the policy of containment, is crucial for grasping modern international relations. More time on this topic would have allowed for a deeper exploration of significant events and figures, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We could have spent less time on Reconstruction. While it is essential to American history, the extended focus felt repetitive. The major themes, like the struggle for civil rights, constitutional amendments, and political battles, were clear after the initial discussions. A more concise review would have sufficed, allowing more time to delve into other significant periods, such as the Cold War or the Gilded Age, for a more balanced allocation of study time. Additionally, exploring events like the Progressive Era, World War I and II, and the Civil Rights Movement in greater depth would have provided a more comprehensive understanding of the forces that shaped modern America. Addressing these periods with more focus would have enriched our grasp of the complexities and nuances in American history, making the course more engaging and informative.
My takeaway from APUSH is that American history is a complex tapestry of triumphs and tragedies deeply influenced by colonization. This course revealed that colonization was a series of actions and policies shaping the nation’s development. The stories of marginalized groups, the consequences of expansion, and the ongoing struggles for justice and equality are all part of this narrative. APUSH taught me to view history critically, recognizing both achievements and the profound impacts of colonization on different populations. It also highlighted the importance of understanding historical context to appreciate contemporary social and political dynamics. The course encouraged me to reflect on how past injustices continue to affect present-day society and to consider how we might address these legacies moving forward.
1. My favorite learning style that we did this year was when we split up into small groups to research different topics and then reported back our findings to the class. This method shortens the amount of time it takes to research many topics. By the end of this learning practice, everybody still learns the information they need in just a fraction of the time. This strategy was used to my liking for the shark tank project, where we split up into pairs and researched an invention. In the end, we presented and all got the correct information. However, a learning style that I didn’t like was reading articles and taking quizzes on the next day. I never understood why we read most of the articles, and I would have liked it if you just added a slide to your slide deck. I was always more focused when you were explaining your slides than when I was reading the articles. I felt that I was only reading the articles because there was a quiz on them the next day.
2 and 3
I wish we spent a little less time on everything we went over, so we would have time to get more in depth with the Cold War and into the 2000s. In the practice tests I took, the last ten or so questions related to topics we weren’t able to get to because of time constraints. On these questions, I would randomly guess because I didn’t know much about what the question was asking or what the answers even meant. The review sessions helped a little bit with these topics, and by the time of the test, I knew enough to make educated guesses on the Cold War to 2000s questions. Moving forward, class times are being shortened, and this issue of not having enough time to get through the Cold War will be even worse. I would have liked to learn more about the history surrounding the Cold War and after.
4. I learned that American history is a deep and dark tunnel of questionable politics that I don’t plan to go down again. Throughout the year, I learned about a wide variety of interesting decisions made by our leaders. It seems that there is always someone who breaks the unspoken rules while in charge. There were many wars that the United States fought in, and I still don’t really see the point of most of them. Many of the wars were fought over wanting to gain more land because the U.S. thought they were special. They won some wars and lost some as well. Although I don’t see why the U.S. got into some of these wars, I don’t hate that land was gained to round out the country.
For me, what helped the most was the lectures. Although sometimes hard to pay attention, I found that if I did the notes before the lectures I would understand the material more as you explained it. You also explain it in much simpler terms than a book does and I can ask you questions while I’m listening. I found that the notes themselves though were not that helpful. There was a lot of information that I couldn’t retain and some information was insignificant when it came to SAQ, LEQS, and tests. The way that the notes were formatted as well was frankly bad. There was little space to write.
The part of history that I enjoyed studying about the most but thought we didn’t touch on a lot was the social part of each era. I think I have a great understanding of the economic and political history of the United States but not the social. I loved learning about the different books that came out that affected America, societal expectations and roles changing, and how we progress. I feel that we touched on it more towards the end of the class but I wish I had heard more about some of the other eras’ social history.
It’s hard for me to say but I remember the first trimester being a really slow start. I felt we really went into depth about the beginning of American history which I felt was unnecessary just because all through middle school and elementary school we talked about Native Americans, the constitution, and the founding fathers over and over again. I felt as if I had a lot of background knowledge on the topic already and it felt like a drag. I thought that everything else was given adequate time and we sped up as the class went on.
My takeaway might not be from the actual content of the class but how I learned to study and persevere. This class was a lot of pressure at first and I had to work my ass off and I wasn’t getting very good results but that changed. I learned how to study better and slacking off is not an option! I had a hard year and I still tried to push myself to achieve a good grade in this class. I learned that I can do a lot more than I think I can and I shouldn’t back down from (continual) failure.
1. My favorite learning style for me this year out of all of them was the open-note quizzes. These were basically how I studied for everything in Apush. For me, the reason I feel that it was so effective is because I felt like I had to do the notes if I wanted to do good on the quiz that followed up with it. While making my notes I indirectly studied for the test in that unit and eventually the final. The reason this worked so well for me is that I knew that reading every section in our specified unit in the Review book and taking the important points from every topic would dictate if I understood the material or not, thus dictating my grade in the class. On the other hand, my least favorite learning style was the slideshows that we did in class. Now I think this would be a very effective learning style for different students, but for me, it wasn’t. This is a personal problem, not the slideshows themselves. It wasn’t effective for me because I just find it difficult to sometimes stay awake in class if the teacher is just talking and showing a slideshow, no offense but I just get bored easily, and that’s on me. Another reason is that I don’t even have to take notes on the slideshow in class because there are no direct consequences. My thought process is that I just can’t seem to focus on the slideshow in class, so I’ll wait until I get home and do the notes for the upcoming quiz. Most of the time I complete the notes, and the next day we come to the slideshows in class, and it’s the same thing being said, and I just don’t see the need to dial in.
2. I wish that during this year we spent more time on really everything after Lincoln. World War 1 and 2 specifically. I feel like those two were the topics that I didn’t understand as much as all the others. We should have spent more time with them because they are essential to America’s history. I’ve talked to many of my friends and classmates taking Apush, and honestly, towards the end and middle of 3rd tri, we were mostly lost, to be honest, my friend mentioned the Bay of Pigs to me and I thought it was a level in the Angry Birds game. Again, this is on me for not paying enough attention, but I do really feel like everything WW1 and 2 was moving very fast and I couldn’t put the timeline together like I can with units before that, I just never got a full understanding of it. I do want to though because I find the concept of wars and all that to be very interesting, and what makes it more intriguing is that compared to everything else that we learned in Apush it wasn’t that long ago.
3. I wish we had spent less time on the first and going into the second period of Apush, With Colombus and the Natives. This is because I have learned about them in literally every history class I’ve ever taken, so walking into Apush I had the general idea already down, so I didn’t feel like we needed to go much into that. Don’t get me wrong though, it is essential to learn about America’s history, it’s the basis of and how it started, so It is extremely important, but I just have been taught it too many times.
4. This year of Apush has honestly taught me more than I have learned in any other class. I have always been fascinated by the history around the world, but have never really gone into the history of the very place I live. For me, my key takeaway from APush and what I truly learned about American History is that our country was built on the suffering and pain of others, it was built on hatred and greed. That is in the past, and that past is something we should never forget and something that we can never change. What we can do though is change the way it is now for the better, so even if we are known as the most powerful and free-willed country in the world, we should build ourselves differently than our founders to where we could really honor that claim.
1. My favorite way we learned in class was through reading the articles we used for article quizzes and analyzing primary sources. These really helped me to remember specific stories from certain developments, especially when it would be stories about specific families. Also learning from primary sources has proven to help me perform better on the tests and made me feel more prepared for the AP exam. I also remembered dates very well because of the dates quiz. This was extremely helpful and made me feel very comfortable on the AP exam. My least favorite way to learn this year was with the open note quizzes. I often procrastinate so I would end up cramming all the information within one night, or not doing the notes altogether, so I wouldn’t really comprehend what I was supposed to be taking notes on.
2. I wish we could have spent more time on the last few units. I ended up being fine on most of the AP exam, but going in I felt very nervous and unprepared. Mainly I wish I knew more about the Cold War and World War 2. I also wish we would have studied more social rights movements during the late 20th century, such as the women’s rights and Civil rights movements. Overall this would have made me feel more confident going into the test, and would have provided me with more options on the SAQ and LEQ, even though I luckily was prepared for the alternative options. I also wish we would have spent more time preparing for the free response questions on the AP exam. I really appreciated the extra review sessions, but if I could’ve been building the skills throughout more of the year it would have spared me some study time that I could have dedicated to overall review.
3. Overall I think most of the content in the first couple of units I already had some background on from fifth and eighth grade, so I think I would’ve been okay with spending less time on these units.
4. My main takeaway from this year in APUSH was I learned more about parts of American history that are often covered up, such as stories about Indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants. In addition, this class has made me a more motivated student in school and taught me how to study which overall helped me with all of my classes this school year, and made me want to continue to challenge myself with more AP classes next year.
1. My favorite learning style this year is the lectures in class and interactive activities. Personally, taking notes on lectures helped me retain material well and the process of deciding what to write down keeps me engaged in the content. A ideal learning experience for me would be allowing us to use notes we take in class lectures on quizzes instead of the time-consuming review book note packets. Additionally, the interactive activities were more fun and engaging, and helped me remember that material. I also found the date quizzes really helpful for knowing whether events were part of required time periods for the essay questions. My least favorite learning style was when we would get into small groups in class and then have to summarize things for everyone – it felt time consuming and inefficient.
2. Obviously, I would’ve liked to spend more time on periods 8 and 9. I reviewed it enough on my own to do ok on the multiple choice, but never felt comfortable enough to choose it as an essay prompt. Learning more about the post-WW2 era would’ve given me more options for the SAQ and is good citizenship information in general. I also would’ve liked to spend more time practicing essays in class. Even though we spent a lot of time on the rubric, I think more practice would’ve solidified it more and can double as assessments or quizzes.
3. I also think we could’ve sped up the earlier units (periods 1 & 2) to make time for the later ones. In general, I think we could’ve been faster over some of the social/cultural elements (like the utopian communities of the 1800s, or some of the presidential/social tangents we explored in the 1920-30s era). I think the answer’s not necessarily in cutting material from any chapter, but just moving through them more efficiently by eliminating tangents and making sure that we at least remember a few key events we can use on the APUSH long answer test.
4. I’m glad to have taken APUSH. Whereas in the past I learned about specific topics like certain wars or movements, APUSH puts them all in order and tells a coherent story about American history so I can see how these events relate to each other. Also, sometimes history is sugar-coated but I learned in this class that if nothing else, history is complex and can barely be simplified in ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Even American heroes like Abe Lincoln or FDR made some bad decisions that can complicate their legacy. Still, I think we need to do our best to own up to our history – take pride in our better moments and learn from our mistakes – so we can forge the best way forward in our future.
The best learning style for me in this class was a combination of different things. I liked writing things while learning about them because it helped me remember what happened, with who, and where it happened. Going through quizlets for dates quizzes helped me remember when something significant happened. Something that didn’t help me that much was reading from the textbook just to copy everything onto the open note sheets because my brain thinks that if I don’t write everything down, I’ll forget about it and it will be on the quiz and that’s the only thing that I didn’t write down.
I wish we had more time to get to the early 2000s and late 1900s. I felt like it would’ve helped a bit on the AP test and I was looking forward to getting into things about the early 2000s and late 1900s court cases about Queer rights. I also wanted to get into some more civil rights movements like the Atlanta Student Movement march. I wish that we had more time on the Cold War and WW2. The Cold War felt rushed and I wished we had more time on the topic. Topics like the Cuban missile crisis as well as Watergate.
I feel like we could have shortened all of the topics that we learned about in the beginning of the year in general. We would spend a month at a time on one topic then go to not even a week on a topic at the end of the school year. We could have shortened it to two or two and a half weeks per topic so we had more time at the end of the school year. I also feel like we could have shortened Ch. 2,3,4, and 5 because we could have learned Ch. 2 and 3 in two weeks and the same as Ch. 4 and 5 to make room for more topics like the late 1900s and early 2000s.
Something that I have taken away from APUSH is more study habits, what works for me, what doesn’t work for me, and not procrastinating, Then some information that I learned. For a matter of information, I connected some dots and how some things have happened that have been influenced by the past. I now know how to study for quizzes and tests that work for me and what I need to work on in the future. I also learned that procrastinating studying for tests and quizzes will not work and also for assignments so I don’t have to rush and I can actually do a good job and get good grades.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style this year was writing. Writing is by far the most important skill an APUSH student needs, possibly more so than actually knowing the material. While the class grade is important, the only thing from this class that will matter in the future is each student’s AP test score. The class is designed to prepare students for this test, a test that is 60% writing. To do well, students need to be able to write well. While it is possible to write a good essay while barely remembering anything, it is impossible to write a good essay if you don’t practice writing enough, regardless of how much information you know. Writing is the most important way to prepare for the test, and my only complaint about this class is that we didn’t write enough. My least favorite method of learning was watching videos, as I forgot most of the information from them a day later.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
We went slow this year, being in the progressive era during the 3rd trimester. Because of this, we missed much of the most interesting time in American history, the 20th century. I wish we were able to spend more time on the post WW2 world, and America’s influence on it. While we did briefly touch it, there’s so much nuance to that topic that we had to skim over, unfortunately. While we did get lucky with the AP test, as it didn’t contain much material from 1940 and on, future classes may not be that lucky.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
In my opinion, our APUSH class focused too heavily on events that weren’t too important in the large scale of United States history. For example, we went very in depth to the 1820s-30s era (Jackson, Second Great Awakening, Early industrialization, Transportation revolution, etc.). While this was important, compare to the likes of the Great Depression, WW2, Vietnam/Korea, and more, this era was not as impactful. I feel as if we could have spent the time used up on this era covering future topics more in depth.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
In American history, politics have always been dirty, politicians have always been corrupt, people have always been hateful, and all citizens have never been equal. The United States has been clinging on to its title of a haven of freedom, but it has never been free in its history.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style this year was making creative projects and presenting to the class about a specific topic, that way I knew my topic extremely in-depth, and I got a good overall understanding of other people’s. I also think these presentations are fun because you can be creative with them and how you present the topic. One of my least favorite ways to learn was portfolios, we only did a few of them through the year, but often I would not have the time to fully read all the pages provided, and at the end of the day it was more or less busy work and I did not learn anything from them, because my main goal was to finish it and get a grade.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
I wish we had spent more time learning about the Second World War, partly because it had so many moving parts and details not only for the United States but for the countries they were allied with. It also interested me so I have studied it in the past so being able to connect the dots of what I already know to what we would learn would be interesting. My family on my mom’s side also has stories of what happened in this war, so being able to have a better overall understanding of what happened in comparison to what I have been told by family members would also be interesting to learn and get a better understanding. Some of these stories involve my great grandfather being out in Belgium past curfew with a large piece of ham, but having to hide it in front of German police, doing so by swinging the bag as if it weighed nothing, and afterward not being able to move his arm for a while because of how heavy it was. The main reason my Grandmother learned to speak English was because American soldiers landed in her backyard in parachutes, and they had to hide with their family for a few months for some reason. My great-grandmother made her kids raincoats out of these parachutes, which did not end well because this fabric becomes rock solid when rained on, turning into an eventful walk to school for my grandmother. These are just some things I have heard and I think if we had time to study this period more it would be interesting to connect the dots.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish some units were shorter or didn’t go as in-depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I think that it would be hard to pinpoint any one time period or unit to be cut down because no matter what there’s always something in that time frame that happened that is either relevant in history or possibly covered on the AP test. One subject that I think was already cut down but could use a trim was the period around Christopher Columbus, while it is important to know the names of the Spanish, English, and French colonizers as well as the Native Americans impacted by this colonization, I think much of the basic facts and information about these people have been covered in previous years of history class, so to repeat some of this might be unnecessary.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
I learned the many ways to collect dirt on politicians and just how much of it there is. I also learned how some key events in American history unfolded all the people and places involved and the significance each held. I also can recite decently enough all the dates that go along with these people and events thanks to painful hours of studying flash cards.
1. In terms of learning, I think the best method for me was the projects and the guided notes style learning. The projects like the presentations we had throughout the year like the worst scandal, least favorite person, the shark tank project, etc. The presentations were a fun way to show our learning to others. I think that when you were presenting your project it helped you learn the most because you did research and you knew all about the topic you were presenting. However, when you were the one watching the presentation It didn’t really help me as much as me being the one to present it. The guided notes were a huge help because you studied and read the review book and then wrote notes down into the packet, which is a great way to study for me. My least favorite way was the article readings, I just felt that most of the time the information on the article was just off topic and kind of useless to what we were studying at the time.
2. I would’ve really liked to spend more time in the WW2 area because we only really skimmed over the important events. I think it would’ve been exciting to learn about all the different battles and other encounters like the ones in the movie Red Tails that we watched. Since World War 2 is such an impactful event that happened in not just American history, but also world history, I think it would’ve been beneficial to really get in depth with the time period.
3. One unit that I wish we would’ve spent less time on was the first unit. For me, the first unit wasn’t really important to the AP test that we took this year, like all the different colonies and Native American tribes. They didn’t have much of an impact on things later in the year and for me it wasn’t as important as the time we took going over it showed.
4. My takeaway from APUSH is that American history is complicated and always changing, so to keep up you really need to lock in and study hard, pay attention, things like that. Another thing that I took away from APUSH isn’t all about the topics in the class itself, but the things that help you as a student throughout all your classes, like the way we write LEQ’s, DBQ’s, SAQ’s, and also the way that we study because that will stick with you your entire life.
1. My favorite learning style we used this year was when we did the PowerPoint. The best way I learn is by going in depth about topics and talking through the timeline while going piece by piece. It was very helpful for me to see straight up how pieces of history led to other pieces in history. I also think practicing DBQs and LEQs was something that was much needed. Maybe next year a good idea would be to group up and talk through a couple of DBQs and LEQs and maybe not even grade them. My least favorite way we learned was the videos we would watch at home and then have a discussion on. I dont feel like I learned anything from those videos or that everyone was able to participate in the conversation.
2. I wish we would have spent more time on JFK and his death. I already had some background information about it but I wish we had gone more in-depth on the topic and his presidency. I would have loved to learn about the aftermath of WW2 and more about presidential policies. Another topic I wish we touched on more was court cases and important laws that shaped the society we live in today.
3. I wish we would have spent less time on the reconstruction age after the Civil War. Now I dont know as much about the AP test but in my opinion, I think we spent a lot of time on that era and I dont even remember as much about that time period. I think it would be beneficial to study less in that area or define what knowledge we need to know from that time period. I also think it would have been helpful to speed things up, and then we could have gotten farther into the 1900s and even gone more in-depth in those areas.
4. I didn’t take away as much knowledge of history as I did the ways that the United States was shaped. I loved learning about the start of history and how the United States was founded and settled. But I especially enjoyed learning about how laws that were passed and created hundreds of years ago influence how our country runs today. I truly learned about the way that history has changed and the great struggles of this country. I also learned about how through these struggles the country has learned from its mistakes and that’s why the United States works the way it does.
The way that was most helpful for me learning the material is when we did slideshows and could take notes on them and then take our notes at home for the open note quizzes. It wasn’t very exciting or fun to do, but I would say that taking those notes from the textbook was how I learned about the majority of the topics that we covered. This was effective for me because this is the way that we learned all the curriculum at the beginning of the year, so it was how I was used to retaining information. Once we started to change the way that we learned, it wasn’t as easy for me to follow and understand. A way that I didn’t like learning material was when we had to take video notes. There was never really instruction on what parts we needed to know or what we needed to know it for other than “class discussion” This led to me taking more notes than what was actually necessary for our discussion and wasted time that I could be using to do other homework.
Something that I wished we spent more time on this year was more current history, especially the World Wars. I know that we ended up running out of time for more recent history, but I think we wasted a lot of time in class talking about things that could’ve been shorter units, or things that are not related to APUSH. I think if we decreased this wasted time, we would’ve had more time for recent history. Personally, I am more interested in recent history, as it has had more of an impact on me and people that I know.
Something that we should’ve spent less time on was the time period of the American Revolution and leading up to it. While it was obviously a vital point in American history, our previous history classes curriculum was almost solely focused on the American Revolution and the founding of America. I think that we went into good depth regarding it, but we should’ve spent less time on the basics of the Revolution like why we were fighting it and who it was against and all that.
Throughout the year I learned a lot about American history. I think I went more in depth on the reasoning and causes/effects of events than I ever have before in any one of my other classes. However, I don’t think that I will take much that I learned in this class and apply it to many other classes or outside of school. That being said, I definitely learned things that I can apply to other AP classes and life outside of school. I started the school year not prepared for the workload or expectations of an AP class, so taking APUSH has helped prepare me for the workload of many other classes, as well as the quality of work that is expected. Similarly, it has prepared me for any AP tests that I take in the future, as now I know how mentally draining it can be and how to be best prepared in the days leading up to the test.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
Two of the learning styles that were most beneficial to me during this year were research projects and article/review book quizzes. The research projects were helpful as they forced you to know your topic well enough to be able to present it to the class. It was helpful that all of the projects directly related to the part of the curriculum we were tested on and that showed up in the AP test. The other interactive projects were also helpful as they helped promote creativity. The article quizzes were good for me personally because I remember all the big ideas after reading something even if it’s just once. I wish that the articles pertain more directly to the curriculum and what we were being tested on though. Similarly with the review book quizzes, I didn’t need to do the notes because I could remember all the information although I did have to pay extra close attention to any numbers or statistics. These quizzes were helpful because I don’t think I have the discipline to read the review book without anyone or anything to keep me in check. The dates quizzes for me were one of he worse ways to learn as I forgot the dates immediately after the quizzes so it didn’t help me for the AP test.
We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
We should have spent more time on the Cold War and after. Even though these time periods weren’t very prevalent on the AP test and is closer to today so in theory we should have at least some basic knowledge on it, it’s nice for the written section because in the multiple choice an educated guess can be made but for a free response, you either know or don’t know. We also should have spent a little more time reviewing in class the material from the beginning of the year and a little more time on the 1800s as a whole as that seemed to be the most prevalent time period on the AP test.
Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
We could have shortened the first unit or two as there weren’t too many questions on the AP test; however, it is hard to fight the natural cycle of pacing where more time is spent near the beginning of a course because it is so far from the end but then the latter material needs to be crammed in to fit it all in.
People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
I learned that there are a lot of myths surrounding American history and that there are many people whose stories aren’t regularly told.
1. My favorite style of learning that we did this year was the jeopardy day that we had and a few of the other game-like activities, because it helped me find entertainment in learning and helped me be more attentive. The notes, although I did not like them, still helped a lot to know everything about the chapters. The date quizzes were also very helpful for the AP test. I didn’t really like the powerpoints because it could sometimes be helpful but mainly just repeated what I had done in the notes. I would also get really bored during the powerpoints.
2. This whole year, I feel like we spent a lot of time on slavery and the Civil War. Although it is an important topic and most likely the most important issue in American history, I feel that we should have spent more time on other periods like the industrial revolution and the Cold War. I found the Cold War very interesting and thought that we could have spent more time on it, as a lot of the AP test questions mentioned it. We also should have spent more time on period 9.
3. When we studied the units in class, I feel like we spent a lot of time towards the start of the 2nd trimester per unit and were moving at a slower pace than the 1st trimester. With this, I think that we might have spent a bit too much time on the issue of slavery and the Civil War, even if it was the main part of American history and lasted hundreds of years. I think the repetitive talks about the heavy topic got a bit annoying, since we all knew about it in good depth at this point. I also think we spent a bit too much time on the units about the initial colonies, since a lot of it was very confusing and was a pretty heavy unit for the start of the year. On top of this, I don’t feel like there was that much about this unit on the AP test.
4. My takeaway from taking AP United States History is that although America seems like it has little history in duration compared to other countries, the country’s history is still very interesting and can be used as a good reference. Outside of the history aspect of the class, I took away a good lesson about writing techniques and styles (sophistication) and adopted a stronger work ethic.
1. Heimler’s History videos were by far the best studying option for me. Also, I really did think that the notes packets and open notes quizzes were beneficial to me. I think the ability to have notes on a quiz not only helped me do better on quizzes, but also motivated me to finish my notes. The review sessions for tests and the sessions towards the end of the year for the APUSH exam were also very beneficial to me. I especially enjoyed the writing practice ones. Something that didn’t help me learn at all were the portrait assignments. They felt like busy work to me, and the questions were easily answerable by a superficial skim through the reading. I don’t feel like I took anything away from them, especially compared to the review book.
2. I know that we ran out of time towards period 9, but I really wish we spent more time on the Cold War. Especially most of the things after the 1950s, it felt really foggy and I had to teach most of it to myself. To me, it almost felt like I was teaching myself the whole unit and had to use youtube videos to understand it. Also considering that I’ve never been taught anything about the Cold War due to how recent it was, it was something I was really hoping wasn’t going to show up on the DBQ.
3. I think we could’ve gone less in depth with unit 1. Especially because we’ve gone over that part of American history for years, so it feels like we could’ve gone a little quicker. Also, I think that during the year we went on a lot of tangents about hyper specific events or random videos could’ve been cut shorter. Doing this would allow us with more time to go over historical events that might be a little bit foggier to students like the Cold War for example, especially because it’s fairly recent in American history, so not many previous history classes have gotten that far.
4. In this class, I learned the messy and complex, but also extremely important aspects of American history. I also learned how to manage my time better, and to write better under time constraints. While it is hard to summarize the takeaway of learning centuries of history in a few sentences, my main one is that taking this class was very difficult and a huge adjustment to what I was used to, but also very rewarding at the same time.
My favorite learning style this year was the powerpoint packets as they helped me to process all the information in the unit. I also liked watching videos in the class because they helped give me a visual idea of what happened back then in our countries’ history more than what a picture could give. My least favorite way to learn was probably reading from the book. I struggled to take away information which you can probably tell from the grades I got on the open note quizzes and I also had struggles with test review terms because I frequently forgot the dates they were due.
I wish we spent more time talking about the 1960s and the change that the era brought to this country. The most well known topic from the 1960s is the civil rights movement and I wish we got into more detail about the struggles that people went through and the incredible extent they went to in order to protest their rights being violated, as well as the backlash to their protests. I do also wished we learned more about the war in Vietnam because it affected so many people in not only this country but our country and it should be considered a bigger part of US history despite it being in another country, more things we could have talked about is the bad things the government did in the 1960s like CoInTelPro and other messed up projects the CIA and FBI did to civilians and people in other countries, it would’ve been interesting to learn about that.
Although there was a bit of it on the AP test, I do wish we didn’t spend most of our time in the early to mid 1800s. I understand that we were a developing country and many big historical events happened during that time but that can be said about any time period in this country too. I find the early to mid 1800s to be boring and uneventful in my opinion and they are not as interesting as the others. I also wish we spent less time on the period before America was a country and the different settlements because we barely skimmed over it on the AP test and although it is the early origins of the United States I do think we could’ve spent more time on other things.
My takeaway from APUSH is I should have been more prepared, I should’ve anticipated the amount of work that would be assigned and I should have written down more notes than I did. Besides that I think APUSH was a fun challenge and I may not have gotten the best grades possible but I learned a lot about US History.
My favorite learning style is guided presentations. I am definitely an auditory learner, so listening to lectures works extremely well for me. In addition to taking notes, it gave me a genuine understanding of the content we were learning. Through the discussions I definitely gained an understanding in American history. One learning style that really didn’t work for me was the guided notes for the open note quiz. I am not a fan of teaching myself content, and when doing this I felt that was what I was doing. The notes were long and extensive. This became a problem since we were given a short period of time to complete multiple pages of notes. I wish that these notes and quizzes were less frequent and less bulky.
I wish we spent more time on World War 2 and beyond. In fact, we barely learned about it at all. The cold war proved to be an important time in American history and showed up often on the AP test. Therefore, I really wish we would have been taught the war and the effects on our community. Also, I felt completely blind about Reagan and Nixon. Once again this was frustrating because they came up on our AP test, yet we were never taught them. Another reason it was upsetting is we were left to learn 50 years of American history in a week before our AP test. I believe this really did not set us up for success. Though, besides this, I feel as we have spent good amounts of time on the rest of American history and I still contain most information we were taught.
Though at the time it didn’t feel major, I wish we spent less time on the first American History period. At the time, it felt like a fine amount of time. Though, as the year progressed it felt like we spent too much time on it and it led to us rushing through more important periods–in the view of the AP test. I also think this because there a few questions about Native Americans on the AP test, and more on colonial times and American History after that.
In APUSH I learned the extensive history of our country and will not forget the content that was taught to us. The assignments and tests were straightforward and left us to simply just use our history thinking skills in to correctly answer the questions.
My favorite learning style was the interactive game style lessons like the Shark Tank or Oregon Trail. These activities not only made my learning much more enjoyable but also helped me to stay engaged and focused. Obviously, I personally have a lot of trouble paying attention and staying on task, so more unique learning styles help me a lot more than the traditional lecture ‘talk and listen’ style. Hands-on experiences with my friends and competitive elements help me comprehend material better. Another thing I liked was the open note quizzes, only because it forced me to read the book, which really helped me learn the material.
Basically anything from 1870 and onward. That entire period is pretty much blank for me, I don’t remember anything. I feel like we spent a lot of time in class focusing on little details, like women’s sanitary products, or things that were completely irrelevant to US history, like the trials and tribulations of Mr. Wickershams house hunting or the movies Clare has and has not watched. This was partially my fault, but I think these distractions made it much more difficult for me to pay enough attention and grasp the material I needed to be successful.
The American Revolution. That time period of history has been drilled into my brain since elementary school, and I feel like it was the only part of American History that I ever really learned about up until high school. Of course it’s important and should be reviewed and retaught, but I think I could have had the same success with less time spent on covering that period. It would have made time for other units to be covered more thoroughly, like the ones we didn’t cover or didnt spend a ton of time on. I think the time was unevenly distributed on things that most of the class already knew.
My takeaway from APUSH (besides all the random dates and facts and stuff), is that American history is super complex, with a lot of different sides, good and bad. It’s important to recognize the contributions of all people. I realized much of what I previously learned was not entirely accurate. During APUSH I gained a deeper understanding of the specific events and their causes. My biggest improvement, however, was in creating and developing my time management skills. Balancing APUSH with my life was challenging, but I learned some good new study techniques and time management techniques.
My favorite learning style this year was when we learned the Oregon trail section. This is because we had to create our destiny through choices of profession, rations, and the method of dealing with obstacles throughout the trail. Instead of hearing the facts about the trail we got to experience firsthand how Western settlers planned their trip. My least favorite learning style was how we learned about period one. From what I remember many of the questions on the test were about this period as well as one of the LEQ options. I feel like we barely brushed up on the Native American tribes. Not only should we have originally spent more time on it, but there should have been some in-class review time about this period instead of just the review session. This section is instrumental to our country’s history and introducing a game like we did on the Oregon trail about how each region dictated a tribe’s way of life would have been necessary for this unit.
I wish we spent more time on World War Two. This is because we didn’t go into depth about any of the battles besides D-Day and because we were in such a crunch for time we left out essential details about the actual war itself. This short period was also one of the most important periods in world history because the United States and other allied powers saved the world from a dictatorship and ensured democracy for humans alike. We also barely brushed up on the effects of World War two which would have been helpful for the AP test.
I wish we hadn’t gone so in-depth into the Gilded Age. Although the Gilded Age modernized our country through industrialization, many other topics we learned this year caused much greater upheaval than the changes seen during this time. Instead of being able to go more in-depth about counter-culture and Reganism caused by opposition to the Vietnam War, we spent too much time on the Gilded Age and its mediocre effects on our society. Instead of spending so much time on the Gilded Age, we should have had one quick unit summarizing the technological and social advancements that took place during this period following this unit with the progressive era unit. This would have been a sufficient unit and would have allowed us to finish the whole course on time.
The American dream is overrated. America’s historical democracy is not a true Democracy and promotes the few who are suited ethnically for power. Those who are willing to sacrifice others for personal gain historically succeeded in our country (slavery, relocation of Natives, McCarthyism)
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style this year was the slideshow lectures and notes. This was most effective for me because I learn best when I am both writing down notes and hearing the information from the teacher simultaneously. This made it much easier for me to remember the information and made it much easier to apply to tests, quizzes, or projects in any form. On the other hand, the learning style that was my least favorite was doing the notes packets for each unit and taking the open note quizzes. For me, these did not do much and I often did not remember the majority of the information that I wrote in these notes. Also, I did not come back to the notes packets to study much if at all.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
I wish that we were able to spend more time on World War 2 and the Cold War. Both of these time periods have always been fascinating to me and periods in which I have liked to research and study in my own time. Both events have a lot more that took place during them than we learned, and both had long-lasting effects that can be seen in society today. This is why both events could have been expanded on and studied more in-depth and why I wish we had the time to.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I wish that we spent less time studying the first few units. I feel that we spent quite a bit of time studying the first 2-3 units and I think that those are units that we did not need to cover as in-depth as we did considering how little they would appear on the AP test and later tests as a whole. The time that we spent on these few units I think could have been lessened which could have allowed us to go further into the topics that we spent little to no time on at the end of the year.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
My main takeaway from APUSH this year is that no matter what time it takes place almost everything in history has an impact that can be seen today or in events that take place later. I learned that not everything is just an event, a person, or a law, they have a bigger impact and can be seen and looked at as a completely different thing than they are at face value.
1. My favorite thing we did this year to learn was when we did dates quizzes and when we pratcyiced writing the FRQs. I feel this helped tremendously on the AP test. Learning the dates was extremely useful for all aspects of the test. Practing the FRQs aslo made me a better writer, and since we were writing so much about topics in APUSH it helped me remember the information. My least favorite thing we did this year to learn was the lectures. I found them beneficial to some extent, but sometimes you would get off topic and I would lose focus on the material. The lectures made it difficult to keep my interest on the topic at hand. I also found the slideshows to be to small to write real notes on, especially because you would add or take away random things from the slideshows some of the time.
2. I wish we spent more time on the Cold War. Al though we learned a lot about it, there was definitely way more to expand upon. I self studied for the AP test from the Cold War to present time, and I learned so much about the Cold War that really helped me on the SAQ and the LEQ. The Cold War is so significant along with the World Wars when describing foreign policy in America, so it not being expanded upon was a hinderance.
3. I think we should have spent less time on the first three units because they werent as important for the AP test. Obviously they are the foundation of US history and there are common themes brought up in these units that are seen later on. But the amount of time we spent on it could have been cut and delegated to units 7 and 8. This would balanced out the amount of time and information we spent on each unit, which would benefit us in the long run.
4. My takeaway from APUSH is that although it is a cliche, the phrase that says something along the lines of: history repeats itself, and we have to learn from our mistakes to ensure that it does not happen again, is very true in the context of US history. There has been multiple things that parallels with eachother, such as the discrimination of Indigenous people to the racism of African Americans. Eveen corruption withn our goverment. I have learned that history is all connected and extremely important to be aware of so that we can grow from our mistakes and hopefully not repeat them.
1. I think my favorite way to learn this year was by studying on my own, often with Heimler videos. I have always liked studying on my own the best because I am able to go at my own pace and go much deeper into research on specific topics that I am interested in or struggling with. It also allows me to learn how I want to learn. If I want to take notes, I am able to do so, but if I decide I just want to watch videos I am able to do that as well. The lack of pressure because none of my studying is graded allows me more freedom and I don’t feel so restricted by the requirements of various assignments that are associated with the different learning methods we do in class. Whenever there is an assignment associated with the learning, I often focus more on completing the assignment correctly than I do actually learning the material the assignment is attempting to teach. This hurts my understanding of the topic and forces me to study more at home anyway. My least favorite method of studying this year was reading from the book and taking notes on it. While this wasn’t required, it essentially was due to the very specific questions that are put into the quizzes and the wording that is identical to the wording in the book that reveals the answer. The notes forced me to have a very fixed way of learning and didn’t give a great understanding of anything because I was too busy trying to write everything that could be a quiz question rather than really learning about the events.
2. Obviously we didn’t get to the final time period, so if possible that, but also the Gilded Age. During the AP test, I had the worst understanding of this period. That could be my poor preparation for the test, but I think focusing more on that era could have given me more of an edge in taking the AP test.
3. I think we spent too much time on the early days of American history. I think this was partially because it was the beginning of the year and you were trying to ease us into the work, but I feel like we spent a lot of time on things like learning about the Native Americans when that section makes up a small portion of the AP test and is pretty easy to learn quickly. We spent too much time learning about specific tribes and practices to show their individuality when just saying that they were different and molded by their environment would have sufficed.
4. I learned that America really is not that great in the grand scheme of things. Our history, although it has many positives, it also was peppered with vast negatives. Scandals are speckled throughout the entire existence of the United States, slavery is a blemish that lasted far longer here than in any other country, and the belief that the United States has never lost a war is just wrong. For years, we subjugated Native Americans, many immigrant groups, and African Americans. Although many of those groups are now legally equal, systemic racism still holds them back from being entirely equal.
1.A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning styles for me are taking notes on lectures, watching short videos, playing interactive educational games (like the Oregon Trail one we did), and having class discussions. I thought at the beginning of the year the lectures were interesting and helped me get a ton of information in my head because by listening and writing simultaneously, I memorize things better. I also think short, entertaining yet educational videos like the drunk history videos help me get a grasp on a topic without having to listen for long periods of time. I also think games like the Oregon Trail one are very engaging and help a lot because it gives you an opportunity to understand how the conditions were, yet it was fun and somewhat competitive. I also think the few times we played Jeopardy definitely helped out to test my knowledge and refresh my memory. If I had to recommend ways to learn and teach history most effectively, I would recommend adding a competitive and interactive aspect to most lessons if possible, whether that be a game, a video, or whatever is best. Lastly, I would say that I found class discussions on articles and documents effective as well because it gives us a chance to pick other people’s brains and get a diversified view on history so that we can learn best. My least favorite way to learn is probably watching long history movies like the ones on pbs. I like most history movies, but some of them have so many nitty-gritty details that I end up missing the most important part of the historic event. I would also say that the portraits didn’t really help at all because I ended up just forgetting most of the stuff on them and never really found any of the information on them useful, except for some little bits of information like little details about the Boston Massacre and its trials.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
I would have liked to study World War Two more and learn more about the lives of soldiers and the discrimination in America at that time against many races, religions, etc. I would also like to spend more time on the civil rights movement and learn more about people like Malcolm X and MLK, and learn more about the bus boycotts and sit ins. I would also like to learn more about the Great Society to be able to compare its long term successes to the New Deal in retrospect. Lastly, I would like to learn more about the Vietnam War and the perspectives of Americans on the government’s trustworthiness, especially with the CoInTelPro being around that time. I know we watched The Post, but I think the post put more effort into getting the journalists’ view than regular people’s views and opinions.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I think we spent too much time on the bank debates, the War of 1812, and the market revolution. I think the shark tank thing we did didn’t really help and was kind of a waste of time, as the AP test will never need details on how the inventions work or how much they exactly cost. I also think that for this class, the takeaways from the War of 1812 should be the causes, effects, and some of the acts and embargos passed rather than looking in too much detail on it and looking at battles. I also think that we analyzed too many articles and documents about the viewpoints of Hamilton and Jefferson when they could have been summed up in a short video so we could have time for more important things like the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, etc.
4.People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or, in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
Overall, my takeaway from APUSH is that America is never going to be perfect and change will always need to be made. Americans will always mess up, but it is our job as true democratic people to hold the government accountable and fellow citizens accountable to make the country as united as possible.
My best learning style this year was reading the textbook. At first I was taking a lot of notes and knowing so much about the content and I got good grades on all of the open note quizzes. Later on I got so tired of writing notes that I stopped taking them and I forgot the information. Nonetheless, another read-over got me well prepared for the AP test. Powerpoints were my least favorite way to learn because most of the time we did them after I had read the chapter, but even if I didn’t do that I could never get engaged in the lecture. It would have been a lot more helpful if I could do the note packets while hearing the powerpoint.
I really wish we spent more time learning about the world wars because I feel like the outcomes of these wars were some of the greatest accomplishments of the United States. I know that Mr. Wickersham has a lot of amazing stories about World War Two because of his trip and knowledge of U.S. History, and unfortunately I feel like I missed out in that aspect. Two minor topics which I wish we spent more time on are man made disasters like some of the extra credit movies and laws protecting the environment.
I think we spent too much time on Westward expansion because there’s not that much about it worth talking about for too long, and I think the most notable parts of westward expansion had to do with the Civil War or causes of it. I also wished we spent less time on slavery because most of us have a lot of background knowledge about that topic and to me it was a lot more important to learn about Civil Rights during Reconstruction because the 13-15th amendments and Civil Rights Acts taught me a lot more about the journey to racial equality after the Civil War.
I learned that America’s history is rough around the edges. As America continued throughout the years becoming the beast of a nation that it is today, I learned that a lot of the reasons for that success came at a price for others, usually people that couldn’t defend themselves. Nevertheless, those people fought hard for what they believed was right and over time America used its strengths to accommodate the less fortunate while still being a strong country.
1.A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style was the packets we filled out in class. I think these allowed us to be engaged and focused in class while not doing too much work and feeling overwhelmed. I think this should be brought into next year because it teaches us in depth of the unit and material. My least favorite was the notes from the textbook. Too much work for too little work. The. Open note quizzes also felt like they were do or die, as when you ace them it barely changes the grade, but if you do even slightly below 80% it just tanks your whole grade. I think it should be weighted a little less harshly and there should be a little bit less.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
I wish we got to the last unit because than I wouldn’t need to self study and think it would be fair to assume we would study all the content and units that would be on the ap test. That way we can spend the last few days on reviewing and going over things like the dbq mcq leq saq.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I wish we had a little bit of a smaller unit on unit 1 and the ww1 unit. I feel like the information in unit 1 was very unnecessary and the only important things happened later in the unit or in unit 2. I feel like it should cover only Columbus and the natives or Jamestown. The rest just feels unnecessary and drawn out. Than for ww1 I think it could’ve been a little less in depth and that way we could make time for unit 9.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
I learned about how the American government was formed, who and what caused it to become what it is today, and the process of how it affected the world. In all I think I learned how to manage my time well with the notes and weekly test. I also learned the material pretty well for the ap test. I basically know most of the important stuff but all the unnecessary stuff that I learned just incase they threw some random questions
I really like the open note quizzes. Even though the notes were extensive and took a while, I often found myself remembering Information best from the Text Book and the notes helped me remember what we learned better. I also liked when we would get the booklets for each unit and you would teach us on the board and we wrote the information next to each image. Lastly, the Blogs were a good way to learn about specific events and topics. I didn’t like the Dates Quizzes because as we got more and more dates it was really hard to memorize all the years and what happened in them, so maybe a new way to learn Dates.
I wish we had moved on past WW2 and the Cold War and that we had gotten into more recent US History like the Civil Rights Movement, 9/11 etc. I think that all of these are crucial for the AP Exam and not knowing a lot of information about recent events had me struggling slightly on the AP Exam. Also, in general I think the recent history is very important and more interesting because it is easier to directly relate to current events.
I think that in general going in depth about units is good and is very beneficial to the student, so I wouldn’t say there is a specific unit I wish we would have learned less about or gone into less detail about, I just think that allocating the time to unites evenly and accordingly is crucial. The only time period I think we could have spent less time on was Colonial America, because most of the information I had already forgotten in preparation for the AP Exam so I had to relearn a bunch of Information myself, just due to the long year and all the other information.
I learned so many things in APUSH, that without a doubt will positively impact me in the rest of high school, beginning with the fact that I have been able to withstand the pressure of an AP class, I have now learned how to prepare for and take an AP Exam, and many other skills that are crucial to succeeding in High school. Also, I learned that American History is incredibly complex and that the current state of this country has been built up by all that have come before. I learned, this country has had and will continue to deal with many hardships and tragedies, and that nothings ever as easy as it seems.
Looking back on the year, I think the most effective way of studying for me was the notes that I took for the note quizzes. Although at the time, they were annoying and time consuming, I found that by doing the notes I was able to retain much more information than if I had only read the review book, without taking notes. In addition, my notes served as a good study resource for the AP test. My least favorite way of learning were the portraits that we did. I think that the information I got from reading them and answering the questions was not worth the time and effort it took to read it. I think that more article quizzes in place of the portraits would be more effective. Also, I think the date quizzes were very important and helpful for the AP test because knowing the dates helped to find evidence that fit in specific time periods.
I wish we spent more time on the Cold War. It was mostly my fault because by this point in the year when we briefly covered it, I was mostly checked out. However, I think that the assignment we did where groups presented their top five reasons the cold war started could have been done better. By working in a group, I only had to research 4 causes and the research I did on those causes was very shallow. I think that an article quiz or a powerpoint by you could have been more effective in conveying the information. I was very fortunate on the Ap test that there were absolutely no questions about the cold war because I was ill prepared to answer them.
I feel like we spent a lot of time covering colonial America and the revolutionary war. Although this time period is very important in the history of America, I think we could have spent much less time. This time period is already talked about heavily by previous United states history courses like in eighth grade. In addition this topic was covered briefly in world history. Because of this I think that we should go over it less and if students need to review it more than they can on their own time.
The most important thing I learned in APUSH this year was how every event, from Columbus discovering America, to events in our present day, connects to every event. I could sit down and make a giant cause and effect chain that leads from 1492 to 2024
1.A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain your least favorite learning method and why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style was studying and writing. I liked researching and reading the review book, as I felt like it gave you at least an overview of the chapter, if not more. Additionally, the timelines felt immensely helpful, providing opportunities to gather evidence in the given time frame for the free response questions and also helping you piece together the chronology of historical events, making it easier to connect events. Furthermore, writing is essential for the AP exam, and I wish we started the more complex writing prompts sooner and had more practice or discussions with the LAQs and DBQs. My least favorite learning style was when we reflected on American history in class, as I felt like we were just rehashing ideas from the textbook that most individuals had read and taken notes on, wasting valuable class time that could’ve been used for more important things.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year, from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year, and why?
I wish we would’ve spent more time studying the last period of APUSH (1980–present), as we didn’t cover it at all, or at the very least not much. Additionally, I wish we covered more of the societal progress during the 1960s, went more in-depth on the Cold War, JFK’s assassination, and later in class, as I feel like it could’ve been super helpful to just know. I wish we overall studied the last period or part of U.S. history because it would’ve greatly helped if there were more questions from that period, and additionally, it would help connect the stuff we learned in APUSH to our present, giving more context to how America got to where it is today, as it seems that there was rapid progress during that time, which would’ve been important to know of. For example, things like Reaganomics and the financial policies of Reagan’s administration were mentioned in one of the questions on the APUSH exam, and if we had reached that period more in-depth or at all, I might not have had to study independently as much or have a more nuanced understanding of the topic.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish some units were shorter or didn’t go as in-depth. What did you wish we had studied less of, and explain why (keep in mind that if the information doesn’t make it onto the test, that doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I wish we studied periods 1 and 2 less, regarding the colonization of America and Columbus’ arrival, as I felt some things covered in that period weren’t on the test at all, such as the types of charters and what charters were with which company in period 2 or for period 1, just going less in-depth as I feel like period 1 can be summed up pretty easily. I do still think we should learn these periods as they are essential to the history of the United States, but by going slightly less in-depth, we could have more time in class to reach later periods in American history, as well as spend more time on writing as it’s a vital part of the APUSH test, as in the DBQ, which we started at best in the 2nd half of the 2nd trimester.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways—a summary of an experience distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or, in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
APUSH has helped me hopefully prepare for other AP classes by having a lot of work, like the note packets every week or two, which helped prepare me for longer studying sessions and actual studying. Furthermore, it helped me adjust to faster classes, as APUSH moves pretty fast compared to other classes, ultimately helping prepare me for other AP classes. To summarize my experience in APUSH, I would say APUSH contains more work in the form of notes, blogs, and portraits than other classes, but also has easier work than other classes, with a lot of extra credit. American history is interesting not only as a result of the context it gives to the present but also by showing the complexities of government and demonstrating patterns in American history such as corruption.
Reflecting on the winners and losers of the Cold War scandal tournament, I think the Credit Mobilier Scandal was a worthy winner. Firstly, it revealed the massive corruption in the government during the Gilded Age, showing how widespread and deep-rooted these issues were. Secondly, the scandal involved significant amounts of money and key political figures, highlighting the extent of the corruption. Finally, it led to public outcry and changes in how government officials were held accountable, making it a turning point in American political history. Although other scandals were significant, the Credit Mobilier Scandal stood out for its impact on the political landscape.
In my opinion, while the right scandal won, some scandals were overlooked or didn’t get a fair hearing. For example, the CoInTelPro operations by Josh exposed serious breaches of civil liberties and illegal activities by the FBI, which had long-term consequences for American trust in the government. Additionally, the Teapot Dome scandal by Vidu and Sofia A. also highlighted significant government corruption, which had a lasting impact on public policy and reform. Finally, the Watergate scandal by Isabella F. was a major event that led to the resignation of a sitting president, which shows how impactful and dramatic it was. These scandals, while impactful, maybe didn’t get as much focus because they were up against very dramatic and high-stakes events.
Regarding the seeding of the scandals, I think it was mostly done properly, but there were some areas that could have been reconsidered. The Whiskey Ring scandal, for example, might have deserved a higher seed because it also involved significant government corruption and had major financial implications. Additionally, the Hamilton-Reynolds Affair by Sylvia, although more of a personal scandal, had huge implications for Alexander Hamilton’s career and reputation. Lastly, the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by Hannah and Delilah, while more of a dramatic and sensational event, highlighted significant issues of brainwashing and legal complexities, which made it quite impactful. The seeding seemed to favor immediate drama over long-term consequences in some cases.
Through this process, I learned a lot about research and historical evaluation. Firstly, I realized the importance of context; understanding the background of each scandal helped me appreciate its significance better. Secondly, I learned to look at the long-term impacts of events, not just their immediate drama. This approach gave me a deeper understanding of how these scandals shaped public policy and perception. Lastly, the process highlighted the subjective nature of historical evaluation. Different sources and historians often have varied interpretations of the same event, which taught me to critically evaluate multiple perspectives before forming my own opinion. Overall, this tournament was a valuable exercise in understanding the complexities of historical events.
1. My favorite learning style was the powerpoints as they allowed me to see the information and hear it at the same time. With the powerpoints you were able to go into depth on a lot of topics, and we were able to easily ask questions for clarification. It’s harder when we attempt to learn the stuff on our own as we only know as much as we are given. With you teaching us the information, step by step, action by action, I feel as if we can follow it a lot easier. Now, my least favorite was the review terms as I don’t believe that anyone really learned anything from them minus their own term(s). We all simply researched our own and were done with it. While this does help us to have an understanding of at least one thing from each time frame, it didn’t really do anything else for me or anyone I’ve talked with about them. Not to mention I did try to read the other terms and learn them, but it doesn’t stick the same as researching them does. In the middle of both of these was the dates quizzes, because, while I hated taking them, in the long run they were helpful. Having a timeline to base everything off of, I mean having a timeline in general, is helpful beyond belief.
2. I feel as if we, kind of, started rushing towards the end once we reached the civil war, and I wish we had more time to cover everything from there forward. Right around the Lincoln Douglas debates is when I really started noticing us speeding up the pace at which we were learning. Not to mention how we didn’t really learn anything about WW1 and on unless we did our own research. Still, I feel as if you paced us okayish. I mean, we got a lot done in the time frame that we had which is an accomplishment in itself.
3. I wish we didn’t spend as much time on the first few units, from the formation of the colonies and before. While some of it is definitely important, like the encomienda system, I feel as if you went way too in depth about it when it didn’t need to be that complicated. Especially surrounding the different religions. Though my opinion is definitely influenced by the fact that I barely understood most of it.
4. American history is full of actions that never should’ve taken place, but that’s because it’s filled with human history. Sometimes that amounts to genocide, and other times it amounts to someone getting beaten with a cane.
1. While it wasn’t necessarily my favorite, in the long run, the open note quizzes/notes really did help me. Filling out the notes forced me to close-read the review book, which, in the end, helped me a lot. While they were helpful, my least favorite learning style was also the open-note quizzes. Yes, the notes were helpful… when I did them. By the end of the year, I was extremely burnt out completing a thick packet of notes every week and kind of gave up on doing them entirely. However, the review book is EXTREMELY helpful and even if I didn’t do the notes, I would read the chapter before the quiz, which helped me a lot. I think it would be useful to future students to come up with a less tedious way of forcing them to read the chapters
2. One topic I definitely wish we looked into more in depth was the depression/new deal era. Maybe it’s because it was the end of the year and I was ready to be done with school, but I feel like when we got to the 1920’s – 30’s, I had no idea what was going on, especially with the New Deal, and when faced with questions on the AP test or quizzes about this topic, I found myself stumped. Honestly I think the whole 1920’s-1990’s era could have been gone over more, but I know we ran out of time. I specifically chose New Deal/depression because that is what showed up on the AP test the most.
3. A topic I wish we studied less of is westward expansion, transcontinental railroad, gold, etc. Moving westward was an extremely important part of American history, and the transcontinental railroad revolutionized transportation, however, I feel like we spent just a little bit too much time talking about the construction of the railroad.
4. I have a few takeaways from APUSH. First is that US history is messy, and there are many things hidden from general knowledge. I’m glad that this class focused on the mainstream stuff and stories that are often ignored. Our entire country was built and shaped by really bad people (to say the least). However, this class also gave me a more positive outlook on things. Our country is in a pretty poor state right now politically, and through APUSH, I learned that this is not the first time we’ve had corrupt politicians in the White House. Yes, social media does make these issues a little bit different, but the US has always overcome these issues and stayed resilient, and I think we will do the same again, it just takes time.
1. My favorite learning style this year was presentations, with the slides printed out to take notes on. This worked best for me because I got to hear the information, see the information, and make my own notes to best summarize it and I could highlight the things that would probably be on tests or quizzes. This also made me a better notetaker which is a really important skill. I also think that the dates quizzes were very useful because they helped me memorize a timeline of APUSH and were very helpful in finding events in the timeframe for FRQs. My least favorite learning style was the AMSCO book notes, for me they took a long time to write everything down and whenever I did it faster I would not write down the things that were actually important for the quiz. Also, everything left my head after taking the quiz so it did not really help in the other aspects of the class and I would have rather spent the time actually studying, especially because we had one of these quizzes very close to the AP test.
2. I wish we had spent more time in the early 1900s, we went through it a bit too fast for me and by the time we got to it, we were supposed to be studying for the AP test which meant I was not fully focused on what we were supposed to be learning and the social reforms during WW1 and WW2 began to blur together which led me to be confused about the cold war and so on.
3. I wish we had spent less time on the first three units of APUSH. Although they are super important, and it was an FRQ option this year, and they showed up in the MCQs I think that it would have been helpful to move through them faster and learn a lot about a few events between colonists and indigenous people. I think this because we learned about a lot of different things in not a lot of detail so by the time May came around I would recognize the name of a battle but I did not know what it was about.
4. Throughout this class, I learned a lot about American history. I think that what I learned the most was the political and social changes. I feel like in the past we have learned about main events, but in this class, we learned about the lasting effects of those events which made me a have deeper understanding of the event.
1. I felt that throughout the year, my learning style and the format in which I learned the information changed depending on the day or week and what we were learning. The lectures and group discussions about American History and watching the videos were what I found most helpful for me to retain the information since I am a visual and tactile learner, and while we weren’t hands on with history, being able to take notes and share my thoughts on what we were learning helped me in the same way. Overall I thought the blogs and review terms were a little tedious but effective in helping us to learn the material yet I think the portrait and other reading assignments were the worst for me. I could never focus entirely on what I was reading and I didn’t grasp much information on what they covered and I think the class could have still been successful without them.
2. Without a doubt I think I learned most about history in general this year than I ever have before. I’ve always been alright at history, I never really understood the information or really cared until this class which I ended up enjoying quite a bit. I don’t think information wise I wish we had spent more time on any unit in particular, yet I wish we had had more writing practice. I felt good about my writing on the AP test but I had practiced a bit at home beforehand too. The writing didn’t even need to be graded necessarily but just continuing to do SAQ’s throughout the year (I had kind of forgotten how to write them) and writing two or three LEQ’s and DBQ’s would have been very helpful.
3. I am very grateful we got to go in depth on so many different eras and events and I would not change much about how we learned. However, with that said, by the end of the year I felt very worried about the information we had gotten before the AP test and whether it was enough or not. I studied the later units by myself at home and I don’t think I would have felt as good about the AP test without doing that. While I think it’s important to learn about personal aspects of history like Lt. Thompson and go in depth about other social aspects, I feel there was a way we could cover the personal aspects faster and get through more information overall.
4. I think I truly learned about how the society we live in today was shaped. It was like learning the backstory of the laws and systems we live under and it provided an understanding about political events and decisions that I did not previously have before. Without a doubt I think this understanding will be incredibly useful and important as I grow up. I am very thankful for this class and I believe that the most important information I learned this school year came from this class and this experience I got to have.
1. My favorite learning style this year was watching videos and documentaries. The combination of visuals and sound made historical events more interesting and easier to remember. It helped me understand the emotions and context behind events, making history feel more alive and engaging. The reenactments, interviews with historians, and archival footage brought the past to life in a way that books alone couldn’t. Videos provided a narrative that was easier to follow and retain. On the other hand, my least favorite way to learn was through long reading assignments from textbooks. These felt dull and overwhelming, making it hard to retain information. Without visuals or audio, it was tough to stay focused, and the dense text often made it hard to pick out the main points. The lack of interaction and the repetitive nature of reading long passages made it easy to lose interest and harder to grasp the big picture. I found myself often skimming through the text without fully absorbing the information, which made it less effective as a learning tool.
2. I wish we had spent more time on the Civil Rights Movement. This period is super important for understanding current issues related to race and justice in America. While we covered the basics, diving deeper into the different leaders, grassroots movements, and laws would have given us a better understanding of the struggles and successes that have shaped today’s society. Learning more about this era would also help us appreciate the ongoing fight for civil rights. For example, understanding the detailed strategies of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, or the significance of landmark events like the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington, would have provided a richer perspective. This would also help connect past events to contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter, showing the continuous struggle for equality. We could have explored more about the personal stories of activists, the role of women in the movement, and the impact of media coverage. These details would have added depth to our understanding and highlighted the importance of civic engagement and activism.
3. I felt that we spent too much time on the detailed events of the Cold War. While the Cold War is definitely important, focusing on every minor event made it hard to stay interested and see the overall picture. A more concise overview of the main events and their impacts would have been enough, freeing up time to explore other important topics more deeply. For instance, while understanding the broad themes of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry and key moments like the Cuban Missile Crisis is crucial, spending extensive time on every proxy war and diplomatic incident felt excessive. This detailed focus sometimes overshadowed other significant aspects of American history that also deserved attention, like the social changes of the 1960s or the technological advancements during the Space Race. Reducing the time spent on the Cold War’s minutiae would have allowed us to delve deeper into these other transformative periods.
4. My takeaway from APUSH is that American history is a mix of many different experiences and perspectives, often involving struggles for freedom and justice. I learned that understanding history means looking beyond the surface to see the complexities that have shaped our country. This course has given me a deeper awareness of how past events influence today’s issues and the importance of critically thinking about historical stories. I’ve realized that history is not just a series of dates and events, but a narrative shaped by diverse voices and experiences. This insight will help me approach future historical studies with a more analytical and empathetic mindset, appreciating the nuanced and interconnected nature of our past. It has also made me more aware of the importance of understanding history to make informed decisions about the present and future.
1. My favorite learning style this year was probably watching videos or doing other interactive activities. Things like Drunk History or Hiemler made learning the material more engaging and entertaining. It was effective because as someone with a short attention span, the videos were long enough where I got the information, and was able to stay focused throughout the entire video. I found that my least favorite way to learn was through the slideshows. I found that they could be quite monotonous and after a short amount of time I found it hard to stay focused. They also are all very similar, and I feel like having variety in learning is helpful.
2. We covered a lot of material this year but one thing I wish we spent more time on was the Cold War era or just the 1910s onward. I understand we were rushed because of the AP exams, however, these topics came up on a few exam questions and it would have been nice to be able to choose them for some of the FRQs. I also feel like that time period is most relevant to the world today and learning about it would be very beneficial.
3. I wish we spent less time on periods 1-2 and maybe some of 3. I think these are very important time periods to know about, however, by the time many people have taken APUSH they have taken at least 3 other U.S. History classes, each starting out in that time period. I feel that early U.S. history is very known by most people, so instead, just go into some of the smaller details or specifics of that time period. If I remember correctly we spent nearly all of the first trimester in this time period and I feel that it should’ve been much less.
4. This year in APUSH I learned that there are many (more) things in our history that people don’t want to recognize but really should. Overall however, I learned how to be a better student. I also learned things like, how important it is to study for things and really understand the concepts before tests, and also throughout the year so I don’t have to cram at the end or the night before. I learned how to manage my time with what I am studying in this class and also how to balance it with other classes and extracurriculars.
#1) One way of learning that helped me a lot was watching Heimler’s videos. I thought it summarized the information well and focused on the essentials, re-watching them and taking notes was the main source of how I studied. I also found the date quizzes helpful, especially when preparing for the AP test, because even though you don’t need specific dates, knowing them helps with knowing the time frame a lot better and creates that time frame in your head. However, I didn’t enjoy the notes packets. The packets took forever to do and I had to write so much information that it felt like I was just trying to put as much as I could down without reading and retaining the information. On top of other classes and extracurriculars it felt like a rush to finish them instead of taking time to understand what I was writing but the presentations that walked us through the chapters I found very helpful because it was like the notes except we went slow and didn’t have to write as much.
#2) I wish we had spent more time on the Cold War because we didn’t really review that topic, and there were a few questions about it on the exam. It didn’t affect me a lot as there weren’t a bunch of questions but it would’ve helped at the end of the multiple choice. And for writing, luckily they didn’t ask much about that era but in case they did I don’t think I was prepared to answer them. While I was studying I realized I didn’t know a lot about the 1980s and Reagan’s presidency so for future classes in case their writing is focused on it, it would be a good idea to cover that more.
#3)I think we could have spent less time on the Colonial Era, especially the early settlements and interactions between European settlers and Native American. This would have freed up time for later periods, like the post-Cold War era, which we didn’t get to. I didn’t have many questions about the specific regions of native life and their different ways of living on the test and I think we may have moved too slowly at the start of the year because I remember going pretty in depth for period one and two. Not that they’re not important dates but again not much of it was on the multiple choice or the writing. I also felt like social aspects are very important but when we were around 50s and 60s we discussed a lot of social and not enough politics. I remember taking a long time talking about cars and womens fashion.
#4) I learned a lot about American History and uncovered a lot of truths about history that regular history textbooks cover up. It also taught me a lot about work ethic and time management.
e questions. Methods that didn’t really work for me were just the lectures that Wickersham gave pretty regularly, especially since I could often just look at the slides and figure out all the information that would be covered over a fairly long period of time. Taking notes on these slides didn’t really help my comprehension of the material and I wasn’t really able to utilize them as study materials, even though I had extensive amounts of notes on said slides.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
I feel like this was something pretty openly expressed by all classes, but I feel like it would have been better if we had spent more time on the 1890s and later, especially the 1920s-1940s. We didn’t really go in depth in any of those time periods and were just trying to get through them as fast as we could so we could be as close to finishing the course material by the time we were supposed to take the test. I had to teach myself a lot about the 1890s and later, and luckily I had friends in Excel that worked more on these time periods that helped explain them better, but I feel like I would have been more comfortable with these topics if we had spent more than a few days on them.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I feel like we spent far longer than necessary on the events leading up to the Civil War and the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, as well. Although both of these things were important, I feel like we spent twice the amount of time that we spent on the wars on the causes alone. Especially when it comes to the Revolutionary War, it has been extensively covered in the past couple years of school we have received and events like World War 1 or the Progressive Era, we know little to nothing about since they haven’t been covered in previous years. So, I feel it would be better to spend less time on the causes of the Civil and Revolutionary Wars and actually focus on, say, the causes of the World Wars, instead.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
American history is not nearly as messed up as European history, from what I know, but it is truly still a hot mess. But, the U.S. has come a long way within the past handful of centuries and it is admirable how far we have come, as a country. And, although history has repeated itself several times, it’s improving greatly.
My favorite learning style this year was to read the review book and watch Heimler’s History on Youtube. I feel as if reading the review book chapter that we were taking a test on thoroughly before tests and then taking the practice quizzes that the book contains helped me greatly. I realized after the first test that some of the review book questions always made it onto the tests. I also would watch Heimler’s History throughout this year to make sure that I retained the information that I had previously read in the review book. A visual way of seeing that information through his videos seemed to help me a lot. My least favorite way to learn was the powerpoint presentations in class because I feel like those presentations didn’t really do much for me. I feel like it was pretty much just the same stuff in the review book put into a presentation. I also felt a little zoned out at times by just listening to a presentation and it was overall, not the best learning method for me.
I wish we had spent more time this year on Period Eight because I think there were at least a few questions on the AP test about this period that I personally had to guess on. I think we had to rush through this unit because of the limited amount of time we had, but for the future, I think more time should be spent on Period Eight.
I believe that we could’ve spent less time on Period 1 and Period 2 because they barely showed up on the test. I know that we still had to cover both of these periods, but we probably could’ve gone faster in order to have more time for the content-heavy periods later on. I also think that the additional time spent on these two units could have been spent on Period 8 and 9 as those showed up on the test too and we had limited knowledge about them.
I believe I learned a lot of information this year about American history. From Columbus in 1493 all the way to 2008, this year was packed with important events, dates, and information. However, more useful than the information will be the skills I learned in this class. I believe that I learned a lot about how to study, analyze documents better, and write better essays all in this class.
My favorite learning style, while not super popular but helpful, was the slideshows that Mr Wickersham presented. Personally, with the packets, it helped me keep all my information in one place instead of scattered with other loose pieces of paper. It was also easy to catch up on if you missed a day because notes could be transferred easier, compared to just verbal lectures or videos that were watched in class. It also was effective for me because if I needed a specific chapter to study, I already had it with me with notes written on them. I also really enjoyed using Quizlet for the date quizzes. It made it really easy to memorize and was super accessible from my laptop or my phone so I could squeeze in last minute study sessions to prepare for the quiz. My least favorite way to learn was definitely the note packets, they were so long and even if you did all the notes there was no way to guarantee that the information you wrote down was going to be on the quiz. The packets are too time consuming when I probably averaged 3-4 hours per note packet. Which could for sure just be a me problem with how long I take but I have other classes I needed to attend too and spending that amount of time on a note packet that didn’t guarantee a sufficient grade seemed counterproductive. I’m not saying they weren’t helpful on the quizzes, but they take longer than they should, even if you really want to understand the 15+ pages of material that is given to you. I personally did not skip a single note packet but I still felt behind on the understanding of the chapters.
I really wish we had spent more time on the later periods and its contents. I just don’t think we had enough time to discuss what its events were or properly explain what happened during the later periods like eight and nine. We didn’t have as much time to prepare on these topics like others from the earlier periods. Even on the test some of the questions that popped up were from the later periods that I never fully understood or just straight up had to guess on because we hadn’t gotten to that point yet. Without a good understanding of these periods, I wasn’t fully confident going into the AP exam. Now, I do agree I could have done my own research and gone further into the periods on my own but it’s hard when you don’t have a guide with you. Also I prefer the teaching to be done face to face rather than me reading about it or trying to focus on a video discussing it.
I wish we hadn’t gone into the earlier periods as much. With as much detail as we went into during the earlier part of the year, it kinda blew not being able to remember a good portion of it when studying for the AP exam. I think speeding up the earlier periods and once and a while doing a refresh lecture would be helpful. Not a quiz or another graded thing checking if students remember or not but actually re-discussing the contents of the earlier periods to make it full circle. This can be done throughout the year, pouring in earlier knowledge into whatever is being taught at that moment. Refreshers throughout the year would have been very helpful to make sure students don’t forget major concepts or events that are important to the earlier periods.
My takeaway from APUSH was that while it was difficult and time consuming it was worth it to make it through. I am more prepared than ever to take on other AP classes. This class also taught me how bad scores are inevitable but you can bounce back from them and it’s not the end of the world. Overall in American History, I learned about the dark past America has but that there were good things and people that changed lives for the better. Also the importance of not covering up the past because everyone deserves to know what mistakes have been made to make sure they can never happen again and to progress forward for the better.