Surviving AP European History

AP European History was one of the harder AP classes that I have taken. Probably because I am more of a math and science kind of person, but I did learn some tips for surviving the class.

1)      Take thorough notes. I found out that things that seem unimportant can actually turn up on quizzes and tests. So, make sure you pay attention to details and ask you teacher what you need to know.  

2)      There are a lot of people you are going to keep track of, and some of them even have the same name. So, come up with a system that will help you remember their stories. For me I wrote out all of the important details of that person’s life and a friend of mine drew comic strips of the events. Whatever will help you to understand the complex relationships between important people in history.

3)      Similar to people, there are a lot of complicated events that you will have to know and be able to analyze. You are going to need to know: who was involved and what they did, what effect did this have on the society, and the impact that it would have on the future. You are also going to need a system that will help you keep track of all the events along with the people.

4)       Trust your instincts. On tests some of the questions will be tricky, but you just have to go with your gut. Usually the question is not as tricky as you think.

5)      If your textbook is anything like mine, it is SUPER hard to understand. So, I recommend going online and listening to other teachers lecture. If you just go to youtube and type in the subject you need, there will be many videos you can choose from. My recommendations would be the lectures from John Green‘s crash course videos and a teacher named Tom Richey. (I will link to both of their channels at the end of this post.) The good thing about watching lectures online is you can watch them over and over until you can fully understand the concept.

6)      You are going to need to stay on top of your work. There is a lot of things to learn in not a lot of time to do so. Chances are that your class is going to be pretty fast paced, so it will not be good if you get behind.

 

Tom Richey’s Chanel: https://www.youtube.com/user/tomforamerica

John Green’s Crash Course: https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse

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