With only a short time left until the Advanced Placement United States History exam, students are definitely feeling the pressure. The exam will be challenging, especially considering all the students have had to go through the past year and a half of distant, hybrid, and in-person learning. The Entry asked questions to both students enrolled and their APUSH teacher, Mrs. Johansen, to catch us up on how everything is going.
There is no debate that the pandemic has affected the usual learning experience for students, and as a multiple year course, AP United States History is no exception. Many important time periods were cut short. This has affected many students in their motivations and desire to learn, which will definitely hurt when taking the exam. For example, when asked how the pandemic has affected your learning and studying, Maleah Sena wrote “It’s made learning more difficult and made it harder to motivate myself to do work”. Sophia Frederico similarly replied with “It took away a lot of learning time and makes school feel less legitimate, since a lot of this year has been so watered down”. Other students like Zachary Preiss think “Lowkey I am better at studying”, though.
When asking Mrs. Johansen about how she thinks the pandemic has affected students and their learning and studying, she said “I try to look on the positive side. I think the pandemic has helped students in some ways. For example, students are more responsible for their own learning. I do not see this as a bad thing. Rather it will help them in years to come.”
She was then asked if she preferred teaching in person with paper or with a focus on technology: “I miss allowing students to work in groups. I do not mind computers and using technology does help keep me organized (haha) I do like meeting my students in the evening on Google Meets to offer extra help.”
This year is definitely different than the last for multiple reasons. Other than being in and out of school with numerous different schedule changes, the format of the APUSH exam has changed. While normally the test is on paper during school hours, the students voted to take it on their Chromebooks at home on a later date. Along with changing this format, the test also took away a Long Essay Question, and in replacement put in two more Short Answer Questions. Most importantly though, it took away the ability to look back on past answers.
When asked about this change and how it affected their studying approach, the APUSH students had many different answers. Sarah Therese Chaudhry replied “I felt a less efficient and more detached approach. I do not favor the change as I usually do better on paper than I do on computer tests”. Delaney Reynolds wrote “I’m nervous that I will not be able to go back and check my answers, but happy because I will have more time to study”. Other students, like Olivia DelSasso, are comfortable with the change.
Mrs. Johansen also was asked about her feelings on the change. “I would prefer students to take the paper test at school. I am worried that some of my students will have difficulty with the technology. We did not select the paper option because I wanted to give students extra time as we lost so much instructional time this year”.
As the test nears, and there is no new content to learn, the entire focus of the class shifts to studying and reviewing the large amount of content being included on the test, as well as practicing multiple choice questions, document-based essay questions, and short answer questions. There are varying levels of difficulty for every question on the test, and you don’t know what the questions will be asking until you get onto the test. When asked about what part that’ll be the hardest to prepare for, the answers varied but were still mostly centered around the content on the test. Along with that, students like Paris Charbonneau feel like the fast pace of the test will be the hardest part.
There are many ways to study for the APUSH test, and while studying a lot is good, how you study might not be right. Mrs. Johansen was asked about what studying mistakes she sees students make the most: “The market is overloaded with study materials. Students need to decide on one study plan and then follow through with this plan. It is tough to teach students not to procrastinate. I always tell them to do a little everyday”.
Students were also asked about their usual studying routines. Grace Avila said she uses flashcards to study the SFI, or Specific Factual Information (people, places, and events). Joey Smith also said he uses flashcards, along with reading the history books given and watching Youtube videos. For Michael Preiss, he says “As we study each period, I do the MC in the chapters and the corresponding SAQs”.
Also on the form was a question asking what one studying method they would suggest. While there were a lot of answers, some of them were similar. For instance, Joseph Bunch and Adrian Lunardelli both suggested watching Adam Norris and Dan Jocz videos: they are two Youtubers focused on APUSH studying and summarizing. Taylor Wilkins also suggested “Use Albert SBMC questions”: Albert referring to a website students can use to take practices for specific AP Topics, very similar to the actual AP Test questions. Other students replied with Quizlet, flashcards, note taking, and more.
We also had Mrs. Johansen share her favorite studying materials and methods with us. “It is ALWAYS best to read the textbook. There is really no replacement for reading. However, because of lost instructional time I find myself instructing students to read their Fast Track to a Five books and watching College Board videos. The Albert Platform is pretty helpful and allows students to practice Stimulus based multiple choice questions.”
While some feel more prepared than others, there is still an overwhelming amount of stress. The large majority of students, when asked to describe how they’re feeling about the test, replied with negative answers, like Stressed, Anxious, Eh, Unsure, Scared, and Fear to name a few. This becomes harder as some kids take other AP tests around the same time, along with having harder regular classes, jobs, and extracurricular activities.
And finally, when asked about if they were excited to have the APUSH curriculum be over after a long time, there was an overwhelming amount of “Yes” answers. Some were sad to leave Mrs. Johansen, describing bittersweet feelings and complicated thoughts.
Mrs. Johansen was also asked: “Are you excited to finally see how everyone’s hard work paid off with their test scores?” To which she replied with “I am always so excited for my students. I believe my role is part teacher and part cheerleader.”
While the stress of the test is hard, Mrs. Johansen’s students have put up with so much hardship through the pandemic and the usual stresses of the AP class. And Mrs. Johansen has made sure to reassure her students any time she gets. “Seriously, the best part of the day for me is being in the classroom with my students. They are amazing :)” she wrote as a final message to her students. Apush is not an easy class to take and they have proved they can take on. And they should be proud of themselves for all the work they have put in throughout the years.
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