ALL CURRENT SOPHOMORES WHO WILL BE TAKING APUSH JUNIOR YEAR, here are some brief (just kidding) words of advice for Howden’s class. 1. DO THE SUMMER HOMEWORK. You will be assigned Cornell notes on the first three chapters of the textbook, American History: A Survey by Alan Brinkley, 13th edition. Each chapter is more or less thirty pages. Each page has two columns of text. Each column has small font. Getting it? You should do these notes well to get a good idea of what the class will be like. Once you actually begin junior year, you will realize that three months for Cornell notes on three enormous chapters is actually EXTREMELY generous: For at least the first quarter of first semester, you will be hit with notes assignments every week. You will also have to know the names the presidents of the United States, the order they held office in, and the years they held office. Yes, you will be quizzed on this the day you get back to school. The second day of the week you get back, you will have a quiz on the basic geography of the United States- states, main rivers, and main mountain ranges. If you do not pass this second quiz with minimal effort, that is, in all honestly, quite sad. 2. PREPARE FOR HIS MULTIPLE CHOICE. All of Howden’s tests are multiple choice. Not so fast, there is more: Howden’s multiple choice might be unlike most other multiple choice tests you have taken before. It requires a knowledge of specific significant historical events and dates, persons, acts of legislation, etc., in addition to understanding the connections between them and how they relate to the “big picture”. Furthermore, for many questions, Howden will give answer choices that are EXACTLY the same, with the exception of a few words. This is the part where all of that detail-oriented knowledge comes into play. You may be wondering at this point if the multiple choice section of the AP exam will be this difficult? Assuming there have been no significant changes in the test in recent years, no, Howden’s tests are harder. Is this overkill on his part? Maybe. Because he loves you. And wants you to pass. 3. PREPARE FOR HIS ESSAYS. Yes, you will have to write essays for a history class. They will not be assigned too often, maybe every few weeks. There are two kinds- FRQ’s (Free-Response Questions) and DBQ’s (Document-Based Questions). Both are scored on a scale of 1 to 9. For FRQ’s, as the name suggests, you will be given a prompt and, in about 40 minutes, be expected to write a four or five paragraph essay with a well-developed thesis, supported with your analysis of evidence, evidence that comes from your vast reserves of historical knowledge. Where do these vast reserves of historical knowledge come from? (Hint: READING AND NOTES) For DBQ’s, you will be given a prompt and a set of historical documents (usually charts/graphs, excerpts from speeches or news articles, pictures and propaganda posters, etc.) to aid you in answering the prompt. Does that mean you’re good to go and that you can write a sufficient essay based solely on the docs with no outside knowledge whatsoever? Resoundingly, NO. At best, you will pull a 4/9. You will also need considerable outside knowledge for DBQ’s but, hey, at least you have the docs to use as a crutch. In fact, you should try to use as many of the docs as you can for the AP grader to give you a higher score. Docs should NEVER be quoted; you literally just use the information and then cite the doc in parentheses at the end of the sentence, just as how you cite page numbers in essays for sophomore Lit. You may be wondering as to whether or not you will be shafted on the first essay you write. The answer is yes. You will try and fail miserably. But Howden will be astonishingly merciful and grade your first essay leniently. He will guide you through the process of improving your essays, offer you credit for essay corrections, and even give you a lengthy powerpoint presentation about how to write APUSH essays. 4. YOU WILL HAVE SOCRATIC SEMINARS. No, these are not like sophomore Lit. seminars in which you can hash out unsubstantiated BS for points. These are fascinating discussions that usually begin awkwardly with some kid blurting out the first question, followed by a chain of arguments and discussions that you cannot help but participate in yourself. Howden will assign you seminar prep questions a few days in advance. During the seminar, you will have to present your arguments and back them with historical evidence, similar to your essays. You cannot BS these as Howden will step in to correct glaring historical inaccuracies (No, JFK was not assassinated by Smurfs). Do not worry too much about these, just know your stuff, think on your feet, and have fun. However, it should be noted that there is one similarity to sophomore Lit. It may become like a pack (school?) of pirahnas vying for a chance to speak. You may begin to speak and present your brilliant analysis to the class, only to be cut off by some kid who just happens to be able to blurt things out louder and faster than you can. Has any revolutionary solution to this problem been found? No, but I am confident that in time, future generations (i.e. you) will be able to solve it for us. Until then, just deal with it. 5. DO NOT FALL BEHIND. This applies to both assignments and plain-old review. You may have come to realize that there is A LOT of material you need to know (paragraph 1, see above), possibly even a surfeit. Consequently, it would behoove you to do your notes and other homework on time, because you will not just lose points, you will also be unable to catch up, to understand succeeding chapters, to perform well on tests, etc. If this does ever happen to be the case (shame on you), note that Howden does give half-credit for work submitted a day late. If it is over a day late, it is out of the question. If possible, review regularly and go ahead. This way, you will not die an agonizing death trying to study 10^x pages of material the night before tests, the midterm, the first semester final (on the first nineteen chapters of the book), and the cumulative second semester final (on the entire book, as “cumulative” suggests). 6. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE. When course selection came around, your instructors were probably delivering doomsday predictions about APUSH, how your GPA will be destroyed, you will be completely immobilized nightly, how you will fail and die by bursting into flames, and whatnot. Hear me out: The class is not as hard as it is made out to be. Yes, first quarter of first semester will seem like death, but only because you will need time to adjust to the class, to transition from a relatively light to a heavy workload. You will notice things getting easier as you get used to the class and your workload even begins to decrease. After a certain point first semester, Howden no longer makes notes mandatory, and doing them will give you EXTRA CREDIT. There will be considerably less work second semester, he will eventually stop checking for notes altogether, and by second quarter second semester, APUSH will have become one of your easiest classes. 7. DO NOT FEAR HOWDEN. Really, don’t. He is not harsh, he is not strict, he is not the devil reborn in human flesh. He is Howden. He is understanding, relatively lenient, and always willing to help you. His lectures are extremely interesting (unless you happen to be one of those kids who stay up until 3 A.M. without caffeine) and he regularly incorporates humorous analogies and historical anecdotes that serve to both edify and entertain. His humor is sarcastic, but that is what makes it amazing. With luck, he will become one of your favorite junior-year teachers as he is mine. 8. ENJOY THE CLASS. APUSH is like no history class you have ever taken before. It explains why the United States is the way it is today (no duh). It requires you to think like you may never have before in such a class, and the course material itself is extremely interesting. Just be responsible, keep up with assignments, and stay on your feet. The rest will be smooth sailing. 9. CONCLUDING REMARKS. Don’t do anything illegal; if you do happen to do anything illegal don’t get caught. That’s a YP not an MP. And remember, I have confidence that you will all do well, you are all smarter than I was when I was your age. (If this last part seems cryptic to you, don’t worry. In time, you will come to understand.) Biqy, over and out. - Sabiq Khan
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 03:05:55 +0000
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