How to prep for the AP history exams this summer
How should you use this summer to prepare for an upcoming AP exam? Check out Circa’s Top 5 tips for how to get ahead on studying for your AP history exams.
Think about your course goals.
You could also think of this in another way: What is it that you want to learn in this course?
Especially for driven high school students, it can be easy to forget that classes can be more than just learning material you are told to learn so that you can get a good grade and then go to a great college (although of course that is important!). But you are also going to be spending 9 months working on this topic—what do you want to have learned by the end?
Maybe you want to improve your critical thinking skills—if that’s the case, set up a document where you will keep track of the arguments you make in your essays. You can track your improvement as you make increasingly sophisticated arguments. And you can keep revisiting and revising your earlier arguments so that they are ready to go for exam day.
Maybe you want to improve your writing skills. If so, create a folder for your writing, so that you can review your writing throughout the year to identify where you have improved and what you could have expressed more clearly.
Or maybe you have a historical question that you want to have answered. What would you really like to know more about, whether it’s from history or whether it’s something that made the world today? Why not answer this question for yourself as you go through the course. If you think of a question over the summer, then throughout the school year, you can make a list of the sources, notes, and ideas that you encounter related to the topic. At the end, you will have a great resource to start answering your question. Who knows—this research might become the basis for a podcast, research project, or even your college admissions essay!
Think about your score goals.
You can also keep yourself motivated by setting score goals now. What do you want to achieve on the exam? What seems reasonable, given the other commitments that you have during the school year? Setting your sights on a top score can help keep you motivated throughout the year to keep on top of your homework, to work through practice tests, and to review your notes. The AP is a difficult task if you have to review everything in the month before the exam—if you keep yourself motivated and keep up a steady pace, you’ll have a much better chance of success.
Read some history books!
The summer is a great time to read some excellent history books. And there are so many good history books out there that are written in ways that are engaging and also informative. Ask your teacher for recommendations. You can also check out the list of recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize for history, biography, and general non-fiction.
If you are looking for specific tips, Circa has curated lists for each of the three history exams: check out our reading lists for AP World History, AP European History, and AP US History.
Look over the free-response questions.
The free-response questions (in other words, the essays) are worth 60% of the final grade. While you need to know the history content to get full credit for your essays, you can start learning the expectations and the formatting for these essays over the summer. That way, during the school year, you can focus on making sure you know the content—you will already be familiar with how to structure the essays.
To practice the free response questions, you can look over the sample essays provided on the College Board AP website. There, the test makers provide essays written during the exams by actual students. These sample essays are accompanied by the scores they received and the reasoning for why each essay was successful or unsuccessful. Read through these explanations to get a good sense of what kinds of responses the test graders are looking for. Where do students add in specific information? And how do they use this information to back up their historical claims? AP essays usually follow a predictable pattern, so if you become familiar with these expectations early on, you will set yourself up for success in your AP class and on the AP exam.
You can also check out the rubrics for each essay on the AP. Memorize what moves get you points—that way, you can be sure you are checking off each box during the exam.
Watch some historical dramas!
Getting ready for the AP can also be fun. There are many series and movies based on history that are excellent prep for the AP exams. You’ll start getting familiarized with the major events and people. And it will also be easier to put a face to a name, since you will have watched everything play out on screen. While not all of these shows are 100% historically accurate, they do provide an engaging starting point as you begin studying a new era of history.
There are almost endless historical films and tv shows to watch, many of which are popular right now, like Hamilton, The Crown, Little Women, Dunkirk, and Chernobyl.
If you want more specific suggestions, check out our curated lists of what to watch for AP World History, AP European History, and AP US History.
Get More AP History Test Prep
Circa students can enroll in courses that target the content and skills needed for the AP history exams.