| I took it last year, got a 5. I still remember one tip my teacher told us before the APs and it pretty much saved my ass.
If you get an essay question that you don't know about, and you freeze up, chances are you DO know about it. Find out what decade the essay is about (It might say it on the question), and try to think of everything that happened in that decade. You'll probably be able to think of something that can be related to the essay. If you use some common sense and logic, you can triangulate using the information you do know to figure out the things you don't. That doesn't always work, but if you're completely stuck, that can help.
So you need to know the general trends for the decades/centuries. Try to have a reasonably good order of the presidents and what years they were in the White House.
The AP isn't going to ask you something completely obscure and esoteric. You probably know the answer (If you've been doing most of the work), you just need to rack your brains and get it onto the paper.
For what it's worth, I was also a nervous wreck before the test. The day before, I nearly shat myself in fear. In the practices, I had trouble outlining the essays. But it really wasn't that bad and on test day, the essays were pretty easy. Good luck! |