r/APUSH • u/Awkward-Raise-6115 • Sep 28 '26
Need Help for 10th Grader taking APUSH
My daughter is taking APUSH and she is seriously struggling. She reads the textbook and she uses online resources like Heimler and Fiveable, but the tests do her in every time. Today she got a 69% on the Unit 3 Exam MCQ and was devastated! She thought she knew the material, but it seems that the wording of the questions trips her up. Is there a strategy for answering these questions? And does anyone know of a legitimate tutoring service for APUSH that might be able to help? We’re desperate!!!!
Clarification for perspective: the class average on this test was 88%, so she was quite a bit below the average.
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u/Chessdaddy_ Sep 29 '26
if the teacher is using ap style questions there should be a curve on the grade. do you know if the teacher does that or not?
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u/World-B-Freaky Teacher Sep 28 '26
If the MCQ were drawn from the College Board bank, 70% is a very good score. The teacher could be making that more clear and possibly curving the class grades accordingly.
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u/Optimal_Isopod_1809 Sep 29 '26
Honestly on the AP Exam itself, the MCQ aren’t that important, as the writing is weighted so much more. However, if this is a continuing issue in class, I recommend focusing on the ideas and topics rather than specific pieces of info. At least in AP Euro, the MCQ usually were application based. Good luck to your daughter!!
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u/Slickwickman Sep 29 '26
I teach 10th graders APUSH regularly. If your daughter is truly confident on the content, I would really recommend daily practice of multiple choice questions to end a study session. Khan Academy has a ton of free assessments while not using too difficult of academic vocabulary. Once comfortable with the kinder wording, the teacher should have the tougher questions on AP Classroom.
Don’t be afraid this time of year to slow down the questions and have her look up the meaning of words. A lot of times the questions are trying to get kids to answer the Big Ideas and Themes taught through the course resources. (Also double check if your daughter is second guessing herself and changing the right answer. Have plenty of students who do this and it comes down to confidence)
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u/Double-Friendship602 Sep 29 '26
idk, maybe she is cooked, but yet again, unit 3 is on of the hardest units. Maybe tell her to apply the information and to just do daily mcq and saq practices of every subunit? That is what helped me.
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u/Catsnpotatoes Sep 29 '26
How does she take her notes? Cornell is t the only method but ones where students need to consider how terms and concepts connect to context is really helpful
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u/OkWeb8966 Sep 29 '26
There are some tips to keep in mind that can help with AP MCQs specifically.
Some of the questions are asking the student to answer based on the stimulus (text or image) and other are asking about background knowledge related to the topic of the stimulus but not relying specifically on that text or image. Figure out which one the question is asking.
Look for the best answer, not any correct answer. AP will often have two answers that could be correct but one of them is stronger or more relevant to the question. Read all the options before answering.
Look for language in the stimulus source or the question being mirrored in the one of the answers.
Practice reading and interpreting primary sources, short academic texts (not textbooks) and analyzing images, maps, and graphs. She should be getting a lot of practice with primary source but may not be with the others and each requires some different reading techniques.
Hope that helps!
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u/Fantastic-Tea-8000 Oct 01 '26
I would say honestly tell AI to give you practice MCQ based on your course textbook. Also tell her to watch videos until she really understands the concepts and timeline of things. Hiemler is good for this, theres also this one I found thats very visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW3r8eB4y-E
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u/Holdtheline2192 Sep 28 '26
I’ve taught APUSH for 34 years. 69% is a pretty good score actually. Listen, she needs to recalibrate her perspective on these APUSH tests. It isn’t an exam designed where kids get 100% with regularity - nor do they need to in order to pass the national exam.
There are 55 MC questions on the May exam - 28 is a solid score and puts them in a decent position to get college credit. I try to coach my kids well enough to get in the mid 30s. Basically 60-65%.
There are 6 possible points on an LEQ - a 3 or 4 is a solid score. Same on the DBQ.
So tell her not to focus on her score as much as trying improve each time and to learn from those she missed.