The U.S History decision: APUSH vs Regular

When springtime comes, current sophomores will be faced with the dilemma of choosing which U.S. History class to take. Although the extra grade point given to students taking AP U.S. History (APUSH) may seem tempting, APUSH requires students to be very proactive and organized, according to APUSH teacher Kim Anzalone.

The main difference between regular U.S. History and APUSH is the amount of curriculum that is covered. APUSH students have to study the colonial period up until the 20th century before the AP test in May. In contrast, regular U.S. History’s curriculum does not cover the colonial period, so students have less material to cover in a longer amount of time.

“The main motivation for teaching the colonial period to the APUSH students is because the students would miss out on more than half of the [questions on the] AP college board exams if we didn’t start in the colonial period,” Anzalone said.

Starting from this year, both regular and AP U.S. History classes’ grades are weighted. The three categories are classwork and homework, assessments and participation.

APUSH teacher Margarita Morelle says that grades are now weighted so that the teachers can easily gauge where the students are in the class.

“All of us AP teachers sat down and talked about how we can make the course better and more relevant for the students. This helped us [see] where to really help and support them and weighted grades is the best way to do that,” Morelle said.

All juniors must learn a new style of writing called a scholarly essay. Scholarly writing is based on proving a certain statement with evidence and is often a foreign style to students when they first enter the class.

“[Scholarly essays] are emphasized more in APUSH. There is some writing in regular but not at the level or depth that you see in [the AP classes],” Anzalone said.

According to Anzalone, organized students are often the most successful in her class.

“I do not care how smart [the students] are. If they can manage their time and keep themselves organized and on track, then they will be successful in this class,” she said. “[If] the average student makes sure they get everything done, they will pass this class.”

Although some students would be attracted to take the class for the extra grade point, senior Sofia Chang was not one of them and instead opted to take regular U.S. History.

“Even though everyone I knew was taking APUSH, I decided that it wasn’t really something that I wanted to invest all my energy into,” Chang said. “I like it better when I can work harder on a few classes and not take 5 different AP’s and struggle along and not learning anything.”

Despite the differences in U.S. History curriculum, Anzalone claims that the whole history department has the same goal—to teach students how to “think.”

“It sounds obvious, but so many people just blurt things out; they’ll say something, it happens, and they never even ask the why or the how,” Anzalone said. “That’s what all our assignments and lectures are geared towards: why something happens and what effect it has.”