American History

My junior year of high school, I followed up my success of passing the European History AP test by taking the American History course. I have to say the teacher was not quite as dynamic or interesting as my first AP teacher, other than the fact that she looked like Alice Cooper. I say that in a loving way now, although it may have been less loving when we said it at the time.

She actually did know her stuff and did a lot to help us prepare, including several after school study sessions to prepare for the big test. She had essay questions from old versions of the test she would have us practice answering and grade us according to a similar rubric.

To tell you the truth, I don't remember a ton about the content of the course, probably because being American History, it blends in more with the history I've learned all my life, where the European History class covered material that was quite different than what I'd learned anywhere else.

The way the test is set up is that you get a multiple choice section and three essays. If I remember right, one essay was required, and for the other two essays, you could pick among three different questions for both. One of the questions I answered had been almost exactly the same as one our teacher had just barely covered with us in a practice test session, so we were all excited to see that question.

The one I still wonder about to this day is the third essay. I didn't write it, yet I still passed the test. I didn't know anything about any of the three possible questions. I wrote not more than about 5 or 6 words, not even in a complete sentence, as tangential topics or themes related to one of the questions. Maybe the third essay counts less, since they figure you might run out of time when you're working on it. Maybe I did so great on the question our teacher had just covered. Maybe I aced the multiple choice questions. Maybe...it was a miracle. I don't know.