AP U.S. Government & Politics is a semester-long course for seniors that counts for five credits of history. The course gives students an in-depth view on U.S government politics, policy and practices. Because the class is a year’s worth of college material fit into one semester, it is advised that students be prepared for the tight structure and difficulty of the class (taking AP U.S. History is helpful).
As a student who never took AP U.S. History or any other advanced history class, it was harder for senior Rihana Mohamed to keep up with the consistent readings and fast-paced flow of information. For unit tests, she recommends studying for 2-3 hours, while for the smaller reading quizzes, she studied for around an hour.
“I think if you want to take this class, you have to actually really be interested in the subject and don't take it just because it’s AP,” Mohamed said. “It’s not an easy class and if you don't enjoy it, you'll hate it because of the amount of information that you learn. But if you're really interested in the government, you learn a lot from the class.”
Despite the difficulty of the class, Mohamed enjoyed the content that she learned throughout the semester, believing it to be necessary and important information.
“I actually liked the class just because it was really different from anything we've ever learned before,” Mohamed said. “And it wasn't like a continuation of something that we learned before. It was more like we were like learning our rights, which is actually something that we need to know and that we need to learn.”