Jesus Barrios
Author

About These Notes

These are the notes I used to score high on the AP United States History exam. I’ve cleaned them up and made them easier to read with the help of Scholarly Mind. 

About Scholarly Wings

At Scholarly Wings, our mission is to support education for all students. If my old notes can help someone new, I’m happy to share them. Everything here is completely free. You can find more notes and resources on our website.

If you’d like to support us and help us reach even more students, you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok.

My Comments on AP United States History

These notes are a lot—over 200 pages long. I wouldn’t recommend trying to cram for the APUSH exam since there’s so much information to learn. However, these notes cover everything you need to know to do well. That said, you don’t need to memorize everything to pass. If you focus on understanding the big ideas, you’ll be fine. But if you’re going for a higher score, these notes will definitely help you get there.

AP United States History is extremely long as it focuses solely on the United States. If you're coming from AP World History, then you'll be fine as you are going to use most of same skills such as essay writing, but just be prepared to learn more specific information. By the way, these notes do not give LEQ or DBQ writing tips so make sure you're paying attention in class for that. My biggest recommendation would be to understand continuity and similarities through different time periods as it will help you out with complexity and the historical situations regarding certain events. This is the one class I wouldn't not cram for as there is so much you need to know. You'll be in good shape if you understand all of the big ideas, but you'll need to have mastery understanding to push you to that 5 (if you're going for that).

I've compiled all of the necessary information after reading the textbooks and actually sitting down for the exam. These notes will help students who may be discouraged by big textbooks or are just looking for good study resources.

We will be posting progress checks on our @scholarlywings TikTok as you progress through these notes through the school year, so stay tuned!

Our Digital PDF Book

AP United States History Digital Book PDF