~ If you are one to go into a state of mind where you don't do school work until October rolls around, take some time over summer to ease into the work that comes along. Don't try to pile it on all at once two weeks before school starts. Instead, start sometime at the end of July and slowly build up the work load you put on yourself every day
~Even though the Summer Homework sheet says that you don't have to do Ch. 4 Reading Notes, do them anyways. Procrastination seems inevitable for most people.
~Get into the habit of doing 1-2 terms a day (so that when school does start, you are not doing 16 terms the day before the test (heh heh...guilty as charged ^.^))
~During the last week of summer, get into the habit of reading at least a section of the book a day (the big bold headings with the little diamond) because that will help you to keep that kind of diligence when school starts so that you aren't on Ch. 20 and still saying, "Oh, I'll start reading the chapter tomorrow...I have time..."
~You are going to need 3 notebooks, not two (unless you do your reading notes in Word): one for reading notes, one for lecture notes, and one for terms (get a BIG notebook solely for terms)
~If you usually aren't a "try-hard", now is the time to start because it comes in handy to have constant motivation to keep up with everything
~Don't overload yourself too early or too late, that can just lead to you forgetting everything. Make a "schedule" of what you need to do every night. Over the summer, this usually means half of a section and a term everyday. Over the school year, this means one whole section and two or three terms a day
~Do the maps, timeline (of terms and main events), and Short Answer questions (shown in mass study guide on first day of school). Even though most people don't pay attention of them, they are helpful tools to use, especially for Chapter Tests and for the AP Exam in May.
If you are a former APUSH student of Mr. Johnston, what worked best for you? Did you wish you did anything differently so that you didn't feel so far behind when school started? Leave a comment down below!