AP European History

Scale of difficulty: 4

The class is heavily weighted on tests. The homework counts for 20 points and tests one hundred points and some other miscellaneous assignments. However, completing the homework is very important -  turning in partially completed homework is better than nothing. My grade actually plummeted to a C in the beginning because I didn't turn in one homework assignment, whoops.

After completing the class, some things I would recommend that allowed me to succeed in the class are:

• listen intently during class and really digest all the information
• this allowed me to thoroughly understand the material
• for certain chapters, make a timeline like the French Revolution
• for some chapters, every thing happens in a short amount of time and some questions are the test are straight-up asking the order for certain wars/ treaties
• memorize the important things
• yes, I know that's vague but you should already know what's important and what's not. Often, like I've said before, a lot of the questions are just facts rather than critical thinking
• once you've memorized the facts, understand the concepts
• like what was the cause and effect of an event and even relate it to another event in another unit! Tying it all together :)

On a brighter note, it's one of the more interesting classes at Troy! (That may just be because I enjoy history; it's so exciting!)

Resources:

• Liem's Afterschool Review Recordings
• Just need to download the file; no viruses, I promise!
• Annabelle's Review Page
• -made for Troy students!- check this one out for sure! It has some really helpful sites that I would place on here, but it would be redundant.
• AP Euro Notes
• compiles all the powerpoints onto a nice, pretty website.
• *some of the links don't work because the website is a decade old*
• Chapter Outlines
• for the tenth edition of the book. Just adjust accordingly.
• AP Euro Notes
• AP Euro Notes
• AP Practice Questions
• 1,000+ questions, but you can only answer the questions one time (very frustrating)
• organized by century and different topics (religion, social movements, art, politics, etc.)
• Flashcards
• a previous student's flashcards
• Lectures:
• Lectures
• professor from Berkeley's lectures on Euro
• really detailed, almost too detailed
• Khan Academy Videos
• mainly concentrated upon the French Revolution and Napoleon (I watched it before the test and got an A!)
• Hank's History Hour
• on iTunes so convenient to listen to on-the-go!
• Review Sheet
• more broad, not specifically for Troy (more tailored for the AP exam)
• More Review
• if you've read everything else... might as well!
• ACE Practice Tests
• practice tests tailored for our AP Euro textbook! 
• the questions are not very difficult

AP Computer Science

Summary: A conceptual class. You must understand the logic in order to succeed.

Just a hint when googling for help: end the question with "java", type the specific issue rather than the lab name.
ex: how to change str to str[]  java


I've compiled some of the sites I've found to aid me in my journey to understand how to program!

• CodingBat answers
• *this website isn't meant for copy and paste; it's to help you learn from your mistakes quickly!*
• Java Tutorial
• written by some unknown source... but helpful!
• Java Tutorial #2
• written by Oracle, I use this for EVERYTHING! (this and Stackoverflow)
• Collections Overview(list, maps, sets, quene)
• Java Tutorial #3
• since it's hosted on CodingBat, the videos are especially helpful for the CodingBat assignments 
• Methods for all classes
• it has all the methods for a class and it can be really helpful in looking for a specific method to use (I use this pretty often)
• How to Write Recursive Methods

These are more geared towards the actual AP test. 

• AP Comp Sci Review Part 1
• AP Comp Sci Review Part 2

2nd semester--

I have taken on a great challenge this year - AP Comp Sci. It's not a very tedious class because most of the actual 'work' is all class work. At first, I struggled a lot to understand how to code everything from correct syntax and complier-issue-free code. I have googled endlessly to help me with CodingBats, Warmups or labs. There are lots of great sites with lots of information and some sites which confuse me even more...

We've started GridWorld around two weeks ago and it'll be 25% of the AP test apparently. Who knew? I think GridWorld is really fun to play around with. It reminds me of the first time I coded in Alice or my first CLA lab (okay, maybe not the CLA lab). What is really essential to succeed in GridWorld is to complete the homework and actually practice using GridWorld so the concepts are deeply embedded into your memory. The homework is quite simple - just reading and answering questions. Helpful tip: Study for the first quiz!!

Here are some helpful links/ documents that will help you understand GridWorld more!

• Student Manual : Basically the Holy Grail to GridWorld. The homework that the teachers give correspond to this and the first few labs are also derived from this.
• GridWorld Solutions : Please, please don't just copy the answers from this, rather use this as a guide towards the right answer! Your grade will suffer if you don't understand and just copy since tests are 80% of your grade! :)

That's all for now!