AP U.S. History Exam Sees High Schoolers Across America United By The Same Test Memes As 'APUSH' Resurges Online

May 6th, 2022 - 4:20 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

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A meme showing Manifest Destiny representing a confidence APUSH performance, and a less confident Tweet.

It’s the first week of May, which means that in high schools across America, teens are sitting down once again to take an exam that is equal parts feared and loved: the Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) exam by the College Board. As always, the annual event has triggered many history memes and test prep memes around the web.


The APUSH exam takes place at 8 a.m. local time on Friday across the country, and its questions (especially the historical documents-based DBQ) are traditionally a reliable source of memes, the APUSH milk memeing of 2019 being an especially prominent example.


Many students dreaded the exam, posting on social media platforms like Twitter about how they didn't have confidence in their teachers and hadn’t studied enough — sending the hashtag "#APUSH" into the trending section.


A great number of those studying at the last second praised figures like John Green and Steve Heimler, a teacher and YouTuber who offers online prep courses and videos for the test and the types of questions it asks.


After the exam took place (at 8 a.m. this morning) many students grieved and memed that their brain cows did not produce the desired knowledge-milk. While it is technically forbidden to post and share online about the exam, many did — some even renaming their accounts things like “hey college board please don’t come after me.”


Some students took the chance to criticize America for its flaws, particularly on the LEQ (long-essay question) that asks students to write an essay.


The APUSH exam marks a specific social and meme moment that is highly specific, but very general: We’ve all experienced test anxiety, and we’ve all joked about it. All we can wish the students who took the AP U.S. History exam today our well wishes for a good score … hopefully there's some meme history on there as well.



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