Fall saw the sudden departure of former AP U.S. History teacher John Connor.  The return from winter break has seen something else: an increased intensity as APUSH teacher Tara Evans has brought in the new year with a plan to direct her classes on a better path to success.

Seeking advice from department head and AP World History (WHAP) teacher Kevin Finn, Evans has made changes in the effort to ensure that her students make a 3 or above on their AP test in May.

“Mr. Connor is a great teacher, but the homework and quiz habits of the students were not where they needed to be to pass the AP test,” Evans said. “My understanding is only about 34 to 36 percent of students passed the test.”

Now, much like WHAP, students are given a portion of a chapter to read, along with topics to write about. Accompanying these topics is a pop quiz that is randomly announced.

“I really don’t like the new changes, they really took me by surprise as well,” junior Caroline Appleby said.

However, the quizzes don’t have the same rules as quizzes from other classes.

“If you’re absent, since it’s a pop quiz, you won’t be required to take it, but you still can,” Evans said. “If you don’t take it, it just means one less daily grade in the grade book, it’s not enough to really hurt since its a daily grade.”

Even though the quizzes are not well liked, Evans is trying to make the transition as easy as possible.

“I didn’t want to change things overnight on them. It’s bad enough they had already lost a teacher, but then to lose someone and then have all these changes implemented immediately, I didn’t think would be the best thing, so I wanted to ease into it,” Evans said.

Although this change is bringing about a negative reaction from the juniors who thought they escaped WHAP’s vigorous ways, Finn assures there is a method to the madness.

“What I think it does is that it allows them to learn a little bit each night rather than waiting until doing all of the homework in one weekend,” Finn said. “It also helps them understand what we’re going to talk about in class because we usually refer to it the next day in class. They learn a little bit at a time so by the time May comes around, they’ve learned it all along the way rather than having to wait and relearn it all at the end.”

APUSH has taken on the motto that “practice makes perfect,” and the department is certain that it will translate into a higher percentage of students passing their AP tests in the spring.

“Last year 94 percent of the AP World History students passed, which was the highest we’ve ever had,” Finn said.