In what seemed to be five minutes into the essay portion of the exam, the AP World History exam proctor proclaimed, “Fifteen minutes left!” Naturally, I panicked. I went from neatly outlining the knowledge I collected from ten documents to hastily concluding the Document-Based Question to messily conveying that I had, in fact, learned something that year on the Change and Continuity over Time Essay.
I am not so much of an adrenaline junkie to have left myself with so little time to complete my essays on purpose. I expected to keep track of time well and quickly analyze and understand anything the AP test creators threw at me. I didn’t factor in hand cramps to my time and, to be honest, I didn’t stress essays enough when practicing.
It was my school’s first year teaching the course and it was my first AP class. No one was prepared for the mental drainage three continuous hours of attempting to rapidly recall thousands of years of history would bring. My teacher would generally tell the class ahead of time what the essay would be over, and class time never allowed us to practice a whole test in a school setting. However, through analyzing (Oh, what AP World has taught me!) the shortcomings of my AP experience, I gained knowledge for what to do next time.
First of all, know that you won’t be able to know the answer to everything that’s on the test. By practicing and timing yourself, you can get an idea of what types of questions will be asked and what time periods or areas of the world the AP generally focuses on. Anticipate essay prompts by looking at old AP essay prompts and again analyzing major time periods or events - the decolonization of Africa, Han China in comparison to Rome, etc. - the AP refers to often. Focus on the underlying themes in history, such as class struggles. The key to any AP exam is to think ahead of time for what they’ll ask you, and you can get a good idea of that by looking at old exams. Do some timed exams throughout the year and take a few untimed exams just to get a feel for the questions.
Buy an AP practice book (Barron’s or Princeton Review, preferably) and use the conveniently organized outlines provided on course-notes.org! I’ve found a few other helpful websites (links at the bottom) for you to use. Remember the best to approach the AP is to prepare so nothing comes as a surprise on the day of the test.
http://wps.ablongman.com/long_stearns_wcap_4/18/4646/1189428.cw/index.html
This is an online AP World History textbook with student and teacher resources.
http://www.advancedplacementhistory.com/index.html
This site has study notes for various AP History tests with PowerPoint presentations and games.
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/subjects.html
The College Board provides some help with how to approach the AP exams, with specific subject area assistance.
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/ap/
Take a short diagnostic to find out your weak points and what you should focus on to do well. (Note: this requires registration with sparknotes.com, but it’s free!)
---Sahifah Ansari---
