Customer Reviews

Cracking the AP World History Exam, 2004-2005 (College Test Prep)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a sophomore taking AP World History, I know first-hand that there is a lot of information to memorize and understand before taking the exam. Myself overwhelmed, I purchased this book two months before the exam, hoping to gain confidence and to consolidate my knowledge of world history into a clearer, more organized understanding of what I would need to know for the exam.
While I would assume that this book is best when used with a year-long course, I'd even say that it could be used for independent study. True, this book does not delve into the unnecessary details of each event in history, for if it did it would be thousands of pages long and would likely accomplish little more than a dense textbook does. However, all major events are covered, along with every major civilization and occurrence.
Additionally, the Princeton Review managed to employ the use of every-day vocabulary to make difficult topics much easier to conquer.
The use of bolding to emphasize the most important names, terms, and events really helped me to organize my own knowledge and to focus on the most important information.
I have skimmed other AP World History review books, such as Peterson's and Barron's, but I do feel that the Princeton Review's is the most helpful and conveniently written.
Overall, this book has truly helped me to feel more confident and prepared for the exam. It has proven an invaluable learning tool for me, and hopefully it will help me to reach my ultimate goal on the AP World History Exam.

Today I took the AP World History Exam for 2004. Thanks to this book, I felt like I had ABSORBED world history into my brain. It provides a very good detailed AND easy to understand review. However I feel that I crammed in the last review pages of this book in on the last minute so I couldn't learn all of the info. But overall, if you don't procrastinate, this is an EXCELLENT study guide. It also provides two practice tests and some really good advice on how to bust through the essay questions in an organized way. Plus, it includes some sample essay questions. I would highly recommend buying this book.

Cracking the APWH Exam is easily the best of the study guides for APWH out there and I've tried them all. For one thing, the author, Monty Armstrong, actually teaches the course and is an experienced APWH Table Leader at the readings (unlike the authors of the other study guides who, as far as I can tell, have no experience with the AP history programs). It's written in a lively style and a lot of practical advice. Very well done.

Ok...
1. First and foremost, its easy and actually intersting (*gasp! imagine that)to read. The author writes in very casual/ informal manner so you don't have to interpret the usual academic style of writing found in most history textbooks. Plus there are pictures! which help speed the reading (bascailly maps and charts which are great if your a visual learner)

2. This book is organized. Not only does each chapter ( chapters are split into the major time periods,so its in loose chronological order) have an outline that gives you a heads up on what your about to read, but theres also a summary in the end of each chap. explaining the overall social, ecomonic ect.. developments of the world. which leads to my third reason...

3. The author understands that you (or whoevers using this book) are going to be taking the World history AP exam, meaning that for three hours of that dreaded day you will be writing three essays ( one being the change over time) that will test how well you understand the BIG PICTURE (this is, after all WORLD history), not just specific facts. Princeton does a super job referring back on past events when it explains, for example "current" movements such as the Rennisance, so that you understand the cause-effect.

4. The princeton book also anticipates the compare/ contrast providing sample compare/contrst Q and A blurbs scattered throughtout the book that correlate with what your reading..for example when it talks about russia in the 1400's it has a blurb contrasting Russia and western europe and when it explains industrial revolution in Europe, it has a blurb comparing the IR in Europe and Japan...so very very helpful in seeing how and why things relate/ or don't.

5. The book has 2 practice tests. So it doesn't have six like some of the others but the tests have QUALITY in that the questions are very similar to those i encountered on the exam. Plus, they have detailed explanations of why the answer is right AND why the others are wrong.

so...now that you've spent 10 min. reading my review STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND PURCHASE THE BOOK!

oh..and if your wondering how i did... i passed...........................................WITH FLYYYING COLORS!!!

I'm a junior and I decided to self-study the AP World History in January. As it turned out, I was inundated with work until, say, last week. Basically, I had barely started studying. I got this book, skipped a few days of school, and studied VERY hard. Today I took the exam, and I'm about 99% sure I got a 5. I knew more facts than I could care to write down, I knew dates, I knew the essay topics. This book was so well-organized that I was pull off all of that in under a week, however, I still have another six APs to go :(

Prior to taking my first AP last year (sophomore year), I had come to amazon.com to find the best World History AP book to buy. The Princeton Review stood out with its superb ratings and great comments and so I went on a limb and bought it and have not regretted it since.

About 95% of the kids taking the WHAP, used the ugly-coverd BARRON's edition and the other 5% got the Princeton Review which proved to be a much better choice. It had sample questions with thorough explanations, context ideal for our age, and practices test that were VERY similar to the ones on the AP.

I studied 1.5-2 weeks prior to the actual test and made a 4. Another kid studied only over the weekend and pulled a 3. If given enough time (3 weeks-a month with evenly timed study sessions), you too can get a 4 or 5. I typically made 86-88s in my history class but come exam time, this book really pulled through.

This book, of course, doesn't cover many details, yet it gives you a sense of what has been happening throughout the history. Anybody either takes the AP World History, or wants to have a preview of world history should take a look at this book. I recommend it.

Note: Very easy to understand.

My AP World History Teacher last year reccommended that everyone in the class buy this book, and none of us regretted it. It's written by one of the people who works on the AP World test- which seems like a pretty obvious advantage to me. It written clearly and on a level that should be accessable to anyone (and anyone who thinks it's cheesy hasn't read my US History textbook). Now, I was lucky enough to have a really fantastic teacher, but on the block schedule (which meant we only had about 4 and 1/2 months to learn the history of the world) our class had fantastic pass rates. Out of our class of 25, 10 people got 5's, 10 people got 4's, 4 people got 3's, and only one person ended up with a 2. I only studied for about 2 weeks and I got a 5. I would reccomend this book without qualms to anyone taking the AP World test.

I use the Princeton Review for everything. I hate textbooks and as an enviromentalist, I hate how schools just use a textbook for everything. This review was excellent and was a concise review. Take some notes on this book, usng its first grader reading level style, and you will be bound to get at least a 3. I got a 5 on the exam (I found out yesterday) and am a sophmore and this book helped me so much. I reccommend just going through some topics online though. The review part is great for the MC but the essays are a little more detailed. So just know some facts for the essays (especially "wow they know there stuff" facts) and it will be great. If you love history, this book is great and interesting. The tests in the back are much harder than the real exam, and they say you need to answer 50/70 to get a 3, but that is more like a 4/5. If you can answer the 50 and know the essays, you will get a 4 guaranteed. Don't read the essay description. They go a little OCD on it and you will run out of time on the exam. If you are homeschooled, for the essay I reccoment visiting a teacher for help on it...I'm sure they'll be pleased. There are only 2 exams, so use sparingly. Other than that, it is a great book and left a good impression

i think it is perfect because it is split perfectly into the five major time periods that are studied in AP world history. it is a good wrap it all up device for what you did in class that week or whatever. if you study both your text book and this - you wil definatly pass the exam.