AP® World History Crash Course Book + Online

Jay P. Harmon

• Publisher: Research & Education Association
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780738687421
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Studienhilfen
• Subtopic: Erweiterte Platzierung

REA's Crash Course® for the AP® World History Exam - Gets You a Higher Advanced Placement® Score in Less Time
2nd Edition - Updated for the 2017 Exam

Crash Course is perfect for the time-crunched student, the last-minute studier, or anyone who wants a refresher on the subject.

Are you crunched for time? Have you started studying for your Advanced Placement® World History exam yet? How will you memorize everything you need to know before the test? Do you wish there was a fast and easy way to study for the exam AND boost your score?

If this sounds like you, don't panic. REA's Crash Course for AP® World History is just what you need. Our Crash Course gives you:

Targeted, Focused Review - Study Only What You Need to Know
Written by an AP® World History teacher, the targeted review chapters prepare students for the test by only focusing on the important topics and themes tested on the new 2017 AP® World History exam.

The easy-to-read review chapters in outline format cover everything AP® students need to know for the exam: The Ancient Near East, The Middle Ages, Early Modern Europe, Asia, World War I & II, The Cold War, and more. The author also includes must-know key terms all AP® students should know before test day.

Expert Test-taking Strategies
Our experienced AP® World History teacher shares detailed question-level strategies and explains the best way to answer the multiple-choice and essay questions you'll encounter on test day. By following our expert tips and advice, you can boost your overall point score!

Take REA's FREE Practice Exam
After studying the material in the Crash Course, go to the online REA Study Center and test what you've learned. Our free practice exam features timed testing, detailed explanations of answers, and automatic scoring analysis. The exam is balanced to include every topic and type of question found on the actual AP® exam, so you know you're studying the smart way.

Whether you're cramming for the test at the last minute, looking for extra review, or want to study on your own in preparation for the exams - this is the study guide every AP® World History student must have.

When it's crucial crunch time and your Advanced Placement® exam is just around the corner, you need REA's Crash Course for AP® World History!

PART I

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Eight Keys to Success on the AP World History Exam

“So . . . what do I need to know?” you’re asking yourself. Oh, not much …. only more than ten thousand years of history. Wait, don’t throw away this book and run screaming from the room. First, take a deep breath and examine the facts: Approximately 300,000 high school students just like you will take the AP World History exam this school year and about half of them will earn college credit. Why not you? You’re clearly a clever and motivated person—after all, you’re reading this Crash Course study guide.

Good news: You don’t have to know everything from the beginnings of humans to the early twenty-first century to do well on the AP World History exam. By studying efficiently and strategically, you can get college credit and add that special AP-credit sparkle to your transcripts. Use the following keys to success:

1.Know the Content and Format of the Exam

The AP World History exam content is broken down into the following chronological categories. The column “Weight on Test (Percent)” refers to the percentage of the exam that will come from each historical period.

	Historical Periods	Weight on Test (Percent)
Period 1	Technological and Environmental Transformations, to c. 600 BCE	5
Period 2	Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, c. 600 BCE to c. 600 CE	15

	Historical Periods	Weight on Test (Percent)
Period 3	Regional and Interregional Interactions, c. 600 CE to c. 1450	20
Period 4	Global Interactions, c.1450 to c. 1750	20
Period 5	Industrialization and Global Integration, c. 1750 to c. 1900	20
Period 6	Accelerating Global Change and Realignments, c. 1900 to the present	20

By studying the chart and knowing that there are 55 multiple-choice questions, you might deduce that there aren’t many questions from Period 1. This helps you focus your plan of study. In addition, though the AP World History exam states that it covers human history “to the present,” the reality is that you won’t be expected to know much beyond the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

The latest updates to AP World History exam content and structure can be found at http://apcentral.collegeboard.org.

2.Know Your Competition

Don’t be intimidated by your competition—you have an advantage over most of them by paying attention to the advice in this book. About 70 percent of students who take the AP World History exam are sophomores, and most of them are taking their first AP exam. The next biggest group is composed of seniors, then juniors and freshmen. You already read that about half of all AP World History test-takers pass the exam and get college credit by scoring a 3, 4, or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

Caution: Don’t get overconfident and think you’ve got it made just because you’ve read this far. Taking an AP exam and receiving college credit takes a lot of focused work. You need serious, organized preparation to be successful.

3.Know How the Exam Is Scored

The AP World History exam has two main parts: Section 1, which consists of multiple-choice questions and short-answer questions, and Section 2, which has two essay questions. The multiple-choice portion is scored by machine, contains 55 questions, and must be completed in 55 minutes. It is worth 40% of the total exam score. Just like any multiple-choice test, you will answer some questions very quickly and others will take more time. When the multiple-choice part of the exam is over, you will then answer three out of four short-answer questions in 40 minutes, worth 20% of the total exam score. Then you will have a short break and return for the essay part of the exam. Bring a snack and a bottle of water for the break.

In Section 2 of the exam, you will write two essays: a document-based question (DBQ) and a long essay. You will have 100 minutes to complete both essays. The DBQ is worth 25% of your overall score and the long essay is worth 15%. Each essay is read and scored by a trained AP World History teacher or a World History college professor. Your essay scores are then added to your Section 1 scores to arrive at your final AP score.

You’ll find more tips about tackling the multiple-choice and short-answer questions, as well as the essays, in the discussions about test-taking strategies found in Part IV of this book.

4.Know What Your Final Score Means

The College Board uses a formula to rank your combined multiple-choice, short-answer, and free-response score into five categories:

5 = Extremely Well Qualified

4 = Well Qualified

3 = Qualified

2 = Possibly Qualified

1 = No Recommendation

A passing grade on all AP exams is a 3. About 10 percent of AP World History test takers earn a score of 5, but keep reading—the scoring range is more generous than you think. If you get about half of the exam’s multiple-choice questions right and score average on the short-answer and essay parts of the exam, you should reach a “3.” That doesn’t mean the exam is easy—the opposite is true.

In AP World History, about half of all exam takers make a “3” or better. Many colleges give course credit with a score of 3; other colleges take nothing below a 4, while still others give college credit only for 5s. Be aware that colleges and universities can change their AP acceptance policies whenever they want. Stay up-to-date by checking college AP policies on their websites.

5.Know How AP World History Is Different from Traditional World History

You might think that history is history, but AP World History is different from traditional approaches: Learning lists of “Kings and Wars” or “The West and the Rest” doesn’t cut it. The AP World History test developers want you to see the big picture. They want you to make connections across the globe and across time and to analyze common human experiences like migration, trade, religion, politics, and society. Think of it this way: Studying AP World History is like learning American History. You don’t examine the histories of 50 individual states—instead you learn about the important themes, people, and events of the fifty states. The same idea applies to AP World History: think globally, not nationally, and in most cases you’ll do well. A big tip: If your World History textbook doesn’t say “Advanced Placement” or “AP” on the cover, look at the introduction to see if the authors discuss concepts like global history and making connections between civilizations across time and place. If not, you may need to find a different textbook that explains history in these ways.

6.Know What You Don’t Need to Know

Nobody expects you to know everything about World History in order to do well on the AP exam. First, AP World History is about the human experience, so you won’t need to know when the Big Bang was or what killed the dinosaurs. AP World History is more about the big picture than the little details, so you also don’t need to memorize all the monarchs of England, the battles of the Crimean War, or the name of Alexander the Great’s horse (Bucephalus, by the way).

Second, 95 percent of the AP World History exam covers 600 BCE to the present, so you don’t need to memorize the entire Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, but you do need to know the importance of codes of law from early civilizations.

Third, what is “BCE” anyway? That’s fast becoming the way historians denote the traditional term “BC.” It stands for “Before the Common Era,” so naturally the Common Era, or “CE,” is how the AP World History exam refers to the traditional “AD.”

7.Know How to Use This Crash Course to Build a Plan for Success on the AP World History Exam

This Crash Course is based on a careful study of the trends in both course study and exam content.

In Part I, you’ll be introduced to the AP World History course and exam. In Chapter 2, you’ll find a list of key terms and concepts that you must know for success.

In Part II—Chapters 3 through 19—you will find chronological reviews of important political, economic, cultural, environmental, and social connections in world history. These reviews are based on the current AP World History Curriculum Framework—the College Board’s guide for teachers and exam creators.

Part III, Key Concepts and Themes (Chapters 20 through 26), includ...