Hey guys! I took the AP World History exam this past year (2017) and because I felt confident enough with my score, I am giving you some tips and tricks on how to do well on it.
A quick overview: The College Board splits World History into six time periods: Unit One (history - 600 BCE), Unit Two (600 BCE - 600 CE), Unit Three (600 CE - 1450 CE), Unit Four (1450 CE - 1750 CE), Unit Five (1750 CE - 1914 CE), and Unit Six (1914 CE - Present). The exam is split into three sections: the multiple choice, the short answers, and the essays. You have 55 minutes for 55 questions for the multiple choice, 50 minutes for four short answers, and 1.5 hours for two essays (I think they're changing this next year?? not sure). The two essays are a document based question (DBQ) and a long essay question (LEQ). The DBQ is where they give you 7-8 documents and using those, you have to write an essay about the topic, and the LEQ is where they give you two different topics and you choose one of them to write about.
A little personal story: My AP World History class was a mess. Our tests were crazy hard because it tested us on very specific facts from our textbook. Our teacher also expected us to take notes on 20-30 pages of dense textbook pages, and not having discovered the studyblr community then, it was my biggest struggle of freshman year. My advice is mostly based on what other AP World classes are like and also some personal experience.
General tips...
Buy the Princeton Review prep book for AP World History. It has really good content that doesn't have too much information, and this is a great supplement for the school year (basically self study from this book alongside learning about it during the school year).
Buy the Crash Course prep book for short term review. I personally didn't use it because by the time I learned about there was only 2? weeks until the AP exam, so I didn't think it was really worth it, but some of my friends that used it said that it was very helpful because it was so condensed.
Start studying early. I know its already pretty late in the summer, but you can start now! There is so much information in AP World to learn (I mean, its like 10,000 years of work crammed into one year!). My class quickly fell behind on content, and we never even got to learn about the Cold War in class :(. So if you don't want to self study the difficult events, start studying now!
For pre-studying, I would recommend trying to get through the first two units because not much was going on in those time periods. Also, its a lot easier to juggle themes in these time periods, and basically these time period are easy to understand.
If your class does start falling behind in content (I would say the French Revolution by winter break is pretty good), your best bet at succeeding is reviewing and studying ahead during spring break. Really focus on studying ahead because it's really important that you get to current day events (but not too specific luckily). You can briefly focus on previous chapters, but at this point, having a somewhat good cover of everything is better than knowing mostly everything super well but not knowing some things at all. I made the mistake of studying everything from the Cold War to present day in the last week. I had several sleepless nights, but this just proves that the Princeton Review book is actually very good:(
DO NOT FOCUS ON FACTS, FOCUS ON THEMES!!! This has got to be my most important tidbit. AP World History is more focused on the trends than trivial facts (unlike the SAT II World History). Take some notes on the general trends of each time period (you can find them in the AP World History Course Description) AND KEEP THEM IN MIND WHILE YOU ARE READING YOUR PREP BOOK.
Completely contradicting what I've said before, know some very detailed facts (lol). These can help you understand the larger trends going on, and they could be useful for the short answers and essays. However, I would recommend remembering these facts by using them as evidence for the trends.
Unless your class was like mine in which every week we had to remember very trivial information about history that consumed all of our time, then you want to go over everything you've ever learned about world history every one or two weeks. This will definitely help in the long run when you're planning out a study plan because you already remember so much information!
Getting into the actual exam...
Go quickly on the multiple choice. As with any multiple choice, it's better if you finish earlier so you can check your work.
In order to fully understand the content on the multiple choice and the format, take a practice test. I found that the Barron's practice test were the most similar to the actual exam, so it might be worth it to invest in one. Or maybe you could borrow one from a friend. Either way, take practice tests— you won't regret it.
Understand the essay formats and what they're looking for. The AP World essays mostly test you on writing like a historian, not an English professor. There are some key components in these essays that you must get, otherwise your score will start to slowly drop. For example, if you have a perfectly written DBQ but forget the contextualization, your DBQ score will go down. Just keep in mind all of the parts while writing your essay, its simple enough.
ANSWER THE QUESTION!! A lot of people (apparently) don't do well on the essays because they start rambling and talking about a completely different topic. As long as you answer the question by supporting it with facts, you will get a majority of the essay points.
Quality ≠ Quantity. The recommended length for the DBQ is 4-5 pages while the recommended length for the LEQ is 3-4 pages. COMPLETELY SCRATCH THIS INFORMATION. My DBQ was a little over 2 pages, and my LEQ was exactly two pages, and I am very happy with my score. As long as you answer the question, your essay doesn't need to be 4-5 pages.
Follow the recommended timing for the essays (I think they're adding time for both essays next year not sure though). I almost didn't have enough time to finish my LEQ because i spent too much time on the DBQ. Even if your not done with the first essay you were writing, once that time is up, move onto the next essay. Perhaps the next essay is easier than the first so you might be able to finish early and go back to your other one.
You have a lot of time to write the short answers. They're supposed to be "short", but you nearly have a page for each question. 12.5 minutes for each question is plenty of time to think through your answers and write a beautiful response. But, if you're having trouble with timing, practice practice practice!
A lot of people this year lost a lot of points on the short answers probably because it was much more detailed oriented than the multiple choice. Each short answer had three sub-questions that were like "List one example... List another example... List a third example...", and it definitely got annoying, and my brain definitely had a hard time coming up with three examples, but as long as you remember the trends, you could probably make something up related to the trends of that time period, and still get the point for that short answer question.
Wow, if you got to here thank you for reading my complaints/tips and good luck with AP World History! It's a challenging but rewarding experience. If you have any questions about AP World, leave me an ask, and I'll get back to you ASAP. Here are some helpful links when I got desperate...
AP World History Course Description
AP World History Practice FRQ's
AP World History Course Notes
Super Detailed AP World History Quizlet
Crash Course World History
Crash Course World History 2
Barron's AP World History Practice Test
Varsity Tutors Super Detailed AP World History Practice Tests
and of course...
History of Japan
History of the World, I Guess
PS. Sorry if this was too much information and long and ramble-y and unhelpful. I'm still new to advice posts/masterposts/blog posts and all of that pizzazz. Forgive me :)