<p>S is taking AP Art History, and there does not seem to be a good review book out there to help prepare for the exam. One book (author Rudman) pops up in searches, but the customer reviews on Amazon say that it is worse than useless, and that the practice questions are completely unrelated to the actual test. Do any parents have students who have taken this test (or are there students out there who have), how did they prepare, and how difficult a test is it? It seems strange that with all the AP prep materials out there there is a vacuum for this subject.</p>
<p>2mch2sn, my DD is currently in AP Art History and is growing exceedingly frustrated. She has a high A in the class, but feels that her class will in no way be prepared for the AP exam. According to the AP syllabus they were provided at the beginning of the year, her class is very behind. She has mentioned this to her teacher several times, but the teacher (very nice, but a bit ditzy) doesn't appear to be concerned. DD came home yesterday and said she'd had it and was planning to drop the class at the end of this semester (end of this week). She took the class because she loves art, but she's finding that her frustration with the disorganization of the class far outweighs the enjoyment of the art they study. She said there is no way they will be prepared for the test in May. I told her I felt sure she could study on her own and do well on the test. That's when she got really upset and said that would be great, but here it is mid-December and they have not yet received a textbook! They are using poor-quality copies that the teacher gives them as they go. She will not make copies for them in advance. I support DD in whatever decision she makes, but I did tell her she will absolutely have to speak with her GC before making a final decision. I don't want it to look poorly on her transcript. It's a shame because she has a very high grade in there, but is so frustrated that she's just no longer interested in sticking with it.</p>
<p>SplashMom, sorry your DD is having such a tough time. My S is also a little frustrated. He has a good teacher, but she has been absent quite a bit due to serious illness in the family. Since S attends private school, we were required to buy a textbook at the beginning of the school year. I believe that he is using Gardner's Art Through the Ages. It was quite pricey, but we were able to get a used copy online and save a little money. It would probably be worth purchasing it for your DD, or check the collegeboard's AP art history course description; they also list some other textbooks. They also list internet sources for viewing the art works. That is mostly how S looks at them, although they have had a trip to the Metropolitan Museum in NY a couple of weeks ago. I am just not sure how well prepared he will be for the actual AP test. So far his course tests have been pretty tough, but he is carrying around an A-. I checked the stats on the collegeboard site and they list the mean grade on this AP test as 3.1. For comparison I checked AP European History and the mean grade on that was 2.97. Here is the link for the art history scores: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/arthistory/dist.html?arthist%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/arthistory/dist.html?arthist</a> They also have sample test questions, but I don't know how typical they are.</p>