<p>A friend of mine asked me for advice in choosing an AP. Choice for sophomore is eith AP Euro or AP World History. Any advice?</p>
<p>is there any difference in teacher? If so, go with the teacher that other students think highly of, AND gets great results, such as ~50% of class earning a 5.</p>
<p>Given that they both cover thousands of years, they are more survey than fact-driven like APUSH (but, you still need to know key dates, obviously). They also cover a lot of the same material. AP World would prepare friend well for SATII World.</p>
<p>At S's school Euro is for seniors and maybe 1 or 2 juniors. It is a very demanding class with a great, but hard, teacher. I think it would be tough for a soph.</p>
<p>Colleges tend to give credit for Euro more than for World. World is a very broad category, and most colleges do not have a corresponding course for World. At best, doing well on the World AP exam will get you general credit.</p>
<p>At my S & D's school, AP Euro is considered the harder class and is mostly taken by Seniors. My s found it very difficult when he took it and only earned a 3 on his exam - and that was with a lot of studying. I think it would be difficult for a sophomore, but if you are prepared to work hard I think it would be very rewarding class. I do not know much AP World History, as my s didn't take it and my d is an IB kid. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>thank you all</p>
<p>AP Euro is taken by sophomores at my son's school, and it is an extremely time-consuming course with a very large amount of reading material. Work on it started the summer before the class, with extra reading and a written report due the first day of class. By the time my son got to APUSH in his junior year, APUSH seemed like a piece of cake.</p>
<p>In my school, world history is required but not euro.</p>
<p>So, World History is taken by a large quantity of the junior population. The class itself is kinda hard, but basically the exam is a (in my opinion) breeze, because it is so generic. However, a 5 is essentially worthless, because not that many colleges give credit for it.</p>
<p>Euro, on the other hand, is a senior class. Even though it's considered freaking hard, ppl still take it cuz it's taught by a really dedicated, knows his stuff teacher. Of course, I hear the exam is murder, but lots of colleges give credit for it. ^_^</p>
<p>I never knew this about Euro - in our school, it's mainly sophomores (primarily because jrs. have to take a year of US history and then seniors have to take govt/econ so the only logical schedule place for euro is soph yr). My soph son took it this year and he said he'd be thrilled with a 3 (so would I as he is not known for his study habits). I never knew it was considered a hard AP. Maybe that will help him with next year's AP classes (calc AB and chem).</p>
<p>It depends very much on the teachers who teach the two classes. </p>
<p>AP Euro is one of the more difficult AP classes and exams because there is so much information to absorb. Add a teacher who is either inept or demands too much and it can be a disaster.</p>
<p>My daughter did AP Euro as a sophomore and had a teacher who taught the class at an extreme level. I'm talking six college textbooks plus assorted other books, 100-plus page reading assignments every night, many time consuming assignments, long required hours after school and at lunch all year long. It was crazy and way too much for a sophomore (in my opinion). My daughter ended up with an A in the class and a 5 on the test, but the rest of her grades slipped because there simply wasn't enough time in the day to get everything done.
The saving grace for my daughter is that she LOVES history, and found the class very interesting once she recovered from her initial shock.</p>
<p>One thing we have discovered in visiting and investigating colleges, is that very few give credit for more than one AP history class. Usually, they prefer either AP Euro or APUSH. </p>
<p>Based on my daughter's experiences, my son is going to "ease" into AP classes by taking honors classes next year (sophomore year) and then starting his AP classes in junior year. He doesn't like history so I would not force him to take the AP Euro class (the only one available to sophomores in our school) with all of the work and craziness involved. </p>
<p>So, I'd recommend that, for ANY AP class, especially at the sophomore level when many kids are still adjusting to high school, parents ask a lot of questions about who teaches the class, how much work and time is demanded, what the pass rate is on the AP exam for each class, and perhaps get some feedback from current and former students as well. Then, I'd compare that information with my child's capabilities and academic maturity. AP Euro is generally considered one of the "harder" AP tests; with the wrong teacher, or for a student who doesn't like history, it can be almost unbearable.</p>
<p>I don't mean to be offensive here, but in my experience, the AP Euro exam can be aced by reading one textbook and using a Princeton Review study guide. I've never understood why teachers make this class such a hellish experience, as this is not necessary for the amount of knowledge the exam requires. My AP Euro teacher was not among these teachers; he gave half a chapter of reading for every class session (chapters range from 30-50 pages in the book we had), and there were 3 class sessions a week (block scheduling). Lo and behold, everyone in the class passed the AP exam, and there were many 4s and 5s. I got a 5 with a perfectly normal amount of studying - i.e., reading the textbook throughout the year, and reading/underlining the Princeton Review guide during the week and a half before the exam. It's ridiculous how much work some AP Euro teachers require, and I don't understand why many people consider the exam to be "murder." Our class was run like any other class, and everyone got at least a 3.</p>
<p>same, everyone in my class passed, and I think something like 8 juniors and maybe 4 seniors got 5s (there were fewer seniors in the class, btw, and its restricted to those 2 grades. Also, in my class, the juniors had the incentive of a 5 = A in the class, so we tended to work harder). I loved it - it may be my favorite of all the classes I have taken in HS. Then again, our summer reading was William Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire, which was amazing (except the part where he goes on for 60 pages about how great Magelen is, but still), and our "class field trip" was to Italy during our vacation, so the class itself was really great.</p>
<p>I didn't work too hard for the class, but there were people who did. I spent all of the day before the exam studying my 2 books (textbook and review book), and I did well, so it certainly can be done.</p>
<p>This is helpful to hear different experiences
My younger daughter who has been in special ed for learning disabilities till high school has been recommended to take AP Euro in 10th grade.
I don't think she realizes how much work it will be, but this teacher who I assume will be teaching it next year) is why she wanted to come to this school after she heard him during an open house.
( He is also one of the reasons why I started considering switching her from a small family based school where she had been since 3rd grade to a high school larger than her sisters college- he told everyone that he calls the family of every student at least twice a month to discuss how they are doing- this sort of attention impressed me- since I couldn't get teachers at her former school to even come to her IEP meetings)</p>
<p>ILikeplato - I absolutely agree with you. History was my minor in college and I NEVER had a college history course that required so much work, time, and effort as my daughter's AP Euro teacher demanded. Which is exactly why I think it is vital to find out how AP classes are taught, who teaches them, and how those teachers run the class. </p>
<p>If the teacher is relaxed about the subject matter (I don't mean lazy, just relaxed), and doesn't stress success on the test at all costs, then I think AP Euro could be a fantastic class. </p>
<p>Emerald - If you like the teacher, and haven't heard that the class demands are excessive (I ignored other parents who told me this), I'd let your daughter give it a try if she wants to. But, I would also ask up front if there will be any problem with dropping AP Euro if it is too overwhelming for her. One of the reasons my daughter stayed in the class was that, unbeknownst to us, the school has a policy that if you drop out of an AP class after the first two weeks of school, you are effectively barred from taking other AP classes.</p>
<p>For those of us with not-the-most-motivated teenage sons, I discovered something as a result of the AP euro class. I bought my son the Cliff's AP euro book, encouraged him to use is throughout the year as a supplemental study help but, of course, he never cracked it open. (Great paperweight, though). In the last few weeks before the exam, the teachers in our school do extra study sessions before and after school. They do some practice exams and he seemed to relate to those better than just trying to memorize necessary info. I think he liked the challenge of a practice exam. He started off not doing too well but as he did more exams, he got better. He finally opened the book and found more exams and actually sat down to do them without much complaining. I think he was motivated by a "beat the last score" mentality i.e. last time I got 35 wrong, this time I got 27 wrong, next time can I beat that? I'm hoping it helped enough to get him a 3 on the exam, which we'd all be happy about.</p>
<p>And it encouraged me to try this "trick" with other subjects, namely math. He's in honors pre-calc and it's just killing him this year. I signed him up for the SATII Math 2c and bought him the book. Told him about the practice exams and the first thing he said was I should take this right now to see just how well I'd do already. Well, he didn't but that's okay - a baby step is still a step forward. Miracles aren't going to happen overnight with this kid!</p>
<p>So if after a year of AP euro, I've discovered a method of helping him learn and do better i.e. the challenge of practice test scores, then I'll have considered this a resounding success of his first foray into AP classes.</p>
<p>fredo - I've used the taking x,000 practice test method for most of my tests; works well with both SATI / SATII / AP. The obvious problem is that it is extremely time-consuming, and when you have multiple AP's...</p>