<p>Does anyone have a HS sophomore taking AP World History?</p>
<p>How difficult is this for your teen?</p>
<p>My son has always had straight A's in the mid to high 90's and he is getting 80, 81 etc on his multiple choice tests. </p>
<p>Is this common? Anyone know how to prep him better for that part of the test? He does fine on the essay-based part but the in-class tests based on the multiple choice part are killers.</p>
<p>He actually is getting the highest grades on these- other A students have received 50s, 60s etc. even after studying for hours for the tests.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on how to help him (and the other students) out? I met with the teachers but they seemed to have no idea how to help- they said it's common to get those grades in this class.</p>
<p>My younger son took AP World as a sophomore. He got B’s from most of his classwork, but got a 5 on the exam. His teacher didn’t really like him and had actually predicted his grade would be much less. (I thought the who predicting grades thing was pretty unprofessional.) The teacher spent a lot of panicky weekends in April trying to stuff the kids full of more facts. My son swears the reason he did so well was that he played a lot of Civilization 4 (Computer game) and read all the extra material that went with it. I think the more variety you read covering the same history the more it helps. So getting another textbook, or reading some biographies may help make all that material stick. It’s a lot of material. Too much really.</p>
<p>We also were shocked by AP World. It is the ONLY class my son (now a senior) EVER had trouble with. The teacher told the class at the beginning of the year they would not get an A first quarter or second quarter. My son got his first and only B the first quarter of 10th grade and he was really trying. I requested a conference with the teacher and the three of us sat down to get some ideas and many of them helped my son. </p>
<p>First, we bought the Barron’s guide and he would take the test in the book before he went into take the test in class. When he got questions wrong he would look back in the text for the answer. Second, he made an outline of the book while he was reading. Then he made up a study sheet before each test. Occasionally he would bring the study guide to me and ask me to quiz him. He got an A second semester and an A on midterm so it all worked out for him. </p>
<p>World history covers a lot of material. I am sorry for what you are going through…I cringe at the memory of the struggle my son went through.</p>
<p>Is this his first AP history class? My son’s a history wonk and took a while to get the hang of the volume of information coming at them. Then, there are decent AP teachers with organized, methodical approaches, and others who aren’t as effective. S3s teacher wasn’t too personable but he was effective and organized with clear expectations. S3 used the Princeton Review for that class. Check reviews, Barron’s may be preferred. To be honest, S3 found APUSH in jr year far more intense then AP World, again a very good teacher, so this was his perception. In both classes he found outlining the chapter before they went over it in class, making a templet to take notes, was very helpful. YMMV, but it’s always good to at least review material beforehand.</p>
<p>My daughter took APUSH as a junior and AP Euro as a senior, so this may have made the difference, but she got As in both classes and 5s on both exams. However, her friends who were more oriented toward math had a much harder time, even though they were certainly as smart. These kids prefer to work with more concrete topics. Perhaps your son is also like this?</p>
<p>Nonetheless, if he does well on the AP test, he may not have to take a history class in college, so tell him to hang in there!</p>
<p>Yes- this is very common at my kids’ high school. They take AP level exams for midterms and finals which results in much lower grades than they are used to. Unfortunately, the class isn’t curved at their school. B’s and C’s for A level honor students are quite common. We did have this knowledge ahead of time-- from talking to other parents and kids. The kids decided to challenge themselves anyway. The students taking AP World at their school usually score very well on actual AP test (most in class get 5’s or 4’s, despite B’s and C’s). </p>
<p>Other schools in our area are different- give either much easier tests or curve the test results. Kids get their A’s— but not necessarily the 4/5.</p>
<p>I think for most AP tests, you can get a 5 with a much lower percent correct than would correspond to an A in a typical grading scheme. For this reason, many of the AP teachers in our school would curve the grades up if they used AP questions on the test. It varies by test, but those 80’s may well be enough for a 5 and it seems unfair to put a kid like that on the brink of a C, if the college board thinks it deserves the top mark and you say you’re teaching the college board’s curriculum.</p>
<p>Regarding AP world, the workload is heavy, there is a lot of material to learn and it’s important to keep up. My daughter’s teacher required the kids to outline all the reading. This required 5+ hours per chapter, but she felt that it was essential to learn the material. The process of thinking about how to distill the material into a good outline is also important. The kids who didn’t do a good job of this or just copied their outlines on the web didn’t do well in the class. AP world is taken by a lot of sophomores and for many of them it’s the first AP class they get. They need to understand going in that expectations are a big step up from whatever probably lame “honors” classes they had before. My daughter thinks she worked about 7 hours per week overall on AP world. She also said that she thought most other kids had to work harder than that to be successful (since she is quite interested in history and has a good memory, she thought it was somewhat easier for her). I don’t think she had to do any excessive exam prep. I’m not sure if we got any AP prep book for it or if she didn’t bother with it. I think she found APUSH to be a little worse in the workload, but both of these are among the most timeconsuming AP classes because of the volume of material.</p>
<p>Same story at my kids’ school. I agree that the issue is that there is so much material to master, and that many times the quizzes and tests are AP derived. </p>
<p>The teachers do curve at our school, so this helps with the shock. Also, the kids adapt. As the year wears on, the teachers offer less and less curve, but the grade distribution stays pretty much the same. </p>
<p>Older son became a better and more critical reader with the experience. Younger son became a better test taker!</p>
<p>From what I have gathered AP classes are similar to any other HS class in that they are as easy or challenging as the teacher wants to make them. The work load is also up to the teacher, as is the grading. My son took AP World History last year, had NO work all year and certainly no work the summer prior. He maintained a perfect average, scored a 5 on the AP exam and a 750 on the SATII. My point is that just because it is an AP course does not mean the teacher is REQUIRED to give tons or work or make the class rigorous, nor are either of those necessary for a student to perform well on the exam.</p>
<p>Planner 03 you are very lucky. Teachers in our high school make AP classes much harder than they have to. They tell parents and kids “this is a college level class. so we don’t have to teach if we don’t want to. your child has to learn on their own.” And they mean it. Yes, its disgusting but none of the teachers in our Social Studies dept teach the subject matter. They show lots of movies. My D watched the mini series John Adams for a week in class this year for APUSH. </p>
<p>Back to the original question. My D took AP World as a 9th and 10th grader. They drag this terrible course out over two years. My S took it too this way. The best thing to do is take notes for each chapter, read the Princeton Review book or Barrons. Good luck with it.</p>
<p>This is pretty similar to what happened in my daughter’s AP Euro History class sophomore year. The teacher gave tests which contained only multiple choice questions from actual AP tests but she did not curve them (as people have noted the actual tests are curved.) Then to raise grades she gave big projects and an extra credit project each marking period (so you could end up with an A). My daughter learned after a bit to study for the class tests by doing released AP test multiple choice questions for the topics they had covered. See if this is what his teacher is doing and he can study off of the released tests.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. It sounds like an issue for a lot of students and parents. The teacher says she is coming up with a plan to help out now so we’ll see.</p>
<p>In the meantime I’m getting some supplemental materials as suggested.</p>
<p>One more option is to try Khan Academy. My kids have used it many times for all different subjects and find it to be extremely useful. I think they do have AP World. Check it out and see</p>
<p>Yes. My D gets A’s on her notes and C/D on the test, she’s holding on for a B- by the skin of her teeth. The tests are hard, I guess. She’s gotten I think one B and one A on a test in the semester (she’s a junior).</p>
<p>" My son took AP World History last year, had NO work all year and certainly no work the summer prior. He maintained a perfect average, scored a 5 on the AP exam" Sooo…if you can do so well with ‘no work all year’ then how come so many kids don’t do well? I’m guessing you didn’t realize the extent of the work your son did. My daughter’s class had kids getting 50% on the exams, which I think were AP questions. The class was a lot of work, but not because the teacher was making them do a lot of papers or projects of questionable value for the purpose of preparing them for the AP exam. Far from it. Personally, I would have loved to see a less exam-driven, more paper-oriented class, but it was a lot of reading and outlining what was read with little in the way of projects, no significant papers–just those 5 paragraph essays.</p>
<p>My daughter worked pretty hard in this environment and she (and a few like-minded kids) were consistently getting low to mid 90s on the tests. The slackers were getting closer to 50%. The teacher bent over backwards to prop up the grades. I was quite unhappy the time the teacher decided to do group exam retakes. After taking an exam where the class did miserably, she told them to go home and study again and retake the exam in groups. My daughter went home and looked up the answers to a few questions she hadn’t been sure about. In class, the groups, which were carefully assigned to include one really good student in each group, had to submit group answers to the questions. They could refer to their ungraded original exams. The group score would replace the individual score. So basically, the good students were forced by the teacher to give the exam answers to students who had failed. My daughter received a lower score on the retake. By then she knew all the answers, of course, she’d looked up everything she didn’t know. But she couldn’t convince her group of all of the answers. Her friend’s group just flat-out copied her friend’s paper. Her friend had scored a few points higher than my daughter on the original test, so everyone in that group ended up with a higher score than my daughter did. At least the teacher graciously allowed my daughter to keep her original score rather than the one the slackers dragged her down to.</p>
<p>So long ago by now. I went in to talk to son’s AP History teacher when he was getting a B in it. Well taught class with a good record on the AP exam. Upshot of the discussion- my gifted kid was falling down on his essays. He would apparently start with big ideas and not have time to follow through on them (a book, not a page’s worth). I then talked to my won’t listen kid and suggested (told?- it doesn’t matter, he will only do what he chooses, not what others think he should do) he should discuss how to write better essays with his teacher. He never did. He got a B in the class and also a 4 on the AP exam. </p>
<p>A friend of his, one grade ahead, took the AP History exam and got a 5 without taking the course or even the regular course. He obviously was well read in history as well as intelligent. It is very possible for some HS kids to not need to study.</p>
<p>Another AP course- senior year this time, Chemistry. Son did not like the way the teacher taught (thought he was okay as a person), didn’t do the work and got a C the month after he took the May AP exam he scored a 5 on. Also gifted cousin in a different year and state got an A in his AP Chemistry class but only a 3 on the AP exam- that kid studied.</p>
<p>Which is better- a tough, well taught class where the students can do well on the AP exam or a poorly taught course? Remember these courses are AP, with specific materials to be covered.</p>
<p>Your son needs to discuss specifics on how he can improve with his teacher if he wants to improve. We were lucky son’s teacher was tough in grading and expectations- mimicking the AP exam standards. Couldn’t make son do what was needed, though.</p>
<p>D struggled at the beginning of Euro 10th grade and Gov 11th. Both years she did her own thing for a bit, didn’t do well on a test or two then I stepped in to help. I got her the AP study books from the library (Princeton, etc) and they were very helpful. She’d also make flash cards and I drilled her.</p>
<p>She is a math/science kid, so history - both understanding broad concepts and memorizing minutiae - do not come easily to her. But she wound up with an A in Euro and is holding a B+ in Gov right now.</p>
<p>Drill, drill, drill, seems to be the answer.</p>
<p>mathyone-
“Sooo…if you can do so well with ‘no work all year’ then how come so many kids don’t do well?”</p>
<p>The crux of my post was that AP teachers don’t HAVE to give tons of work, nor be brutal with their grading. It is a choice that is made school to school, teacher to teacher.</p>
<p>Tons of kids self study any number of AP exams and get 5s so that also exhibits that a school year of hours of homework per week is not mandatory for the exam itself…</p>
<p>Yes, there are easy AP tests. If you look on here, you’ll see tons of threads on the topic of “which AP tests are easy–help me pick what to self-study”. But I don’t think there are too many kids self-studying AP world. </p>
<p>But I also believe that there’s a lot more to most courses than a 3 hour final exam can test. The science tests can’t directly test lab skills, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to do labs in the sciences. Humanities tests cannot adequately test paper-writing with those short essays, or even whether a kid read the book or just the cliff notes. My daughter’s AP Gov class does things like researching state political figures and designing and conducting political campaigns for them, model congress and model presidential administration, and discussing current events. The kids have to do a lot of public speaking. Those things aren’t going to be on the AP test, but I think they are valuable learning experiences. AP world at our school was very test-driven and there wasn’t much in the way of projects or papers. It was hard because of the volume of material to be learned. I don’t know the test outcome but I really doubt more than half the class got 5’s. You simply have to put in the work.</p>
<p>^Exactly. I would have been really upset if AP World hadn’t included a long research paper which I consider a pretty obligatory part of any history course whether or not the official curriculum requires it. </p>
<p>And while I can understand that outlining the textbook might be a useful exercise, the idea of requiring it for homework sounds like a guaranteed way to make every student in the class hate history.</p>