<p>I posted this in another thread, but I figure its worth posting here seeing as this is now the “official thread.” </p>
<p>Anyways, I took it last year and got a 5. My thoughts:</p>
<p>I honestly didn’t start studying for it until the Monday before the test (meaning, yesterday). I stayed home one day and read this small little review booklet that was much more detailed than my Barron’s book. I used that to go over everything. I then took every single practice multiple choice test my Barron’s book came with, even the ones on the accompanying CD. I took practice tests up until 9PM the night before the test. That made me much more comfortable with the type of questions they ask and with timing myself as well. I was lucky in that my practice tests ended up being very similar to the real deal, which isn’t always the case with review books. </p>
<p>Basically, be FAMILIAR with everything, but you DON’T have to know every detail about everything to get a five (I honestly knew little about like 40 years of American History after the Civil War, particularly the Industrial Revolution, trusts, etc ; what I did know was vague in my head), you just need to be familiar enough with a lot of the material so that you can make correct inferences, be able to eliminate wrong choices, and form solid enough arguments. Also, be able to connect things together; the AP exam is as much about relationships between things and themes transcending eras as much as it is about cold facts and definitions. </p>
<p>And lastly, on your essays, don’t just regurgitate what you know about the topic at hand. Form your own opinion, analyze the history, and then back it up with facts. Again, it’s not about dishing out what you learned, but about how you use it to support an argument. The more breadth to the argument, the more info you can dish out. </p>
<p>Good luck to all! I think you’ll find this exam to be easier than expected. My class certainly did and we weren’t particularly motivated mind you.</p>