So the AP World History Exam is about 20 days away, and it being my first exam, am getting pretty nervous. From popular recommendation, i bought two books, Cracking the APWOHI Exam and Barrons. I decided to chose Barrons and am starting to contemplate. I hear good things about barrons then about PR. I’m 20 days away from the exam, and am reading about 1-2 chapters a day in Barrons. I would like really like to get a 5. Those who took the AP Exams, what did you read, what did you like, and what did you get?
As a general rule, Barron’s is more comprehensive and the questions are more difficult, whereas PR is generally easier to cram with. Personally, I think that if you’re able to read all of the Barron’s before the test, you should. However, I haven’t taken world history myself, and I’m basing my assumptions upon generalization. Therefore my advice may be not true in your case, so take it with a grain of salt.
I have both, and the PR book is much better in terms of the content. It focuses more on trends (which are tested heavily on the test) than Barron’s does, as Barron’s focuses much more on details.
Barron’s does prepare for the essays much better than PR does, but if you have a teacher who has taught you the essays, you should be fine.