What I’ve heard is that the AP World History exam is supposed to be one of the easier AP exams, but I am entirely unprepared. I don’t know a lick of World History. Here is why:</p>
At my school, our World History credit has been previously satisfied by AP European History (I’m talking upwards of 20 years here), so both Junior year AP teachers knew how to prepare their students for the exam well and could recite the material that they were teaching in their sleep. These teachers really know European History, and most students at our school that took the test received at least a 3. However, at the end of last year, we discovered that Arkansas curriculum requires a World History credit, and that AP European History no longer satisfies that credit. So both AP European History teachers - over the summer - had to alter their curriculum and teach an entirely new course centered around an entirely new test. Sounds like failure already, right? </p>
It gets worse.</p>
At the beginning of this year, there were two teachers for this course - a male teacher and a female teacher. The female teacher was known for being strict and for producing higher scores on the exam. I got the female teacher, and I was excited to learn World History and hopefully to do well on the exam. But there were some problems: (1) We received our AP World textbooks later than MONTH into school, so our course didn’t actually begin until we received our textbooks. Already a month behind, hooray! (2) In the middle of learning Classical Rome and Greece (which was about in the middle of the 1st semester - you can see how far behind we were), my teacher’s husband became fatally ill and we had a substitute for A MONTH AND A HALF. No test. We remained stuck on Classical Rome and Greece for nearly two months, doomed to afternoon periods of worksheets over material that we had already learned. Then, once our teacher returned, we learned that our teacher would be retiring and was replaced by a substitute teacher with her doctorate in Communications (I don’t know how that’s supposed to help us learn World History). She has not proved to be a good teacher at all.</p>
So needless to say, every student in her class is screwed for the exam.</p>
Having heard that AP World is supposedly one of the easiest AP exams, I’m concerned about looking stupid if I am to receive a 1 or a 2 (which is a likely possibility). Am I going to look like a complete idiot if my score on this exam is less than optimal, or would you venture to guess that if I explain my situation, colleges will understand?</p>