Struggling in AP World

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>By CC standards, I'm struggling in AP World. I'm okay with homework and class assignments, but I end up failing the unit tests and essays (~80% after the curves). If you're an APWH veteran student, can you give me any pointers on how to succeed in this class? I'm willing to invest a lot of time in order to master World History.</p>

<p>How do I learn to analyze the big ideas? Any reading/essay tips? Did you take notes, and were they effective for you? Any other things you can think of?</p>

<p>Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks in advance :)</p>

<p>(Thread idea credit to xpaulinabearx's original thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1011188-struggling-ap-bio.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1011188-struggling-ap-bio.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

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<p>[The</a> Learning Toolbox - Cornell Notes](<a href=“http://coe.jmu.edu/LearningToolbox/cornellnotes.html]The”>The Learning Toolbox - Cornell Notes)</p>

<p>I’m taking AP World History and this style of taking notes has helped me improve my grades by a lot. Do it for each chapter and you should be able to improve your grade.</p>

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<p>Cornell notes = love. Too bad I didn’t’ use it until APUSH this year</p>

<p>If you have the Traditions & Encounters for your textbook, use [AP</a> Achiever (Advanced Placement* Exam Preparation Guide) for AP World History (College Test Prep) : McGraw-Hill Professional Online Book Store](<a href=“http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?cat=115&isbn=0073292117]AP”>http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?cat=115&isbn=0073292117) because that thing helped a lot for me. Even if you don’t have that textbook, it sure helps to get it</p>

<p>This website also accompanies that textbook <a href=“http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072957549/student_view0/index.html[/url]”>http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072957549/student_view0/index.html&lt;/a&gt; with outlines and practice quizzes and key terms and everything.</p>

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<p>Took AP World last year. I didn’t do that well on most of my quizzes/unit tests either, mostly Bs, some Cs, but ended up scoring a 5 on the exam and ending the class with a B 1st sem, and a- 2nd sem. </p>

<p>I took notes on all the chapters in my textbook (just general bulleted notes), but really only refereed to those for the individual chapter quizzes I had. I’m not sure what textbook your using, but mine, Traditions and Encounters, had a very helpful website with outlines, and multiple choice quizzes for each chapter. </p>

<p>For the unit tests and the actual AP exam itself, I focused on studying from the prep books, Princeton Review and Barrons (Princeton is nice for the major concepts, and Barrons was nice for incorporating more specifics). I also found the Barrons Flash Card set to be very helpful (again for helping to drill in some of the specifics).</p>

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<p>Thanks, everyone!</p>

<p>My school uses another AP textbook, but I use CourseNotes to review the chapter concepts. </p>

<p>How do you read a chapter? How do you organize the information in your head and make connections/analysis? Do you make charts? Can you share how you tackled your timed essays?</p>

<p>Again, thanks a ton for the advice so far!</p>

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<p>I aced AP World with an A+, A, and 5, although the subject test was tough for me (740). My method was just grinding it out while understanding the concepts and enough details to pass.
For me, AP World is all about causation and making connections between concepts. It’s great if you know about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but if you can’t make the connection between it and the cause of WWI, you’ll struggle on comprehension based problems. As you are reading a chapter, feel free to jot down ideas, maybe in an idea web. But what’s most important is that you look for a recurring theme or controlling topic and how the information might relate to that.
Essays should be a synthesis of what you’ve learned. If they ask you to compare and contrast the Middle East and W. Europe during, say, about 700-1000, then you should immediately think back and remember the connections you made in the reading. For Europe, you should remember the divided political control between small kingdoms. Then you might connect to a term, like Manorialism. that would be something good to include in the essay.
For essays, the most basic concepts that you need to understand are things like economics, religion, politics, military, social differences (women were treated better), and technology. If you want to, you can even try making T-charts comparing these between civilizations.</p>