General Tips:
The APWH (also known as "WHAP") curriculum emphasizes global patterns
over space and time, historical trends and movements, comparative revolutions
and ideas. It is not concerned with isolated dates, places, and events.
Study the College Board web site http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_worldhist.html
and obtain their APWH course description.
Find out if there is an AP testing center near your overseas location:
http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch/center/searchOverseasAdvCenter.jsp
Multiple Choice Section
There is a penalty for incorrect guesses. Use the process of elimination to
narrow your choices. I suggest you leave the item blank if you are TOTALLY clueless,
but if you can eliminate even one choice, then go ahead and guess.
Have experience interpreting pictures, graphs, maps, political cartoons, and
artwork in historical context.
Do you need more Test-Taking Strategies?
(off site)
Essay Section
General Tips:
As the exam is timed, practice writing the essays required by your history teacher
within a time limit. Carefully examine the parts of the question. After explaining
your thesis in the opening paragraph, there are generally three was to organize
your essay.
1. Group common ideas. (Thematic organization)
2. Explain events as they happened over time. (Chronological organization)
3. Deal with each geographic or cultural area in turn. (Regional organization)
Quickly sketch your essay organization before you write. Try to accurately and
clearly identify five specific points, or examples, that support your thesis.
Accurately include specific vocabulary and geography in your response. Mercantilism
is not synonymous with Feudalism nor is China equal to Asia.
Since the readers only grant you points for specific information ("value
added grading"), extraneous, inaccurate information will not count against
you. Nor will poor spelling, grammar, and mechanics hurt your score.
Be Encouraged:
Students that earn a 5 on the AP exam may be awarded up to 9 hours of college
credit (3 semesters x 3 credit hours).
Comparative Essays:
Ask yourself WHY and HOW global interactions occurred. Answer with the word
BECAUSE...
Keep in mind, PERSIA (Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual,
Artistic) to speak broadly in your analysis.
Here are some more specific hints for the Comparative
Essay.
Change over Time Essays:
Explain both continuity and change. Don't jump around the timeline. Mention
important dates and transitions as they support your theme. Demonstrate your
grasp of chronology and periodization.
Document Based Question:
Remember SOAPS (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker). Speak
to author bias, historical viewpoint, and include each document presented in
its historical context.
Smoothly integrate each document into your essay. Refer to each document by title or author's name. Look for implications of historical perspective by reading between the lines. Without summarizing a document, explain WHY the point of view was held by the author and/or society. What is reflected in the tone and attitude of the document? Group the documents according to chronology, theme, or region. Mention other ways you could have grouped the documents.
[When looking for author's Point Of View, keep in mind that even presumably objective conclusions drawn from textbook data reflect a bias or POV. American Enterprise magazine (Sept. 2002) reported the political passions of professors at a cross-section of American higher education. For every 11 liberal affiliates, there was only 1 conservative professor. Democrats rule in the world of education. These are the ones who select which humanitarian issues to be studied and write (editorialize) the textbooks to promote their one sided (left) interpretation of the data.]
Finally, suggest which perspective is missing among the documents. Would it be helpful to have the viewpoint of a merchant, missionary or soldier? Are social classes and gender issues appropriately represented in order to accurately answer the DBQ?
The score formula:
After the exams have been scored by the College Board, they will decide what composite score constitutes a 5, a 4, etc.
Section I: 70 multiple-choice questions
---------------------------------------
Maximum possible score: 70
Weight: 0.8571
Maximum possible score after weight is applied: 60
Section II: 3 free-response questions
-------------------------------------
Maximum possible score on each question: 9
Weight: 2.2222
Maximum possible score after weight is applied: 20
Maximum possible score on section (with weights): 60
Maximum possible composite score: 60+60 = 120
Exam Content
The World History Exam tests knowledge of topics included in a full-year introductory college course in world history. The exam highlights six overarching themes: impact of societal interactions; change and continuity across world history periods; impact of technology and demography; social and gender structures; cultural and intellectual developments; and functions and structures of states. The exam addresses historical habits of mind or skills (constructing and evaluating arguments, using primary documents and data, assessing change and continuity over time, and handling diversity of interpretations) as well as those that are world historical (global patterns, comparison within and among societies, and understanding of ideas and values).
The multiple-choice section of the exam measures students' knowledge of world history from the Foundations period ("8000 BCE" to "600 CE") to the present. Approximately 14 percent of the questions are about the Foundations period; 22 percent about the period 600 to 1450; 20 percent about the period 1750 to 1914; and 22 percent about the period 1914 to the present. In addition to the dictionaries for review on this site, here is a list of over 800 World History terms.
In the free-response section of the exam, students answer three questions: a document-based question; a question that deals with change over time and is focused on large global issues such as technology, trade, culture, migrations, and biological developments; and an essay question requiring them to compare a wider set of issues and focus on interactions of at least two societies.
Exam Format
The exam is three hours and five minutes long. In Section I, students are given
55 minutes to answer 70 multiple-choice questions. In Section II, students are
given a 50-minute exercise in the use of historical evidence (the document-based
question or DBQ), which includes a 10-minute reading period, a 40-minute question
that deals with change over time, and a 40-minute comparative question that
focuses on broad issues in world history.
Section I
55 minutes
Section II
Part A
1 Essay 50 minutes include 10-minute reading period
Part B
1 Essay 35 minutes
Part B
1 Essay 40 minutes
Part C
1 Essay 40 minutes
An example of trying to blame the teacher for student's exam results:
Hey Mr. N.!!
I just wanted to let you know that the AP went well for me. I cannot thank you
enough for preparing me for this exam through essays, additional charts, extra
tutoring time, and you just being a great teacher willing to go out of your
way to help your students!! I just wanted to let you know that if it hadn't
have been for the charts you so graciously allowed me to do on India, China,
and Japan, I probably would have flunked the essay portion. (Or I could have
written about the influences that nationalism had on the Igbo people in Africa!
Unfortunately, I couldn't make that fit into any of my essays. Too bad! ;) Anyways,
all your review and the essays and research fully equipped me to deal with the
factual setup of the exam and the informational depth required for the essay
writing and multiple choice questions. Once again, thanks so much for all the
work you've put into this WH class. It really shows in your teaching and the
students who benefit so much from your hard work.
L.
><>
Hi L.,
I’m glad to hear you feel good about the exam. I’m sorry, but I
won’t be able to take the blame for any success you have earned. Your
diligent work has not been my fault – you’ll just have to accept
any success as your own doing by the grace of God. However, if the exam results
are poor, then I will suitably and joyfully be your scapegoat.
As usual, thanks for the encouragement. It always goes a long way in restoring health to my weary old bones.
Mr. N.
servant at hyperhistory.net
><> ><> ><>
And another misguided student wrote (July 2005):
Hi Mr. N.!
I finally got the results today and thought you might like to know since you/your class were the cause of them. I got a 5! =D You can say all you want that it wasn't due to you or your class, it was due to my studying...but it remains a fact that if I hadn't taken the class, I wouldn't have gotten that score. So yes, I'm still going to blame you for my results. ;) Thanks so much, I enjoyed the class immensly!!!
~Sam~
NSA's "CEEB" number
NorthStar Academy students need to have their score results automatically sent
to the NSA office by writng the school code number which is 270-528.
This is known as NSA's "CEEB" (College Entrance Examination Board)
number and can be used on Advanced Placement (AP), ACT, CLEP, PSAT, and SAT.
Passing Rates for the 2003 AP Exams
The data you seek is at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/members/article/1,3046,152-171-0
29472,00.html. That address may only work for me, as I'm an AP Central "member."
If it doesn't work for you, go the AP Central home page, click "The Exams"
on the left, and then "All About the Exams" on the submenu that pops
up.
Scroll down the page, and click on "Exam Data, 2003", then look for the pdf titled, "AP Grade Distributions by Grade, 2003." They have similar stats posted for 2002, as well as a bezillion other reports that answer unusual questions like this one.
Interpreting the data is a bit like reading a DBQ, as the data can be used to
support multiple contradictory conclusions. I'm honestly not sure what to make
of it, but I do think it's interesting.
Overall, Freshman's passing rate (score of 3 or higher) is 66.18%, the median grade is 3.20, but only 7,508 freshmen take AP Exams.
Soph's passing rate is 63.74%, median grade is 3.01, but 122,778 students take the exams.
Juniors, pass rate is 60.19%, median grade is 2.94, 609,618 students.
Seniors, pass 62.47%, median grade is 2.97, 946,524 students.
So, are Freshmen equally able as older students to handle AP courses? Their passing rate and median scores are the HIGHEST of the 4 grade ages, but the sample pool is so small as to suggest that only VERY select Freshman take AP courses to begin with.
By the way, this data is aggregate for all AP subjects, not just World History. APWH Teachers, if we're teaching mostly Soph's, keep in mind that you/we are teaching the youngest ~8% of the AP student population. Teachers of Freshmen, the youngest 0.04% of the AP Exam-taking population!