As the AP exams for World and US History are coming ever closer, I've decided to create a new subject for blogs-"AP", where I'll post about my experiences with the two classes as well as ideas for students to make AP easier to understand and pass. I guarantee that with enough studying and preparation that you can get a 3 or higher, even without my help!
This leads us to today's topic. In AP World and APUSH, you always end up getting a very big and very imposing textbook; one that's always hard to carry around and whose writing seems to be that of a droning college professor (I'm looking at YOU, Bentley and Strayer!). When it comes time for normal testing and the AP exams themselves, many students become frustrated that they can't understand what they need to based on the textbooks alone. Add this to a teacher who hasn't taught AP well, or a history of bad grades, and many will either opt not to take the test or give up and get a 1 or 2. But what a lot of students don't realize is that there's a whole range of books to help prepare them for the exam, and they can all be found at a local bookstore. I'm talking, of course, of the AP Review books that have so enamored the AP students, including history, with their ease and effortlessness in condensing whole subjects into chapters.
AP Review books can either be your worst enemy or your greatest ally and tool. Students will sometimes take the fact that review books exist and only use them to study and for their homework. Well, this can work, but what if you have to write a paper using only the textbook? If you only use the review book, you'll find it will just be as difficult to understand the subject as without, only you'll just be remembering the core information with the former. That's all these books are, really-they help students learn about the core events of history by leaving out a lot of the other stuff. In fact, the APUSH review book I have says very little about WWII and the European/Pacific Theaters, but more about the role of the US at home. This can be good and bad; good if I understand what WWII is outside of the US, but bad if I only take the review book at face value. The writers of these reviews even say that textbooks are more important; if reviews were more important, they themselves would be the textbooks!
So, how do you use them? When studying for a test or exam, the review books come in handy quite a bit. Entire units that would be several chapters in the textbook would be, as I stated, shortened to fit one chapter. They cover all of the things that the College Board wants you to know on the subject, and will give their own little asides/tips on how to study. AT the end of each chapter, there's usually a practice test of 10 questions to see if you've retained the information; re-read the chapter if you score a 6 or lower. Above all else, there are also 2 full length exams in the book; you can take both of these in preparation for your exams in May, or take them apart from each other to see how well you would do at your current understanding of the history subject. Working together with the textbooks, these reviews do wonders; they'll be able to explain the hard-to-understand concepts and can provide another opinion from the author of the textbook. They really are great studying tools!
If you plan on getting a review book, there's many different publishers or options you can choose from. I personally recommend "5 Steps to a 5" and "The Princeton Review" for your choices; they both go in-depth in World and US History and the latter has entire chapters devoted to writing essays and how to study. Other brands, like Barron's, are also acceptable, but I never liked the layout of the information and the lack of many tips for studying. However, you are the master of your own fate; don't let a person on the Internet choose for you! As long as you use these reviews with your textbooks, you'll be fine in class, and as a nice tip, they work great when studying for normal tests as well! So get out there and get ready for Exams with review books!
-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep
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