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has anyone failed AP Euro. History?? I need someones advice on what happened when you fail the exam...and what could they have done better. Or if your in it currently, can you give some tips? I don't do very well on the multiple choice part and I am stressed to death.

Do you ABSOLUTELY need to take APUSH and other AP classes to get into colleges?? Do any current college kids know?

Help...

By Tigeruppercut (Tigeruppercut) on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 06:05 pm: Edit

similar question

I am going to take AP EURO next year i've heard several stories about people failing it.
is it that hard?! and what is the main type of work they assign? ie...essays? speeches? etc..

By Parhelia (Parhelia) on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 06:57 pm: Edit

What's failing an AP test (2?)

Sophmore year, I took APEH. Before the AP test, I did absolutely no studying; the material confused me beyond belief. I got a 3.

I think APUSH is much easier than Euro.

By Erika (Erika) on Monday, May 05, 2003 - 12:42 am: Edit

Umm...

I took AP Euro last year as a sophomore. The curriculum, of course, varies from teacher to teacher. My class was a lot of straight lecture and the odd examination of art/music. Our tests were all short answer (meaning you can either BS it or get confused as hell) or extremely difficult True/False. The work we were assigned varied from outlines to some AP Euro workbook to coloring maps of Europe. Mainly we were just expected to read and sometimes there were pop quizzes. As I said, it varies. After all, my teacher got engaged and now the class is supposedly very simple.

You do not need to take AP classes to get into colleges. However, if you are aiming for higher-level colleges, it is a good idea.

If you "fail" the AP exam--typically, if you get a 1 or a 2--you don't have to send that score to colleges. Simple as that, really.

If I could have done something better, I would have focused more on the material as I learned it, since the final evaluation (the AP test) is so much more important than your average class final (ours was a 6-page paper). Just keep with the material until you understand it, and then it will make it easier for you study. I only studied the day before the test, and my class only covered up through some of World War II by the time of the test. I got a 4.

By Dori (Dori) on Monday, May 05, 2003 - 09:23 pm: Edit

i got a 2. my teacher was pretty bad. all our tests were word-for-word out of the notes. his method of teaching was to write about 3 white boards full of notes (about 2 1/2 typed pages in size 12 font) and then basically explain what he wrote. i didn't study enough. i know that for sure. but only 30 out of about 90 kids at my school passed it last year. there were a LOT of 1s.

make sure you finish your prep book.

By Anothersuitcase (Anothersuitcase) on Tuesday, May 06, 2003 - 07:13 pm: Edit

Our teacher last Friday gave us the 1999 AP Euro exam to take cold for practice, and I got 61 out of 80 questions correct - and I haven't looked at any of my notes or the books for a month. I deduced 64% of my answers. Personally, after seeing the last 13 years of past DBQs and Short Answer Essays, I think it's passable (and most of the kids last year in my school passed it with a 3 or higher.)

The questions are primarily "theory" based - i.e. what was the reason/motivation/influences/etc. for this event? Deductive reasoning - you don't have to know much on the subject to figure out what the answer is. But do study the reasons for everything - i.e. why things happened the way they happened (e.g. What set off World War I?)

A lot of the questions involve the 1800's to present day. Know the Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution (e.g. what's the difference between the First?), their effects on the Western European countries and later the Eastern European countries, the Eastern Question ("What will be the fate of the Ottoman Empire?"), the Irish Question, etc . . . Whatever you can think of and whatever you can't, know it all. It may not be useful for the multiple choice, but arbitrary (yet relevant) facts in your essays are pure brownie points.

P.S. Don't read too much into a question. The results can be devastating.

By Cybernetica (Cybernetica) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 02:29 am: Edit

We've addressed all this on the list before...

Look, as a college student now, I can tell you this test is incredibly easy for a history test (many of the AP soci's are actually...especially AP Psych, for example)...you just have to approach it from the right angle.

First and foremost read the Princeton Review's "Cracking the AP Euro." It's invaluable in many ways.

(The ARCO study guide is less detailed but more 'fun' to read, you can buy it for overviews if you want...)

Second make sure you go to store.collegeboard.com and at least try to back order a couple of the released exams.

Third, for better or worse, you will have to get SOME (though not much) in depth knowledge about a few thigns...and if you find a good book it might actually be really fun (even if your teacher absolutely sucks...or if, as in my case, he quits on the first day of class and we all have to self study).

So, here's the absolute best summary of every single detail of AP euro you might ever have to know without any of the normal BS found in texts:

Modern European History
by Birdsall S. Viault
# Publisher: McGraw-Hill
# ISBN: 0070674531

(I'm not even suggesting you read all of this...I hardly opened the damn thing...but skimming through it as you encouter potential gaps throughout the year might not be a bad idea at all...)

And finally, a good text can be entertaining...I don't know know how much of a 'reader' you are, but if you have the least bit of patience, Modern Euro Hist is really a very heavily written about subject that consequently has many interesting authors...

(Odds are you aren't going to purchase another textbook and I am in no way encouraging you to do so, but if for some reason your teacher has copies of sample books from adoption years lying around or whatever these may or may not be worth browsing though)

Western Civlization: The Continuing Experiment (by Noble, Strauss, et al)...Admittedly, this book really sucks in many ways. But so many very specific questions from the AP exam (and you never NEED the specific knowledge to answer an AP euro question remember, 9 times out of 10 knowing the general THEMES of the era will lead you to right answer) seem to draw examples RIGHT OUT OF THIS BOOK...I don't know why, but it happens...that's been my informal observation looking at practice tests and 3 years of Euro tests I talked to people about (plus the one I took)...it can't hurt to gawk at the pictures if someone has it...

"Western Heritage" (Kagan et. al)

"The West: Encounters and Transformations" (Levack, et al.)

Good luck with it all. Remember that you need to only get a relatively nominal amount of partial credit on the AP euro exam to get a 5.