Tips on Acing AP Euro

AP European History is a hard class. AP Euro is difficult in that you need to know broad events, 1450-the present, but you also need to know details about the events. This class was definitely the AP I struggled most with this year, so here are some tips to make your life easier while taking this course

1. Keep up with the reading and outline as you go:

I know this one seems obvious, but it is the most important thing to keep up with the reading. This gives you the content you need to take the quizzes, participate in class, and understand what is going on. Some classes you can skim the textbook; this is not one of them. The course covers so much content that the teacher can’t cover all of it in class, and you are responsible for knowing that information. The outlines are crucial as well, though I didn’t start them until later. The chapters are 20-30 wordy pages each. When studying, it takes too much time and is completely inefficient to read the chapter again. Read it and outline as you go. It will take more time than simply reading it, but it saves you time when studying later, and writing it helps it stick in your brain.

2. Three illustrative examples

One of the hardest parts of the test is the long essay, an essay about a topic the college board gives you which comes entirely from your own knowledge. An example of such a question is: Explain in what ways 1688 was a turning point. This question is difficult. You have to a. Know the significance of 1688, b. Have ideas about why it was a turning point, and c. have 3 specific examples of your points in each body paragraph. For each body paragraph in a long essay, you need 3 specific examples that illustrate your points. Remembering these is hard. I suggest after every topic, the reformation, the renaissance, etc. you have at least 3 specific events for Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, and Art (whichever that apply) memorized and understood like the back of your hand so the long essay is easier. Doing it as you go also means you are less likely to get them mixed up in your head.

3. ART ART ART

The AP European history exam loves to ask about art, and some of the essay questions are purely about art. As you go, for each artistic period, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Realistic etc., you need to know three pieces of art per style. You need to know the piece, the artist, how its fits into the time period of art, and how it deals with outside historical events. For example, Raphael’s School of Athens, which shows the focus on the classics due to the subjects in the painting, like Aristotle, as well as the influence of humanism, as the subject is secular, not religious, and the subjects are anatomically correct people. You need to know information like this for at least three paintings per artistic period. The more you know, the better!

4. Practice

One of the best tools for doing well on the AP is practice questions. The AP questions aren’t just content based. They also make you use reason and historical thinking skills. Knowing the content isn’t enough, you have to apply it. Practice questions help you do this, and also help you get a feel for what the questions on the AP are like. Learnerator is a great resource, though for the more difficult questions you have to pay. Most websites only have legacy AP European questions, the redesign made it less content based and more reason based, but even just answering content questions helps you solidify the content in your mind. Historyteacher.net has some practice AP questions, though they get too into minutiae at times. Prep book practice tests are also good resources.

5. Links

Historical events don’t happen in a vacuum. Every event affects another. The northern renaissance helped lead into the protestant reformation. History is about cause and effect, and the college board wants you to know these connections. How did world war 1 lead to world war 2? What was the catholic reformation in response to? Make sure you know these links. As you’re going through the book, when you get to a big event, try to know the causes and what led up to it. In the long essay and the DBQ, you get a point for synthesis, relating what you are discussing to one time period forward or one time period back. Knowing these historical links really helps.

6. Timelines

There are a lot of dates in European history, and though you don’t need to know exactly when most events happened. You need to know generally when they occurred. When was the industrial revolution? 18th century. You need to know the time period as well as the order of events. There are a few dates you need to memorize, like the glorious revolution, peace of westphalia, world war 1 and 2, and a few more, but on the whole, you just need to know what century things happened in, and what order it came in. Timelines really help. You can visually see what each country was doing at the time. Make a timeline of each country though, putting all of them on one line would just get confusing. But it helps link together all of these disparate events in your mind and let you keep the chronological story together.

7. Start reviewing early

There is so much content in European history that you’ll be learning up through a few weeks before the AP exam. There will not be enough time in class to go over the content, and trying to cram will not go well. Start reviewing in March. It seems early, but it allows you to go over everything without rushing, and you only have to review 20 minutes a night, which is not that much. I suggest working through a prepbook, your outlines, and a timeline, and both passive and active studying. Read a section, then ask yourself what have I read, what is the significance of it, do I understand it? Or quiz yourself. Active studying helps engage your brain and make sure you really understand what is going on. I’ve also heard good things about Tom Ritchie and his movie watching study plan, which also starts in March. Watching videos usually doesn’t work for me, but if it works for you, his videos and accompanying study guide is an excellent resource.

8. The DBQ

This essay counts for a large portion of your exam grade. If you can’t do at least okay on it, your chances for passing are low. In it, you have to read 7 documents and write and essay using (but not quoting) those documents. Your teacher will teach you how to write them, but consider practicing after class and using other resources to work on it as well. Your AP grade will thank you.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but these are some tips I thought would make your life easier and less stressful. AP European history is hard, and it makes it easier if you work on it as you go, because you’ll never be able to cram it, and that leads to too much stress. I hope you get a 5 on your AP!