How to Prepare for the AP European History

Rating:
Summary: A bad AP prep book
Review: Barron's How to Prepare for the AP European History prep book is perhaps one of the worst I've seen on the market. It skips over much of the history (as can be seen by its skimpy length), disregarding many of the main topics found in the curriculum. I bought this book and read through it once, having no positive impact on my review for the exam. Thanks to a great teacher and a wonderfully in-depth textbook (A History of the Modern World by Palmer and Colton) which I highly recommend, I was able to score a 4 on it.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent book for AP students
Review: Just took the AP Euro exam today- go for the Cliffs AP European History review book instead of this one. The writing is very hard to read and the review section skims over important facts while covering minute groups and details. The multiple choice and scoring for the free-response are much more difficult than on the actual exam. The only good thing about this book is the large amount of practice free-response topics with the answers. Feel like I got a 4 or a 5 with the Cliffs-I'll find out in July!

Rating:
Summary: HARD TO READ WITH USELESS FACTS
Review: Just took the AP Euro exam today- go for the Cliffs AP European History review book instead of this one. The writing is very hard to read and the review section skims over important facts while covering minute groups and details. The multiple choice and scoring for the free-response are much more difficult than on the actual exam. The only good thing about this book is the large amount of practice free-response topics with the answers. Feel like I got a 4 or a 5 with the Cliffs-I'll find out in July!

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent book for AP students
Review: Of all the AP review books, this one gives the best advice on taking the exam:how deal with short answers, DBQ and thematic essays. It has a really great, easily applied method for writing any of the essays.
It also has OVERVIEW sections that show "the big picture". The model answers are longer and better written than a student would probably do, but they give good reviews in themselves.
The book has two complete sample exams with questions I found to be like on the actual exam.

Rating:
Summary: A shaky review book at best
Review: This guide is a shaky review guide at best. Using my experience of the test, the essays, and my excellent teacher, I can successfully say that this book WILL distort your image of the real AP test. The one compliment, if any, I can give, is that the outlining and notes of each section was sufficient. Besides that, the practice tests were absolutely awful, and the sample grading the author provided was inaccurate. In one edition (I think it was 2nd), I scored about a 30/80 on the multiple choice section, and freaked out. The only "5" essay the author provided was absolutely stunning---so stunning that the only way someone could have written that was by totally cramming on that topic and that topic alone, then getting lucky on test day. I don't recommend this guide at all. And I certainly didn't get a 30/80 on the multiple choice on the real test, seeing as how I got a 5. I recommend Princeton Review or Arco for AP Euro.