The first AP World History exam will be given in 2002, and this Peterson volume is the first study guide to become available. Whatever its flaws, it will be welcomed by many teachers and students who are pioneering this new AP course in its first year. What follows is a first impression by an AP World History teacher who occasionally moonlights as a College Board Consultant for AP World History.

Like other Peterson guides, this one begins with a diagnostic test, and the remainder of the book follows the typical pattern for AP study guides: a first half on test taking strategies (Chapters 1-5), and a second half on content review (Chapters 6-10). As a teacher, what I liked most about the study guide were the practice tests and the tables that organized and summarized content. What I liked least were the chapters on test-taking strategies, which seemed to lack the sophistication needed for students to excel on the written portions of the test. However, to be fair, 'your mileage may vary' depending on your grade level and level of AP experience. If you are a high school sophomore - as many students taking this course are - and you have very little or no experience taking AP exams, the study guide is very accessible and covers the basics in a simple, straightforward way. On the other hand, if you are a senior with lots of AP experience and are hoping to score a 5, I suspect you're going to be disappointed - but you should still find the practice tests moderately useful.

The study guide provides students with a course outline straight from what teachers recognize as 'the Acorn book,' and it obviously relies heavily on this source as a guide to the information it covers. Practice essays and DBQ topics are taken directly, if not stolen outright, from the Acorn book, and they are accompanied by rubrics that consist of elaborate (brainstorming) lists and tables. Oddly, the study guide does not provide students with a detailed explanation of the rubric that AP readers use in evaluating essays, i.e., what is specifically required for an outstanding essay. Nor do the DBQ chapter or rubrics adequately address issues of context, frame of reference, and perspective, i.e., 'Habits of Mind.'

Teachers and students should be advised that they may find a few of the multiple choice test questions and answers problematic (but what else is new?). The authors have also not quite mastered the technique of providing options within their essay questions, and they appear to prefer to use a minimum number of moderately long documents rather than a maximum number of short documents for their DBQs. Overall though, I consider the practice tests to be the most valuable part of the study guide. The multiple choice practice exams are not nearly as obsessive about factual details as most of the textbook-based exams that many teachers are using in their classes. Of course, we can only hope that the authors guessed right about the level of difficulty of the AP exam. (I suspect the practice tests are a bit too easy.) We won't really know until May.

(By the way, the study guide is 350 pages, not 500.)

AP Success World History contains a great deal of pertinent information regarding the three topics that the College Board emphasizes. Instead of helping me learn hundreds of useless facts, the book aided me by clearly explaining the main topics included on the AP exam, topics including, but not limited to, "how cultures change over time" and "how cultures interact with one another." Once again, as most of the AP World History Exam deals with general trends and not specific facts, AP Success: World History is the right choice for preparation; and since it is not a very long book, last minute studying is more plausible with this book than perhaps any other. I should also point out here that taking the practice tests and STUDYING the SOLUTIONS for the tests is critical to success. By quickly reviewing the book and taking and STUDYING the practice test questions and SOLUTIONS, confidently earned a 4 on the actual AP EXAM with only 2 night's worth of study (90 mintutes of study on night 1 and 3 hours of study on night 2).

If you seriously want to do well on this examination and you have had little, poor quality, or no preparation for AP World History, then buying this book and using it will give you a very good chance of getting a 4. If you want a 5 you might need a little more preparation. Getting a 3 should be no problem.

The good point of this book (and the only one) was that it showed how difficult life was in the olden days (1910 to be exact), defting conservative notions of a golden age better than Stephanie Coontz has done. The bad points are that the language is dated ("Slav" is considered a race, as is "Colored") and the book is rather boring. Not much duller than most sociohistorical works but not as informative either. Slightly recommended.

I found this book extremely helpful for a report I was writing. I wouldn't recommend it as a casual read, or for anyone looking to get a comprehensive history. It is part of The Pittsburgh Survey series and, as the name implies, it is a survey- a cross-section of a narrow group of people at a specific time. I'll admit to a fascination with the history of Homestead and therefore a bias, but I liked the book so much I would like to buy a copy for myself.

This book was a big waste of time and money. Aside from the usual "tips" that most of us already know (i.e. "get a lot of sleep.") it contained no valuable information. It's a very misleading book, and does not prepare you for what is actually on the test. It focuses on a lot of parts of speech and literary terms that aren't even on the test. The diagnostic tests are a joke, they're nothing like the test itself. The only thing I got out of this book was a lot of undue stress. It covered all sorts of topics I never thought I would have to know, and I panicked when I did really bad on their diagnostic tests. As it turns out, I did just fine on the test, and all the things I stressed out about weren't even on it. Basically, you don't need this book. It's not endorsed by the college board, and it shows. It doen't aptly prepare you for what you'll face in the test itself.

I was intially a bit uneasy with AP English at first until I picked up this wonder book. Ever since I have been scoring 8-9's on all of my practice essays in class and I have been scoring consistently over 75% in the multiple choice section. You must by this book and I guarantee you that if you work with the book you will get at least a 4 on the real thing. With this book I look forward to a five in May.

This was a book I really liked. I found it facinating to read about another two members of the Tudor family. Maybe the most interesting thing about the Tudor family is how they managed to rule, or simply survive, in a time when cruelty, power struggles and dominance over women were common.

In this book Maria Perry tells us about the sisters' childhood and family background, as well as about their adult lives. In both cases the sisters had to marry a king as part of their father's attempt to keep or make allies, and not for love.

The eldest sister Margaret soon ended up as my favourite. She came across as a strong and couragious woman. In a time when women had no power, she fought to take control over her own life. When she was widowed and still pregnant, her brother tried to arrange a wedding for her. But Margaret wanted to marry based on her own choice, something her brother Henry VIII disliked. Later on she had to fight in order to keep her children, since they as heirs to the throne could be used as tools to rule the country by scroupulous men.

--Because this book, for the most part, except when the author decides to basically abandon a person or issue in it, is loaded with details. If you are interested in the life and times of Henry VIII, his relatives, friends and enemies, then you will likely forgive the author's apologist attitudes toward him (and her seemingly hyper-critical eye, in my view, of his sisters). If you are relatively thick-skinned about writers who do that, weaving their own opinions through the story they are telling, while supposedly presenting historical fact, you will find this book very interesting and fairly absorbing. There are a lot of minute details about banquets, clothes and social behavior, which are a lot of fun to read and know about, again, if you're interested in the first place. Which I am, so I liked this book.

Perry writes about the lesser known subject of Henry VIII's two sisters, Margaret and Mary who became Queen of Scotland and Queen of France respectively. It's really a review of his whole family, which shows that his sisters, even as political pawns were much more involved in events than wife focused biographies and legends would generally show. There is some early discussion of their parents, Henry VII and his Queen, Elizabeth of York, which shows how they inherited the royal propensity for pagentry and how, Perry's descriptions are sumptuous, the emphasis on sartorial wealth and jewels was really the political rhetoric of the day. More than that, it seems also have been a business, and many conflicts and wars can be explained by the need for the Tudors to pay for all their nice clothes and jewels--even, or especially, they owed money--so that they can keep being royals. Perry is as assiduous about the financial details as she is avid about the fashion details, and even if you aren't quite sure what the numbers mean the story is always readable, imaginative and intriguing, leaving its share of Historical what-ifs. (What if Mary's long-term youthful betrothal to Charles V of Spain had been honored, for example?) As one might expect Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn get their fair share of mention, but the context of their tribulations seems at once more mundane and more majestic.

Without doing more reseach, I decided to buy this book because I was in a rush. I saw that it was reviewed with 5 stars, so I thought the book was pretty good. But this review book lacks many vital information that went on through history. It needs to improve on the following: 1. Adding more detail. This book is too concise and it doesn't define the terms mentioned. 2. It lacks many ofthe less-important but still important facts. Many of the events weren't even mentioned. 3. They tried to squeeze in maybe about 100 years of history in one chapter. By doing this, all they are doing is basically writing a summary of the most important events that went on during that time. 4. At the end of the chapters, they give you key people, key terms and ideas to remember, but meanwhile they don't even define these key terms and people throughout the chapter. What are we suppose to figure those out ourselves? 5. There is no glossary in the back of the book. A glossary is very important for many people. 6. There is no index at the back of the book. This is a big problem since an index is very useful. In order for me to find one even in history, I have to look through the whole book? that makes no sense. If they had an index, they would make our lives so much easier and less time consuming. 7. They don't offer a quiz or drills at the end of each chapter. by offering a quiz, we would get more practice with the questions.

The only good thing about this book was the charts and tables that they provided for easier viewing.

In a market of AP American Review Books, this book is by far the best. Since I was so worried about this exam this year, I bought 5 AP review books, yet only this book seemed to cover the material in the quickest and most complete way. All the material you HAD to know for the AP exam is found within this book. Unlike other review books, you were not lost in the menutia of unimportant people and events, rather the book focuses on what you need to know, and organizes the material in such a way that it is easy to remember what you have read and equally as easy to keep reading. I read this book over the course of two days, and felt that it taught me what I did not know- which was quite a bit. The practice exams in the back, in my opinion, did not imitate the AP very well, yet they are worth a look anyway. This book is BY FAR the best AP American review book on the market, and any student who does not purchase it is making a true mistake. HAPPY STUDYING!

The major problem I had with this book is the lack of depth. The review is essence cannot really be considered a review, as it skipped major events. The writers of this book seem to have forgotten that this is an Advanced Placement test, and not an SAT II. Also, in the "reviews" are listed Key Ideas/Key Events, with just the name of the person or the event, no explenation attached. Imagine my frustrating when I see: Force Acts and Stevens' theory in bold, with no reference to these terms. Finally, the practice tests seem to be much harder than the actual test. Be skeptical of your score when taking the practice tests.
All in all, it's not a bad book, but you can definately find better. Although not great, I found the Princeton Review book to be somewhat better.

It's a useful book to prepare for the examination but I'd be more inclined to recommend other titles that could be utilized. Solid facts. Sometimes not as detailed. Not enough practice exams.

I think the book had explained the answers to the question well, but in general the book was not so great. I recommend this book to beginners who need work on qustions, but not for advanced students. This book was a waste of time for those who really wanted to strive for an AP grade of 5.

Excellent chapters on the behind the scenes aspect of the resistance, including social services, where women dominated the field. The book does not, however, include food riots and worker's strikes. These are two areas of resistance that women also participated in.

For the most part Weitz is willing to let her interviews speak for her, with informative results. Her own analysis and conclusions show feminist leanings, and are far from objective. The concluding chapter digresses into a barrage of stereotypes and gender comparison.

Still, if one ignores the author's own remarks and concentrates on the primary sources, this is a worthwhile book.

I was very disapointed in this book. It barely scratches the surface. The author refers to her "research" a couple of times in the text, however, it seems shallow. A true understanding and explination of the life and times of this controversial woman is seriously lacking. Not only did it lack analytical depth but it took a very biased (pro-Pompadour) approach. Therefore failing to convey the "Big Picture." There was no flow to the verse and it seemed disorganized. The author herself must have known this because she makes reference to the difficulty of organizing the life of Pompadour into an easily followed timeline. The pictures chosen do not help to glimpse into the world of Pompadour. While the author describes many portraits of her there is only one or 2 pics of her. None of which the author stated was the best likeness of her. For those wanting an understanding of the life of Pompadour and her world I would not recomend this book.

The book is good starting point of learning what Pompadour has done and her impacts on Louis XV's regent. The inserts, e.g. on Voltaire, Pac de Cerf etc are especially interesting and informative.

However, overall, the book lacks depth on the social, political and historical insights. Also, the author quoted lots of other sources, which make it sounds like she herself does not do too much research other than reading other books on Pompadour and quote them. Secondly, the author does not handle the time and paralle events too well and resulting in a very confusing reading and does not really present a very clear big picture. Lastly, like many other books on 18th century european aritstocracies (esp female), the author kept on mentioning Pompadour, tho spent a lot on renovating her various houses, tasteful art collections etc, also spent a lot on charity, thus should not be criticized too harshly. Yet, there is never a real prove that she spent more on charity than on her own luxury taste. Only than, can the author (or anyone) rightfully say Pompadour should not be critized hashly. Especially for aristorcrats, they use tax-payer's money, they do not even work to earn their own money, thus giving to charity should be a given.

The photo inserts are not very rich either, there is only one Pompadour painting, and it is not even by Boucher.

Overall the book is a light read and gives a quick idea of the Pompadour phase of Louis XV regent.

I've attempted to use this book to teach first year French, and ended up spending obscene amounts of time supplementing it with personal materials so my students will have SOME idea of what things like relative pronouns, compound tenses, and locutions triggering the subjunctive are. The students HATED the daher exercises, the CD crashed all computers at the language lab, and the kids ended up frustrated, linguitically stunted, and angry about the monumental amount of money they had to spend on a worthless textbook. The book is a travesty, and is sure to damage any students subjected to it in place of real language instruction. Multimedia for multimedia's sake is just damned stupid, and has no place in a thinking, caring faculty: as a teacher and someone who wants the best for my students, I would NEVER touch this book again.

This text is French instruction gone berserk. Students will have to go through so much visual junk and marginally relevant contextualizing that they may be exhausted by the time they actually get to any substance. There are dozens of typefaces and colors, formats, sections, subsections, boxes, icons, references to tapes, to videos, to CD's, differently colored backgrounds and edge shadings, ad infinitum, to say nothing of pages of full color pictures of smiling multicultural young people and so on which intellectually impoverished American students are presumed to require in order to "relate" to the material. The book is supposed to be a totally integrated multimedia approach to teaching French, based on people in a city (Besancon) in France. I wonder how many French instructors succumb to handing over classroom hours to passively sitting and looking at the videos around which so much of the text is based rather than stressing needed drill and interactive instruction? Why couldn't the video-based sections have been broken out as a separate text for teachers who want it, so that students wouldn't have to sprain their wrists and pocketbooks lugging around so much irrelevant material? But it is clear that all this packaging isn't really intended to benefit students anyway; rather, it is aimed at textbook selection committees. Look at the very first page of the book: a flow chart, in extra thick paper, showing how carefully edited the manuscript is. Is this useful to the students who had to purchase this flowchart? Where is the table of contents? If the student wants to look up where something is discussed, he or she will have to leaf through pages of flow charts, prefaces, maps, dedications and so on to an indeterminate section about an eighth of an inch into this massive hunk of marketing to find it. Want the index? Well, you have to ignore the four pages of credits in big type at the back of the book (how else inflate the page count and price heft of the product?). In my opinion, a French text ought to contain grammar and exercises to learn it. All the rest can be brought in optionally. Maybe it's time to start going back in that direction. One can only hope that this dinosaur is the end point of a trend destined for extinction.

I have used this book througout college and I have found it to be the easiest to use out of all of the books I have looked at and tried using. Vocabulary they present is useful in real life settings, and the grammer explinations are complete and easy to comprehend.