5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

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The Basics

If you are looking at this book, it is because you are considering taking the AP European

History Exam. Maybe you are enrolled in an AP European History class in your high

school, or maybe you are planning a course of study on your own. Either way, you need

some guidance, and you have come to a bookstore or are shopping online to find it. Right

now, there are a number of guides either on the shelf or on the screen in front of you, and

you are wondering about the differences between them. The fact is, all the guides in front

of you are similar in a number of ways: each is written by an experienced history instructor

who is intimately familiar with the AP European History Exam; each contains a concise

review of the material you will need to master in order to do well on the exam; and each

contains a number of practice exams and exercises to assist you in that preparation. There

is, however, one crucial difference: this book is based upon the highly successful 5 Steps

to a 5 program. If you are like the thousands of students who have used the 5 Steps to a

5 program to successfully prepare for AP Exams, it is a difference worth exploring.

Introducing the Five-Step Program

This book is organized as a five-step program to prepare you for success on the AP European

History Exam. These steps are designed to provide you with the skills and strategies vital

to the exam and the practice that can lead you to that perfect 5. Here are the five steps:

Step 1. Set Up Your Study Program

In this step you’ll learn the information you need to know about the AP European History

Exam itself and be guided through a process to help determine which of the following

preparation programs is right for you:

•    Full school year: September through May

•    One semester: January through May

•    Six weeks: Basic training for the exam

Step 2. Understand the Skills That Will Be Tested

In Step 2 you will learn about the various ways in which historians think and discover the

historical skills that the AP European History Exam seeks to test, including the following:

•    Reasoning chronologically

•    Putting information in context

•    Arguing from evidence

INTRODUCTION:

THE FIVE-STEP PROGRAM

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