Exam Tips World History

							Exam Tips: World History

  Exam Tips
The following tips provide valuable insight for your students.

Read and follow the directions carefully.

Your grades will benefit from following directions, but suffer if you don't. If the directions state, "Answer
one of the two questions in Part B and one of the two questions in Part C" and the you answer both Part B
questions, the grade received on the exam will probably not reflect accurately what you know about the
topics. Phrases like "All of the following... EXCEPT" or "Which of the following did NOT..." contain
critical words. If an essay asks for two examples, then you need to give two. You must pay attention to
them, or you will not respond correctly to the question. First carefully analyze the question, thinking
through what is being asked, and separate out the elements that must be addressed in the response. Some
questions are best answered by first showing how a position or point of view could be supported and then
indicating the ways in which it could be refuted. Others require you to consider all the similarities
between people or events, and then to think of all the ways they are different.

Fill in those bubbles for the multiple-choice questions carefully.
Most high school students are familiar with filling in the circles or ovals on machine-scored answer
sheets. But even the most experienced test-takers can make the critical mistake of getting responses out of
sequence; for example, marking an answer for question five, when they meant to respond to question six.
Such an error can happen easily when you skip a question. So that this doesn't happen to you, put a mark
in your exam booklet (not on the answer sheets) when you bypass a question. Check frequently to be sure
that the number of the question on your answer sheet corresponds to the number of the question in your
exam booklet.

Be aware of the time available throughout the test, and concentrate on questions you can respond to best
Virtually all classroom and standardized tests have time limits. Skilled test-takers make a quick estimate
of the amount of time the various questions or sections of a test will require, stay aware of the time
available throughout the test, and concentrate on questions they can respond to best. On the multiple-
choice section, note the number of questions and the time allotted for them.

Use all of the exam time.
Use all the time available for the exam. If you reach the end of the test with time to spare, go back to the
questions you skipped, or review your essays.

Random guessing will get you nowhere.
Educated guessing, however, can be beneficial. AP Exams have a scoring adjustment to correct for
random guessing. For questions with five answer choices, one-fourth of a point is subtracted for each
wrong answer. Therefore, if you know nothing that helps you eliminate even one of the multiple-choice
options, you probably won't benefit by randomly choosing an answer. But if you are fairly sure that even
one of the options is wrong, it may be worthwhile to answer the question. Of course, if you can eliminate
two or three options as probably incorrect, your chances of gaining credit become even greater.

Support essays with specifics.
Write enough to answer questions fully and to make your ideas convincing by supporting them with
specific details. Long answers are not necessarily the best answers, but answers that are very sketchy or
filled with unsupported generalizations do not receive high scores. In the time allowed for each question,
you should be able to write several substantial paragraphs and to develop your critical analysis at some
length.

Make notes and/or make an outline of your answer in the exam booklet.
Because of the time limitation in the free-response section, you don't have time to write rough drafts and
then recopy answers. However, you can use the space provided in the exam booklets to make notes and/or
to make an outline of your answer. As you write your essays, cross out words and sentences, and even
move a part from one section to another if necessary. Save a little time for reviewing your essays so that
you can edit or revise them slightly. Make use of the Reading Period to read and make notes.