CliffsAP World History (Cliffs AP)

As an AP teacher, I often pick up the various study guides in order to recommend some of the better selections. This is not one of my recommendations by any stretch of the imagination! For one, the format is nothing like the AP Exam. The questions are erratic and disjointed. Above all though this book has been written by perhaps the most extremist agenda driven profs that I have yet to see. Their opinions may be good fodder for a Berkeley class of unfortunates, but the material will possibly not allow you to pass the AP honestly! The material up to 1850 is not bad, but after that it degenerates into incredibly leftist propaganda, esp in view of its consistent romanticism of the Communist movement via the romantification for Guevara Castro Marx and Mao. The most glaring error being a matrix of all the genocides of the 20th century on page 222, but on this page not one mention of Stalin and Mao purges (perhaps 70 million between these two happy-go-lucky funny guys). On 222 the largest one was called a 3.3 mil democide in the Congo. No where in the latter text is to be found anything beyond leftist propaganda for the 1900-2006 era. In fact you will very seldon see the work communism but instead socialism used 90% of the time when discussing centrally controlled totalitarian systems of Marxist states. Also a large portion is dedicated to the glorification of Mao over extensive disparaging of Chiang Kai Shek. On the section of post 9-11 it makes numerous references of how the US is exponentiaaly more terroristic than those regimes it pursues. Please take this book with a grain (large grain) of salt for the post 1850 period. The leftist agenda leaves out large portions of what you will need to know for your AP exam. Take it from one who has seen numerous AP exams. Steer clear of "Cliff`s Little Red Book"

Last year I decided to be a good history student and get all my facts straight for the exam. I read many reviews and completed all the practice tests and essays. After exhausting Barrons, Princeton, and Kaplan..all of which were helpful in one way or another my mom bought me this book.
I opened it up, eager for a little more practice. Being already familiar with the AP format, I quickly realized this book was way off base. Sure it talks about world history, but not in the same focus or emohasis as the ap test. Furthermore the multiple choice questions are weird and ridiculous. This book really will not help you at all. After reading the first chapter and some practice questions i was fed up and returned the book. Instead of wasting my time with this Cliffs, I reread prince/barrons/kaplan.....much better books.

Because there is not a good resource specifically for the CSET single subject, I used this book as my main study source. It will still take a great deal of time to read through and retain all the information, but it's the history of the world -- what do you expect? It is not too brief and yet not too windy. The porridge is just right.

this book did not help me i am a very smart ap world student and this book was a disappointment, i was soooo sad, cuz this book was so crappy, the only thing i recognized was the reneissance. i can not tell you how disappointed i was. the test talked about mongols, mongold what are mongols i found myself asking, i dont remember mongols, there are mongols on this test??? THIS WASNT IN MY EUROPEAN HISTORY BOOK!?! DONT BUY THIS OR THE MONGOLS WILL HATE U CUZ THEY DONT GET MENTIONED

This book ranks up there with the Barron's and the PR World History book.
The tests at the end of the book are very well written, and there are 3 of them more than the Barron's and PR, so if you want some last minute studying or just to take the tests I would pick up a copy of the Cliffnotes book.