AP Comparative Government and Politics Spring 2015 Milton High School – Mrs. Silverman www.silvermansocialstudies.wordpress.com

Buckle Up! And be prepared to fly through these units! Approach to the Course Key Concepts and Overview – 1st Unit Approximately 4 weeks Country Specific Units – 6 Units 6 Countries!! Approximately 2 weeks each Review and Test Preparation – 1 Unit 1-2 weeks Buckle Up! And be prepared to fly through these units!

Highlights from Syllabus 7 Units Tests Multiple choice and FRQ’s Presentations Current Events Presentation, Group Country Public Policy Presentation & Group Mini-Presentations (certain units), Socratic Seminar Reading Guides for each country due on Unit Test Day; if 95% complete, then eligible for test corrections Weekly Vocab & Reading Quizzes Know your vocab!! Weekly Current Events Discussion At least one student presents each week FRQ’s and FRQ workshops

The AP Exam Thursday, May 14th at 8:00am – 2 hours, 25 minutes Part I: Multiple Choice – 45 minutes (50% of grade) 55 questions Includes classic/best answer, except, list/group, paired, chart/graph, and political cartoon questions No guessing penalty

The AP Exam Part II: Free-Response Questions (FRQ’s) – 100 minutes 50% of grade 8 questions total Type I: Short Answer Questions- 5 questions Ask you to briefly define or describe a major concept in Comparative Politics and may/may not ask you to give an example from one of the countries Can be answered in 2-3 sentences. Suggested Time: approx. 25 minutes to complete all 5

The AP Exam Type II: Conceptual Question – 1 question Asks you to elaborate on one major concept in Comparative Politics and will NOT request country specific data May have several subparts that you must elaborate on Suggested Time: approx. 25 minutes on it Type III: Country Specific Questions – 2 questions Ask you to provide country specific information to support a major concept in comparative politics Suggested Time: approx 50 minutes (25 minutes each)

Past AP COGO Exam Results: # of students earning a 5 5 (2013) # of students earning a 4 9 # of students earning a 3 5 # of students earning a 2 4 # of students earning a 1 2

Advice From Last Year’s Students: Make sure the first unit, you study those vocab words because it helps a lot…A LOT with the 6 AP countries. Put effort into the reading guides because if you have accurate information in them, it will greatly help when studying for the AP Exam. Take the study guide seriously and actually answer the questions and write about each topic. Be willing to spend a few hours before each test to review vocab, powerpoints, and reading guides. Do the reading!!

Advice From Last Year’s Students: Make sure you pay attention in class and learn all of the terms/names. Since most of the terms/leaders are unknown to us, if you don’t know them, you will find it hard to be successful. Take notes in class and don’t doze off like someone in our class… READ the briefing papers and fill out the questions correctly. Don’t leave the work for the last minute because it’s A LOT of work. Study the powerpoints, take good notes, take tests/quizzes seriously. Come in for help, Mrs. Silverman is great!