Subject Tests are required or recommended at the most competitive colleges because they provide a standardized measurement of your expertise in academic areas that interest you. If you're a history buff applying to very selective colleges, you might be considering the SAT Subject Test World History (aka the SAT 2 World History) as one of your options. This guide will help you figure out when to take the test, how the questions are formatted, and how you can study effectively.
In January 2021, the College Board announced that, effective immediately, no further SAT Subject Tests will be offered in the United States. SAT Subject Tests ended internationally in June 2021. It is now no longer possible to take SAT Subject Tests.
Many students were understandably confused about why this announcement happened midyear and what this means for college applications going forward. Read more about the details of what the end of SAT Subject Tests means for you and your college apps here.
Social Darwinism was an ideology that modeled itself after the idea of natural selection, taking a favorable view of competition in society. Since we know Social Darwinism emphasizes competition, we can eliminate Choice B and Choice D. Choice E can also be eliminated because Social Darwinism was a highly secular ideology.
Muhammad died in the 7th century, after which the Islamic state continued to expand under the early Caliphs and the Umayyad Caliphate. At this point, the empire stretched all the way from western Asia to present-day Morocco in North Africa.This means that the easternmost limit would be dot 1, and the westernmost limit would be dot 9.
In this case, it's critical to know that the eastern boundary of the empire was in present-day Russia. If you could determine that dot 1 was the correct choice for the easternmost point, you were able to eliminate choices C through E right away. Then, you were left to decide whether 7 or 9 was the correct answer for the western border of the empire. Knowing that this was a time when the Islamic empire was expanding dramatically, dot 9 appears to be the most logical choice. You can see that even without EXACT knowledge of where the empire began and ended at this time, it's possible to make guided inferences to get to the correct answer. Choice B is the answer we want!
As you can see, questions are pretty evenly distributed among the different eras of world history. Europe is the most prevalent geographical region on the test, but global or comparative questions that span different regions are also common.
There are a variety of tools you can use to prepare for the test. These include review books, online quizzes, and printable full practice tests. Here are a few examples of different prep materials that may be helpful to you:
If you're looking for a resource that will walk you through the entire study process from planning to studying to practice testing, a review book might be the best option for you. These books provide sample practice questions and content summaries that cover only the most relevant information. Referring to a review book is easier than studying a whole year's worth of notes. Review books are particularly helpful if you're not coming to the test fresh out of a world history class. They're a great way of refreshing your memory without overwhelming you with information.
There are also free resources for practice questions on the College Board site. You'll find a few sample questions in the overall guide to every subject test as well as a set of automatically scored online practice questions:
Here are some additional unofficial online resources you might use to study individual topics in world history or take extra practice tests. Just keep in mind that these questions aren't always accurate reflections of what you'll see on the real exam. Maintain a balance between official and unofficial practice questions in your studying so that you don't run into any surprises on the test.
This site has two full-length practice tests with questions that accurately reflect the real test content.It also has a bunch of shorter quizzes on each historical era.
Albert IO has mini-quizzes for all the time periods and global regions up to 1945. Individual questions are categorized by difficulty level, although you do need to pay for a subscription to access most practice questions.
During any given century, you should have a basic idea of what was going on in each geographical region. Ask yourself these questions: Who was in control? What was the ruling political ideology or religious philosophy? Which other important ideologies or political factions existed on the fringes? What major developments in the arts and sciences were facilitated? Then, you should be able to say why and how control shifted to other world powers in the next century or era and ask yourself the same questions!
The World History SAT Subject Test will ask you to demonstrate a general knowledge of the progression of events throughout human history. It's best to take the test right after you finish a year-long class in world history so that you're already familiar with most of the information.
You can use the review books and online resources listed in this guide to hone your skills and refresh your memory on content. If you've been primed by a course in world history, you shouldn't have a problem mastering this information and earning a high score.
Are you applying to Ivy League or other highly competitive colleges? This article details the average subject tests scores for admitted students at these schools so you can set smart goals!
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Congratulations for being ambitious enough to go beyond taking extra AP classes as a GPA boost, and decide to take the SAT US History Subject Test! Most Ivy League universities require that the applicant take at least 2 SAT Subject Tests, and all colleges appreciate test results as an indicator of the student's interest and proficiency in a particular subject of their choice. Thus, Subject Test scores are especially scrutinized by admissions boards, and it's best to obtain the highest score possible. A perfect score in US History would definitely increase your level of confidence in college or scholarship applications, especially if you're inclined towards the liberal arts like me. I was one who did get the 800 for perfect score, as well as a 5 from the AP US History exam (the highest possible score), so I would like to give some practical advice and personal experience.
Here are the scoring basics. The test is all multiple choice. There are 90 questions, with 60 minutes to complete them, meaning around 45 seconds for each question. A quarter of a point is subtracted for wrong answers, and no points are gained for answers left blank. The SAT Subject Test general score chart can be found here. Usually, a raw score of around 80 out of 90 would mean a scaled score of perfect 800, meaning getting 80 questions right and skipping 10; or getting 8 questions wrong, 82 questions right; or getting 4 questions wrong, 81 questions right, skipping 5 questions; or any combination thereof according to the rule that wrong answers have a -0.25-point penalty.
First and foremost: Take an AP US History course. It really matters whether it's honors, regular, or AP. The classmates who surround you and the level of work required from you will not be the same, and will affect your score. In regard to my personal experience, I would say if you didn't get an A in the AP class, this article would be of no help to you-- better to find some other, more rigorous study method if you wish to score an 800. The standard AP textbook for the course is The American Pageant by Thomas A. Bailey.
Second, take the AP US History exam first. You focus on historical knowledge in a macro kind of framework-- understanding facts, broad historical questions, and opposing viewpoints in the bigger picture of continuity and change over time. The hardest parts of the test are the long essay and document-based questions, requiring you to connect the dots using argumentation. In this way, you'd have a strong foundation for your SAT study, because the impression I got from the Subject Test was that it focused on all the nitty-gritty details of knowing chronology, names, and presidential administrations. You need lots of reference materials and a solid memory.
On May 8, I registered for the SAT Subject Test, so the information from my AP exam study would be fresh and I would not need to do too much review. The test would be on June 3. I had one month to prepare.
The second week of that month, I glanced through a couple of online articles to get info on the upcoming test. The all say that the test would be much easier than the AP US History exam-- I won't say they lied, but if you're like me and you actually enjoy thinking from a larger standpoint in history, and facts just don't stick in your head, you're in for it on the SAT. But I didn't know that until much later, so heartened by the news, I just reviewed a bit of my notes from AP US History.
Third week, I continued that review. My notes were very extensive, and I had no framework of study besides slogging through summaries and fact-checking in chronological order. In hindsight, the lack of organization at this point would have deeply affected my ability to retain the information. I started my first online practice test, found at this link. There is a collection of 10 complete practice tests, not officially sanctioned by the College Board but that I found useful for beginning, low-budget purposes. I opted to ignore the short tests for each period. The online practice tests were exceedingly difficult for me, and I found that the SAT US History test really was different from the AP US History exam-- I had to completely shift my perspective of history.
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