For Same Course, Students Can Succeed on Many Levels

World history is a two-year course in the IB program; the first covers European and Russian history through World War I, and the second year covers 20th-century world history. Teachers said they can spend several weeks on a single topic, allowing in-depth study.

In teacher Angela Stevenson's class, 10 students group their desks in an oval to conduct a seminar on 19th-century German unification, with the other students surrounding them, taking notes.

"He's a really sneaky guy," student Nicholas Mustovych said of Otto von Bismarck. "By whatever means necessary. He was sort of Machiavellian, how he tricked France into going to war against Prussia."

"How did economic and social changes affect Nationalist attitudes?" moderator Evan Jones asked.

"Germany was exploding economically," said Harmony Gbe, 16. Another student said, "Economic changes caused social changes." Then another student argued that national attitudes were well entrenched before Germany's economic star rose so high.

At one point, Stevenson reminded the observers that it was their job to take notes, and some picked up pens and pencils to start.

The AP Course

The Advanced Placement program offers 34 college-level courses and exams in 19 subject areas. World history is a one-year course and culminates in the AP exam, which is a focus for many high school students trying to receive college credit. The exam tests the school year's work, rather than the last semester's. Teachers said the AP course, with its greater breadth of material and faster pace, is very different from the IB course.

The lesson for this day in teacher Maura Ryan's class was test prep -- getting ready for the following week's AP exam.

Ryan told the class she will hand back a test the students took in preparation for the AP exam so they can study their mistakes. Students sat in rows, on five stepped levels; the room looked designed for a theater class.

A student raised his hand and said he heard that another teacher had conducted a PowerPoint presentation with all the answers to the test -- the student was suggesting that this class was not getting equal preparation.

"I will make sure you aren't penalized because you didn't see that PowerPoint," Ryan said to the class, adding, "It is important that we use this test to get ready for the AP."

She noted that the College Board, which runs the AP program, has released only one old AP world history test. She said that because the course is just four years old, there is no wealth of former test questions available as for other AP courses.

She tells them the answer sheet to the prep question will tell them where to find material to study for each question but will not give them the answers. They must find those themselves.

Vicky Rivera, 16, who takes all AP and honors courses, talked with friend Jennifer Tchar, 15, who is also in upper-level classes, about the upcoming AP test.

They said they were nervous about taking it.

"All we are studying is the history of the world since the beginning of time," Ryan said. "Don't panic."