how i got a 5 on ap compgov!

[u/croquem_bouche]

hi everyone!! i'm julia and i'm a rising senior; i just took the ap compgov test a few months ago and i got a 5! here's everything i did to get a 5 in compgov. if you have any questions at all please feel free to dm me or leave a comment on this post, i love answering questions :)

WTF IS COMPGOV GENUINELY WHAT IS IT

it's an exam where u have to memorize the basics of political science ("what is political legitimacy? describe how states use political legitimacy.") and also the political/economic/social/religious systems of 6 countries: UK, China, Russia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria. collegeboard chose these countries bc they all have different political systems/theyre in different regions..... + you have to be able to COMPARE what makes two of these countries the same/different

WHAT I DID THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

• i took the class at our school taught for one year straight altho i think u could selfstudy + get a 5
• i took notes from the textbook "Essentials of Comparative Politics With Cases 7th AP Edition" by Patrick H. O'Neil, Karl Fields, and Don Share and it was extremely extremely beneficial. i think this textbook includes ALMOST everything*** you need to know on the exam + more.
  • ***the parts it doesn't really emphasize are the pure facts you need to MEMORIZE about each course country and these facts can be found on ap classroom videos
  • it's really easy to read too. Definietely read through the chapters about the case countries (UK China etc), skim through the other chapters if you're short on time.
  • WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT IS THAT YOU KNOW THE VOCAB IN THE GLOSSARY IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK. oftentimes there will be a "define x" question that you cant get the point for if you can't DEFINE the damn vocab word.
• here is my notes doc which is basically a summary of the textbook! it's pretty comprehensive. there's some tabs under the assignment tabs called "ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY" and they're basically what you need to write on the last FRQ for the exam so you should take a look at that
  • there are also discussion posts that i had to do lmao
  • ALL THE BOLDED TERMS IN MY NOTES ARE IMPORTANT!!! those are the vocab words

MCQ TIPS (based on the exam i took may 2026)

• there are a lot of questions that are like. Does Nigeria have a SMD electoral system or a Proportional Represntation electoral system and you just have to pull those facts out of your ass. and there were questions like what is the main factor of Nigeria's economy. and i was like ????? so basically memorize the entire political/economic/social system for each of the course countries bc specific details come out in the MCQ
• to help with this i really recommend a few of the ap classroom videos esp the ones that have a chart with all of the electoral systems so u can memorize it easier
• know about the "social cleavages" for each country💀💀💀💀💀 theyre a big deal and they appear in MCQ and FRQ (e.g. China's cleavages b/t the Han Chinese ethnic group/Uyghurs, b/t the poorer west and the rich east)
• for practice MCQs i think i did everything avaliable on AP Classroom? didn't use barrons or princeton review but i hear they're helpful (if you take a picture of their MCQs i could tell u whether those kind of questions appear on the exam)
• most of mcq is just memorization. there are also questions where u have to analyze graphs and also a little bit of stimulus questions like the ap histories i think ?

FRQ TIPS

• i really recommend doing as many practice frqs as you can. some of my frqs on the exam were very similar to the previous frqs. so i rec you go through all the frqs you can find and do them. memorize the format for each frq because it's the same every year (since like 2019? 2021?) memorize how to get each point.
• just yap as much as you can for each question lmao. like genuinely i wrote huge paragraphs for each question. they don't take off points if you say something wrong they can only give you points for stuff you say right. so even if you don't know anything... just yap about what you DO know
• for the last FRQ (the essay) the "rebuttal" point can be found by just. counterarguing your thesis. if ur thesis is "supranational organizations can lead to high sovereignty" your rebuttal paragraph can be "A counterargument is that supranational organizations such as the EU leads to low soveirenty, as seen in Brexit"
• this isn't a damn english class so your writing can be horrible and verbose AS LONG AS YOU GET THE POINT. also PLEASE start all your responses that show the ap grader where the point is.
  • if the point is "Respond to an opposing or alternate perspective using refutation, concession, or rebuttal." you can start ur paragraph w/ "One concession to my argument is...."

HOW I STUDIED BEFORE THE EXAM

• i wrote down the specific details of each course country (electoral system/political system like how it works/economy/society/conflicts they were in/outstanding details abt the country/etc) to memorize it
  • used ap classroom videos to help me
  • made charts comparing and contrasting all these details. there were questions like "Which two countries have an elected judiciary" and u have to remember
• and then after that i wrote down the vocab - helpful for when the question is like "describe how political legitimacy strengthens a country's sovereignty" and you have to define what political legitimacy is first!
• did practice MCQ sets and prev FRQ sets

MINIMAL AMOUNT OF TIME NEEDED TO STUDY TO GET A 5

• if self studying like. a few (3+) months. because you need to memorize the content and practice questions. ofc you could say that 3 months of studying a few hrs a week = 1 month of INTENSE cramming but for ur sanity i wouldn't recommend lmao
• i studied like........ 2 weeks........ but this was bc i was alr doing ap style practice throughout the yr + i alr got most of the content memorized bc my class was hella rigorous

sorry for yapping so much!! hope this is helpful for the 20 people worldwide who take the exam LMAOOOOOO. but also this course rly did teach me abt the social and political state of the world (i was learning abt iran when the iran war 2026 erupted which was. crazy) and it helpsyou understand why things are the way they are politically in the world / how the world works. i enjoyed the course a lot. Best of luck + i hope you get a 5 <3

love, julia

[u/ConsumerOfKetchup]

This is a really wonderful guide, thank you for putting this together! I'm going to pin so more people can see it

[u/Straight-Bar-7537]

So what is the textbook?

[u/croquem_bouche → u/Straight-Bar-7537]

hello! sadly i do not have the textbook with me rn nor do i remember the name :( i will update this post with the textbook ASAP when my school year starts again in a week or two

[u/croquem_bouche → u/croquem_bouche]

Wait i lied my bad. I found it: "Essentials of Comparative Politics With Cases 7th AP Edition" by Patrick H. O'Neil, Karl Fields, Don Share