What knowledge and skills do you need to pass the exam? How can you organize your knowledge and respond to the questions on the exam so that you can show what you know, pass, and excel on the exam? This course is based on twenty years of teaching and AP World History test development and scoring experience. It provides you with a step-by-step comprehensive test preparation plan that covers all of the required knowledge and skills that can be on the exam. By following the rules of the AP World History course and exam framework, we cut the extra and focus on how to earn the points that will enable you to pass and excel on the exam.
Years of past student performance on AP History exams demonstrates how most students progress from fundamental critical thinking skills to proficiency in more advanced historical reasoning skills. This course provides AP World History students and teachers with:
A roadmap for developing the skills to pass with a 3, earn a 4, and earn a 5 on the AP exam,
A focused description of all of the required knowledge upon which the answers to AP World History exam questions are based,
Training and practice on all of the skills, history stimuli, and question types on the exam,
And a full practice exam that parallels the rules of the exam you will take in May.
We will train and practice on each kind of source, a wide variety of multiple-choice questions, and each essay type on the AP World History exam.
This online course is the best resource available for you to gain the knowledge and skills you need to be confident in passing and excelling on the AP World History exam.
We introduced you to a strategy or roadmap for passing and excelling on the AP World History exam in our first lesson. Now we examine the foundational or basic skills that allow most students to pass the AP History exam in greater depth.
Based on historical student performance, a passing score on the AP World History test requires that a student earn at least 40% to 45% of all of the points on the exam.
There are a few fundamental critical thinking and historical reasoning skills that students usually learn first and demonstrate to pass an AP History exam. In broad terms these skills are: learning basic historical knowledge, reading comprehension, claims or thesis, evidence, and causation. On an average AP History exam these skills and knowledge cover 45% or more of the total questions or points available.
You can absolutely learn the required knowledge and critical thinking skills to pass the AP World History test. Let’s begin.
Required Knowledge from the AP World History Framework
The AP World History: Modern exam has rules and boundaries that are explained in published documents, particularly the Course Framework and Exam Description. The “Required Knowledge” lessons in this course are intended to help you understand the core, required content included in the AP World History exam. The College Board, the makers of all Advanced Placement exams, has recently strictly limited the content of their exams to the concepts, information, and even the words contained in the course framework documents. If an idea or fact is not contained in the course framework, student test takers cannot be required to know it. Students are free to bring additional knowledge to the examination, especially in the context of their free-response essays. But such additional knowledge is not required to correctly respond to any of the prompts in any of the AP exams. Therefore, we will focus our attention in this section on the terms and ideas in the course framework.
Introduction to Multiple-Choice Questions
The Multiple Choice Section of the exam has 55 question and students have 55 minutes to respond to all of them. Most students complete the whole section. Manage your time to ensure you finish them all. The multiple-choice section is worth 40% of the total exam score.
Carefully read the stimulus once. In the case of text stimuli, read the source line first. Then read the passage. Read any notes provided for the stimulus, because the developers of the exam thought those notes might be necessary for you to fully understand the passage and/or answer the questions. In the case of image or map stimuli, read the title and any description below the image carefully. This information will provide necessary information for answering some of the questions in the set. In the case of data stimuli, look for a broad pattern in the data.
Next, read each question and choose the best response. Refer back to the stimulus to help identify the best answer.
Networks of Exchange c. 1200 to c. 1450
Unit 2 of the World History framework covers the same time period as Unit 1. The focus of Unit 1 is the major cultural, religious, and political institutions that shaped societies around the world circa 1200 and 1450. The focus of Unit 2 is the economic and political networks that interconnected world regions, especially across Afro-Eurasia, in this period. World History emphasizes interconnectivity.
Lesson 6 — Training and Practice Unit 2
Introduction to Short-Answer Questions
Introduction to Long Essay Questions
Land-Based Empires
Period: 1450 to 1750
The AP World History: Modern course divides early modern empires in the period circa 1450 to 1750 into two types: “Land-based Empires” and “Maritime Empires.” Land-based Empires were large-scale Eurasian empires that used gunpowder weapons and administrative centralization to conquer and rule large, stable territories. Maritime Empires were overseas Western European empires established using ships, gunpowder weapons, corporate trading posts, and colonization in the Americas as well as Asia. Unit 3 focuses on Land-based Empires. Unit 4 focuses on European Maritime Empires. But both kinds of empires appear in both units.
The major historical processes in this period of World History include, the growth of land and maritime empires, the centralization of power through the growth of imperial bureaucratic institutions including professional armies, the Columbian Exchange, the colonization of the Americas, mercantilism and the rise of corporate joint-stock companies, the first interconnection of the world economy, and the Atlantic system of enslaved trade and cash-crop plantations.
This big picture view of large processes is very helpful in understanding the context skill or contextualization. For example, the growth of the Atlantic slave trade can be understood in the context of European colonization of the Americas and the growth of plantations. The power and flourishing of the Ottoman Empire in this period can be understood in the context of centralizing imperial administrations in many regions. The spread of smallpox among native Americans can be understood in the context of European transoceanic voyages and colonization of the Americas.
MCQ — Primary Source Stimuli Sets
Primary sources are texts that were written near the time that the events they describe occurred. They are often written by people who observed the events or at least consulted sources that came from the original event described. The primary sources for the AP World History exam originate in many languages over the last thousand years. For this reason most of them are translated and use old words or expressions. The AP World History test developers and committee edit them for vocabulary, clarity, brevity, and assessment purposes. The original primary sources are often much longer, more wordy, and use peculiar vocabulary.
In this lesson and others across the course we provide four MCQ sets with primary source stimuli to introduce you to the kinds of stimulus texts, question types, skills, and set components (like source lines or lead-in instructions) you will see on the exam. A full practice exam that parallels the format, difficulty, and range of requirements you will find on the AP exam is also provided at the end of the course.
In addition to reading the stimuli and responding to the questions, read the notes [in brackets] throughout this section for additional training information to help you become more familiar with the requirements of the AP exam and improve your performance.
Remember:
As you go through each of these primary and image source MCQ sets, you have multiple goals:
Understand the stimuli;
Check whether you have learned the required historical knowledge and skills to correctly answer the questions;
Familiarize yourself with the format and style of the MCQ section of the AP exam;
Improve your ability to understand primary source and image stimuli;
Practice skills and learn about common question types to improve your performance.
Take your time. Read the notes and rationales.
Earning a Four (4) on the AP World History Exam
Based on historical student performance, a score of four (4) on the AP World History test requires that a student earn at least 55% to 60% of all of the points on the exam. To achieve this students should increase their knowledge of the required historical developments in the World History framework, and they should practice and improve their historical reasoning skills, particularly Context, Continuity and Change (CCOT), and Comparison.
Transoceanic Interconnections c. 1450 to c. 1750
The AP World History: Modern course divides early modern empires in the period circa 1450 to 1750 into two types: “Land-based Empires” and “Maritime Empires.” Land-based Empires were large-scale Eurasian empires that used gunpowder weapons and administrative centralization to conquer and rule large, stable territories. Maritime Empires were overseas Western European empires established using ships, gunpowder weapons, corporate trading posts, and colonization in the Americas as well as Asia. Unit 3 focuses on Land-based Empires. Unit 4 focuses on European Maritime Empires. But both kinds of empires appear in both units.
The major historical processes in this period of World History include, the growth of land and maritime empires, the centralization of power through the growth of imperial bureaucratic institutions including professional armies, the Columbian Exchange, the colonization of the Americas, mercantilism and the rise of corporate joint-stock companies, the first interconnection of the world economy, and the Atlantic system of enslaved trade and cash-crop plantations.
Primary Source MCQ sets and SAQ without stimulus
Remember:
As you go through each of the questions in these MCQ sets and SAQs, you have multiple goals:
Understand the stimuli;
Check whether you have learned the required historical knowledge and skills to correctly answer the questions;
Familiarize yourself with the format and style of the MCQ section of the AP exam;
Improve your ability to understand image source stimuli;
Practice skills and learn about common question types to improve your performance.
Take your time. Read the notes and rationales.
Long Essay Question — Contextualization and
Introduction to the Document-Based Question
LEQ Contextualization
To earn the context point a student must describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
Context is not causation. Context is a broader environment in which something happened. Context influences the overall topic or theme of the essay. Begin by generalizing your essay to its main topics and/or themes. Then find another broad theme that was related, that influenced it because it came before or took place at the same time in the same general environment. To earn the context point, briefly explain how the two themes were related or connected.
TIP: Use the word ‘context’ to put the two topics or themes together.
“This second topic/theme was the context for my topic/theme by influencing it in this way.”
Revolutions
Period: 1750 to 1900
During the period circa 1750 to 1900 was a period of revolutionary change and modernization. Enlightenments spread around the world and inspired revolutions across the Atlantic region and gave birth to new nations and nationalism. Industrialization revolutionized economies, labor organization, and social classes. Factories also contributed to rapid urbanization as well as a variety of urban problems. Imperialism also expanded significantly in Asia and Africa. Imperial economies were often shaped by the needs of industrialization for raw materials, migrant labor, and markets. At the same time, the continuing spread of Enlightenment ideas and nationalism contributed to anti-imperial resistance and dawning nationalist independence movements. Units 5 and 6 cover these large-scale, overlapping processes. Revolutions, industrialization, and imperialism are the context for many developments around the world during this period.
Multiple Choice Question Sets
Based on historical student performance, a score of five (5) on the AP World History test requires that a student earn approximately 75% or more of all of the points on the exam. In the last few years about 12% to 13% of students have received the score of five (5) across the AP History tests. To move into the highest performing group of students in the AP World History test you will need to master the required knowledge from the course framework, and develop the sourcing skill and complex argumentation skills. In this lesson we will introduce these skills.
Long Essay Question Argumentation and Complexity
This is our fourth lesson that addresses LEQ training and practice. We introduced the LEQ and the Thesis point in Lesson 6. In Lesson 8 we discussed LEQ Evidence points. In Lesson 12 we discussed the LEQ Context point.
LEQ — Using Historical Reasoning to Structure an Argument
The Long Essay Question prompts are written so that if a student answers them directly, they will use historical reasoning. Most LEQ prompts are framed using causation. Sometimes they are framed using continuity and change (CCOT). We recommend that you use causation or change to structure your argument in your essay.
Consequences of Industrialization c. 1750 to c. 1900
During the period circa 1750 to 1900 was a period of revolutionary change and modernization. Enlightenments spread around the world and inspired revolutions across the Atlantic region and gave birth to new nations and nationalism. Industrialization revolutionized economies, labor organization, and social classes. Factories also contributed to rapid urbanization as well as a variety of urban problems. Imperialism also expanded significantly in Asia and Africa. Imperial economies were often shaped by the needs of industrialization for raw materials, migrant labor, and markets. At the same time, the continuing spread of Enlightenment ideas and nationalism contributed to anti-imperial resistance and dawning nationalist independence movements. Units 5 and 6 cover these large-scale, overlapping processes. Revolutions, industrialization, and imperialism are the context for many developments around the world during this period.
Image source MCQ sets and SAQ
Global Conflict c. 1900 to the present
During the first half of the twentieth century the world was shaken by global wars and economic depression. The First and Second World Wars were total wars, conflicts wherein governments coopted all of the resources of the government, much of the economy, particularly manufacturing, the workforce, natural resources, and colonial territories to wage war. Old land-based empires collapsed and fragmented, while imperialism continued. The early twentieth century also witnessed the rise of totalitarianism — communism and fascism — wherein the one-party state/government becomes a total institutions controlling most aspects of politics, economics, and society, with major limitations on civil rights. The results of this expansion of state power and world war were massive military and civilian casualties, genocide, massive systems of prison camps, and loss of freedoms.
Document-Based Question — Training 2
In this lesson we examine the Thesis, Evidence and Context dimensions of the Document-Based Question. Begin by reviewing the DBQ prompt and sources.
Cold War and Decolonization c. 1900 to the present
The period from 1945 to 1991 was shaped by the Cold War — global political, economic, and sometimes military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. The threat of nuclear war limited direct military conflict between the two superpowers, but they fought several proxy-wars. Their ideological and economic competition was oriented between capitalism and communism.
At the same time imperialist or colonial empires fragmented across Asia and Africa, giving rise to newly independent nations. The superpowers and their allies competed for influence and market access in these new countries around the world. Some countries tried to avoid the binary opposition of the Cold War through the Non-Aligned Movement. Many countries struggled with economic development as well as authoritarianism.
By 1991, liberal democracy and capitalism proved more successful and durable than one-party communism, the Soviet Union fragmented, and the Cold War ended.
MCQ sets and SAQ
Short Answer Question and Long Essay Question practice
Globalization c. 1900 to the present
During the twentieth century technological advances altered many aspects of life. New communications and transportation technologies and energy technologies increased economic production, sped mobility, and interconnected individuals and groups around the world. New medical and agricultural technologies increased life expectancies and populations. Rapid economic and population growth have altered environments and caused pollution.
With the end of the Cold War, most parts of the world became increasingly interconnected through economic liberalization and globalization, along with the growth of international organizations and multinational corporations. Globalization also led to the spread of consumer culture and Americanization. Human rights movements strive for equality of access to political and economic participation.
Document-Based Question Training
Section 1A Multiple-Choice Questions
Section 1B: Short Answer Questions
Section 2: Document-Based Question and Long Essay Question