Master the AP Exams: AP History

What are the AP History exams?

College Board offers AP History exams in three sup-topics: World History: Modern, U.S. History, and European History. Because the format of all of these exams is the same, we thought we’d present them all in one big article.

A great score on an AP History test, of course, looks good if you’re declaring a History major. In fact, if you’re planning on declaring a History major on your apps, then having a 5 on all three of these exams would look very good to a college.

Alternatively, a History AP test is also a nice supplement to a social science major, like economics or sociology. In contrast, this test could also serve as a foil for a student declaring a hard-science major who already has courses like Calculus AB and one of the many Physics options under their belt. Indeed, a 5 on this test shows admissions that you are a flexible learner and able to master material from lots of fields. (And as a bonus, scoring well on one of these exams, particularly U.S. History, could exempt you from taking a freshman-level history course in college.)

These three exams are all broken up into 2 sections. Section 1A asks 55 multiple choice questions. A student has 55 minutes to complete this section and it makes up 40% of the total exam score.

Section 1B, contains 3 short-answer questions; questions 1 and 2 are required, and the test-taker can then choose between questions 3 and 4. You must complete this part of the exam in 40 minutes and it composes 20% of your total score.

Finally, Section 2 is the Free Response portion of the test. There are two questions in this section: a document-based question (DBQ) and a long essay. For the DBQ, you'll be presented with seven documents that all focus on a specific historical event or process; based on these 7 sources and your own prior knowledge, you must create and support an argument in the form of an essay. For the long essay, you'll be presented with three questions, and you can choose which of the three questions you'd like to answer. The time limit for this section is 1 hour and 40 minutes, and the College Board recommends you spend 1 hour on the DBQ and 40 minutes on the long essay. Section 2 makes up 40% of your final exam score.

World History

The content of the AP World History course is broken down into 9 units, according to College Board:

1. The Global Tapestry (c. 1200-1450)
2. Networks of Exchange (c. 1200-1450)
3. Land-Based Empires (c. 1450-1750)
4. Transoceanic Interconnections (c. 1450-1750)
5. Revolutions (c. 1750-1900)
6. Consequences of Industrialization (c. 1750-1900)
7. Global Conflict (c. 1900-present)
8. Cold War and Decolonization (c. 1900-present)
9. Globalization (c. 1900-present)

U.S. History

Similarly, the content of the AP U.S. History course is broken up into 9 periods:

1. General Topics: Native American societies, settlement, and early colonialism. Range: 1491 to 1607.
2. General Topics: Competition among colonizers. Range: 1607 to 1754.
3. General Topics: French and Indian War, the colonies before the Revolutionary War, and the formation of the U.S. as a nation. Range: 1754 to 1800.
4. General Topics: Early American history, the forming of American democracy, and America before the Civil War. Range: 1800 to 1848.
5. General Topics: Civil War and Reconstruction. Range: 1844 to 1877.
6. General Topics: Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age. Range: 1865 to 1898.
7. General Topics: America before World War I, World War 1, and the Great Depression. Range: 1890 to 1945.
8. General Topics: America before World War 2, World War 2, the post-war order, and American empire. Range: 1945 to 1980.
9. General Topics: Ronald Reagan and American involvement across the world. Range: 1980 to the present.

European History

Finally, the content of the AP European History course is broken up into 9 units:

1. Renaissance and Exploration
2. Age of Reformation
3. Absolutism and Constitutionalism
4. Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Developments
5. Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century
6. Industrialization and Its Effects
7. 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
8. 20th-Century Global Conflicts
9. Cold War and Contemporary Europe

Furthermore, for all 3 AP History courses, students should be able to employ a common set of skills: putting historical events into context by using primary and secondary sources, making historical comparisons, determining the causation of events, and recognizing continuity and changes over time.

There are no major prerequisites to these courses; although it helps to have previously taken general history courses, a hardworking student studying on their own from a World History textbook could still do well on this exam.

What's next?

If you need a general review of what the AP exams are all about, click here! Or, if you're still looking to supplement your college résumé, download Occam's free app, Wend for application tips, test prep, and more!