To earn the second point, the response must demonstrate a complex understanding. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as:
• Explaining nuance of an issue by analyzing multiple variables
• Explaining both similarity and difference, or explaining both continuity and change, or explaining multiple causes, or explaining both cause and effect
• Explaining relevant and insightful connections within and across periods
• Confirming the validity of an argument by corroborating multiple perspectives across themes
• Qualifying or modifying an argument by considering diverse or alternative views or evidence
This understanding must be part of the argument, not merely a phrase or reference.
For more help prepping for the AP World History exam, check out our AP World History Prep Plus .
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12 min read • july 11, 2024
We know that studying for your AP exams can be stressful, but Fiveable has your back! We created a study plan to help you crush your AP World History exam. This guide will continue to update with information about the 2024 exams, as well as helpful resources to help you do your best on test day. Unlock Cram Mode for access to our cram events—students who have successfully passed their AP exams will answer your questions and guide your last-minute studying LIVE! And don't miss out on unlimited access to our database of thousands of practice questions.
Going into test day, this is the exam format to expect:
Section IA: Multiple Choice
55 Questions | 55 Minutes | 40% of Exam Score
3 Questions | 40 Minutes | 20% of Exam Score
1 Question | 1 Hour (includes 15-minute reading period) | 25% of Exam Score
1 Question | 40 Minutes | 15% of Exam Score
Multiple Choice: Earn a point for each correct answer. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.
Short Answer Question: 1 point is received for each correct piece of information. There are three parts labeled A-C and 1 point for each part, totaling a maximum of 3 points for each short answer question.
Document-Based Question:
Thesis = 1pt
Contextualization = 1 pt
Evidence = 3 pts
Evidence = 2 pts
Analysis and Reasoning = 2 pts
📖 DBQ, LEQ, & SAQ Rubrics Points Explained
Check out our study plan below to find resources and tools to prepare for your AP World History: Modern exam.
** The exam is on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 8:00 AM your local time—this will be a paper test at your school. **
You will have 3 hours and 15 minutes to take the exam. Unlock Cram Mode to get updates on the latest 2024 exam news.
Before you begin studying, take some time to get organized.
🖥 Create a study space.
Make sure you have a designated place at home to study. Somewhere you can keep all of your materials, where you can focus on learning, and where you are comfortable. Spend some time prepping the space with everything you need and you can even let others in the family know that this is your study space.
📚 Organize your study materials.
Get your notebook, textbook, prep books, or whatever other physical materials you have. Also, create a space for you to keep track of review. Start a new section in your notebook to take notes or start a Google Doc to keep track of your notes. Get yourself set up!
📅 Plan designated times for studying.
The hardest part about studying from home is sticking to a routine. Decide on one hour every day that you can dedicate to studying. This can be any time of the day, whatever works best for you. Set a timer on your phone for that time and really try to stick to it. The routine will help you stay on track.
🏆 Decide on an accountability plan.
How will you hold yourself accountable to this study plan? You may or may not have a teacher or rules set up to help you stay on track, so you need to set some for yourself. First, set your goal. This could be studying for x number of hours or getting through a unit. Then, create a reward for yourself. If you reach your goal, then x. This will help stay focused.
🐎unit 1: the global tapestry, c. 1200 - c. 145, big takeaways.
Before 500 CE, many classical powers like Rome, Han China, and Gupta India dominated. However, between 500-1200, these powers fell and their regions became decentralized. By 1200, these regions are once again unifying. Europe, China, South Asia, and regional powers in Africa and the Americas are both buildings on their paths by infusing traditional religions and philosophies into their societies while also advancing economically and technologically.
📚 Read these study guides:
Overview of Unit 1: The Global Tapestry
East Asia from 1200-1450
Dar al-Islam from 1200-1450
South and Southeast Asia from 1200-1450
The Americas from 1200 to 1450
Africa from 1200 to 1450
Europe from 1200 to 1450
Comparisons in the Period from 1200-1450 If you have more time or want to dig deeper:
🎥 Watch these videos:
Southeast Asia in the Global Middle Ages : SE Asian History is World History
Connections and Development in the Americas : Don’t forget the Western Hemisphere!
💎 Check out this interactive website, Virtual Plasencia , and explore a city in Spain.
Before 1200, trade networks were largely local, usually between civilizations bordering each other. However, with more technological inventions allowing merchants to travel farther more efficiently, and the growing demand for goods in growing empires, trade routes began to rapidly expand.
As the routes (such as the Silk Roads) began to spread, they carried new goods and ideas with them, such as Buddhism and the development of diasporic communities where merchants settled down in different states other than their own. Knowledge began to travel faster than ever before.
Overview of Unit 2: Networks of Exchange
2.1 Silk Roads
2.2 The Mongols
2.3 Indian Ocean Trade Routes
2.4 Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
2.5 Cultural Effects of Trade
2.6 Environmental Effects of Trade
2.7 Comparison in Trade from 1200-1450 If you have more time or want to dig deeper:
💎 Check out this interactive website on the history of humans in the Indian Ocean
🗺 Can you identify the countries of the world? Play this game!
While the Columbian Exchange and Columbus’s Voyages captured most of the attention between 1450-1750, at the same time, around the world a number of land empires centralized. These Land Empires are meant to be a topic to compare and contrast with each other and with the Maritime Empires of Unit 4.
Gunpowder technology was getting better, making it easier to use guns en masse. Intensification of trade routes also occurred on land, meaning that the new empires would have access to a larger pool of resources than their predecessors.
These empires were different, but a few continuities remained. Religion and cultural ideas continued to play a role, and even spread within empires. Empires continued to be absolute, with most maintaining strict political and economic control over their domains.
Before 1450, regional trade was all the rage as the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean network, and Trans-Saharan routes exploded with more merchants and goods flowing. By 1450, Europeans were set on finding a faster route to Asia. Relying on overland trade was too slow and you couldn’t bring all that many goods with you on a camel’s back. Maritime trade would prove to be far more economically efficient.
Some historians and textbooks consider this as one transformation: a dual revolution in industry and in politics. The political revolutions of this time period included many common people taking action against elites, along with competition among elites. Students should be familiar with three political revolutions--American, French, and Haitian--and the Latin American Wars of Independence. These revolutions produced new states. At the same time as these political revolutions in the Atlantic World, the Industrial Revolution began in Britain and spread to Western Europe, the United States, Japan. This change in a production led to enormous social and cultural changes.
📚 Read these Fiveable study guides:
Students will begin to learn about how Britain, France, the British and Dutch East India Companies, Portugal, and Spain all began this period with colonial possessions in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Industrial developments allowed states to expand their power through imperialism. Native peoples in these colonies resisted imperialist expansion into their countries in a variety of ways. Unit 6 also includes global migrations.
Causes and Effects of Migration in the 19th Century : Explains the second most important topic in this unit
The Magnificent African Cake is a classic documentary on European imperialism in Africa 📰 Read these articles:
“ Rani of Jhansi, India’s Warrior Queen Who Fought the British ” from The New York Times’s “Overlooked No More” series of obituaries for people whose deaths were not reported in the paper when they occurred. Queen Laxmibai, aka the Rani of Jhansi, led some of her subjects in battle against British imperialism.
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and the Women’s Union of Abeokuta : a graphic history of Nigerian woman who resisted British imperialism
The Global Conflict Unit is the first time that we see alliances forming and when we see new interconnections of the globalized world! Make sure to look for causes and effects from all of the major conflicts and see if you can find other similar causations in contemporary world history!
Overview of Unit 7
Shifting Power After 1900
Causes of World War I
Conducting World War I
The Economy in the Interwar Period
Unresolved Tensions After World War I
Causes of World War II
Conducting World War II
Mass Atrocities After 1900
Causation in Global Conflict If you have more time or want to dig deeper:
🎥Watch: WHAP - World Wars in World History
🏆Trivia - World Wars in World History
🎥Watch: WHAP - Unit 7 Review: Causation in Global Conflict
🏆Trivia - Causation in Global Conflict
As you probably already know, WWI was caused by a bunch of nationalism in the warring countries, increased military power due to the Industrial revolution, imperialism, and alliances. It was largely unsuccessful in solving disputes and 21 years later there was WWII.
Both of these wars resulted in a ton of death and destruction, and most importantly, a bunch of colonies started to think for themselves. They fought in the war, after all-- why shouldn’t they be independent?
After the war, the Soviet Union and the United States were left largely undamaged by the war, whereas Western Europe was totally destroyed. This left both of them primed to become world powers.
According to the College Board, in the last unit of the course, you'll continue your study of period c. 1900–present by investigating the causes and effects of the unprecedented connectivity of the modern world.
Unit 9 Overview: Globalization
9.1 Advances in Technology and Exchange after 1900
9.2 Technological Advances and Limitations after 1900: Disease
9.3 Technological Advances: Debates about the Environment after 1900
9.4 Economics in the Global Age
9.5 Calls for Reform and Responses after 1900
9.6 Globalized Culture after 1900
9.7 Resistance to Globalization after 1900
9.8 Institutions Developing in a Globalized World
9.9 Continuity and Change in a Globalized World 📚 Review the following resources:
Global Movements - Slides
AP World History Unit 9 Playlist
Global Movements
AP World History Unit 9: Globalization Flashcards
Ap® and sat® are trademarks registered by the college board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website..
Free-response questions and scoring information.
Download free-response questions from this year's exam and past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions.
If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at [email protected] .
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The 2020 free-response questions are available in the AP Classroom question bank .
2018: free-response questions.
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COMMENTS
Rubrics Updated for 2023-24. We've updated the AP World History: Modern document-based question (DBQ) and long essay question (LEQ) rubrics for the 2023-24 school year. This change only affects the DBQ and LEQ scoring, with no change to the course or the exam: the exam format, course framework, and skills assessed on the exam all remain ...
AP ® World History: Modern Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary Inside: Long Essay Question 2 ... • Accuracy: The components of these rubrics require that students demonstrate historically defensible content knowledge. Given the timed nature of the exam, essays may contain errors that do not detract from their overall quality, as ...
AP History Long Essay Question (LEQ) Rubric (6 points) Reporting Category. Scoring Criteria. Decision Rules. THESIS/CLAIM. (0-1 pt) 1 pt. Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning. To earn this point, the thesis must make a claim that responds to the prompt, rather than merely ...
There is no attempt to demonstrate a complex understanding of how the spread of free-market ideas led to economic change. AP. World History: Modern 2022 Scoring Commentary. Question 4—Long Essay Question (continued) Sample: 4C. Thesis/Claim: 0. Contextualization: 0. Evidence: 1. Analysis and Reasoning: 0.
AP History Long Essay Question Rubric with Scoring Notes MAY 2016: Implementation for AP U.S. History and AP European History MAY 2017: Implementation for AP World History A. THESIS 1 Point TARGETED SKILL: Argumentation (E1)* 1 Point Presents a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The
AP History Long Essay Question Rubric with Scoring Notes MAY 2016: Implementation for AP U.S. History and AP European History MAY 2017: Implementation for AP World History A. THESIS 1 Point TARGETED SKILL: Argumentation (E 1)* 1 Point Presents a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The
The rubrics for the AP History Document-Based Question (DBQ) and Long Essay Question (LEQ) have been modified for the 2017-18 school year, using feedback received from AP teachers and Readers and in tandem with recently announced changes to the Course and Exam Description for each course.
The AP World History: Modern Exam requires you to complete a long essay question. Read on for an example long essay question. Read on for an example long essay question. In the period 1850 to 2001, new technologies emerged that had significant social, political, and economic effects.
During Step 1: Analyze the Prompt. Each long essay question begins with a general statement that provides context about the tested time period, and then the second sentence identifies your task, which will always entail developing an evaluative argument. Make sure to read all three prompts carefully. Think of the evidence you could use and the ...
We've updated the AP World History: Modern document-based question (DBQ) and long essay question (LEQ) rubrics for the 2023-24 school year. This change only affects the DBQ and LEQ scoring, with no change to the course or the exam: the exam format, course framework, and skills assessed on the exam all remain unchanged.
The intent of this question was to assess students' knowledge of continuities and changes in the global balance of political power in the period from 1900 C.E. to the present. This content is part of Key Concepts 6.2 and 6.3 of the AP World History Curriculum Framework (Global Conflicts and Their Consequences and New Conceptualizations of ...
AP HISTORY LONG ESSAY QUESTION (LEQ) RUBRIC - Maximum possible points: 6 Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules Responses Not Earning the Point A THESIS/CLAIM (0-1 pt.) 1 pt. Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning. To earn this point, the response must provide a
Here are the three types of prompts you can choose from for the Long Essay: Prompt 1: Focuses on the years 1200-1750. Prompt 2: Focuses on the years 1450-1900. Prompt 3: Focuses on the years 1750-2001. Sadly, Stonehenge won't be tested on the exam. But, hey, at least its picture made it into this article!
Question 4 — Long Essay Question "In the period 1900 to 2001, people and states around the world adopted political ideologies such as communism, fascism, or nationalism to challenge the existing political and/or social order.
How DBQs Work on the AP World History Exam. The DBQ format AP World History uses consists of a single open-ended prompt, and will focus on the time period of 1450-2001. Question Type. # of Questions. % of Total Score. Multiple Choice. 55 questions. 40%. Short Answer.
General Scoring Notes. Except where otherwise noted, each point of these rubrics is earned independently; for example, a student could earn a point for evidence without earning a point for thesis/claim. Accuracy: The components of these rubrics require that students demonstrate historically defensible content knowledge.
The long essay question on the AP World History exam assesses your ability to apply knowledge of history in a complex, analytical manner. In other words, you are expected to treat history and historical questions as a historian would. This process is called historiography—the skills and strategies historians use to analyze and interpret ...
AP History Long Essay Question Rubric AP History LEQ Rubric (6 points) Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules A THESIS/CLAIM (0-1 pt) 1 pt. Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning. To earn this point, the thesis must make a claim that responds to the prompt, rather ...
AP History Long Essay Question Rubric. AP History LEQ Rubric (6 points) Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules A THESIS/CLAIM (0-1 pt) 1 pt. Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
The components of these rubrics require that students demonstrate historically defensible content knowledge. Given the timed nature of the exam, essays may contain errors that do not detract from their overall quality, as long as the historical content used to advance ... AP World History: Modern Long Essay Question 3
AP World History Course Overview; Introduction; The Assessment Structure; Assessment of Student Learning; AP World History Exam Description; Sample: Stimulus for Multiple-Choice Set; ... AP History Long Essay Question Rubric; The AP Reading; AP Instructional Planning Report; Instructional Planning Report;
1 pt for complexity Long Essay Question: Thesis = 1pt. Contextualization = 1 pt. Evidence = 2 pts. Analysis and Reasoning = 2 pts. 📖 DBQ, LEQ, & SAQ Rubrics Points Explained. Check out our study plan below to find resources and tools to prepare for your AP World History: Modern exam. When is the 2024 AP World Exam and How Do I Take It?
If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at [email protected]. The 2020 free-response questions are available in the AP Classroom question bank. Download free-response questions from past AP World History exams ...