AP World History: Modern

AP World History: Modern Course Overview

In AP World History: Modern, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course provides six themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation.

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AP World History Course Content

The themes serve as the connective tissue of the course and enable students to create meaningful connections across units. They are often broader ideas that become threads that run throughout the course. Revisiting them and applying them in a variety of contexts helps students to develop deeper conceptual understanding. Below are the themes of the course and a brief description of each.

THEME 1: HUMANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT (ENV) The environment shapes human societies, and as populations grow and change, these populations in turn shape their environments.

THEME 2: CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS AND INTERACTIONS (CDI) The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications.

THEME 3: GOVERNANCE (GOV) A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes.

THEME 4: ECONOMIC SYSTEMS (ECN) As societies develop, they affect and are affected by the ways that they produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.

THEME 5: SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND ORGANIZATION (SIO) The process by which societies group their members and the norms that govern the interactions between these groups and between individuals influence political, economic, and cultural institutions and organization.

THEME 6: TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION (TEC) Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences.


Inquiry-Based Investigations

Twenty-five percent of instructional time is devoted to hands-on laboratory work with an emphasis on inquiry-based investigations. Investigations require students to ask questions, make observations and predictions, design experiments, analyze data, and construct arguments in a collaborative setting, where they direct and monitor their progress.

AP History Disciplinary Practices and Reasoning Skills

Skills You'll Learn

  • Evaluating primary and secondary sources

  • Analyzing the claims, evidence, and reasoning you find in sources

  • Putting historical developments in context and making connections between them

  • Coming up with a claim or thesis and explaining and supporting it in writing

AP World History Exam Structure

AP WORLD HISTORY EXAM: 3 HOURS 15 MINUTES

Assessment Overview

The AP World History Exam assesses student understanding of the historical thinking skills and learning objectives outlined in the course framework. The exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and students are required to answer 55 multiple-choice questions, 3 short-answer questions, 1 document-based question, and 1 long essay question.

Format of Assessment

Section I PART A: MULTIPLE-CHOICE

The first part of Section I of the AP World History Exam includes 55 multiple-choice questions typically appearing in sets of three to four questions, each with one or more stimuli, including primary texts, secondary texts, images (artwork, photos, posters, cartoons, etc.), charts or other quantitative data, and maps. Additionally, there will be at least one set of paired text-based stimuli. Multiple-choice questions require analysis of the provided stimulus sources and of the historical developments and processes described in the sources.

PART B: SHORT-ANSWER

The second part of Section I of the AP Exam also includes three required short-answer questions. Short-answer question 1 is required and includes a secondary source stimulus. The topic of the question will include historical developments or processes between the years 1200 and 2001. Short-answer question 2 is required and includes a primary source stimulus. The topic of the question will include historical developments or processes between the years 1200 and 2001. Students may select short-answer questions 3 or 4, neither of which includes a stimulus. Short-answer question 3 will focus on historical developments or processes between the years 1200 and 1750. Short-answer question 4 will focus on historical developments or processes between the years 1750 and 2001. All four historical periods are represented among the four short-answer questions.

Section II DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION

The document-based question presents students with seven documents offering various perspectives on a historical development or process. The question requires students to do the following:

  • Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

  • Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. Use the provided documents to support an argument in response to the prompt.

  • Use historical evidence beyond the documents relevant to an argument about the prompt.

  • For at least three documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.

  • Demonstrate a complex understanding of the historical development that is the focus of the prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the question.

The topic of the document-based question will include historical developments or processes between the years 1450 and 2001.

LONG ESSAY QUESTION

The long essay question requires students to do the following:

  • Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

  • Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. Support an argument in response to the prompt using specific and relevant examples of evidence.

  • Demonstrate a complex understanding of the historical development that is the focus of the prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the question.

Students must select one of the three long essay questions. Each question focuses on the same reasoning process, but historical developments and processes in different time periods. The first option focuses primarily on historical developments or processes between 1200 and 1750, the second primarily on historical developments or processes between 1450 and 1900, and the third primarily on historical developments or processes between 1750 and 2001.