How to Prepare for the AP World History Exam

Multiple Choice

Steps for tackling a Multiple Choice question:

1. Read the question first. Circle any "not" or "except". See if you can answer it without looking at the passage/picture.
2. If not, look at the source and if possible the title and time period.
3. See if you can the answer the question now. If not, continue on to step 4.
4. Eliminate choices that don’t fit in the time period.
5. Eliminate choices that aren’t factually correct.
6. Be careful of extreme answer choices; these contain always or never in their answer choices. These will be nearly wrong every time.
7. Try to interpret the excerpts as literal as you can while in context to their history. Wrong answers will often contain logical sounding answer choices but be factually incorrect.

Source of following questions: From the AP World History Practice Exam from the Course Description and Exam Description by College Board

Sample walkthrough:

Questions 1–3 refer to the passage below.

“And if you, my vassal, disobey or break this treaty, may the god Adad, the canal inspector of heaven and earth, put an end to all vegetation in your land. May his waters hit your land with a severe destructive downpour. May locusts devour your crops. May there be no sound of grinding stone in your houses. May the wild animals eat your bread, and may your spirit have no one to take care of it and pour offerings of wine for it.”

Excerpt from a treaty between an Assyrian king and the ruler of a subject city-state in northwestern Iran, circa 670 b.c.e.

1. The particular consequences invoked in the ritual curse in the treaty most strongly support which of the following statements about ancient Mesopotamia?

(A) States’ legitimacy was based on claims to secular authority.

(B) Ongoing environmental degradation occurred as a byproduct of the spread of pastoralism.

(C) Maintaining and expanding agricultural production was seen as a core task of governments.

(D) The domestication of plants occurred before the domestication of animals.

Read the question first. The question is asking which of the following choices are supported by the excerpt about Mesopotamia. So we have to read to excerpt. The excerpt mentions the god Adad, so eliminate A as citing a god is definitely not secular (non-religious). Pastoralism isn’t even mentioned so B is eliminated. C sounds plausible - but it may not be right. Let’s go on to D. D is wrong — we can’t imply this from the passage. The answer is therefore C.

2. A historian would most likely use this passage in the treaty to illustrate which of the following?

(A) The precarious nature of early civilizations’ relationship to their physical environment

(B) The negative effect of overpopulation on urban sanitation and health

(C) The emergence of social hierarchies supported by unequal distribution of surplus food

(D) The nutritional deficiencies suffered by early agricultural populations

A seems right — the passage discusses the negative impact by the environment on farming. Cities/urban environments aren’t mentioned. C also seems right though — the passage mentions a king and the ruler of a subordinate city-state so there is some hierarchy. D can’t be implied from the excerpt — there is no direct evidence to support it. So we are stuck between A and C. But does C explicitly state an unequal distribution of surplus food? It doesn’t. Also, that isn’t the main point of the excerpt. The best answer is A.

Which of the following was an important long-term effect of the expansion of the Assyrian Empire?

(A) The diffusion of monotheistic religious beliefs to East Asia

(B) The development of the Greek alphabet

(C) The initial diffusion of advanced mathematical knowledge, such as algebra and trigonometry

(D) The establishment of Jewish diasporic communities as a result of Assyrian military conquest

Question 3 is an example of a straight-forward memorization question. You don't need the excerpt to answer this question. The answer here is D. But let's say you didn't know the answer was D immediately. You could use process of elimination to arrive at D:

• A is wrong because monotheistic religions didn't spread to East Asia after the Assyrian Empire expanded -- the dominant religion in East Asia is Buddhism and Daoism/Taoism.
• B is wrong because the Greek alphabet is based more on the Phoenician alphabet.
• C is wrong because the diffusion of algebra came much later.

Short Answer Question

AP World History 2018 Free-Response Questions

AP World History 2018 Free-Response Questions

4.

a) Identify ONE similarity between agricultural developments in the period circa 1450–1900 and the Green Revolution of the twentieth century.

b) Explain ONE difference between agricultural developments in the period circa 1450–1900 and the Green Revolution of the twentieth century.

c) Explain ONE political or social response to the Green Revolution in the twentieth century.

Source of Free Response Questions: AP World History Exam Free Response 2018

Identify Questions

briefly mention your answer, but you don't have to explain it:

A sample response to 4a: A similarity between agricultural developments and the Green Revolution is that both increased food production rapidly.

You don't have to go into detail on how or why they increased food production.

Explain Questions

Elaborate on your answer. If you don't know how to elaborate, then just explain the significance of your example/answer

Sample response to 4b: The Green Revolution focused primarily on cutting-edge biotechnology (compared to the agricultural developments between 1450 to 1900) such as GMOs and synthetic fertilizers. The significance of the biotechnology is that it increased rapidly increased the world population.

Sample Response to 4c: Environmentalists protested against the use of DDT, a pesticide. The significance of this is that DDT was banned in the US.

Document Based Question (DBQ) and Long Essay Question (LEQ)

Sample DBQ Prompt: “Evaluate the extent to which railroads affected the process of empire-building in Afro-Eurasia between 1860 and 1918.”

Sample LEQ Prompt: “In the period 1450−1750, oceanic voyages resulted in the Columbian Exchange, which transformed the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Develop an argument that evaluates how the Columbian Exchange affected peoples in the Americas in this time period.”

Source: AP World History 2018 Free Response

https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/ap/pdf/ap18-frq-world-history.pdf

There are 3 main essay types: compare and contrast, cause and effect, and changes and continuities over time.

Contextualization

Contextualization refers to putting the prompt into historical context: what came before the prompt, what came after, and what is going on during the prompt's time period.

This point is the same between the two essays. This should be pre-planned and you can start writing the contextualization immediately in order to save time. The contextualization should be a paragraph, NOT a sentence/phrase.

Here are some generic contextualizations for the 6 periods"

Period 1: 8000 BCE to 600 BCE

• Neolithic/Agricultural Revolution
• Rise of City-states
• Rise of empires/civilizations

Period 2: 600 BCE to 600 CE

• Classical Empires - Roman, Han Dynasty, Mauryan, Gupta, Mayan
• Trade Routes: Silk Road, Transaharan, and Mediterranean
• creation of new religions: Buddhism, Christianity

Period 3: 600 CE to 1450 CE

• Fall of Classical empires
• rise of new empires: Mongol, Tang Dynasty, etc.
• 1453: Byzantine Empire falls

Period 4: 1450 CE to 1750 CE

• characterized by linking of Western and Eastern Hemispheres through European colonization of Americas
• Fall of the Aztecs
• Columbian Exchange spreads diseases and animals to Americas and crops to Europe

Period 5: 1750 CE to 1900 CE

• Atlantic Revolutions: American, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions end European dominance of the West
• Europe seeks colonies/influence in Africa (Scramble for Africa) and Asia (India, China)
• Industrialization

Period 6: 1900 CE to Present

• World Wars weaken Europe
• European colonies gain independence
• Cold War between Soviet Union and US begins
• Globalization connects the world
• New technologies - the car, Internet, GMOs alter societies across the world

Thesis

Your thesis must be a defendable and be on-topic to the prompt. Don't restate the prompt. Your thesis should be in the introduction (right after your introduction or at the end in your conclusion).

Thesis Template: During the time period between [time period of prompt goes here], [your similarity, cause, or change]. However, [your difference, effect, or continuity].

For DBQs, group the documents into categories based on similarities. Those categories should be in your thesis statement. Let's use the sample prompt above:

Documents 1,2, and 7 claim that the railroads are a source of unity in the colonies for different reasons: Docs 1 and 2 are claim that railroads are a sense of resentment while doc 7 claims that the colonial countries will be unified from the railroads.

Documents 3,4,5, and 6 all claim that the railroads are useful as a way to strengthen imperial control.

When categorizing documents, you should have no more than 3 categories. Here is a sample thesis statement for the DBQ using the template:

During the time period between 1860 to 1918, railroads were used a way to strengthen imperial control. However, this resulted in some imperial subjects being unified against the empire itself.

Sample LEQ Thesis: During the time period between 1450 to 1750, the Columbian Exchange caused a transfer of diseases, religion, and animals to the Americas. This resulted in a decimation of Native Americans and formation of new religions and cultures.

Evidence

For the DBQ you get 1 point for describing content from 3 documents or you get 2 points for supporting an argument by using at least 6 documents. You should however use all documents. This is an example of how to use the documents:

In India, Indians became unified against the British Empire because of the poor treatment they received on trains (Doc 1).

You support an argument (that railroads caused unity among some colonial subjects) by citing the appropriate document.

Lastly, for a DBQ you get a point for explaining (not by simply mentioning it) an example/evidence that is not mentioned in ANY of the documents.

For this prompt, you can mention how railroads in Korea were used by Japan to expand influence.

Another point is analyzing 3 documents. You can do this through "HIPPing". HIPP stands for Historical context, Intended Audience, Purpose and Point of View. Here is an example of HIPP on Document 5: The historical context of Doc 5 is the Boxer Rebellion, a rebellion against Western imperialism in China. The intended audience is the British. The purpose of Doc 5 is to show that Russia is trying to assert its dominance in China through railroads. The point of view is that Britain should be wary of an emerging Russia in Asia.

For LEQ you get 2 points for supporting an argument through evidence or 1 point by mentioning a relevant piece of evidence.

Ex: The first Europeans who came into the Americas spread diseases such as smallpox. The smallpox decimated native populations quickly eventually leading to a relatively easy conquest of the Americas for Europe.

For supporting an argument, just explain the significance of the piece of evidence you are using.

Analysis (Synthesis)

This point is the same throughout the two essays. You have to make a connection between the prompt to a different geographical area or time period. You can do one of two things: a similarity or a long-term effect. You have to write at least a paragraph for the analysis/synthesis point.

For the DBQ:

• Similarity: Roman road networks were similar to railroads in that they both helped consolidate their empires.
• Long-term effect: Railroads helped unify people in the colonies leading to independence movements, such as the one in India.

For the LEQ:

• Similarity: The diseases spread by the Europeans in the Americas were similar to the Black Death in Europe.
• Long-term effect: European empires quickly became involved in the Americas leading to accelerated conflict between empires and the formation of mercantilistic policies in the colonies.

Other useful synthesis point examples that can be used in other prompts/time periods:

• Long-term effect: Mongol Empire secure Silk Road, causing spread of bubonic plague to Europe, which the Europeans would later spread to the Americas