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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Advanced Placement World History
Advanced Placement (AP) World History: Modern (also known as AP World History, AP World, APWH, or WHAP) is a college-level course and examination offered to high school students in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program. AP World History: Modern was designed to help students develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts as well as interactions between different human societies. The course advances understanding through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills.

Course

Students formerly studied all of prehistory and history, reviewing material from 8000 BCE to the present day. In June 2015, the exam was changed to AP World History: Modern. The new exam only includes material from 1250 CE onwards. Students first took the new course in the 2019–20 school year. The College Board announced the development of AP World History: Ancient, which focuses exclusively on earlier periods, including prehistory. Students in the United States usually take the course in their sophomore year of high school, although they are not generally required to do so, as some take it in senior and freshman year.

The course is organized around four eras and nine units:

  • Period 1 – c. 1250 to c. 1450

Unit 1: The Global Tapestry
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

  • Period 2 – c. 1450 to c. 1750

Unit 3: Land-Based Empires
Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections

  • Period 3 – c. 1750 to c. 1900

Unit 5: Revolutions
Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization

  • Period 4 – c. 1900 to the present

Unit 7: Global Conflict
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization
Unit 9: Globalization

Exam

Section Number of Questions Time allotted Exam Weight
Section I, Part A: Multiple Choice Questions 55 questions 55 minutes 40%
Section I, Part B: Short-Answer Questions 3 questions (2 required questions + 1 chosen from 2 others) 40 minutes 20%
Section II Part A: Document-Based Question 1 question recommended 60 minutes (includes 15-minute reading period) 25%
Section II, Part B: Long Essay Question 1 question (3 options) recommended 40 minutes 15%

The first section of the AP World History exam consists of 55 multiple choice questions with a 55-minute time limit. Questions in the multiple choice section are unevenly distributed between the nine units.

Unit Period Exam Weight
Unit 1: The Global Tapestry c. 1250 to c. 1450 8–10%
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange 8–10%
Unit 3: Land-Based Empires c. 1450 to c. 1750 12–15%
Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections 12–15%
Unit 5: Revolutions c. 1750 to c. 1900 12–15%
Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization 12–15%
Unit 7: Global Conflict c. 1900 to the present 8–10%
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization 8–10%
Unit 9: Globalization 8–10%

In 2011, the College Board removed penalties for incorrect answers and reduced the number of answer choices from five to four per question.

The AP World History exam was first administered in 2002. The test underwent a major overhaul for the 2017 exam; however, due to the prodigious number of students that struggled with the free response section, the College Board decided to initiate yet another round of sweeping reform, to be put in effect in May 2018. Currently, it has the same format as Advanced Placement United States History and Advanced Placement European History. The exam features a new section (Section I Part B) that requires three short answer questions, one of which is selected from two options. Each question has three parts, making for a total of 9 parts within the SAQ section. Students have forty minutes to answer these questions, and they count for twenty percent of the exam score.

Section II lasts for a total of 100 minutes, and it includes a document-based question (DBQ) and a long essay question (LEQ). Students are allowed to work on either essay within this total time period. The section begins with a 15-minute reading period where students are advised to read both the documents for DBQ. However, students may begin writing during this time; most students take notes on the documents in order to plan out the DBQ. Students are advised to spend 45 minutes writing the DBQ and then 40 writing the LEQ, but there are no rules on when each essay must be worked on. There are three prompts for the LEQ, but only one needs to be chosen. Each LEQ prompt addresses a different period, with one addressing periods 1 and 2, another addressing periods 3 and 4, and a third addressing periods 5 and 6.

The DBQ accounts for 25% of the total exam score, and the LEQ is 15%. The essays are graded out of seven points and six points, respectively. Students are required to analyze and synthesize provided documents for the DBQ, but some outside information is still needed. The LEQ only provides a prompt and no sort of stimulus, so a large amount of outside information is necessary.

Grade distribution

Final Score 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
5 10.4% 11.2% 8.9% 11.1% 9.8% 9.5% 6.9% 5.9% 6.6% 6.6% 6.6% 8.5% 8.9% 8.6% 9.2% 9.7% 13.2% 15.3% 12%
4 15.2% 16.9% 16.1% 16.0% 15.5% 16.0% 15.7% 13.7% 16.0% 14.2% 15.6% 19.9% 19.9% 18.8% 22.8% 18.5% 21.9% 21.9% 32%
3 25.4% 26.1% 23.4% 23.4% 23.8% 23.0% 30.5% 29.4% 31.9% 31.4% 29.4% 26.7% 27.4% 28.0% 28.2% 24.0% 27.0% 27.4% 20%
2 24.4% 24.3% 25.7% 24.6% 24.2% 25.5% 29.4% 30.2% 27.8% 29.9% 28.7% 29.6% 28.5% 28.8% 26.1% 28.9% 23.7% 22.3% 28%
1 24.6% 21.5% 25.8% 24.9% 26.7% 26.0% 17.4% 20.9% 17.7% 18.0% 19.7% 15.4% 15.4% 15.8% 13.7% 19.0% 14.3% 13.0% 8%
% of Scores 3 or Higher 51.0% 54.2% 48.4% 50.5% 49.1% 48.4% 53.1% 48.9% 54.5% 52.1% 51.6% 55.0% 56.2% 55.3% 60.2% 52.2% 62.1% 64.7% 64%
Mean Score 2.62 2.72 2.56 2.64 2.57 2.57 2.65 2.53 2.66 2.61 2.61 2.76 2.78 2.75 2.88 2.71 2.96 3.04 3.10
Standard Deviation 1.29 1.28 1.27 1.31 1.29 1.29 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.13 1.16 1.18 1.19 1.18 1.18 1.24 1.25 1.25 1.19
Number of Students 84,143 101,975 124,638 143,426 167,789 188,417 210,805 230,107 245,699 265,308 285,351 298,475 303,243 313,317 302,942 302,232 314,716 350,353

In 2012, the head of AP Grading, Trevor Packer, stated that the reason for the low percentages of 5s is that "AP World History is a college-level course, & many sophomores aren't yet writing at that level." 10.44 percent of all seniors who took the exam in 2012 received a 5, while just 6.62 percent of sophomores received a 5.

References

  1. ^ "AP World History: Modern - Practice Questions & Answers [2023-2024]". solutionlet.com. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  2. ^ "SA:WH:2019-20 AP World History Changes". AP Central. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  3. ^ "AP World History Course and Exam Description" (PDF). College Board.
  4. ^ "2006: Grade Distributions Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  5. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  6. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  7. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  8. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  9. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  10. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  11. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  12. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  13. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  14. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  15. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  16. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  17. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  18. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  19. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  20. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  21. ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  22. ^ "2024 AP Score Distributions". Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  23. ^ "Trevor Packer". Twitter. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
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