AP Exams
AP World History practice and prep course
The course follows world history from about 1200 CE to the present and trains you to analyze primary sources and write historical arguments. You can begin with the free practice questions. The full course adds the lessons, the online study guide and full-length practice tests, and all courses are free while CollegePrepRoom launches.
Course outline
- Know the exam, read the source, use the evidenceThe 2027 digital AP World History exam format, the six historical reasoning skills, how to read sources, and how to turn a fact into evidence that proves a claim.
- State building and belief systems, c. 1200-1450How Song China, Dar al-Islam, South and Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe built states and used belief systems to legitimize power, with a comparison method.
- Afro-Eurasian trade networks, c. 1200-1450Silk Roads, Mongol rule, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan trade, diffusion of religion and knowledge, and biological exchange, with a method for comparing networks.
- Cumulative review: Units 1-2Mixed retrieval, a cross-unit comparison, and a source sprint that tie together state building and trade networks, c. 1200-1450.
- Land empires, gunpowder, and imperial rule, c. 1450-1750Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing expansion and rule: gunpowder warfare, religion and legitimacy, elite incorporation, revenue, and how to compare empires.
- Maritime empires, the Columbian Exchange, and coerced laborUnit 4 (c. 1450-1750): maritime technology, the Columbian Exchange, Portuguese and Spanish empire building, silver, coerced labor, resistance, and continuity and change.
- Revolutions, nationalism, and the industrial worldUnit 5 (c. 1750-1900): Enlightenment rights, Atlantic revolutions, nationalism, industrialization in Britain, Japan, and Russia, labor and reform, and uneven social change.
- Industrial imperialism, resistance, and migrationUnit 6 (c. 1750-1900): motives for imperialism, the Scramble for Africa, resistance, export economies, informal empire in China, mass migration, and cumulative review of Units 1-6.
- Unit 7: Global conflict, revolution, and mass violence, c. 1900–1945Imperial collapse, two world wars, the Great Depression, and mass atrocity: the evidence for each, what it proves, and the chronology errors to avoid.
- Unit 8: Cold War rivalry and decolonization, c. 1945–1991Superpower rivalry, proxy wars, communist revolution, and the many paths of decolonization, with the evidence for each claim and the chronology traps to avoid.
- Unit 9: Globalization, technology, and international institutions after 1900Technology, disease, environment, trade institutions, rights movements, and culture: the evidence for how globalization connected the world unevenly, and how states stayed in charge.
- Final writing lab: timed SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ practiceA full 40-minute SAQ set, a seven-document DBQ, and a full LEQ under exam timing, with point-by-point scoring walkthroughs.
- Final review: chronology, comparisons, and evidenceA master timeline from c. 1200 to the present, the comparison dimensions the exam asks for, an evidence bank, and the chronology errors to check before exam day.
- Practice Exam 1: Multiple ChoiceFull-length AP World History multiple-choice practice: 55 questions in 17 stimulus sets, 55 minutes, with the correct answers and explanations.
- Practice Exam 1: Free ResponseFull-length AP World History free-response practice: three short-answer questions, a DBQ with seven documents, and a long essay, with scoring walkthroughs.
- Practice Exam 2: Multiple ChoiceFull-length AP World History multiple-choice practice with a different regional and source mix: 55 questions, 55 minutes, with explanations.
- Practice Exam 2: Free ResponseFull-length AP World History free-response practice with a different regional and source mix: three short-answer questions, a DBQ, and a long essay, with scoring walkthroughs.