Directions and timing
This is a full-length AP World History multiple-choice section: 55 questions in 55 minutes, about one minute per question. Take it in one sitting, at a desk, with a visible timer and no notes, and do not check answers until you have finished. The questions come in 17 stimulus sets. Each set shares a group of sources (short written evidence, a chronology table, a map, or a cartoon) and asks three or four questions about them. Sets are grouped by stimulus, not labeled by unit, so the exam will not tell you which period a question comes from. That is part of the skill being tested: you have to place each source in time, region, and theme on your own.
After you submit, every question shows the correct answer and the book's explanation. Each question here is tagged with the course unit it tests, so you can see afterward which units cost you points.
How to work a stimulus set
- Read the whole stimulus once, quickly, before the first question. Note the dates, the places, and what each source is doing (describing a state, giving a chronology, showing a map).
- Treat the sources as evidence, not as trivia. Most questions ask what a source is "best used as evidence for." The correct choice is the claim the source directly supports, no more and no less.
- Be suspicious of absolutes. Choices built on only, always, never, no, or all usually overstate the evidence. The best answer is usually the one that keeps both sides of a mixed picture, such as trade bringing both wealth and disease, or independence bringing political change without ending economic dependence.
- Check chronology. Several questions ask why a source would be an error to use for a given period or claim. Compare the dates in the source with the dates in the question before you decide.
- For maps and cartoons, say what the image shows before you read the choices. Name the symbols, labels, and the point of view, then pick the choice that matches your own description.
- Use elimination. Strike any choice that contradicts the source. Between two survivors, ask which one the stimulus actually states or clearly implies.
Pacing
Aim to finish each four-question set in about four minutes, and a three-question set in about three. If a question stalls you for more than a minute, circle it, choose your best answer, and move on. Leave the last two minutes for a quick pass over any circled items and make sure every question has an answer, since there is no penalty for guessing.
What this exam covers
The questions span all nine units of the course, from state building and trade networks around 1200 through land empires, maritime empires and the Columbian Exchange, revolutions and industrialization, imperialism and resistance, the world wars, the Cold War and decolonization, and globalization and international institutions. The recurring habits of mind are the ones the book has trained throughout: comparison, causation, continuity and change over time, and using evidence to support a claim.
After the exam
Review every miss, and also every question you got right by guessing. For each one, write down the unit, the skill, and why the wrong choice you picked was tempting. If your misses cluster in one unit, go back to that unit's lesson and practice set. If they cluster by skill, such as chronology errors or overly absolute answers, drill that habit specifically. Then move on to the written section (Practice Exam 1: Free Response) to practice the short-answer, document-based, and long-essay tasks that make up the rest of the exam.