Here is the way the course is structured, along with how much each unit gets assessed on the exam:
FOUR eras, broken into NINE units, split into 71 topics.
What this means is that on the exam, Unit 1 might only have 4 questions, while Unit 5 might have 9 questions.
There are several themes that we use in studying history.
These themes break up pretty much ALL of human history into a few categories--the way we interact with each other, the way the environment influences our lives, how we govern ourselves, and so on.
These are the icons I use; you'll see them throughout my website:
This is an easy way to remember the different themes:
Here's a great website with LOTS of details and explanations for the themes: https://sites.google.com/pasadenaisd.org/theme-review-site/home
The AP test is a skills-based assessment, which means that, while it's important for you to have a bunch of "brain vomit" (historical facts you can recall) that you can drop out on an essay, it's even more important to be able to USE the facts to reason out answers or create arguments in free response questions.
There are specific Historical Thinking Skills (HiTS) that you build and demonstrate in this course:
Identify and explain historical developments and processes.
1.A Identify a historical concept, development, or process.
1.B Explain a historical concept, development, or process.
Basically, recognize historical events and explain how they happened.
Not "In 1776, American colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence," but rather "American colonists were upset with Great Britain for the following reasons... as a result, they declared their independence."
Analyze sourcing and situation of primary and secondary sources.
2.A Identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
2.B Explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/ or audience of a source.
2.C Explain the significance of a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/ or audience, including how these might limit the use(s) of a source
This involves reading primary sources and analyzing who wrote it, what it was written for, or who it was written to, so that you can understand the context of the document in its own place and time. You will especially do this to make an argument in your Document-based question.
Analyze arguments in primary and secondary sources.
3.A Identify and describe a claim and/or argument in a text based or non-text-based source.
3.B Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.
3.C Compare the arguments or main ideas of two sources.
3.D Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.
This requires you to look at a source (like in skill 2) but then explain their argument and describe how it supports the argument they're making.
You will often do some comparison or contrasting to demonstrate this skill.
Analyze the context of historical events, developments, or processes.
4.A Identify and describe a historical context for a specific historical development or process.
4.B Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated within a broader historical context.
Imagine you are an astronaut floating in outer space. You look at the Earth through a camera with a zoom lens. You see specific events happening in one particular place, but if you zoom out, you'll see what's also going on in other parts of the world at the same time (and sometimes before).
If you can make comparisons or connections between some of those separate events, that's contextualization!
Using historical reasoning processes (comparison, causation, continuity and change), analyze patterns and connections between and among historical developments and processes.
5.A Identify patterns among or connections between historical developments and processes.
5.B Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process.
This is like a combination of several of the other skills; can you draw conclusions based on lots of different information?
It's like being a detective--you have a bunch of different pieces of evidence...can you connect the dots to try to create a case?
Develop an argument.
6.A Make a historically defensible claim.
6.B Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence.
Describe specific examples of historically relevant evidence.
Explain how specific examples of historically relevant evidence support an argument.
6.C Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical evidence.
6.D Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative evidence in order to develop a complex argument. This argument might:
Explain nuance of an issue by analyzing multiple variables.
Explain relevant and insightful connections within and across periods.
Explain the relative historical significance of a source’s credibility and limitations.
Explain how or why a historical claim or argument is or is not effective.
This is what the whole course is all about--trying to create HISTORIANS out of you!
If the previous skill was like being a detective, this skill is to get you to be like a lawyer.
The goal is to get you to the point where you know the facts...
you know how the facts came to be...
you know the relevance of the facts...
you know what impact those facts had on events in one place...
you make connections between one place and another...
...and you make an ARGUMENT about the historical situations using facts, documents, contextualization, and connections across a broad spectrum in time.
There are also specific "reasoning processes" you have to develop and demonstrate in the course. These skills show that you think like a historian.
1.i: Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
1.ii: Explain relevant similarities and/ or differences between specific historical developments and processes.
1.iii: Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
Explain relevant similarities and differences between historical events and processes.
How is the expansion of the Mongols similar to the expansion of the Gunpowder Empires? How is the diffusion of ideas and goods along the Silk Road different from the diffusion of ideas and goods in the Indian Ocean?
2.i: Describe causes and/or effects of a specific historical development or process.
2.ii: Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development or process.
2.iii: Explain the difference between primary and secondary causes and between short- and long-term effects.
2.iv: Explain how a relevant context influenced a specific historical development or process.
2.v: Explain the relative historical significance of different causes and/ or effects.
Describe how one event influenced or caused another.
Like, what do you suppose happened once sailors had a compass they could use to direct them as they travel along water trade routes? Trade increases! Boom, causation!
3.i: Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
3.ii: Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
3.iii: Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.
Explain how things stay the same over time, and how they change.
Kind of like if you were to describe your life--what about you is the SAME since you were born? What is different? Do that, but with specific historical regions, states, processes, and so on.
The course is structured to make you stronger in all these skills so that you can ROCK the AP Exam!
The exam is broken into two parts:
Part 1: 55 multiple choice questions (MCQs) and three short-answer questions (SAQs) - two of the SAQs are mandatory and you have your choice of the third.
Part 2: Two free response questions (FRQs): one Document-based question (DBQ) and one Long Essay Question (LEQ) from your choice of three.
You won't PASS or FAIL the AP exam, you'll either qualify for college credit or you won't.
As you can see, achieving ≈half the points qualifies you for college credit in most states. Keep in mind: if this were a regular class, that would be like making a 60 for the course and still "passing"!
The PDF below is the structure of the course as developed by College Board.
It has ALLLL the info I just went over, plus specific content objectives.
If you want to see what's going to be on the AP exam, look through this document! Unit 1 starts on page 40 of the PDF, and each topic will tell you what skill you should be able to demonstrate, and what historical development you should know about.
There are specific examples that College Board lists in most of the topics. Pay attention to those, and learn enough about them so that you can drop them little nuggets in with your brain vomit when you write, and you'll be well on your way to getting the points you need for success!
Go to page 40 for Unit 1!
2019 AP WORLD CED.pdf
AP WORLD HISTORY MODERN HTS SKILLS REASONING PROCESSES