Advanced Placement World History

Introduction to the Course: The Advanced Placement Program (AP) offers a course and exam in World History to qualified students who wish to complete studies in secondary school equivalent to an introductory college course in world history. The AP World History Exam presumes at least one year of college-level preparation, as is described here.

Course Description: The purpose of AP World History is to develop understanding of the evolution of global processes, contacts, and interactions within different types of human societies. This understanding is advanced through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. The course highlights the nature of changes in global frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge, leading interpretive issues, and skills in analyzing types of historical evidence. Periodization, explicitly discussed, forms and organizing principle to address change and continuity throughout the course. Specific themes provide further organization to the course, along with consistent attention to contacts among societies that form the core of world history as a field of study.