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Ultimate Guide to the AP World History Exam

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The AP World History exam is one of the more popular AP exams among self-studiers and enrolled students alike. In 2019, over 300,000 students took the AP World History exam, making it the fifth most taken AP exam. If you are interested in taking the AP World History exam, read on for a breakdown of the test and CollegeVine’s advice for how to best prepare for it.

Note: beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, the College Board is changing the AP World History exam so that it no longer covers ancient history . The exams now formally called AP World History: Modern, with a new course covering ancient history in the works. AP World History: Modern will only involve history from the year 1200 to the present. This means that you should skip any practice questions involving history from before 1200 in any study materials, as that content will not be covered on the exam. 

When is the AP World History Exam?

The 2020 AP World History exam will take place on Thursday, May 14, at 8 am. For an up-to-date, comprehensive list of AP exam times, check out our blog 2020 AP Exam Schedule: Everything You Need to Know .

About the AP World History Exam

The AP World History course investigates significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in world history from 1200 to the present. In this class, you will develop your ability to analyze historical sources and develop historical arguments. You will do this by honing historical thinking skills, including:

• Developments and processes: Identifying and explaining historical developments and processes.
• Sourcing and situation: Analyzing primary and secondary sources.
• Claims and evidence in sources: Understanding arguments in primary and secondary sources.
• Contextualization: Seeing the bigger picture of historical events, developments, or processes.
• Making connections: Using comparison, causation, continuity, and change to analyze patterns and connections between historical developments and processes.
• Argumentation: Developing a sound argument and clear thesis based on sources and your outside knowledge.

In addition to developing historical thinking skills, you will also explore six primary themes: 

• Humans and the environment: The environment shapes human societies and societies shape their environments.
• Cultural developments and interactions: Ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrate a group’s self-perception, along with influencing political, social, and cultural life.
• Governance: The formation and decline of states and the workings of government.
• Economic systems: The manner in which societies produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.
• Social interactions and organization: Societal grouping and the influences that interactions between groups have on politics, economics, and cultural institutions.
• Technology and innovation: Intended and unintended consequences of human adaptation and innovation. 

AP World History Exam Course Content

The AP World History course is generally divided into nine units. Below is the common structure of the AP World History Course with the percentage of the exam each unit represents. 

AP World History Exam Content

The World History AP exam is one of the longer AP exams, clocking in at three hours and 15 minutes. It is comprised of three sections: multiple choice, short answer, and one final section for the document-based question (DBQ) and long essay. 

Section 1: Multiple Choice 

55 minutes | 55 questions | 40% of score

Section 1 takes 55 minutes, contains 55 multiple-choice questions, and accounts for 40% of your total score. Questions test your ability to analyze historical texts, interpretations, and evidence. Typically, questions come in sets of three to four which use the same primary and secondary sources. 

Section 2: Short-Answer Questions

40 minutes | 3 questions | 20% of score

Section two contains three short-answer questions, takes 40 minutes, and accounts for 20% of your total score. 

• The first short-answer question focuses on historical process and development between the years 1200 and 2001, and includes one secondary source.
• The second short-answer question’s attention is aimed at the same years (1200-2001), but includes a primary source.
• The third short answer gives students a choice to answer one of two questions. The first is focused on historical developments and processes from 1200-1750, the other is focused on historical developments and processes from 1750-2001. Students are not given sources for either question.

Section 3: Free Response 

1 hour 40 minutes | 2 questions | 40% of score

The final section consists of two long-answer responses: a document-based question and a long essay. The DBQ spans one hour (including 15 minutes of reading time) and accounts for 25% of your score. The long essay gives two choices of prompts, from which students must choose one and complete it in 40 minutes. The long essay accounts for 15% of your score. Students familiar with the AP U.S. History or AP European History exams will benefit from knowing that the exam format and scoring rubric are exactly the same.   

• Long Essay: For the long essay, students can choose to write about historical developments and processes from one of three time periods (1200 to 1750, 1450 to 1900, or 1750 to 2001) and must demonstrate historical thinking skills such as comparison, causation, or continuity and change.

AP European History Score Distribution, Average Score, and Passing Rate

The AP World History exam is a tough one to crack, largely because of the breadth of material covered in the exam. In 2019, 55.3% of students who took the AP World History exam received a score of 3 or higher. Only 8.6% of students received the top score of 5, while 15.8% scored a 1 on the exam. Only Physics I, English Literature, Italian Language, and Seminar had lower percentages of students scoring a 5.

Keep in mind, credit and advanced standing based on AP scores varies widely from college to college. Always check with the schools on your list for their AP policies.

A full course description that can help guide your studying and understanding of the knowledge required for the test can be found in the College Board course description .

Best Ways to Study for the AP World History Exam

Step 1: assess your skills.

The College Board AP World History website provides a number of sample test questions and exam tips. You’ll find an AP World History Practice exam from 2017 on the College Board’s website. An AP World History Practice exam from 2013 is also found on the College Board’s website; although the format of the 2013 exam is outdated, the core content remains the same, making it useful for identifying focal areas for studying. Practice tests are also found in many of the official study guides.   

Step 2: Study the Material

The AP World History course develops your understanding of the world’s history through the span of approximately 10,000 years. Obviously this covers an enormous amount of material, so you should allow plenty of time to prepare. Material for the course is divided into six themes: 

• Developments and Processes
• Sourcing and Situation
• Claims and Evidence in Sources
• Contextualization
• Making Connections
• Argumentation

Throughout the course, students use these themes to frame and connect historical developments in different times and places. You will need to learn significant events, people, developments, and processes from world history in four historical periods (1200 to 1450, 1450 to 1750, 1750 to 1900, and 1900 to present) and employ the thinking skills and methods used by historians to study the past. These include analyzing primary and secondary sources, making historical comparisons, chronological reasoning, and argumentation.    

Go to the Source: Unfortunately, there is no official practice test for the current AP World History exam, as the 2020 administration will be the very first iteration of the AP World History: Modern Exam. You’ll need to make do with the aforementioned 2017 AP World History exam ; just be sure to skip any questions from before the year 1200. The College Board does, however, provide an extensive collection of example free-response questions (with commentary) on its website along with some additional sample questions in its official course description . The College Board also recommends World History Connected: the e-Journal of Learning and Teaching as a free web resource for those who want to deepen their engagement and understanding of world history.

Ask an Expert: For a more specific idea of where to focus your studying, you should consider using an updated formal study guide. Both the Princeton Review’s Cracking the AP World History Exam, 2020 Edition and Barron’s AP World History: Modern are proven and reliable resources. Of these, Barron’s is regarded as the stronger option for long-term studying of the material, while the Princeton Review is often regarded as a better option for test practice (though some users say that its practice tests in the past have been more difficult than the actual AP exam). 

Task a Teacher: There are also a number of free study resources available online. Many AP teachers—such as Mrs. Gibson from East Aurora High School in New York—have posted complete study guides, review sheets, and test questions. Be careful when accessing these, as many will be from previous versions of the exam. 

Try a study app: Another convenient way to study is to use one of the recently-developed apps for AP exams. These can be free or cost a small fee, and they provide an easy way to quiz yourself. Make sure you read reviews before choosing one—their quality varies widely. Here’s a free AP World History app from Varsity Tutors , and another free AP World History app that’s highly-rated .

Step 3: Practice Multiple-Choice Questions

Once you have your theory down, give it a try by practicing multiple-choice questions. You can find these in most study guides or through online searches. You could also try taking the multiple-choice section of another practice exam.

The College Board Course Description includes many practice multiple-choice questions along with explanations of their answers. There are additional questions from the 2014 test available here . Again, be sure to skip any questions from before the year 1200, as those will not be on the updated exam. As you go through these, try to keep track of which areas are still tripping you up, and go back over this theory again. Focus on understanding what each question is asking and keep a running list of any concepts that are still unfamiliar.

Step 4: Practice Free-Response Questions

The AP World History exam is different from many AP exams in that it consists of five free-response questions of varying length and content. To be successful in these sections, you should know what to expect from each question. If you are already familiar with the free-response portions of the AP U.S. History or AP European History exams, you will find these similar in format.

Short-Answer Questions: The first three free-response questions are considered “short answer,” and you will be allowed 40 minutes to complete them all. These questions tend to have multiple parts, with each being very specific and limited in scope. In this section, you will have an opportunity to explain the historical examples you know best. You will probably be asked to interpret a graph or figure, compare and contrast the effects of different cultural approaches from specific time periods, or list distinct precipitating factors of significant historical events. You should be able to answer each part of these questions in a short, succinct paragraph.

Document-Based Question: To master the document-based question, you will need to carefully read the question, practice active reading skills while reviewing the documents, and make a strong outline before you begin to write. In this section, you will assess written, quantitative, or visual materials as historical evidence. Be sure to completely review the outline of requirements provided before the prompt, and check them off as you are outlining and writing your response. 

• Scoring: To properly formulate an answer to the document-based questions, it’s valuable to understand how the College Board scores your answer. The document-based question is graded on a scale of 0 to 7 with points awarded for: Thesis/Claim (0 to 1 point), Contextualization (0 to 1 point), Evidence (0 to 3 points), and Analysis and Reasoning (0 to 2 points). 

Long Essay: The long essay gives you the choice of three separate prompts, asking you to explain and analyze significant issues in world history and develop an argument supported by your analysis of historical evidence.  

• Scoring: As with the documentation-based question, understanding how the long essay is scored is beneficial to crafting a successful answer. The long essay is graded on a scale of 0 to 6 with points awarded for: Thesis Claim (0 to 1 point), Contextizalation (0 to 1 point), Evidence (0 to 2 points), and Analysis and Reasoning (0 to 2 points). 

Remember that you only need to answer one of them. As in the document-based question above, you will be provided with a rough outline of key considerations, including a strong thesis, application of your historical thinking skills, ability to support your argument with specific examples, and the synthesis of your response into a greater historical context. You will be asked to explain and analyze significant issues in world history and develop an argument supported by your analysis of historical evidence.

For more details about how the document-based section and long-essay section are scored, review the College Board’s AP World History exam scoring rubric . 

Step 5: Take Another Practice Test

Just like at the very beginning of your studying, take a practice test to assess your progress. You should see a steady progression of knowledge, and it’s likely that you will see patterns identifying which areas have improved the most and which areas still need improvement.

If you have time, repeat each of the steps above to incrementally increase your score.

Step 6: Exam Day Specifics

If you’re taking the AP course associated with this exam, your teacher will walk you through how to register. If you’re self-studying, check out our blog post How to Self-Register for AP Exams .

For information about what to bring to the exam, see our post What Should I Bring to My AP Exam (And What Should I Definitely Leave at Home)?

As a student of world history, you’ll know that the past is often predictive of the future. Getting into college isn’t all that different. Our free chancing engine uses past performances represented in metrics like GPA and standardized test scores, along with other criteria such as extracurricular activities, to take the guesswork out of college admissions and tell you your odds of acceptance at over 500 colleges. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get a boost on your college journey.

Interested in learning more about AP exams? Check out some of our other great posts: 

• 2020 AP Exam Schedule
• How Long is Each AP Exam?
• Easiest and Hardest AP Exams

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

AP World History Practice Exams

See our listing below of all the the online AP World History practice exams. Each of these sites has dozens of free multiple choice practice questions. Start your test prep now!

AP World History Practice Tests

Khan academy, global studies review quizzes, official 2017 practice test, world history textbook, albert’s ap world history.

AP World History | Practice Exams | DBQ & FRQ | Notes | Videos |  Flashcards |  Study Guides

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, where to find the best dbq examples.

Advanced Placement (AP)

One of the best ways to prepare for the DBQ (the "document-based question" on the AP European History, AP US History, and AP World History exams) is to look over sample questions and example essays. Doing this will help you to get a sense of what makes a good (and what makes a bad) DBQ response.

That said, not all DBQ essay examples are created equal. We'll briefly cover what makes a good DBQ example and then provide a list of example essays by course. Lastly, we'll give you some helpful tips on how to best use sample essays in your own preparation process.

What's a Good DBQ Example?

Without a doubt, the best sample resources come from the College Board . This is because they are the ones who design and administer the AP exams . This means the following:

Any DBQ essay example that the College Board provides will include a real DBQ prompt

All samples are real student responses from previous years , so you know they were written under the same conditions you'll have when you write your DBQ—in other words, they're authentic!

They not only have scores but also explanations of each essay's score , in accordance with the rubric

Each prompt includes several sample essays with a variety of scores

Some DBQ examples outside those available from the College Board might be worth looking at, particularly if they highlight how a particular essay could be improved. In general, though, a superior example will do the following:

Include the prompt and documents: It will be much easier for you to see how the information from the documents is integrated into the essay if you can actually look at the documents themselves!

Have a score: Seems simple, but you'd be surprised how many DBQ examples out there in the uncharted internet don't have one. Without a real, official score, it's hard to gauge how trustworthy a sample actually is.

With that in mind, I have compiled lists, organized by exam, of high-quality example DBQs below.

Don't spend all your study time on false starts with your practice DBQs. 

Every DBQ Example Essay You Could Ever Need, by Exam

Here are your example essays! We'll start with AP US History, then move to AP European History, and finally wrap up with AP World History.

AP US History: Official College Board Examples

The APUSH test was redesigned in 2015 and again in 2018, so right now there are eight  official College Board sets of sample essays you can use in your studies . Make sure to give yourself a 15-minute reading period and 45 minutes to write your answer. In addition, don't forget to use the current scoring guidelines when grading your own practice responses.

• 2023 Free-Response Questions | Scoring Guidelines 2023
• 2022 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2022
• 2021 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2021
• 2019 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2019
• 2018 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2018
• 2017 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2017
• 2016 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2016
• 2015 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2015

If you want additional sample question sets, you can look at older College Board US History DBQ example response sets . To look at these, click "Free-Response Questions" for a given year. For the corresponding DBQ examples and scoring guidelines, click "Sample Responses Q1."

Note that these examples use the old rubric (which is integrated into the Scoring Guidelines for a given free-response section). General comments on the quality of the essay, outside information, and document analysis still apply, but the score is on a 9-point scale instead of the current 7-point scale, and some of the particulars will be different. Older DBQs had up to 12 documents, while the current format has seven documents.

If you do look at older DBQ examples, I recommend using the current rubric to re-grade the essays in the sample according to the 7-point scale. I'll also give more advice on how to use all these samples in your prep later on.

Mr. Bald Eagle is an AP US History DBQ grader in his spare time.

AP European History: Official College Board Examples

Unfortunately, there aren't as many sample resources for the AP Euro DBQ compared to the other AP history tests because 2016 was the first year the AP Euro test was administered in the new format . Since then, more minor changes have been made in terms of time (you now have an hour on the DBQ) and individual parts of the rubric (you can view the current scoring guidelines here ).

This means there are seven sets of official samples graded with the current 7-point rubric:

The rest of the existing available samples were graded in the old 9-point format instead of the 7-point format implemented in 2016.

In the old format, there were 6 "core" points and 3 additional points possible. The old rubric is integrated with the sample responses for each question, but we'll highlight some key differences between the old and current formats :

With the old format, you were given a brief "historical background" section before the documents

There were more documents—up to 12—but the current format has seven

There was an emphasis on "grouping" the documents that is not present in the current rubric

There was also explicit emphasis on correctly interpreting the documents that is not found in the current rubric

While the essential components of the DBQ are still the same between the two test formats, you should definitely refer to the current rubric if you decide to look at any old AP European History samples . You might find it useful to look at old essays and score them in accordance with the current rubric.

Here are the old sample DBQ questions and essays, organized by year:

• 2014 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2014
• 2013 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2013
• 2012 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2012
• 2011 Free-Response Questions | Sample DBQ Responses 2011

You can get samples in the old format all the way back to 1999 from the College Board . (Click "Free -Response Questions" for the questions and "Sample Response Q1" for the samples.)

Consider how you might integrate this castle into the DBQ that is your life.

AP World History: Official College Board Examples

The World History AP exam transitioned to a new format to more closely resemble AP US History and AP European History for the 2017 test. This means that there are six past exams available that use the current DBQ format:

Note that starting with the 2020 exam, AP World History will only cover the years 1200 to the present instead of thousands of years of history. As a result, both the course and exam have been renamed AP World History: Modern (a World History: Ancient course is in the works). What this means for you is that previous DBQs might have to do with time periods you're no longer required to study, so just keep this in mind.

In the old format, there were 7 "core" points and 2 additional points possible. The old rubric is integrated with the sample responses for each question, but we'll highlight some key differences between the old and current formats :

There were more documents—up to 10—but the current format has seven

There was an emphasis on "grouping" the documents on the old rubric that is not present in the current rubric

• In the old rubric, you needed to identify one additional document that would aid in your analysis; the new rubric does not have this requirement

The essential components of the DBQ are still the same between the two formats, though you should definitely look at the current rubric if you study with any old AP World History questions and samples. You might find it useful to look at the old essays and score them according to the current rubric.

Here are old AP World History questions and DBQ sample responses , organized by year:

Don't worry, the old format isn't as old as this guy right here.

How Should I Use DBQ Examples to Prepare?

Now that you have all these examples, what should you do with them? In this section, we'll give you some tips on how to use example DBQs in your own AP history prep , including when to start using them and how many you should plan to review.

What Should I Do With These DBQs?

Official sample essay sets are a great way to test how well you understand the rubric. This is why we recommend that you grade a sample set early on in your study process—maybe even before you've written a practice DBQ .

Then, when you compare the scores you gave to the official scores and scoring notes given to the samples, you'll have a better idea of what parts of the rubric you don't really understand . If there are points you are consistently awarding differently than the graders, you’ll know those are skills you'll need to work on.

Keep giving points for the thesis and then finding out the sample didn't get those points? This tells you to work more on your thesis skills. Not giving points for historical context and then finding out the AP grader gave full credit? You need to work on recognizing what constitutes historical context according to the AP.

Check out my tips on building specific rubric-based skills in our guide on how to write a DBQ .

Once you've worked on some of those rubric skills you're weaker in, such as evaluating a good thesis or keeping track of how many documents were used, grade another sample set. This way you can see how your ability to grade the essays like an AP grader improves over time!

Obviously, grading sample exams is a much more difficult process if you're looking at examples in an old format. The old scores as awarded by the College Board will be helpful in establishing a ballpark —a 9 is still going to be a good essay using the current 7-point scale—but there may be some modest differences in grades between the two scales. (For example, maybe that perfect 9 is now more like a 6 out of 7 due to rubric changes.)

For practice grading with old samples, you might want to pull out two copies of the current rubric, recruit a trusted study buddy or academic advisor (or even two study buddies!), and have each of you re-grade the samples .

You can then discuss any major differences in the grades each of you awarded. Having multiple sets of eyes will help you determine whether the scores you're giving are reasonable, since you won’t have an official 7-point College Board score for comparison.

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How Many Example DBQs Should I Be Using?

The answer to this question depends on your study plans.

If it's six months before the exam and you plan on transforming yourself into a hard diamond of DBQ excellence, you might do practice grading on a sample set every few weeks to a month to check your progress to being able to think like an AP grader. In this case, you would probably use six to nine official sample sets.

If, on the other hand, the exam is in a month and you're just trying to get in some extra skill-polishing, you might do a sample set every week to 10 days . It makes sense to check your skills more often when you have less time to study because you want to be sure that you are focusing your time on the skills that need the most work. For a short time frame, expect to use somewhere in the range of three to four official sample sets.

Either way, you should be integrating your sample essay grading with skills practice and doing some practice DBQ writing of your own .

Toward the end of your study time, you could even integrate DBQ writing practice with sample grading. Read and complete a timed prompt and then grade the sample set for that prompt, including yours! The other essays will help give you a sense of what score your essay might have received that year and any areas you might have overlooked.

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to using sample sets, but in general they are a useful tool for making sure you have a good idea what the DBQ graders will be looking for when you write your own DBQ on test day.

Hey, where can we find a good DBQ around here?

Closing Thoughts: Example DBQs for AP History Tests

Example DBQ essays are a valuable resource in your arsenal of study strategies for the AP history exams. Grading samples carefully will help you get a sense of your own blind spots so you'll know what skills to focus on in your prep.

That said, sample essays will be most useful when integrated with your own targeted skills prep . Grading 100 sample essays won't help you if you aren't practicing your skills; rather, you'll just keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Make sure you aren't using sample essays to avoid writing practice DBQs either—you'll want to do at least a couple, even if you only have a month to practice.

And there you have it, folks. With this list of DBQ examples and tips on how to use them, you are all prepared to integrate samples into your study strategy!

What's Next?

Still not sure what a DBQ is? Check out my explanation of the DBQ to learn the basics.

Want tips on how to really dig in and study for AP history tests? We've got a complete how-to guide on preparing for and writing the DBQ .

If you're still studying for AP World History, check out our top AP World History study guide , or get more practice tests from our complete list .

Want more study material for AP US History? Look into this article on the best notes to use for studying from one of our experts. Also, read our review of the best AP US History textbooks !

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Ellen has extensive education mentorship experience and is deeply committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.

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