AP® World History

So you’re strapped for time and the exam is looming over your head. It’s still this vague, scary thing you don’t quite understand – but don’t worry! Plenty of people have been here before you and still scored very well on the AP® World History Exam. All you need to pass a test is proper preparation, along with a little confidence (which generally improves as you prepare – convenient, isn’t it?) and a good amount of sleep.

The AP® World History Exam can be one of the most challenging AP® exams to take because of the vast time-frame and the number of significant historical events, people, and developments that are covered in the course. Even more challenging for some may be how to approach the AP® World History free-response questions. These questions not only cover a broad spectrum of topics, but require you to use your historical thinking skills to defend your response by providing historical evidence to support your written answers to these questions.

When you finally sit down and begin the AP® World History Exam, you will have invested a lot of time, effort, and energy in preparing for that moment. Having a plan of attack for each question is key to getting the maximum number of points for that question. One of your best bets is to make sure that you have developed solid historical thinking skills.

An important concept and period covered in AP® World History is the Enlightenment. Here’s an AP® World History crash course on the Enlightenment: Before the Enlightenment: In the late 1500’s, a revolution began. This period of great change is known as the “Scientific Revolution.”

Can you imagine a world that has Italian pasta without tomato sauce to smother the noodles? How about having a hamburger without any fries? Or maybe an alternate reality where the Irish potato famine of the 19th century never happened? Well, without the Columbian Exchange all of these scenarios could have played out in very real ways.

Did you think that international trade was a product of modern globalization and capitalist markets? Or did you ever assume that the Columbian Exchange was the first historical instance of the trade of people, plants, animals, and diseases between two vastly different continents? Well, this AP® World History guide is going to help to dissuade you of any of these misconceptions as we cover one of the central AP® World History concepts: the Silk Road.