AP® Art History can seem impossibly tough to review in a single month. It involves a massive amount of memorization, thousands of years of history, and some serious analysis. The sheer amount of material in art history makes it difficult to remember everything as you prepare for the AP® test. But with the right study guide and the best materials available, it can be a breeze to review AP® Art History and ace the exam.

We’ve created this one-month AP® Art History study guide to help you review all the essential ideas in the course and practice for the AP® exam. Using our guide, you won’t need to worry about studying material that won’t be tested. We focus only on what you need to know on the AP® test. Plus, we’ve searched everywhere to find the best resources for AP® Art History so you don’t have to look for them. With enough motivation and a good plan, you can confidently take the AP® Art History exam without worrying about forgetting what you’ve learned at the last second.

To get more tips on preparing for the AP® Art History exam, check out this article on How to Study for AP® Art History.

What You will Need for this One-Month AP® Art History Study Guide

If you don’t have the right materials, it will be hard to score well on the exam or even make it through your AP® Art History class. These are the key resources for this study guide. We will reference these throughout the guide, so it’s important that you have access to them. If you can’t find one of the resources we list below, try to find a substitute that you can use instead.

Albert.io AP® Art History questions. The Albert.io system has hundreds of questions on everything in art history, from prehistory to postmodern art. The problems are designed to hone your understanding, and the system tracks your progress to improve your study. The art history questions test both your knowledge of the content and your understanding of the broader themes of art over the ages. It’s a perfect way to improve your chances of excelling on the AP® Art History test.

Plenty of practice tests. If you don’t practice, you cannot possibly prepare enough for the test. AP® Art History has a specific curriculum, and you have to know what the exam will require you to understand. Practice tests are by far the best way to find out what the exam is like and to practice for test day. One of the best resources to find practice tests is CollegeBoard’s AP® Central for AP® Art History. This central website includes a full online practice exam, a multiple-choice exam, and all of the official free response questions since 2003. We’ll be using these practice tests regularly, so save this website.

Flashcard site like Quizlet or flashcard app like Anki. You could also use paper index cards, but those are quite a bit harder to make and study. Anki is great because it uses spaced repetition algorithms to remind you to study at the best possible times. We recommend creating flashcards with an artwork on one side and information about the artwork on the other side. This will help you become familiar with all the art you need to know for the exam. One great resource for making flashcards is this free set of downloadable AP® Art History flashcards. You can download them straight to your phone or put them on your kindle device.

AP® Art History on Khan Academy. This completely free, interactive, video-based course includes almost all of the relevant material for AP® Art History. If you work through the entire class, you’ll be able to take the test with with confidence and excel on the exam. In this study guide, we’ll use the Khan Academy to guide our progress and supplement the material. It’s important that you can keep track of this website, so we would recommend making it a bookmark on your browser.

A review book for AP® Art History. There are three major books for learning and reviewing AP® Art History: REA, the Princeton Review, and Barron’s. The latest edition of the REA book was published in 2012, so it is somewhat outdated. This isn’t a big deal, since there haven’t been any massive changes to the AP® exam since 2012. However, it always gets glowing reviews from AP® Art History teachers, and if you understand everything in the REA book you’re nearly guaranteed to get a five. The Princeton Review was written to cover only the essentials – what you absolutely need to know for the test. It’s best as a review for those who are taking an AP® Art History class in school, not as a way to learn the material. Finally, Barron’s book is up-to-date for the 2016 exam and is great for either reviewing or for learning the material for the first time. It loses out on some of the unique and helpful aspects of the other two books, but it is perfect for most people’s needs. For this guide, we’ll be using Barron’s review book: Barron’s AP® Art History, Third Edition. However, you can relate our advice to any review book your using. All of them cover the same material, just in a different way and sometimes in a rearranged order.

Return to the Table of Contents

Extra Resources for AP® Art History

You probably will not need these resources to pass the test, and you don’t need them to use this study guide. But we might reference these resources at some point, and they will be very useful on the AP® Art History test. Since most of them are free, you can use them as an extra way to enhance your study and increase your understanding of the history of art.

An AP® Art History textbook. If you’re taking the class in school, you probably have already been given a textbook. You should take advantage of this book to gain a better comprehension of art history. The AP® exam tests your ability to integrate your knowledge of a variety of periods and artworks, and a textbook is a perfect way to develop this deep, integrated understanding. If you don’t have a textbook, you don’t have to buy one. They can be very expensive, and this study guide will cover all the material without the need for a textbook. If you do want to get a textbook, great! One of the best options is The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. It’s a very intriguing, sometimes funny, and remarkably inexpensive textbook on the full history of human art. If you’d like to look at more options, the CollegeBoard has created an example textbook list for AP® Art History.

This YouTube playlist on AP® Art History from Art Academy. Videos are the best way to learn for some people. They include images, text, and audio at the same time. These three separate routes of communication help reinforce the knowledge in your brain. This set of videos is a wonderful method for reviewing and learning art history.

The Modern Art and Ideas course on Coursera. Do you love the avant-garde, exciting, abstract paintings and artworks of the modern era? Are Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Claude Monet some of your favorite artists? This course is a great option for delving into this period and learning everything about modern and postmodern artistic expression. This is a mostly supplemental resource, as it only covers the modern era and wasn’t made for AP® Art History students. Use it to learn more about your passion and grow your understanding. However, you shouldn’t depend on it in your preparation for the AP® exam.

AP® Art History Worksheets and Study Guide. An expert AP® Art History teacher compiled this extensive set of worksheets, photos, study guides, and review notes to help students prepare for the exam. Using this resource, you’ll be able to directly test your knowledge right after you learn the material. Since testing yourself has been shown to be one of the best ways to improve retention, using these worksheets to your advantage can dramatically increase your score.

Return to the Table of Contents

How to Use the AP® Art History Study Guide

Your study is determined by how prepared you are right now. If you are very prepared, for example, you will not spend time reviewing concepts and learning content. Instead, you will focus on answering sample questions, making sure you have the material memorized, and practicing for the AP® test. In contrast, if you’re not as prepared, you should be learning new ideas and reviewing old content at the same time.

Before you start using this study guide, you should probably take a diagnostic test to evaluate how much you already know. This will be valuable for guiding your review in the future and helping you decide what to study. If you want to take practice exam, there’s a diagnostic test at the beginning of Barron’s review book. If you’ve already taken a test in school, you can use that to gauge what you know.

Once you’ve taken the test, grade it to determine your score. If you got a 4 or 5, you’re very prepared. However, remember that practice tests are easier than the real exam. You should keep reviewing until the test. If you got a 3, you’re somewhat prepared. If you got a 1 or 2, you’re not very prepared, and you should use this study guide to improve your score before the test. However, it’s not just your score that matters. You should also look through your test to see what you missed and what you understood. Try to pinpoint the concepts and sections that you didn’t really get. For example, if you missed a lot of questions about prehistoric art, you should focus a lot of your study this month on making sure you know everything you need to know about prehistoric art.

If you don’t feel prepared at all: Learning the content well enough for the exam will require extra diligence. Depending on your situation, you need to study about 10 to 15 hours a week. Do not skip any of the readings or practice tests. Do everything in this study guide until you can describe all of the major concepts in AP® Art History without help. Take as many practice tests as you can, and use them to decide what you should study the most. Use this study guide to make your study time efficient, so you don’t waste any of your valuable hours on material you don’t need to know.

If you’re somewhat prepared: This guide is an efficient and comprehensive way to strengthen your memory and fill in the gaps in your knowledge of AP® Art History. Again, this category is mostly for people who scored around a three on the diagnostic exam. If you haven’t taken a practice test yet, but you feel confident in your general grasp of art history, this category is probably for you too. Since you already know most of the course’s concepts, you don’t need to learn any new material. When this study guide tells you to learn a new concept, just skim over the reading or lecture to review the concept. Your focus should be on practicing, memorizing, and reviewing. Instead of reading a textbook or review book, just take plenty of practice exams and answer tons of sample questions. You should study about 10 hours a week in the five weeks before the exam. Every day, practice going through your flashcards, complete some questions on Albert.io, or answer a few AP® questions.

If you’re very prepared: You probably know who you are. You might have already taken art classes before, and maybe you already know a lot about the subject. You might have scored a 5 on a few practice exams, or maybe you just feel very confident in your knowledge of AP® Art History. Maybe you’re already well on your way to creating a masterpiece of your own. No matter which situation you’re in, you mostly need to focus on practicing. Even if you’re a pro, there are probably a few gaps you need to fill in. The AP® test is filled with difficult problems and very specific questions about artworks, so it is important to know what’s ahead of you. This study guide will make sure you know all the content you need to confidently knock off the AP® exam and walk out with a 5. You should spend at least five hours a week studying for the test in the month before the exam.

There are a few main ideas the CollegeBoard wants you to understand for the AP® test. These are called the Big Ideas of AP® Art History. They’re the broad, conceptual principles you should understand before you walk into the testing room.

1. Big Idea One: Artists manipulate materials and ideas to create an aesthetic object, act, or event. This concept deals with the broad practical and philosophical aspects of art. If you understand this idea, you should be able to answer this question: What is art and how is it made? You should be able to describe many different aspects of an artwork – its medium, its form, its function, its impact, and its context. You should be able to think and write about why an artist made a work in a particular way.
2. Big Idea Two: Art-making is shaped by tradition and change. This is one of the main principles of the history of art. Every culture and every time period has different artistic practices, and it can be incredibly interesting to learn about the diversity of art across time and space. The main question in this unit is this: Why and how does art change? If you understand this idea, you should be able to tell a coherent story about the history of a particular kind of art. For example, can you explain when, why, and how impressionism arose in the tradition of modern art? Most questions about the direct history of art deal with this big idea.
3. Big Idea Three: Interpretations of art are variable. If two people walk into a museum and look at a piece of art, they almost never agree on the exact meaning of the artwork. If they did, it would virtually be a miracle – two people looked at a certain arrangement color and space and came to the exact same conclusion. All the differing interpretations are partly why art is so interesting and valuable – it reveals our inner diversity. If you understand this big idea, you should be able to answer this question: How do we describe our thinking about art? On the AP® test, you need to be able to write your ideas about what an artistic work, using references to the artist, the history, and the nature of the piece to interpret the art.

That’s it! There are only three very big, abstract ideas you need to comprehend for the AP® test. However, there is a long and detailed list of artworks and events you must know in order to apply these ideas. There are ten major periods of history or areas of artistic culture that the AP® test requires you to know about. You need to know a selection of artworks from each of these areas or time periods. There are a total of 250 pieces of art on the test.

1. Global Prehistory, 30,000 – 500 BCE. This unit makes up about 4% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 11 works of art. It includes the earliest rudiments of artistic expression like cave paintings and ancient pottery.
2. Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 BCE – 300 CE. This unit makes up about 15% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 36 works of art. It covers primarily Greece, Rome, Carthage, Crete, and the other ancient art-producing cultures on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200 – 1750 CE. This unit makes up about 20% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 51 works of art. Most of the American tradition arose from this period, and this unit includes many of the more commonly-known artworks.
4. Later Europe and Americas, 1750 – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 22% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 54 works of art. It’s the largest unit in AP® Art History. It also covers many of the most popular pieces of art in the Western tradition.
5. Indigenous Americas, 1000 BCE – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 6% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 14 works of art. There are countless interesting, beautiful artworks created by Native Americans, and this unit will give you an introduction to this vibrant body of work.
6. Africa, 1100 – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 6% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 14 works of art. While Africa has a long history of artistic expression, many of its artworks have been lost. As a result, most art history courses cover only modern African art. This unit covers many the most important works that influenced the African aesthetic tradition.
7. West and Central Asia, 500 BCE – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 4% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 11 works of art. The region covers China, Mongolia, and many of the former Soviet states in central Asia.
8. South, East, and Southeast Asia, 300 BCE – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 8% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 21 works of art. Many of the pieces from this region are characterized by eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, or Taoism, and they are often highly intricate. One of the most famous examples of Southeast Asian art is the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia.
9. The Pacific, 700 BCE – 1980 CE. This unit makes up about 4% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 11 works of art. The Pacific Ocean covers a massive portion of the Earth, and it is dotted with lush islands that are often filled with very creative inhabitants. This unit covers the artwork of Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, the Philippines, and countless other Pacific islands.
10. Global Contemporary, 1980 CE – Present. This unit makes up about 11% of the average AP® exam, and it includes 27 works of art. Many of the artists from this unit are alive or have artworks in modern art museums near you – Marcel Duchamp, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more.

This guide is based on a study schedule of six days a week and two hours a day. However, if you don’t need to review certain ideas, feel free to skip over them. You get a break at the end of each week. However, even on your rest day, you may want to skim over your notes and test yourself on a few flashcards.

There are a few things you should be doing nearly every day this month, regardless of how prepared you are. First, you need to make a deck of flashcards for reviewing and memorizing key ideas in AP® Art History. Since AP® Art History is a very memorization-focused course with dozens of artworks, names, and dates, you should make sure to add what you learn to your flashcards. Otherwise, you will forget what you know when you need it most.

Second, you should be taking notes throughout the course. Use your notes to keep track of what you know and what you need to study. Nearly every day, you should review your notes and practice your flashcards to keep the material fresh in your mind.

If you miss a day, try to catch up the next day. Don’t cram, as it will not be effective in the end.

Return to the Table of Contents

Week 1

Day 1

We’ll start off this month of studying by making sure you understand what you will be required to know on the AP® Art History test. By the end of the day, you should know what concepts will be tested and what you need to review for the AP® exam. You should have a strong understanding of what you’re up against.

Read pages 9 all the way through 23 of the AP® Art History Course Description from the CollegeBoard. This description includes a full outline of everything you need to know on the AP® test. Every time you see a word or concept that you are unfamiliar with, write it down in your notes. You’ll want to come back to these concepts later in the month to review them. As you read, try to understand the broad, main ideas of art history.

After you’ve finished reading, go to page 24 of the Course Description. This section describes all the major content areas in AP® Art History. We already explain the ten content areas, but look over this page to get a preview of what you’ll be studying.

Next, skip down to page 191 of the AP® Art History Course Description. This part of the description is all about the test itself. It’s vital that you read through this section carefully, as it tells you exactly what the test will be like and how your responses will be graded. Plus, this section includes 34 practice multiple-choice questions and six practice free-response questions. Set aside some time to answer all of these questions. Go to a place where you won’t be interrupted. Treat this like a real practice exam.

After you finish the test, grade your answers. What do you already know? What do you need to learn? Make sure to write down any key ideas that you don’t understand.

Hopefully you’re excited to get started! Get some rest today. For the remainder of this guide, we’ll be reviewing everything there is to know about art history.

Day 2

Today we’ll be starting our review by understanding the main ideas of art history. Before we delve into all the specific artworks and learn about the masterpieces of the past, we need to learn about the concepts that bind all these works together. Why make art? What is art? Why and how does artistic expression change over time? How should we interpret art? It is very important that you can answer these philosophical questions for the AP® exam. You won’t be graded for having the ‘correct answer’ in most cases; rather, you’ll be graded for having a thoughtful, insightful, and well-informed response.

Watch this Khan Academy video on why we should look at art. It’s only a minute long, which makes it a perfect introduction.

Next, watch this Khan Academy video on the basics of art interpretation. This is a wonderful example of how art historians use the work itself, the meaning of the work, and the historical concept to interpret art. Contrary to what most people think, there is a legitimate method to art interpretation that involves serious research and reflection.

After that, just watch the following three videos on Khan Academy: first, a brief history of religion in art, second, is there a difference between art and craft, and finally, how art can help you analyze.

Last of all, there are some important cultural and religious ideas you need to firmly understand if you want to do well in art history. The main religions that have influenced art are Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. Go to Khan Academy’s page on the cultures and religions of art history. Use this resource to study any material you don’t know. For example, do you know the five pillars of Islam? If not, read about them and watch some videos on the Islamic faith. Do you know who Krishna is, and his importance in Hinduism? If not, you need to study up. It’s not important that you know every detail in these five religions. You just need to have a good familiarity with each of them so you can use them to interpret artworks.

Day 3

Now that you have been introduced to art history, it’s time to really delve into the content. The first major content area is global prehistory. This unit is fairly small, so there’s only one chapter on it in Barron’s book.

Open up your Barron’s review book and turn to page 69, which is the beginning of the chapter on Prehistoric Art. Read this chapter for the rest of your study session. Remember to take notes and add to your flashcards! Pay attention to important dates, artists, and ideas. Usually these will be bolded in the review book.

Then, to quiz yourself on what you just learned, answer all of the Albert.io questions on Global Prehistory. Don’t worry, there are only 19 questions, and they shouldn’t be too challenging if you read the chapter in Barron’s book. If you miss a question, go back and review the material to make sure you understand.

Remember to take some time to review the main artworks for the global prehistory unit. There are 11 pieces of art you need to be familiar with. A phenomenal resource for learning about the artworks in AP® Art History is Khan Academy’s list of Required Works of Art for AP® Art History. It lists all the artwork and includes analysis and videos to help you understand the pieces.

That’s enough to finish your review of the first unit: global prehistory. We didn’t spend much time on it because it only makes up 4% of the AP® exam. When you think of it that way, it makes sense that we’re spending a little less than 4% of this month on reviewing prehistory.

Day 4

Next up is the second content area in AP® Art History: the Ancient Mediterranean. We’ll spend about three days on this unit, since it makes up a significant portion of the AP® exam – about 15%.

First of all, read through Chapter 2 of Barron’s book. It’s titled Ancient Near Eastern Art, and it starts on page 79. As you read the chapter, take notes and add to your flashcards. This chapter is only 10 pages long, so it shouldn’t take you very much time to read through.

Now, open up Khan Academy’s review of the Ancient Mediterranean. Watch most of the videos and the articles in this review. You can speed up the videos to reduce the amount of time you spend watching. Plus, you don’t need to review the content if you feel very confident that you could answer any questions about it. However, be careful in overestimating yourself. One great way to test if you really know the material is to go to Albert.io and answer a few questions, and then check out your accuracy.

Working through the Khan Academy review should take about 30 minutes or less.

Then, read Chapter 3: Egyptian Art in Barron’s review book.

When you’re finished reading, go back to Khan Academy and open up their review of Ancient Egypt.

Day 5

We will continue our study of Ancient Mediterranean art today. Try to analyze how political, economic, and social conditions affected artistic expression in the Mediterranean region. Why did the elites in Ur choose to commission certain artworks? Can you identify any influences on the artistic style of the Egyptians?

First, read Chapter 4: Greek Art in Barron’s review book. This chapter covers one of the most significant artistic cultures in history, so make sure to pay attention.

Then, go through all of Khan Academy’s review of Greek Art.

After finishing your study of ancient Greece, open up your Barron’s review book and read Chapter 5: Etruscan Art. The Etruscans are a somewhat mysterious group of people who lived on the land that eventually become Rome. The art they produced was mythical, intricate, and often extremely beautiful.

When you finish studying the Etruscans, open up Khan Academy and complete their review of Ancient Etruria.

Day 6

Before we begin, here’s a quick preview of what’s coming next in this guide. In exactly 19 days or about three weeks, we’re going to be taking your first real AP® Art History practice test. You need to know and review all of the basic concepts in AP® Art History before that test.

Today, we will finish learning about ancient Mediterranean art, and then we will review everything we have gone over in this unit.

Open your copy of Barron’s review book and turn to Chapter 6: Roman Art. Read through the entire chapter, take notes, and add to your pile of flashcards. When you finish, take a 5-minute break to refresh your mind.

Then, come back to Khan Academy and work through all of their review of Ancient Rome.

Finally, head over to Albert.io and answer all the questions in the Ancient Mediterranean section. There aren’t that many questions, so it shouldn’t take you too long.

Congratulations on making it through the first week!

Day 7

It’s been a tough week! In the last six days, you’ve learned or reviewed about 18% of the material that will be tested on the AP® exam. Don’t worry; you’ll have time to review this later on. Take a break to catch your breath. Catch up on your sleep and exercise. Over your rest day, try to find some time to review all your notes and flashcards.

Return to the Table of Contents

Week 2

Day 8

We’ll start this week by introducing you to one of the largest and most important content areas in AP® Art History – the art of early Europe and colonial America. This is the second-largest unit, and it makes up about 20% of the average AP® test.

First of all, read through Chapter 7: Late Antique Art in Barron’s review book. We won’t be reinforcing this chapter with any videos or quizzes, so it’s very important that you take thorough notes and use flashcards.

Then, read Chapter 8: Byzantine Art. We know this reading is somewhat rapid-fire, but these chapters are usually very short. This means you should be finishing each chapter in less than 30 minutes, unless the chapter is particularly long.

Finally, head over to Khan Academy and work through the Medieval Art in Europe section. This unit on Khan Academy also covers the basics of Islamic art, so it’s a great preview to some of the material we’ll be learning tomorrow.

With the rest of the time, go to Albert.io and complete at least 20 questions. If you have extra time, keep working through the questions and try to answer as many as possible while remaining accurate.

Day 9

Today is a major reading day. We’ll be reading five chapters. This will take a little less than two hours, as each chapter is less than 15 pages long and each should take you less than 30 minutes to read. After you finish each chapter, take a break for about five minutes to stretch, run outside, talk to your family, or generally stop thinking about your study. Often, this method of interrupting your study with something that will allow you to think differently is highly effective. It increases both creativity and productivity. Don’t try to binge your studying – it’s not nearly as fun as binging a TV show.

• First, read Chapter 9: Islamic Art in Barron’s review book.
• Second, read Chapter 10: Early Medieval Art. Third, read Chapter 11: Romanesque Art.
• Fourth, read Chapter 11: Gothic Art.
• Finally, read Chapter 12: Gothic Art in Italy. That was an intense set of chapters. You should have read pages 163 through 217, which is a total of 54 pages.

When you’re finished, read through all your notes to review. Then, quiz yourself on the flashcards.

Day 10

Again, we will be reading intensely today. In order to learn all the material in time, we need to stay on schedule and keep working through the content. Today we will cover chapters 13 through 18, which is a total of 58 pages. Remember to take notes and make flashcards as you read. Also, you should be taking short breaks after you finish each chapter. This will help you stay focused and will improve the quality of your studying.

Read Chapter 14: Renaissance in Northern Europe, Chapter 15: Early Renaissance in Italy, Chapter 16: High Renaissance and Mannerism, Chapter 17: Baroque Art, and Chapter 18: Art of New Spain.

These chapters cover an incredibly important period in art history and in the history of the world – the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Giorgione all lived in this period.

Day 11

We have absolutely raced through the unit on Early Europe and the Colonial Americas. To catch up and make sure you have solidified what you’ve learned, go back to your notes and read through all of them. Then, go through all of your flashcards and try to memorize all the important terms, names, dates, and ideas from this unit.

Next, open up Khan Academy’s review of Early Europe and Colonial America. Don’t try to watch every video and read every article. Just skim through this resource and use it to review the material and gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of some of the artworks from this unit.

Then, finish all of the Albert.io questions on Early Europe and Colonial America. When you’re done, look back and see how well you performed. Did you have a high accuracy rate? If not, go back to the chapters and try to learn what you missed.

Day 12

The next unit is Later Europe and Americas. This is the largest unit in the entire course, as it covers about 22% of the material on the AP® exam. To introduce you to this unit, watch all the videos and read all the materials on Enlightenment and Revolution in Khan Academy’s review of Later Europe and Americas.

This unit spans between 1750 and 1980, which is only 280 years – making it one of the smallest units by amount of time. However, in these two and a half centuries, art and culture changed dramatically. You should understand the Enlightenment, a cultural and philosophical movement in Europe that encouraged free thought, science, and reasoning. You should know the major aspects of the Reformation, one of the most important events in the history of Christianity. Finally, you should review the Industrial Revolution. The proliferation of technology and science in this period had serious and long-lasting effects on art.

Now, read and take notes on all of Chapter 19: Rococo and Neoclassicism.

After you finish Chapter 19, read Chapter 20: Romanticism. This is one of the most important chapters in the entire review, as romanticism was an artistic and cultural revolution that had permanent consequences for how humans express themselves. This movement emphasized emotion, subjective experience, and individual expression.

With any remaining time today, open up Albert.io and work on answering questions from the section about Later Europe and Americas.

Day 13

Now, we will finish all the readings for the fourth major content area in AP® Art History – Later Europe and Americas.

Open up Barron’s review book and flip to page 299. Read through all of Chapter 21: Late Nineteenth-Century Art. Again, remember to take notes and add to your growing deck of flashcards.

Next, read Chapter 22: Early and Mid-Twentieth Century Art, which begins on page 303. After you finish reading this chapter, you’ve completed all the chapters in Barron’s book on Later Europe and Americas.

To understand this critical unit better, we’ll watch half of the material from Khan Academy on Modern and Contemporary Art. This section includes videos and well-written articles about Duchamp, Basquiat, and Picasso, as well as other exciting artists.

Day 14

Have a reinvigorating rest day! We’re about halfway through the month. In the last 13 days, we’ve already completed our review of about 52% of the material that will be test on the AP® Art History exam. If you’ve already made it this far, you are well on your way to acing the test. Great work!

Return to the Table of Contents

Week 3

Day 15

On Wednesday next week – Day 25 – we’ll be taking our first full AP® Art History practice test. That is in exactly 10 days from today. Don’t worry, we’re more than halfway done with the course, and the remaining units are all very short.

First, finish working through Khan Academy’s review of Modern and Contemporary Art. Watch the videos, read the materials, and analyze the artworks. Don’t just skim through everything – you should be reading closely, taking notes, and watching actively.

Next, open up Albert.io and spend the rest of your study session working through the questions on Later Europe and Americas.

Day 16

Before anything else, make sure you’ve finished everything from the Later Europe and Americas unit. Specifically, you should have completed all of the Khan Academy review of this unit, and you should have answered all the questions on Albert.io about Later Europe and Americas.

Next, open up Barron’s book and skip to Chapter 26: Art of the Americas on page 363. Don’t worry; we’ll come back to the previous chapters. For now, we’re working on Indigenous American art.

When you finish reading Chapter 26, go to Khan Academy. Read the articles and watch the videos in the section on Indigenous Americas. Analyze each of the artworks you see in this review.

Finally, go to Albert.io and answer all the questions about Indigenous America. There are only 27 questions, so it shouldn’t take you very long.

That’s it for our review of indigenous American art! If you’re especially interested in this unit, feel free to learn more about it. However, since it only covers 6% of the AP® exam, we won’t spend very much time reviewing this unit.

Day 17

Now we need to move onto the sixth major content area in this AP® Art History review – the art of Africa. While African art is frequently underestimated and dismissed, this lush and massive continent has produced a vast quantity of beautiful pieces in a variety of styles.

Skip to Chapter 27: African Art in your Barron’s review book. This chapter begins on page 379, right after the chapter on Native American art. Read through the entire chapter, taking notes and making flashcards as you read.

Then, go to Khan Academy’s review of Africa in AP® Art History. Complete this entire review.

When you’re done with Khan Academy, we’re going to review everything you’ve learned with a short set of flashcards. You may have made similar flashcards for this unit, but sometimes it’s helpful to look at other people’s study materials so you can gain a different perspective. Study all the flashcards in this deck on African art on Quizlet.

Take note of how the flashcards are made. They include a picture of the artwork, and then on the other side, there is some information about the work. There are five pieces of information about each artwork: the name of the piece, the approximate date the piece was made, the artist or group that made the work, the location of the work, and the symbolism or meaning of the artwork. This is a great way to study Art History and a wonderful method to build your flashcard deck.

To finish off our study of art in Africa, open Albert.io and work through the section on African Art. There are only 24 questions in this section, so you should be able to complete it in within 30 minutes.

Day 18

You have now made it through 73% of all the content that will be tested on the AP® exam, and you have completed six of the ten units in AP® Art History. Keep up your progress!

Today we will review West and Central Asia. Some people have trouble distinguishing the two units on Asian art in AP® Art History. Basically, West and Central Asia includes the art of the Middle East, some Indian art, and a few pieces from the central Asian empires of the Mongols, Persians, and more. On the other hand, the unit on South, East, and Southeast Asia covers the large, extremely populous area we usually think of as the Far East. This includes China, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, and many of the smaller countries in Southeast Asia.

Barron’s book does not actually have a chapter that directly covers West and Central Asia, but that’s fine. Instead, just go to Khan Academy and work through their entire review of West and Central Asia.

When you finish Khan Academy, we’re going to utilize a new resource – this lecture on West and Central Asia from Jasen Evoy, a wonderful AP® Art History teacher. He covers most of the material in this unit in a condensed but detailed way. Since the video is on YouTube, you can watch it at a variety of different speeds. We would recommend adjusting the speed to best fit your studying – slow down if you want more time to take notes, or speed up if you just need a quick refresher.

Finally, go to Albert.io and complete all the questions on West and Central Asia.

Day 19

Today we will start our review of art history in South, East, and Southeast Asia. This includes the art of Japan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and more. For today, we will read two of the three chapters for this unit and do a little bit of work on Albert.io. Tomorrow, we will finish the third chapter and review everything in this unit.

First of all, open up your Barron’s book and flip to Chapter 23: Indian and Southeast Asian Art. This chapter begins on page 325 of Barron’s review book. Read the entire chapter.

Then, continue reading in Chapter 24: Chinese and Korean Art.

When you finish Chapter 24, go to Khan Academy. Work through the sections on India, China, and Korea in the South, East, and Southeast Asia unit.

That’s it for today! Use any remaining time to work through unfinished questions on Albert.io.

Day 20

Start today’s study session by opening your Barron’s review book to Chapter 25: Japanese Art. Read this chapter and take notes.

When you finish reading, go to Khan Academy and complete the sections on Japan, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

Use the rest of the time to review your flashcards and study your notes. Make sure you understand all the artworks from this unit. If you have extra time, read more about some of the works you studied in this unit – maybe do some research on the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, or The Great Wave.

Day 21

Have a good rest day! There are only nine days left until the end of the month and only four days left until your practice test, but you have made a ton of progress. You have reviewed about 85% of the material you need to know for the AP® test, and you only have two units remaining. Today, try to take a break, go for a walk, or get some exercise.

Return to the Table of Contents

Week 4

Day 22

There are only three more days until your practice test! Today, we’ll review all the material in the unit on Pacific art. We’ll also introduce you to Global Contemporary Art. Tomorrow, we will complete most of the material in the Global Contemporary unit. Finally, on the day before the test, we will finish off our review of Global Contemporary art, and then we’ll do a short review of everything you’ve learned so far.

First, open your Barron’s book to page 393. Read through all of Chapter 28: Oceanic Art.

Then, go to Khan Academy and work through their review of the Pacific unit in AP® Art History.

Last of all, you should complete all the questions about the Pacific on Albert.io. There are only 20 questions, so this should not take you very long.

Day 23

The very last unit in all of AP® Art History is Global Contemporary Art. This is a fairly large content area, but we have plenty of materials to help you comprehend it all.

Start by flipping to page 403 in your Barron’s review book. Read Chapter 29: Contemporary Art. When you finish, congratulate yourself for completing all of the content review chapters in Barron’s book!

Next, go to Khan Academy’s review of the Global Contemporary content area. Complete this entire review. Remember to take notes and flashcards, even if you are just watch a video.

Finally, finish about 30 questions in the Global Contemporary section on Albert.io.

Day 24

This is the last day before your practice exam! Try to use your time as productively and efficiently as possible.

First, finish all the questions on Albert.io about Global Contemporary Art.

When you complete this section, go back through all the previous sections and start analyzing your performance. Are there any particular areas you haven’t really understood? Are there any sections you have low accuracy on? Use this information to direct your study. If you repeatedly missed questions on a specific topic, go and review this topic.

You’ve probably missed a few assignments in the last couple weeks. Maybe you didn’t review a certain concept enough. Use today to go back and finish what you started. If you didn’t complete one of the Khan Academy sections, if you didn’t really understand a chapter in Barron’s book, or if you forgot to make flashcards for a certain topic, go back and complete these chapters.

Here are a few things that you should have done by now. If you haven’t finished them, try to complete them today.

• Complete all of the AP® Art History questions on Albert.io.
• Read chapters 1 through 29 of Barron’s review book.
• Have a full deck of flashcards for all the terms, ideas, dates, names, and concepts in AP® Art History.
• Notes on all the major topics and notes about your progress in understanding the key concepts of AP® Art History.

If you have extra time, the best way to use it is to look at all the previous artworks you’ve studied. Try to solidify your knowledge of these masterpieces, so you can remember them for the AP® test.

Day 25

Today we’ll be focused entirely on finishing a full AP® Art History practice exam. Open up your Barron’s review book and go to the section called Practice Test 1. This test includes both multiple-choice and free response, and you should complete both sections. Remember, you have 60 minutes to answer all 80 questions in the multiple-choice section and 120 minutes for the six questions in the free response section. The full test should take about three hours to complete.

Find a quiet, isolated place where you can just focus on the test. Time yourself as you work through the exam. Set aside about three hours and fifteen minutes to finish the entire test, including the break. You’ll also need about 20 minutes to grade the test.

After you are finished, take a break for about 15 minutes. Then go back to the exam and check your answers. Review all the answers you got wrong and try to understand why.

Grade your practice test and review all the answers you got wrong. Use the answer explanations, the rest of your Princeton Review book, and the other resources in this study guide to understand why you made these mistakes.

What did you get? How much have you improved in the last two weeks? Use your score to analyze your progress so far. Next week, we’ll take another practice exam.

Day 26

The AP® exam is getting closer and closer, but you have already equipped yourself with nearly everything you need to get the score you want. However, you’re probably starting to lose your grasp of some of the concepts you have reviewed in the last two weeks. We’re going to use all the time we have left in this week to get back up to speed and ensure that your skills are polished enough for the AP® exam.

First of all, we need to make sure that you’ve finished everything on Albert.io. Go back and finish any sections that you haven’t completed yet.

The Albert.io system tracks your progress and analyzes your accuracy over time. You should see statistics about your accuracy on each section. Spend extra time reviewing and completing questions from sections that you have low accuracy on.

If you have extra time after finishing every question on Albert.io, work on reviewing your flashcards. If you’re using Quizlet or Anki, you can automatically mark flashcards that you aren’t doing well on. If you’re using paper, you should mark flashcards that you consistently get wrong. Make multiple decks of flashcards based on how well you know them. Studying is all about learning from your mistakes.

Finally, review your practice test and try to analyze your mistakes. Find out why you missed each question, and then try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Day 27

Today, we’re going to focus on learning everything you need to know about the Free Response section of the AP® Art History test.

Before you answer any AP® Art History free response questions, we need to decide on a strategy for completing the section. Read this article on AP® Art History Long Essay Writing Tips and Strategies. Use it to create your own personal strategy.

Here are some basic tips from Albert.io about how to ace the free response section.

First, do the easiest question first. It makes you more efficient and ensures that you get at least a few points on the free response section. If you read a question and you have completely forgotten the material, just skip it. If you don’t know much about the artwork in a question, skip that one and move onto one you know better. At the end, you can go back and finish the questions you skipped.

Second, be organized. If you’re disorganized in your answers, it’s hard for graders to give you a good score. Have specific responses to each question. If a question has multiple parts, label all of your answers.

Finally, answer the question directly. This is not a five-paragraph essay, and it has absolutely no specified format. The only restriction on your essay in the AP® Art History test is that you have to answer the question in a way that’s clear enough for an AP® grader to understand. Don’t write conclusions, thesis statements, introductions, or transition statements. If you want to ace the free response section, just answer the question and then move on.

Now that you have a strategy, it’s time to test it out against some real free response sections. Start by downloading the AP® Art History Free Response questions from 2016. Then, take this entire practice test. Time yourself, and treat it like a real test.

When you finish the exam, download the Scoring Guidelines. Try to grade your exam like an AP® grader would. Only give yourself points if you match the grading key.

When you’re done, evaluate your performance. What did you miss? What did you understand? You can go back to AP® Central to look at real sample responses and see statistics about each question.

Day 28

Today is your last rest day before the end of this one-month study guide! Use it wisely, but not too wisely. What does that mean? Well, try to do something fun. Don’t think about the exam. You’ve already gone through 28 days of intense studying. Your determination over the last month shows that you’re more than ready for the exam. Remember to eat well, sleep fully, and exercise frequently.

Return to the Table of Contents

Week 5

Day 29

Today is the last day of content review in this 30-day guide. After this, you should just be preparing for the AP® exam and reviewing what you’ve learned.

Start by watching this full review of all topics in AP® Art History. There are 216 videos in this YouTube playlist, but we don’t expect you to watch most or even half of these videos. Instead, we’ll just watch videos one through 26, all the way up to the video on Impressionism. Each video is 5 minutes long or less, so it should only take about an hour and a half. If you want, speed up the videos so it doesn’t take as long. Feel free to skim through the other videos and watch the ones that interest you, but don’t feel obligated. Watch the entire videos and take notes. If you don’t understand or don’t remember any of the concepts, write it down!

After you finish watching the videos, go back to your flashcards, your notes, and your Albert.io account. Review anything you haven’t studied yet. Re-read parts of Barron’s review book, and skim over all the chapter summaries. Make sure you have memorized all the vocabulary, artworks, and names you’ll need to know for the AP® Art History test. The AP® exam is approaching!

Day 30

You’re finished! In the last 30 days, you have reviewed all of the material you need to succeed in the AP® Art History exam. Congratulations!

Return to the Table of Contents

What Should I Do to Prepare for the AP® Art History Test Day?

Based on when you started this AP® Art History study guide, you’re either very close or somewhat close to the AP® exam. Either way, you should keep reviewing AP® Art History lightly to keep it fresh in your mind. However, if you’re within two weeks of the exam, you shouldn’t overextend yourself in your study. It’s important to tone down your intensity at this point.

If you’re a week or two away, spend the remaining time reviewing your notes and flashcards, taking more practice exams, working on Albert.io, and working on the MIT course.

If you’re less than a week away, just relax a little bit. Your score isn’t going to change significantly because you spend five hours studying the day before the test. Just trust in everything you’ve learned and be confident about your abilities. Now, this doesn’t mean you should stop studying entirely. In the week before the test, spend about an hour every day reviewing past material. Don’t take any practice tests within a week of the test, as that will only stress you out.

The day before the exam, don’t try to attempt any serious studying, tests, or comprehensive review. If you feel like you need to study, that’s totally fine. Don’t try to stop yourself. But don’t spend more than one hour studying, and never stress yourself out. Don’t try to learn any new material or take a practice test before the test. This won’t help your score; it will just hurt your confidence.

If you’re going to study, do something you enjoy. For example, you’re taking art history, so you probably like making art. Work on some projects you love, and try to make something beautiful. Maybe step outside of your normal artistic bubble, and attempt to create an artwork in the style of one of the ten time periods and areas we covered in this study guide. For example, you might be very familiar with modern art; try to step out of your comfort zone and make a piece of African art, Pacific art, or classical European art. If you don’t like making art as much but love appreciating it, just go to an art museum or look at some artworks online. Read what an artist said about his work to understand it more. Immersing yourself in the world of art will help you excel on the AP® exam, and it’s also a very enjoyable and inspiring hobby.

We can’t emphasize this enough: don’t try to learn the material in the last few days before the AP® test! Tackling content you don’t know yet will just ruin your confidence and make you think you don’t know the material. You have to focus on practicing the material you already understand. Reviewing old content instead of learning new content will improve your confidence and make sure you’ve polished all the essential skills you need to ace the exam.

Return to the Table of Contents

Final Wrap Up: One Month AP® Art History Study Guide

By completing this AP® Art History, you have shown an enormous amount of tenacity and aptitude. You have reviewed hundreds of AP® Art History multiple-choice questions, and you’ve completed several full AP® Art History free response sections. You have finished Albert.io’s entire AP® Art History review. You have read all the chapters of Barron’s book. You have built up a huge deck of flashcards. You have learned extremely valuable skills in writing, memorization, creativity, and artistic development. Design and aesthetics are important in almost every field, so don’t underestimate the power of your new knowledge.

Now, it’s time to put everything into practice. You have learned all the content you need to get a 5 on the AP® test. It’s time to do it!

With whatever time you have after you finish this guide, you should be consistently reviewing your notes and flashcards, solving problems, and answering practice questions. Get plenty of sleep every night, eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly. Again, don’t worry about the test. After completing this 30-day guide, you should feel super confident in your knowledge and abilities. All of these simple things will help you improve your AP® score dramatically.

Let us know what you thought of this AP® Art History study guide. What worked for you? What was your favorite artwork in this course? How did you prepare for the AP® Art History exam?

Looking for AP® Art History practice?

Kickstart your AP® Art History prep with Albert. Start your AP® exam prep today.

Need help preparing for your AP® Art History exam?

Albert has hundreds of AP® Art History practice questions, free response, and full-length practice tests to try out.