Sample Questions & Scoring Guidelines
The AP World History Exam tests knowledge of topics included in a full-year introductory college course in world history, emphasizing events from c. 8000 B.C.E to the present. The exam highlights six overarching themes: impact of societal interactions, change and continuity across world history periods, impact of technology and demography, social and gender structures, cultural and intellectual developments, and functions and structures of states. The exam addresses historical habits of mind or skills (constructing and evaluating arguments, using primary documents and data, assessing change and continuity over time, and handling diversity of interpretations) as well as world historical topics (global patterns, comparison within and among societies, and understanding of ideas and values).
You can find additional free-response questions and scoring guidelines on AP Central, along with grade distributions and examples of actual students' responses and commentary that explains why the responses received the scores they did.
Multiple-Choice Questions
For sample multiple-choice questions, refer to the Course Description
AP World History Course Description (.pdf/1.89 MB)
Free-Response Questions
2009 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/630K)
2008 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/236K)
2007 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/136K)
2006 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/154K)
2005 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/170K)
2004 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/160K)
2003 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/533K)
Scoring Guidelines
2009 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/78K)
2008 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/103K)
2007 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/159K)
2006 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/130K)
2005 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/137K)
2004 Scoring Guidelines (.pdf/107K)
