AP World History Syllabus and Exam Guide (2027)
AP World History: Modern at a glance
AP World History: Modern covers roughly eight centuries, from c. 1200 to the present, across nine units and 71 topics. The exam runs 3 hours 15 minutes and is taken digitally in Bluebook. It is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, May 6, 2027.
Units
9
Topics
71
Total time
3h 15m
Scored 3+ (2025)
64%
Exam format
Four question types, two sections. The multiple-choice section alone is 40% of the score, and every question in it is attached to a stimulus — a text, image, chart or map — in sets of three or four.
| Section | Questions | Time | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I-A: Multiple choice | 55 questions | 55 minutes | 40% |
| Section I-B: Short answer | 3 questions | 40 minutes | 20% |
| Section II-A: Document-based question | 1 question, 7 documents | 60 minutes recommended | 25% |
| Section II-B: Long essay | 1 question | 40 minutes | 15% |
The document-based question's 60 minutes includes a 15-minute reading period. Source: official exam format.
What changes in May 2027
Two question types change with the May 2027 administration. Both changes remove choice rather than content.
Short-answer questions
All three are required; the choice on question 3 is gone. Each carries source material — one or more secondary texts for Q1, a primary text for Q2, and a primary or secondary non-text source for Q3 — and each focuses on a different period.
Long essay question
One required prompt replaces the old choice of three, and it now opens with a brief introductory statement orienting the task. You still develop your own thesis and select your own evidence.
The document-based question also draws on a wider chronological range. Question counts, timings, score weightings, course content, skills and scoring rubrics are all unchanged. The practical consequence is that you can no longer revise selectively and dodge a weak period on exam day. Source: AP history exam updates.
Syllabus: the nine units
Official weightings and chronological periods, with what each unit actually asks you to know. Note that the periods are indicative: the College Board points out that developments are not constrained by the dates given and may begin before or continue after them.
Unit 1: The Global Tapestry
8–10%c. 1200 to c. 1450 · 7 topics
State building and cultural development across East Asia, Dar al-Islam, South and Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe before sustained transoceanic contact.
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange
8–10%c. 1200 to c. 1450 · 7 topics
The Silk Roads, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan routes, the Mongol Empire, and the cultural and environmental consequences of that connectivity.
Unit 3: Land-Based Empires
12–15%c. 1450 to c. 1750 · 4 topics
How gunpowder empires expanded, how they administered territory, and how belief systems were used to legitimize rule. The smallest unit by topic count but a heavily weighted one.
Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections
12–15%c. 1450 to c. 1750 · 8 topics
Navigational technology, the causes and events of exploration, the Columbian Exchange, how maritime empires were established and maintained, and the social hierarchies that followed.
Unit 5: Revolutions
12–15%c. 1750 to c. 1900 · 10 topics
The Enlightenment, nationalism and political revolutions, the start and spread of industrialization, and the economic and social reactions to the industrial economy. The largest unit by topic count.
Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization
12–15%c. 1750 to c. 1900 · 8 topics
Rationales for imperialism, state expansion and indigenous responses to it, economic imperialism, and the causes and effects of migration in an interconnected world.
Unit 7: Global Conflict
8–10%c. 1900 to the present · 9 topics
Shifting power after 1900, the causes and conduct of both world wars, the interwar economy, unresolved tensions, and mass atrocities of the twentieth century.
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization
8–10%c. 1900 to the present · 9 topics
The Cold War and its effects, the spread of communism, decolonization and newly independent states, global resistance movements, and the end of the Cold War.
Unit 9: Globalization
8–10%c. 1900 to the present · 9 topics
Advances in technology and exchange, debates about disease and the environment, the global economy, calls for reform, globalized culture, and resistance to globalization.
Full topic-by-topic detail lives in the official course and exam description.
The six themes
Themes spiral across all nine units. They are why the exam can ask you to compare the Mongol Empire with a maritime empire three centuries later: the unit changes, the theme does not.
Historical thinking skills and reasoning processes
Six skills and three reasoning processes are assessed across every unit and every question type.
Six historical thinking skills
1. Developments and Processes
Identify and explain historical developments and processes.
2. Sourcing and Situation
Analyze the origins, purpose, audience and context of a source.
3. Claims and Evidence in Sources
Identify and analyze the arguments and evidence a source presents.
4. Contextualization
Situate a development within the broader circumstances around it.
5. Making Connections
Apply comparison, causation, and continuity and change to identify patterns.
6. Argumentation
Develop and support a historical argument.
Three reasoning processes
Comparison
Describe and explain similarities and differences, and why they matter.
Causation
Describe and explain causes and effects, and distinguish short- from long-term.
Continuity and Change
Describe and explain patterns of continuity and change over time.
How to study AP World History
The course is wide rather than deep, so the failure mode is breadth: knowing a little about everything and not enough about the periods that carry the weighting.
- Weight your revision. Units 3 to 6 are 12–15% each. Give them proportionally more time than the five units weighted 8–10%.
- Learn by period, not by chapter. The short-answer questions are scoped by period, so rehearse 1200–1450, 1450–1750, 1750–1900 and 1900–present as units of recall.
- Always practice with a source attached. Every multiple-choice question hangs off a stimulus. Bare recall drills train the wrong reflex.
- Track the themes. When you learn a development, note which of the six themes it serves. That is the connective tissue comparison questions ask for.
Multiple-choice strategy
Fifty-five questions in 55 minutes is a minute each, and the questions arrive in sets of three or four on one stimulus, so the real unit of time is the set.
- Read the stimulus once for argument and situation before looking at any question in the set.
- Date the source first. Most wrong answers are plausible for a different century.
- Answer the set together — the shared context you built is worth reusing before you move on.
- Flag and move. A set you cannot place costs four questions if you let it eat the clock.
Practice this under time rather than untimed: free AP World History practice tests run adaptive sets in the same stimulus-based shape.
A study plan for May 2027
September to December: build alongside class
Work through units in order as you cover them. Close each unit with a timed multiple-choice set rather than a re-read, and keep a running list of the developments you keep misplacing in time.
January to March: weight and mix
Prioritize units 3 to 6. Alternate single-unit drills with mixed-period sets so you practice placing a source cold, which is what the exam actually asks.
April: narrow and rehearse
Drill only what your analytics still flag. Sit full timed sections to build stamina for 3h 15m, and rehearse all four question types so the format itself costs you nothing on the day.
Scores and what they are worth
Score 5
14%
Score 4
33%
Score 3
17%
Score 2
27%
Score 1
9%
2025 distribution as published by the College Board; 64% scored a 3 or higher. Credit and placement policies vary by institution, so check the colleges on your list. Current distributions: AP score distributions.
AP World History syllabus FAQs
How many units are in AP World History?
Nine, covering c. 1200 to the present. The College Board lists 71 numbered topics across them, and units 3 through 6 are each weighted 12–15%, so together they account for roughly half the exam.
How many questions are on the AP World History exam?
There are 55 multiple-choice questions, 3 short-answer questions, 1 document-based question and 1 long essay question.
How long is the AP World History exam?
Three hours and fifteen minutes: 55 minutes of multiple choice, 40 minutes of short answer, then 60 minutes recommended for the document-based question and 40 minutes for the long essay.
What changes on the AP World History exam in May 2027?
All three short-answer questions become required, removing the old choice on question 3, and the long essay becomes a single required prompt rather than a choice of three. Question counts, timings, score weightings, course content, skills and scoring rubrics are unchanged.
Is the AP World History exam digital?
Yes. The exam is taken in the Bluebook testing app and responses are submitted at the end.
What is a good AP World History score?
A 3 is passing and a 4 or 5 is what selective credit policies usually expect. In 2025, 64% of students scored a 3 or higher.
Which AP World History units should I prioritize?
Units 3 to 6 — Land-Based Empires, Transoceanic Interconnections, Revolutions, and Consequences of Industrialization — carry 12–15% each. The remaining five units are weighted 8–10% each.