You’ve taken the class, you’ve put in the hours of studying for unit exams and completing the work assigned by your teacher, and now it’s crunch time for the 2025 AP® World History review exam!

Taking any AP® class can be difficult and stressful, but if you prepare and follow the guidelines and resources below, you will be even more armed with the knowledge and confidence to pass the exam. 

This post includes information about the exam format, the topics covered, and study strategies for the AP® World History exam. Links to additional information and resources are also provided throughout.

What’s the Format of the 2025 AP® World History: Modern Exam?

Section	Questions	Time	% of Exam Score
1A: Multiple Choice	55 questions	55 minutes	40%
1B: Short Answer	3 questions (some student choice)	40 minutes	20%
2A: Document-Based Question	1 question	45 minutes + 15 min reading period	25%
2B: Long Essay	1 question (some student choice)	40 minutes	15%

Students are given some choice over the short answer questions to answer (part 1B) as well as the specific long essay question to answer (part 2B).

You likely already know that AP® Modern World History covers the historical period from 1200 CE to the present, over eight hundred years!

The course is divided into 9 total units broken down as illustrated by the chart below. All topics are covered rather evenly by percentage, though units 3-6 compromise a slightly higher percentage of the exam.

Units	Chronological Period*	Exam Weighting
Unit 1: The Global Tapestry	c. 1200 to  c. 1450	8 – 10%
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange	c. 1200 to  c. 1450	8 – 10%
Unit 3: Land-Based Empires	c. 1450 to c. 1750	12 – 15%
Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections	c. 1450 to c. 1750	12 – 15%
Unit 5: Revolutions	c. 1750 to  c. 1900	12 – 15%
Unit 6 Consequences of Industrialization	c. 1750 to  c. 1900	12 – 15%
Unit 7: Global Conflict	c. 1900 to the present	8 – 10%
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization	c. 1900 to the present	8 – 10%
Unit 9: Globalization	c. 1900 to the present	8 – 10%

Source: AP®World History: Modern CED

*Events, processes, and developments are not constrained by the given dates and may begin before or continue after the approximate dates assigned to each unit.

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How Long is the AP® World History: Modern Exam?

The AP® World exam begins with 55 stimulus-based multiple-choice questions. “Stimulus-Based” refers to the exam format in which groups of 3 to 4 questions are related to a single chart, graph, picture, or primary/secondary source excerpt. This format requires you to analyze the stimulus to answer the questions attached to it. The multiple-choice questions are 40% of the exam, and students have 55 minutes to complete the section. 

After the multiple-choice section, there is a short answer section. You must answer the first two questions but have a choice between the third and fourth questions to answer three short-answer items. The short answer portion of the exam is 20% of the exam, and you have 40 minutes to write out responses for this section. 

Following the short answer portion, the exam will have one hour to answer the Document-based Questions or the DBQs. You will write these extended response questions based on a set of primary and secondary sources. The DBQ portion makes up 25% of the total exam score. 

The exam ends with the long essay portion, where you will respond to a question and craft an essay response.  You will have 40 minutes to write this essay, and it makes up 15% of the exam score. Here is the link to the student page that breaks down the exam format even further if you are looking for more details.

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What Topics are Covered on AP® World History: Modern Exam? 

Albert provides numerous resources to help you prepare for the AP® World History: Modern Exam. Click here to access our practice questions for both multiple-choice and free response item types. There are also full-length practice tests so you can practice in a way that closely mimics the actual exam. 

If you are looking for visual resources, those are covered as well. The chart below links to videos—both brief and detailed— explaining many of the topics covered in this exam. Most students learn best through multiple channels, so Albert provides both print and visual learning tools!

Unit	Topics Covered	Resources
Unit 1: The Global Tapestry (1200-1450)   10-13 class periods	Developments in East Asia  Developments in Dar al-Islam  Developments in Southeast and South Asia  State building in the Americas  State building in Africa  Developments in Europe  Comparison in the period	AP® World History Unit 1 Review Video Albert Practice Questions: Unit 1
Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)    10-13 class periods	The Silk Roads  The Mongol Empire and the making of the modern world  Exchange in the Indian Ocean  Trans-Saharan Trade Routes  Cultural consequences of connectivity  Environmental consequences of connectivity  Comparison of economic exchange	The Silk Road Environmental Impacts of Connectivity  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 2
Unit 3: Land Based Empires (1450-1750)   8-11 class periods	Empires expand  Empires: Administration  Empires: Belief Systems  Comparison of land based empires	Land Based Empires  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 3
Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections (1450-1750)   22-25 class periods	Technological innovations  Exploration: causes and events  Columbian exchange  Maritime empires established  Maritime empires maintained and developed  External and internal challenges to state power  Changing social hierarchies  Continuity and change	Transoceanic Interconnections Albert Practice Questions: Unit 4
Unit 5: Revolutions (1750-1900)    20-23 class periods	The Enlightenment  Nationalism and Revolutions  Industrial Revolution begins  Industrialization spreads  Technology in the industrial age  Industrialization: government’s role  Economic developments and innovations in the Industrial age	The French Revolution  The Enlightenment  Latin American Revolutions The Industrial Revolution (shorter)  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 5
Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization (1750-1900)    12-15 class periods	Rationales for Imperialism  State expansion  Indigenous responses to state expansion  Global economic development  Economic imperialism  Causes of migration in an interconnected world  Effects of migration  Causation in the Imperial age	Imperialism  Indigenous Responses to Imperialism  Causes and Effects of Migration  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 6
Unit 7: Global Conflict (1900-present)    9-12 class periods	Shifting power after 1900  Causes of WWI  Conducting WWI  Economy in the interwar period  Unresolved Tensions after WWI  Causes of WWII  Conducting WWII  Mass atrocities after 1900  Causation in global conflict	Causes of World War I Conducting World War I  Interwar Period Playlist  World War II  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 7
Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization (1900-present)    14-17 class periods	Setting the stage for the Cold War and Decolonization  The Cold War  Effects of the Cold War  Spread of communism after 1900  Decolonization after 1900  Newly independent states  Global resistance to established power structures after 1900  End of the Cold War  Causation in the age of the Cold War and Decolonization	Cold War Playlist  Decolonization  Global Resistance to Established Power Structures  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 8
Unit 9: Globalization (1900-present)   8-11 class periods	Advances in technology and exchange  Technological advances and limitations: disease  Technological advances: debates about the environment  Economics in the global age  Calls for reform and responses  Globalized culture  Resistance to Globalization  Institutions developing in a globalized world  Continuity and change in a globalized world	Globalization Upsides to Globalization  Globalized Culture and Resistance  Albert Practice Questions: Unit 9

Units 1 and 2 make up between 16-20% of the exam, Units 3 through Unit 6 are the biggest percentage of the exam with a coverage range of 48-60%, and Units 7 through Unit 9 makeup 24-30% of the exam. 

You can use this breakdown to guide exam preparations. For example, if you study for 100 minutes, you should spend between 48 and 60 minutes on Units 3-6.

Knowing the breakdown of the topics can be useful in being prepared for all portions of the exam, particularly those that require a written response. The Document Based Questions (DBQs) cover a wide year range and can be about any topic from Units 2 – 9. This might seem intimidating, but the documents can help provide context for your writing if you get stuck. 

For the long essay question, you will be given three questions, and you will choose ONE to construct an argument-based response. You will be writing about either the period from c. 1200–1750, from c. 1450–1900, or from c. 1750–2001.

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What Do AP® World History: Modern Exam Questions Look Like?

The multiple choice questions on the exam have a stimulus attached that you will use to answer the 2-4 questions connected to it. The stimulus could be a political cartoon, picture, map, or some other type of primary or secondary source. Here is a link to an example of a multiple-choice question you may see on the exam. This question is about Inca territorial expansion in the 1400s, and there is a map to use in answering the question.

Older versions of the AP® exam did not always use stimuli in the multiple-choice sections, but the College Board decided that providing stimuli actually showcases a student’s higher-order and critical thinking skills. These skills of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis are required to answer these questions (as well as your overall knowledge of the topic). 

The stimuli not only help to show how well you know the material but having the stimuli can really assist you in answering questions if you take the time to analyze what is provided. 

Other sections of the exam, as described above, are the short answer, long essay question, and document based question.

Albert, on the upgraded platform, provides many document-based and long-essay questions. Here is the link to a list of all the AP® World FRQs that Albert has to offer.

Below you will find an example of one of the released free-response questions from the 2018 AP® World: Modern exam. 

Source: College Board

Based on the scoring rubric that is provided by the College Board, there are recommended strategies to help you earn all three points for this free response question. 

The first key to scoring well on this section of the exam is to truly make sure that you answer all three parts of the question. Make connections and use the stimulus to help you construct your response. 

Use the ACE acronym when constructing your response: 

• A: Answer the Question, 
• C: Cite your supporting evidence, and 
• E: explain how your evidence supports your response. 

If you notice in the answer breakdown below, the answers don’t necessarily connect to each other. Each part of a Short Answer Question is worth one point and scored independently from the others.

The response from part A does not have to connect to your answer for part B. For example, you can discuss the Nazi Holocaust in part A, and then you can discuss the actions of British soldiers in Australia. These historical topics do not have connection to each other, but they answer part A and part B. To answer part C, you then make your claim about why the author may have made his claim about the difference between totalitarian governments and democratic governments. 

Source: AP® Central 2018 Released Free Response Questions

Focus on each individual part of the question and not necessarily the question as a single overarching unit. This can benefit you when writing a response because it guarantees that you answer what each part of the question is asking.

The multiple choice questions, as stated before, always have a stimuli attached. Below you will find an example of a question that you might see on the AP® World History exam. On the AP® exam, you would use this stimuli to answer 3-4 questions, but here is an example of one way you would use the map to answer a single question. This sample question is on the Albert website about the Industrial Revolution. 

Question: What areas had the biggest population growth during the Industrial Revolution? 

1. Areas with considerable coal deposits 
2. Areas near the coastline 
3. Areas in northern England 
4. The areas of growth were not homogenous 

Once you analyze the stimuli, which in this case is a map that shows the population difference due to the Industrial Revolution, the answer is (A). 

The Industrial Revolution was driven by coal, so the population grew near coal deposits since coal was needed to run factories during the Industrial Revolution.

Students have one hour to answer the Document-Based Question, or the DBQ. These are extended response questions that you will write based on a set of primary and secondary sources. The DBQ portion makes up 25% of the total exam score. There are 7 possible points for the Document-Based Question (DBQ).

For a preview of what these prompts look like, here’s an example of a DBQ from a previous AP® World exam:

…and below are the accompanying documents from the 2019 DBQ. Note: click on each document below to see a larger view.

Additionally, the AP® World History: Modern exam includes a Long Essay Question (LEQ). Students are typically given 3 different LEQ prompts and are required to pick only one prompt to write their response.

Here are the examples of three prompts from the 2019 exam:

For more tips on how to answer these types of Free Response Questions on the AP® World exam, check out this article called “How to Answer AP® World History SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs”.

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What Can You Bring to the AP® World History: Modern Exam?

Here is a list of items to bring on test day for in-person exams. To lessen the likelihood of stress on exam day, pack these items the night before so you are prepared. 

DO bring these:

You should bring:

• No. 2 pencils for your multiple-choice answer sheet
• Pens with black or dark blue ink for completing areas on the exam booklet covers and for free-response questions in most exams
• If you don’t attend the school where you’re taking the exam, you will also need a current government-issued or school-issued photo ID. (Additional ID may be required by authorized test centers outside the United States.)
• Your College Board SSD Accommodations Letter if you are taking an exam with approved testing accommodations.

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How to Study for AP® World History: Modern Exam: 5 Steps to Success

Everyone has a different study method and style, but these five steps will directly aid you in preparing for this exam. 

1. Collect and organize all notes that you took during the year.

Put your notes in chronological order and then highlight topics that you struggled with during the year. Read through the notes, especially information from earlier in the year. 

2. Either discuss the information with another person or try to teach the topics to someone else once you have organized the information.

For example, you may have a Socratic seminar with a study group from your class. You have likely participated in one during your class, but if you need help getting started here is a link to an outline for a Socratic seminar. 

This tip can be very useful, but it is recommended that you practice a Socratic seminar or group discussion method of your choice in chunks of no more than one hour. However, you should hold discussions at least 5 times. 

3. Practice how you would organize writing a DBQ, short answers, and long essay once you have collected your information and discussed the information with your peers.

Your teacher has probably given you many extended response questions throughout the year that mimic the exam, so use those to get started. 

Use the organizational format that you like best and take time to master quickly mapping out an extended response. 

Use your favorite writing outline web to practice sample questions that are provided on the AP® Central website or on the Albert website. If you don’t have a favorite writing outline web, here is one that you might find useful. 

Limit your prewriting to 15 minutes as you are preparing for writing essays on a timed test.  However, you can practice planning out responses for multiple writing prompts during each study period.

4. If you are still struggling after you have done the first three steps, use the resources provided to you on the AP® Central website.

Use the resources, such as the released questions from the past three years of the exam on a daily basis when studying. 

Practice and study in small chunks throughout the weeks prior to the exam. Study for 20 minutes and then take a 10 minute break. Once you have completed about one hour of studying, you should take an extended break. 

5. To fill in gaps, watch videos on a variety of historical topics covered on the exam— like those linked to earlier in this post.

After watching the video, you should write a 2-3 sentence summary about the video to refresh your memory about the topic.

Your summaries should not take long, so aim for 4 minutes maximum to jot down a quick summary of each video.

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AP® World History: Modern Exam: 13 Must Know Study Tips

1. You have taken a whole year or semester of this course, so take a deep breath. You know this stuff.

Take time to do some deep breathing exercises that clear the mind and can assist with increasing focus. Here is a link to help you with deep breathing exercises. 

2. Practice multiple choice questions from previous tests that you took during the year.

Your teacher wrote questions for your unit tests to mimic the questions you will see on this exam. Create a mistake log and cross-reference units to identify which units you need to prioritize most. Look at your old tests and find which types of questions you struggled with the most to guide what to focus on while studying. 

3. Construct a free response question from one of the released questions from the College Board or from Albert. 

Here are all the practice questions released on the College Board‘s website. Also here is the link to resources on the Albert website. 

Write a free response long essay once a week for about one month prior to the exam so you are able to write on a variety of topics and get comfortable with the allotted time to do so. 

4. If you are a visual learner, watch the videos that are linked above for each unit.

Watching and hearing the information again may help on test day! Once you have watched the videos, summarize the top three takeaways from each video so you have a summary page to read over on test day. 

5. If you are an auditory learner, listen to historical podcasts on Spotify or listen to YouTube videos without watching. 

Here is a link to a few historical podcasts to prepare you for the exam. After you listen, summarize the top 3 takeaways from each podcast so you have a summary page to read over on test day.

6. If you are a tactile learner, you can rewrite or type your notes because the repetition will help you remember the information.

 This may sound pretty old school, but repetition is beneficial to help people remember information. 

7. Time yourself on the multiple choice questions. 

You will have one minute per question because there are 55 questions, and you have 55 minutes to complete the section. Learn to not dwell on questions and come back at the end if you need to. Do not spend more than 1.5 minutes on a question, even if you are stuck. 

8. Construct DBQ responses (document based questions). 

You may find these daunting since you have to use the source documents in your writing. Albert provides a variety of DBQs that you can write during your study period prior to the exam. 

Just like the free response questions, write no more than once a week but attempt to write a total of 4 DBQs. Just a reminder, you have 60 minutes during the exam to construct a DBQ, so time yourself during your writing. 

Many students struggle with incorporating the documents into their writing. Attempt to use all the documents to support your argument. 

Here is a link to a comprehensive post about the aspects of the FRQ’s from Albert. 

9. Practice your free response questions and learn about key turning points.

You will not have documents to help organize your response in this portion of the exam, so make sure you have a general understanding of key themes through world history. 

If you understand the units and can place historical events into these time periods, you have context for all your FRQ’s.

10. Practice your short answers. 

These can really help your overall total score, so make sure you take them seriously. But also make sure you don’t ramble. Answer the question asked thoroughly, but do not drag out the response. Here is an example short answer question and response from Albert. 

11. Try and study with a classmate. 

Saying the information out loud and “teaching” others has shown to really help students learn and recall information. 

Use the socratic seminar outline that is provided in the previous section for maximum impact. 

12. Trust that your teacher prepared you well! Use your notes and resources that were given to you throughout the class.

Highlight topics that you struggled with during the year and focus a larger portion (about 25%) of your studying efforts to learn that information. 

13. Albert and AP® Central are great resources with many details if you have further questions about the structure of the exam.

Take one of Albert’s full-length practice tests, then review which topics and units you struggled with most. From there, isolate your practice to focus on these weaknesses so that you can make the most of your limited study time. After you’ve built up your confidence in these areas, take another full-length practice exam; repeat this process until you feel ready. 

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AP® World History: Modern Exam: 5 Test Day Tips to Remember

Here are some test day study tips to help get you prepared to pass the AP® World History: Modern Exam: 

1. Review information that you may have struggled with over the past couple weeks. 

Do not spend more than fifteen minutes reviewing last minute information. 

Read the summary sheets you collected from the videos and podcasts as well as your notes from your Socratic seminar. 

2. Make sure you bring the bag that you packed the night before with all the items you need to take the exam. 

Review the bring and do not bring list from earlier in the post! 

3. On your way to the exam, start talking to yourself. It may be a little funny, but saying  things out loud is proven to help you remember the information.

According to psychologists, once you get your ears involved in the learning process, more senses are engaged with your learning. 

4. Stay focused on what you are there to accomplish. 

Keep your confidence level up but remain calm. Use the deep breathing exercises that were provided in the 13 Must Know Study Tips section.

Know that you are prepared to pass the AP® World History: Modern Exam. 

5. Take your time on your exam but keep yourself organized, especially on the writing sections.

Remember that you have 55 minutes for 55 multiple choice questions, so move quickly and do not dwell on questions for too long. 

For the free response questions, you have forty minutes to produce three short answer questions., You have sixty minutes for the DBQ, and you have forty minutes for the long essay. Plan on taking about 5-8 minutes on planning before writing each free response question. 

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AP® World History: Modern Exam Review Notes and Practice Test Resources

Now that you have read through this “How to Pass” guide, here are some great additional resources to help get you more prepared for the AP® World History: Modern exam. 

Two Additional AP® World History: Modern Resources: 

Freemanpedia

This website provides resources for all topics and units for AP® World: Modern. 

Use this site if: you need more in-depth resources about the entire course. This site provides a variety of graphic organizers about key ideas for each unit. 

Do not use this site if: you do not like graphic organizers. There are a ton of them on each page for each unit. 

Heimler’s History: Youtube Channel: 

On this Youtube channel, you will find a collection of videos that cover the entire curriculum for AP® World History. 

Use this site if: you are a visual learner and need a quick overview of each topic that you learned during the course. 

Do not use this site if: you are not a visual learner or you need more in- depth information about a certain topic. 

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Summary: The Best 2025 AP® World History: Modern Exam Review Guide

You have the information, you have the skills, and you have the motivation to get ready to pass the AP® Modern World History exam. In this post there are a variety of resources to benefit a multitude of learners. 

There are videos to help jog your memory about the topics covered in the exam. There are links to practice questions and more information if you have any further questions about the AP® World History: Modern Exam. 

This How to Pass AP® World History: Modern Review Guide will be a great starting and endpoint on your journey to get prepared. If you need any other resources, check the Albert website as there are many other resources available! Good luck and stay positive…you got this!