This AP® Art History study guide provides you with the tools you need to succeed on the exam—and to get the score you want!

What’s on the AP® Art History Exam?

AP® Art History is the equivalent of a two-semester college-level art history survey course, covering art from the Paleolithic era through today. According to the CollegeBoard, Advanced Placement Art History explores the nature, uses and meaning of art, its creation and audience responses. The course encourages students to understand art from a global perspective, with insights into its history and evolution.

There are three distinct ways to analyze art, all of which are used in the course, and tested on the AP® Art History exam–and you should know them for your AP® Art History study plan.

1. Visual Analysis. A visual analysis asks you to look carefully at a work of art and report what you see about the work of art. The visual analysis looks only at what is present in the work, not at what led up to the work of art. First, you should look at the formal elements of the work, including line, color, shape, form and naturalism. Next, you should consider composition, the way individual visual elements are put together. The elements of composition are symmetry, balance, proportion and scale, and rhythm. These various factors combine to create the totality of the composition.

2. Contextual Analysis. A contextual analysis looks at how the work of art fits into and impacts the world around it. Contextual analysis requires you consider other works of art of the time, historical events, the place of creation, and the patron of the work.

3. Comparative Analysis. A comparative analysis compares and contrasts two or more works of art, incorporating both visual and contextual analysis of each work. The two works may be from the same period or from different periods, and may even be different media; however, in most cases, there will be some similarity, whether in subject, style, patronage, or function.

Big Ideas, Essential Questions, and Learning Objectives.

The course is organized around three Big Ideas. You should keep these ideas in mind as you prepare for the exam. This is one of the most important art history tips. Each of the Big Ideas is closely connected to an Essential Question, and to several Learning Objectives. Essential Questions in art history will help to guide your work in the class and your preparations for the big test day. Learning objectives help you to understand what the CollegeBoard thinks that you should take from your studies in this course—we’ve paraphrased those below for you!

Big Idea #1

Artists manipulate materials and ideas to create an aesthetic object, act or event. The Essential Question for Big Idea #1 is: What is art and how is it made? There are four Learning Objectives related to this Big Idea.

1. Differentiate form, function, content and/or the context of a work of art.
2. Explain how artistic decisions about art making impact art.
3. Describe how artistic and historical context influences artistic decisions involved in creating a work of art.
4. Analyze the form, function, content and/or context to explain or determine the artist’s intentions during the creation of the work.

Big Idea #2

Art making is shaped by tradition and change. The associated Essential Question is: Why and how does art change? The three Learning Objectives attached to Big Idea #2 are:

1. Describe features of an artistic tradition and/or change in a single work of art or a group of related works.
2. Explain how and why specific traditions and/or changes are demonstrated in one or more works of art.
3. Analyze the influence of a single work of art or group of related works on works of art produced around the same time or later.

Big Idea #3

Interpretations of art are variable. The Essential Question for Big Idea #3 is: How do we describe our thinking about art? The Learning Objectives are:

1. Identify a work of art with key identifiers, including artist or culture, date, and material.
2. Analyze how formal qualities of the work and/or content of a work of art brings about a response from the viewer.
3. Consider how contextual factors lead to different interpretations of art.
4. Justify attribution of an unknown work of art, using formal qualities and comparisons to other works.
5. Analyze relationships between different works of art based on their similarities and differences.

Content Areas, Enduring Understanding Statements, and Essential Knowledge Statements

AP® Art History is divided into ten distinct content areas. Each content area is represented by a number of works in the collection of 250 works used in the course. These images are the works you are expected to learn and remember for the exam. Individual works may include multiple views or images, but count as a single entry in the Image Set. Understanding these content areas is essential for test preparation. Each content area has a set number of works in the Image Set and typically, represents a rough percentage of the test questions. Knowing these content areas is essential for your art history study plan.

• Global Prehistory from 30,000 to 500 BCE (11 works, 4%)
• Ancient Mediterranean from 3,500 BCE to 300 CE (36 works, 15%)
• Early Europe and Colonial America from 200 CE to 1750 CE (51 works, 20%)
• Later Europe and the Americas from 1750 to 1980 CE (54 works, 22%)
• Indigenous Americas from 1000 BCE to 1980 CE (14 works, 6%)
• Africa from 1100 to 1980 CE (14 works, 6%)
• West and Central Asia from 500 BCE to 1980 CE (11 works, 4%)
• South, East and Southeast Asia from 300 BCE to 1980 CE (21 works, 8%)
• The Pacific from 700 to 1980 CE (11 works, 4%)
• Global Contemporary from 1980 to present (27 works, 11%)

What can you notice about the content areas? The first four are chronological. In these four content areas, you’ll see an evolution of art that you may recognize. In these content areas, you can see interactions between various cultures, as they traded with one another, and learned from one another. These first four content areas cover the time period from 30,000 BCE to 1980, or from the earliest works of art created by humans to relatively contemporary art. They are somewhat limited geographically. These four content areas include works common to the development of western art.

The next five content areas are specific to various regions, ranging from the Indigenous Americas through the Pacific. In many cases, art in these regions developed somewhat independently, with only occasional influences from other cultures. In these content areas, a long period of time is covered in a narrow geographic area.

The tenth content area covers a very short time period, but art from around the globe. This speaks to a significant change in the world in recent years—access to travel and information mean that geography is less of a consideration in the contemporary art world. Artists may move around the globe, and have access to works by other artists from distant locations.

The various content areas are accompanied by Enduring Understanding statements associated with each content area, as well as connected Essential Knowledge. Enduring Understanding statements provide a short overview of the content area, while Essential Knowledge provides a brief introduction to key components or factors that influence the content area. Think of Enduring Understanding and Essential Knowledge as the most basic things you should know about each of the content areas; while you should know a lot more than that, these provide you with the foundations of understanding for each area.

• If you learn the Enduring Understanding statements and the Essential Knowledge statements for each of the content areas, you’ll have a good understanding of the basics you need to know for the various periods and regions.
• Essential Knowledge statements commonly include information about artistic movements, as well as relevant cultural and historical events during the period or in the region.

The Exam Format

The AP® Art History exam is a three-hour examination. Rules, procedures and scoring are the same as other AP® examinations and are available from your teacher or the CollegeBoard website. Test proctors will announce the passage of time; however, you may move through the individual sections of the test at your own pace.

One hour is spent on multiple choice questions about the works of art you’ve studied. There are 80 multiple choice questions. Thirty-five of those are individual questions, and the remaining 45 questions are in sets of multiple questions about the same work or works of art. You have only one hour for these 80 questions, so it’s important to be able to move quickly through the questions. There are no penalties for incorrect answers, so be certain to answer every multiple-choice question.

Two hours are spent on free-response, or essay-style, questions. There are six questions in total, made up of four short essays (15 minutes each) and two longer essays (30 minutes each).

Both multiple-choice and free-response questions are designed to assess student understanding of all course learning objectives. In broad terms, multiple choice questions are more likely to assess your ability to identify works of art and place them in context correctly; however, you may also be asked questions about works that are similar to those you have studied, or questions that require you place a work in its historical context.

All free-response questions on the AP® Art History test are associated with an image or multiple images. While free-response questions are designed to show deeper understanding of the material included in the course, students are also expected to correctly identify the works of art. Identifiers include the title of the work, the name of the artist or culture that produced the work, the date of creation and the materials used in the work. At least two of these identifiers must be present and correct for full credit; however, students will not be penalized if additional identifiers are incorrect.

When you write the four short essays, they should be focused solely on the works included in the free-response question. For the two longer essays, you may bring in relevant works not included in the course, where appropriate.

Scoring

While the scoring of multiple choice questions is straightforward, you do need to understand how the CollegeBoard scores, or grades, AP® exams, including the AP® Art History exam. Free-response questions are graded by a large team of college faculty and experienced Advanced Placement teachers. Scores on free-response questions are weighted and carefully assessed.

The raw score, created by combining free-response scores produced by human readers and the computer-generated multiple choice score are converted into a single number score between 1 and 5. Individual colleges and universities may set their own standard for accepting AP® scores; however, you can reasonably think of a five as an A, a four as a B and so on. Most schools do not accept any score below a three for full college credit. You can think of a three as somewhere between a B- and a C. The American Council of Education recommends credit be granted for scores between three and five. A score of one or two will typically result in no college credit for the course.

Officially, the scores are defined as follows:

• 5 = Very well qualified
• 4 = Well qualified
• 3 = Qualified
• 2 = Possibly qualified
• 1 = No recommendation

Your goal, assuming you’re in this for the college credit, should be a four or five, to be on the safe side.

Preparation for the AP® Art History Exam

Preparing for an art history test can be a little different than preparing for any other kind of test. You don’t only have to remember facts, but images! For some people, this is really easy, but for others? It can be a little harder. A smart art history study plan can help.

Let’s start by talking about the identification part of art history. For many people, this is the time they need art history tips! Remember, you need to be able to identify the title, artist or culture, date of creation, and the materials used in the work. It’s not just about memorizing those things—you have to connect all of that information to the image or images of the work. For some works, there may be more than one image. For instance, the Parthenon in Athens may have more than one view of the building, as well as a floor plan. You need to be able to match all of that information to any of those images.

Unfortunately, there’s a sad reality here. All of that information? You need to memorize it, along with the associated image or images, hence the need for an art history study plan. There are a few different strategies for that, depending upon your own preferences and what works best for you. Try these art history tips to memorize what you need to know.

• The old fashioned solution is an index card. Print and glue images to the front and write identifying information on the back. This option works well if writing helps you to remember information, or if you like low-tech solutions.
• Go online. There are a number of web sources that offer images plus identifying information to help you study for the test. In addition, a visit to the iTunes App Store or Google Play will provide you with options for apps that do the same. These solutions work well if you study effectively using online or digital tools, and can make it easy to study on-the-go if you always have a phone available.
• Combine these strategies. Maybe you’ll make the index cards (yes, all 250 of them), but also use an app for review when you’re on the bus or have time between classes. If you’re not sure how you’ll study best, this may be your best plan.

Regardless of which of these you choose, you’ll need to put in the hours—and a lot of them—for a good score on the test. Get in the habit of reviewing daily for 30 minutes to an hour for a good score in the weeks before the test. Memorizing the images and info is only the first part of preparing for the big test day. You also have to be able to place all of this art history information in context. What else was happening when the work was made? Why did the artist make the work? How does it relate to art created before it or after it? All of those questions and others, apply to each work you study in Advanced Placement Art History.

How can you learn the context and commit it to memory? Just like with identifying art works, the context needs to be linked in your memory to the associated images. There are a number of things you can do to help better understand (and remember!) the context of works of art.

• Make a timeline. You can do this online, or by hand on paper; you may want to make one for each of the content areas.
• Create outlines of each content area, incorporating essential historical events, artistic movements and works of art.

Think about how you learn best. Different people learn by hearing, reading, doing, or some combination. If you learn by reading, focus on that; however, if you learn best by hearing, you may find that podcasts and documentaries provide a better source for review of different periods, artists and works of art. Be sure that you choose reliable and high-quality source material. It’s fine to go outside of your textbook, but it’s critical that you opt for material with scholarly backing.

• Get a study buddy or form a study group with classmates. Spread the content groups around your study companions and each produce and teach the information to review it effectively. This is a smart choice for an art history study plan.

Writing the Free-response Answers

Multiple-choice questions are self-explanatory, even if working with grouped questions is new. You’ve been answering these kinds of questions since kindergarten. The free-response questions on the AP® Art History exam aren’t quite so simple; the CollegeBoard expects carefully thought out and well-written responses to their questions. It’s not a matter of simply writing a few lines, like you might have for short answer questions or a paragraph or two, like you may be used to from essay questions in other classes.

As noted, you’ll have to write four shorter, 15-minute free-response answers and two longer free-response essays. The long essays, called Part A, come before the short essays, or Part B. You may move from one essay to the other in Part A when you’re ready, but cannot move onto Part B until time is called.

Let’s start with the basics, for each of these questions. Before you start writing, you should take just a few minutes to produce a brief outline. This lets you plan what you’re going to write and enables you to make sure you’re effectively answering all parts of the question. Don’t forget, you have to identify all works used in the free-response questions with at least two correct identifiers.

This isn’t a formal outline, and no one’s going to grade you on it. You only need to write as much as you need to follow it and plan out your essay response. It may just be the identifiers, plus a few keywords, or it may be slightly more involved. You shouldn’t spend more than five minutes on your outline for the longer free-response question, and two or three minutes for the shorter response questions. Taking up time with planning may seem counter-intuitive, but it can mean the difference between a good essay and a great one.

Now, why are we talking about this during the test preparation stage? Well, because you don’t just have to study. You also have to prepare to write the free-response answers on test day. Practicing your essay answers will help you to be ready to take the test. The CollegeBoard offers past year questions, enabling you to get an idea of what to expect on the AP® Art History test. These are the best choice for practice questions!

There is one problem—you don’t have anyone to grade your free-response practices! Think about sharing these in your study group, with a friend, with a parent, or seeing if your teacher, or even another teacher in your school, will provide feedback on at least some of your practice essays.

Resources

• AP® Art History Course and Exam
• Albert.io’s Art HistoryBlog Articles
• Albert.io’s Art History Questions
• Khan Academy’s Slideshow of AP® Art History Images
• John Costello’s AP® Art History Videos

Practice Tests

After you study, it’s important that you take practice tests. The key word in that sentence is tests—in the plural! Expect to take several tests, adjust your study strategy and repeat the process. Now, we’re going to tell you what you don’t want to hear. For the most effective preparation, you should take these tests in conditions that replicate test day as much as you’re able. A quiet desk, limited distractions and a timer are key. Turn your phone on do not disturb, or turn it off, skip the music, and get to testing. This is the best way to identify your strengths and weaknesses; however, you should keep in mind that you don’t have the benefit of professionally scored essays. As with your practice essays, ask a friend, family member or teacher to read your free-response answers and provide feedback.

Analyzing Results

Once you’ve taken the test, you need to honestly analyze your results.

• Break the multiple choice questions down into their content areas. Can you see clear areas of strength or weakness? Maybe you realize that you’re great with the ancient world but awful at contemporary. Adjust your study time to help accommodate these weaknesses.
• If you realize that you’ve made consistent errors across different content areas in one identifier or another, specifically review that identifier. For many people, dates are one of the most difficult parts of art history, but they’re still an important identifier.
• Are you having trouble with one of the Big Ideas or Essential Questions? Do you need to work on your understanding of one of these key guiding factors in AP® Art History?
• Read through your free-response answers. Can you see any clear problems? Did you remember to identify all artworks, and to plan out your essay? Were you able to complete your essay in the allotted time? What kind of feedback have you received about your answers from friends or teachers?

Adjusting Your Strategies for the Best Score

Once you’ve taken a practice test, being sure to recreate test conditions as much as possible, you’ll likely need to adjust your study strategies to accommodate your own strengths and weaknesses.

Write down your strengths and weaknesses. Why do you think you’re stronger in some things and weaker in others? What can you do to tap into your strengths and make your weaker areas better?

Content Areas

When you analyzed your scores, you looked at where you were weak, or what was hardest for you. Maybe you’re stronger when you know more about the history or culture—if so, try reading a book or watching some documentaries to help provide more information about the history and culture. Perhaps you just need more exposure to less familiar works, and should focus some extra energy on reviewing those works. Be sure you continue to review material you know well, but it’s fine to focus much of your study time on your weaker areas.

Identifiers

Are you struggling with one type of identifier? If so, think of different ways to organize material, both during your study time and in your brain. For instance, you may need to link works made in Europe in the 14^th century to ones made in China in the 14^th century to recognize that these very different works have the same dates, or use mnemonics or other memory tricks to help you remember the names of artists or cultures. If you struggle with materials, take a trip to a local museum to get a better, in-person look at the difference between marble and limestone or watercolor and oil paints. If you’re struggling with all identifiers, consider changing up your study strategy; if you’ve used flashcards, try an app or online quiz or try handmade flashcards if you’re using an app.

Free-response Questions

If you’ve done quite well on the multiple choice but have concerns about the free-response questions, there are several ways to adapt your study strategies. First, read examples of good essay responses—even those not written for AP® Art History! Take the time to think about what was good about the essay and to model your own answers after high-quality responses. Remember, even a free-response answer should include a brief introduction and conclusion, as well as a clear thesis statement! Next, practice writing to a timer. Even for good writers, getting that free-response completed in 15 to 30 minutes in a challenge!

Free-response questions may ask you to do one or more types of analysis. Remember, art history uses visual analysis, comparative analysis and contextual analysis. Visual analysis is straight forward for most people, but comparative and contextual can be more challenging. As you study, take a few minutes and work out the comparative and contextual analyses on different works. You can write this out, or just do it in your head.

Wrapping It Up

Study time is over and that test is tomorrow. Stop studying! Plan something fun for after the test to help you relax.

Turn on some soft music, relax, and go to bed early. Get up in plenty of time for the test—you don’t want to start your day rushed and stressed. Eat a healthy breakfast, and if you’re a coffee drinker, don’t skip it (but if you’re not, don’t indulge!). Arrive early for the test to get to your seat, with pencils in hand. You may bring a wristwatch, but no phones allowed. Consider taking along a book or magazine if you expect to arrive significantly early—we suggest something light and fun.

Before the test, take some slow, deep breaths to center yourself. You’ve taken the class, prepped well, and now it’s time to put all that work to the test. Work through problems quickly and efficiently during the multiple-choice section of the test. If you’re unsure, pick an answer! Remember to take time to plan your responses for the free-response questions and to write neatly.

If you’re prone to test anxiety, remember to keep breathing. If you need to, take a bathroom break to step out for a few seconds, get a drink and catch your breath. It is, after all, only a test.

Good luck on your AP® Art History Exam! Here’s hoping for a five.

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.