Advanced Placement (AP) Art History (also known as AP Art or APAH) is an Advanced Placement art history course and exam offered by the College Board.
AP Art History is designed to allow students to examine major forms of artistic expression relevant to a variety of cultures evident in a wide variety of periods from the present to the past. Students acquire an ability to examine works of art critically, with intelligence and sensitivity, and to articulate their thoughts and experiences. The course content covers prehistoric, Mediterranean, European, American, Native American, African, Asian, Pacific, and contemporary art and architecture. [1]
The course is designed to teach the following art historical skills:
The course is also built on five core "Big Ideas":
Starting in the 2015–2016 school year, College Board has introduced a new curriculum and exam for students to apply art historical skills to questions. [2] [3]
Unit | Time Period | Approximate Exam Weighting |
---|---|---|
Unit 1: Global Prehistory | 30,000 - 500 BCE | 4% |
Unit 2: Ancient Mediterranean | 3500 BCE - 300 CE | 15% |
Unit 3: Early Europe and Colonial America | 200 - 1750 CE | 21% |
Unit 4: Later Europe and Americas | 1750 - 1980 CE | 21% |
Unit 5: Indigenous Americas | 1000 BCE - 1980 CE | 6% |
Unit 6: Africa | 1100 - 1980 CE | 6% |
Unit 7: West and Central Asia | 500 BCE - 1980 CE | 4% |
Unit 8: South, East, and Southeast Asia | 300 BCE - 1980 CE | 8% |
Unit 9: The Pacific | 700 - 1980 CE | 4% |
Unit 10: Global Contemporary | 1980 CE to Present | 11% |
Multiple Choice (50% of Score) | Free Response (50% of Score) |
---|---|
|
|
The multiple-choice section of the exam is worth 50% of a student's score and the free response is worth 50%. Each correctly answered multiple choice question is worth one point. Wrong and omitted questions do not affect the raw score. [4] For the free-response section, the four short essays are each graded on a scale of 0 to 5 and the two long essays are each graded on a scale of 0 to 7.
Final Score | 2016 [5] | 2017 [6] | 2018 [7] | 2019 [8] | 2020 [9] | 2021 [10] | 2022 [11] | 2023 [12] | 2024 [13] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 11.1% | 11% | 12.8% | 11.9% | 15.8% | 12.0% | 14.1% | 13.8% | 14% |
4 | 22.6% | 23.1% | 24.3% | 24.6% | 24.9% | 19.6% | 21.0% | 23.8% | 21% |
3 | 27.7% | 27.3% | 27.6% | 26.6% | 28.0% | 23.8% | 26.3% | 27.0% | 28% |
2 | 27.6% | 26.2% | 25.5% | 24.7% | 21.3% | 30.1% | 26.9% | 23.8% | 25% |
1 | 11.0% | 12.4% | 9.8% | 12.2% | 10.0% | 14.6% | 11.6% | 11.6% | 12% |
% of Scores 3 or Higher | 61.4% | 61.4% | 64.7% | 63.1% | 68.7% | 55.3% | 61.5% | 64.6% | 63% |
Mean Score | 2.95 | 2.94 | 3.05 | 2.99 | 3.15 | 2.84 | 2.99 | 3.04 | 3.00 |
Standard Deviation | 1.18 | 1.19 | 1.18 | 1.21 | 1.21 | 1.24 | 1.23 | 1.22 | 1.22 |
Number of Students | 25,523 | 25,178 | 24,964 | 24,476 | 23,567 | 20,633 | 20,970 | 24,624 | |
The current curriculum, which began in 2015, focuses on 250 works of art and architecture across 10 units, beginning with prehistoric art and ending with contemporary art. [14]
Global Prehistory (30,000 - 500 BCE)
Ancient Mediterranean (3500 BCE - 300 CE)
Early Europe and Colonial Americas (200 - 1750 CE)
Later Europe and Americas (1750 - 1980 CE)
Indigenous Americas (1000 BCE - 1980 CE)
Africa (1100 - 1980 CE)
West and Central Asia (500 BCE - 1980 CE)
South, East, and Southeast Asia (300 BCE - 1980 CE)
The Pacific (700 - 1980 CE)
Global Contemporary (1980 CE - Present)
Notes
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere may grant placement and course credit to students who obtain qualifying scores on the examinations.
Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry is a course and examination offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program to give American and Canadian high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and earn college-level credits at certain colleges and universities. The AP Chemistry Exam has the lowest test participation rate out of all AP Courses, with around half of AP Chemistry students taking the exam.
Advanced Placement (AP) Biology is an Advanced Placement biology course and exam offered by the College Board in the United States. For the 2012–2013 school year, the College Board unveiled a new curriculum with a greater focus on "scientific practices".
Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program.
Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature and Composition is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program in the United States.
Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography is an Advanced Placement social studies course in human geography for high school, usually freshmen students in the US, culminating in an exam administered by the College Board.
Advanced Placement (AP) Physics B was a physics course administered by the College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. It was equivalent to a year-long introductory university course covering Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism, fluid mechanics, thermal physics, waves, optics, and modern physics. The course was algebra-based and heavily computational; in 2015, it was replaced by the more concept-focused AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2.
Advanced Placement (AP) United States Government and Politics is a college-level course and examination offered to high school students through the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. This course surveys the structure and function of American government and politics that begins with an analysis of the United States Constitution, the foundation of the American political system. Students study the three branches of government, administrative agencies that support each branch, the role of political behavior in the democratic process, rules governing elections, political culture, and the workings of political parties and interest groups.
Advanced Placement (AP) World History: Modern is a college-level course and examination offered to high school students in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program. AP World History: Modern was designed to help students develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts as well as interactions between different human societies. The course advances understanding through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills.
Advanced Placement (AP) Art and Design, formerly known as AP Studio Art, is a series of courses offered by the College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. AP Art and Design is divided into three categories: 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, and Drawing.
Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Literature and Culture is a high school course and examination offered by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program.
Advanced Placement (AP) examinations are exams offered in United States by the College Board and are taken each May by students. The tests are the culmination of year-long Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which are typically offered at the high school level. AP exams have a multiple-choice section and a free-response section.
Advanced Placement (AP) Comparative Government and Politics is an Advanced Placement comparative politics course and exam offered by the College Board. It was first administered in 1987.
Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science is a course and exam offered by the American College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program to high school students interested in the environmental and natural sciences. AP Environmental Science was first offered in the 1997–1998 school year.
Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory is a course and examination offered in the United States by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program to high school students who wish to earn credit for a college-level music theory course.
Advanced Placement (AP) Physics C: Mechanics is an introductory physics course administered by the American College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. It is intended to serve as a proxy for a one-semester calculus-based university course in mechanics. Physics C: Mechanics may be combined with its electricity and magnetism counterpart to form a year-long course that prepares for both exams.
Advanced Placement (AP) Latin, formerly Advanced Placement (AP) Latin: Vergil, is an examination in Latin literature offered to American high school students by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. Prior to the 2012–2013 academic year, the course focused on poetry selections from the Aeneid, written by Augustan author Publius Vergilius Maro, also known as Vergil or Virgil. However, in the 2012–2013 year, the College Board changed the content of the course to include not only poetry, but also prose. The modified course consists of both selections from Vergil and selections from Commentaries on the Gallic War, written by prose author Gaius Julius Caesar. Also included in the new curriculum is an increased focus on sight reading. The student taking the exam will not necessarily have been exposed to the specific reading passage that appears on this portion of the exam. The College Board suggests that a curriculum include practice with sight reading. The exam is administered in May and is three hours long, consisting of a one-hour multiple-choice section and a two-hour free-response section.
Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 1: Algebra Based is a year-long introductory physics course administered by the College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. It is intended to proxy a one-semester algebra-based university course in mechanics. Along with AP Physics 2, the first AP Physics 1 exam was administered in 2015.
AP Capstone, officially known as the Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma Program, is a 2-year program developed by the College Board that consists of two courses: the AP Seminar and AP Research. Students who successfully complete the program and obtain scores of 3 or higher on at least four other AP exams receive either an AP Capstone Diploma or an AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 2 is a year-long introductory physics course administered by the College Board as part of its Advanced Placement program. It is intended to proxy a second-semester algebra-based university course in thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics, and modern physics. Along with AP Physics 1, the first AP Physics 2 exam was administered in 2015.