AP Art History

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Advanced Placement (AP) Art History (also known as APAH) is an Advanced Placement art history course and exam offered by the College Board in the United States.

Contents

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]

Course

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]

Topic Outline [1]
UnitTime PeriodApproximate Exam Weighting
Unit 1: Global Prehistory30,000 – 500 BCE 4%
Unit 2: Ancient Mediterranean3500 BCE – 300 CE15%
Unit 3: Early Europe and Colonial America200 – 1750 CE21%
Unit 4: Later Europe and Americas1750 – 1980 CE21%
Unit 5: Indigenous Americas1000 BCE – 1980 CE6%
Unit 6: Africa1100 – 1980 CE6%
Unit 7: West and Central Asia500 BCE – 1980 CE4%
Unit 8: South, East, and Southeast Asia300 BCE – 1980 CE8%
Unit 9: The Pacific700 – 1980 CE4%
Unit 10: Global Contemporary1980 CE to Present11%

Exam

Multiple Choice (50% of Score)Free Response (50% of Score)
  • 80 Questions in 1 Hour
  • Approximately 8 Sets of 3–6 Questions Based on Color Images
  • 35% Individual Multiple Choice Questions
  • Based on the Knowledge of the 250 Required Images
  • 6 Essay Questions in 2 Hours
  • Two 30-Minute Essay Questions
    • 7 Points Each
  • Four 15-Minute Essay Questions
    • 5 Points Each
  • Essay Questions Often Include Images of Works of Art as Stimuli
  • Based on the Knowledge of the 250 Required Images
  • Response Written in Academic Essay Format

Score distribution

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 Score2016 [5] 2017 [6] 2018 [7] 2019 [8] 2020 [9] 2021 [10] 2022 [11] 2023 [12] 2024 [13]
511.1%11%12.8%11.9%15.8%12.0%14.1%13.8%13.9%
422.6%23.1%24.3%24.6%24.9%19.6%21.0%23.8%21.5%
327.7%27.3%27.6%26.6%28.0%23.8%26.3%27.0%27.2%
227.6%26.2%25.5%24.7%21.3%30.1%26.9%23.8%24.8%
111.0%12.4%9.8%12.2%10.0%14.6%11.6%11.6%12.5%
% of Scores 3 or Higher61.4%61.4%64.7%63.1%68.7%55.3%61.5%64.6%62.7%
Mean Score2.952.943.052.993.152.842.993.043.00
Standard Deviation1.181.191.181.211.211.241.231.221.23
Number of Students25,52325,17824,96424,47623,56720,63320,97024,62427,362

Works studied

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)

  1. ↑ Painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
  2. ↑ Painting by Claude Monet.
  3. ↑ Painting by Henri Matisse.
  4. ↑ Painting by Wifredo Lam.
  5. ↑ Painting by Helen Frankenthaler.

Indigenous Americas (1000 BCE – 1980 CE)

  1. ↑ Produced by the Delaware people.
  2. ↑ Made by Cotsiogo.

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)

  1. ↑ Wooden cult figures from Rarotonga.
  2. ↑ Wooden sculptures from Nukuoro.

Global Contemporary (1980 CE – Present)

Notes

  1. ↑ Painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
  2. ↑ Painting by Song Su-Nam.
  3. ↑ Mixed-media presentation by Bill Viola.
  4. ↑ Mixed-media presentation by Mariko Mori.

References

  1. 1 2 "Art history course" (PDF). collegeboard.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  2. ↑ Urist, Jacoba (February 2016). "Rewriting Art History". The Atlantic.
  3. ↑ "AP Art History Exam". 10 July 2006.
  4. ↑ "Home – AP Central | College Board". 14 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Total Registration. "2016 AP Exam Score Distributions" (PDF). secure-media.collegeboard.org. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  6. ↑ Total Registration. "2017 AP Exam Score Distributions" (PDF). secure-media.collegeboard.org. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  7. ↑ "Student Score Distributions, AP Exams – May 2018" (PDF). The College Board. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  8. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  9. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  10. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  11. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  12. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  13. ↑ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  14. ↑ AP® Art History Course and Exam Description, Effective Fall 2015, November 20, 2015; revised and corrected edition April 21, 2017. The College Board.

Further reading

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