The purpose of the AP World History course is to develop greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts in different types of human societies. This understanding is advanced through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. The course highlights the nature of changes in global frameworks and their causes and consequences,as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge, leading interpretive issues, and skills in analyzing types of historical evidence. Periodization, explicitly discussed, forms an organizing principle to address change and continuity throughout the course. Specific themes provide further organization to the course, along with consistent attention to contacts among societiesthat form the core of world history as a field of study.
College world history courses vary considerablyin the approach used, the chronological framework chosen, the content covered, the themes selected, and the analytical skills emphasized. The material in this Course Description presents the choicesthat the AP World History Development Committee has made to create the course and exam. These choices themselves are compatible with a variety of collegelevel curricular approaches. -The CollegeBoard