AP Art History
Advanced Placement Art History 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 wide variety of periods from present times into 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 focuses on European, African, Hindu, South Asian, East Asian, Islamic, and Prehistoric art.
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.
| Ancient Through Medieval | Renaissance to Present | Beyond European Tradition |
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| Multiple Choice | Free Response |
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Scoring
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. 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 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| 5 | 11.1% | 11% | 12.8% | 11.9% | 15.6 |
| 4 | 22.6% | 23.1% | 24.3% | 24.6% | 24.6 |
| 3 | 27.7% | 27.3% | 27.6% | 26.6% | 27.7 |
| 2 | 27.6% | 26.2% | 25.5% | 24.7% | 21.4 |
| 1 | 11.0% | 12.4% | 9.8% | 12.2% | 10.7 |
| % of 3 or Higher | 61.4% | 61.4% | 64.7% | 63.1% | 67.9% |
| Mean Score | 2.95 | 2.94 | 3.04 | 2.99 | |
| Number of Students | 25,523 | 25,178 | 24,964 | 24,476 |
Examples of Works Studied
- Global Prehistory 30,000-500 B.C.E: "The Apollo 11 Stones"
- Ancient Mediterranean 3,500-300 B.C.E: "Great Pyramids of Giza"
- Early Europe and Colonial Americas 200-1750 C.E: "Bayeux Tapestry"
- Later Europe and Americas 1750-1980 C.E: "Liberty Leading the People"
- Indigenous Americas 1000 B.C.E.-1980 C.E: "Great Serpent Mound"
- Africa 1100-1980 C.E: "Aka elephant mask"
- South, East and Southeast Asia 300 B.C.E.-1980 C.E: " Ryoan-ji"
- The Pacific 700-1980 C.E: "Ahu 'ula "
- Global Contemporary 1980 C.E. to present: "Pink Panther"