Thinking about taking AP Art History? Already in an AP Art History class and want to get a better sense of what you’ve signed up for? Nervous about how you will do on the AP Art History exam and looking for the best resources to use to prepare yourself? If any of these descriptions apply to you, you’ve found yourself in the right place. This guide will take a general look at the topics and structure of AP Art History classes, the formatting and structure of the AP Art History exam, and a great resource that you can use to shore-up your Art History knowledge by recognizing and filling gaps in your understanding of AP Art History material. By the time you’ve finished reading this guide, you’ll have all the information and resources that you need to be confident about tackling AP Art History!

Like all AP courses, AP Art History is a college-level class that high schoolers can take to cover the same content as a college-level introductory art history course and potentially earn college credit for their work. AP Art History does not assume that a student has any background in art, but above-average performance in previous history, literature, and studio art classes may suggest that a student has the potential to be successful in AP Art History. AP Art History involves a good amount of memorization in that students must familiarize themselves with famous artists, works, schools, media and styles of art in both the European tradition and in other traditions; however, the goal of the class is more ambitious than basic fact retention: students learn to analyze works of art in detail in different historical contexts, drawing out the relationships that exist between different works and the way in which these works have influenced, and have been influenced by, different cultural phenomena. As far as how the class is organized, about 30% of the material covered concerns Ancient through Medieval art, including Ancient Greek, Roman, Early Christian, Byzantine, Early Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic art; about half of the class’s content pertains to Renaissance through Contemporary art, made from the fourteenth through the twenty-first centuries; and about 20% of class material covers art beyond European artistic traditions, focusing on the art of Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Near East, Oceania, and global Islamic traditions.

Students who take AP Art History conclude the class by taking the AP Art History exam, a cumulative assessment of their knowledge and determines whether or not they will receive college credit for their AP Art History course. The AP Art History exam consists of two halves: the multiple-choice section and the free response section. The multiple-choice section consists of 115 multiple-choice questions that students are given one hour to answer. The multiple-choice section is divided into two parts: Part A and Part B. Part A contains about one-third of all the multiple-choice questions on the exam (approximately 39 questions), and these questions concern color images that are included in a test booklet. Part B contains the rest of the exam’s multiple-choice questions; these questions are not necessarily accompanied by images, but when they are, they are printed in black-and-white in the text booklet. The multiple-choice section accounts for 40% of a student’s exam grade; the other 60% of the student’s exam score is calculated from the essays they write for the free response section. Like the multiple-choice section, the free response section is also split into Parts A and B. Part A asks students to compose two “long essays,” for which they are given thirty minutes each. These two essays determine about 25% of an AP Art History exam score. Essay prompts address issues that are significant in art history and require students to reference example works of art that they have studied. Certain questions will prompt students to discuss works of art from beyond the European tradition. Students are required to include pertinent details, such as the works’ title, artist or culture of origin, time, period, and media, as well as to describe the work in detail; this description is particularly crucial in the case that the work has no title. It is important to note that because the AP Art History’s long essay question prompts concern the ways in which art interacts with culture, prehistoric works of art, such as Stonehenge, the Woman of Willendorf, and the Caves of Lascaux are not accepted by graders as appropriate examples, as the cultural contexts of these works cannot be determined. Section B of the AP Art History exam’s free response section consists of six short essay questions. Students are given an hour to compose their answers, which are worth 35% of the total AP Art History exam score. Each of these questions involves an image or a pair of images, and of the questions also or solely involves a primary source quotation. For this question, the student is expected to come up with an example work of art to discuss in his or her response.

If you find yourself in need of the best free AP Art History resources, whether to review for your impending AP Art History exam or try to get a sense of what you’ll be learning in an AP Art History course you’ve signed up for, look no further than Varsity Tutors’ free AP Art History Practice Tests! Each AP Art History Practice Test consists of between ten and twelve problems; you can choose to use these Practice Tests to answer questions drawn from each of the topics covered in AP Art History, or focus on one particular topic. After you complete an AP Art History Practice Test, you will receive a detailed report of your performance in comparison to those of other test-takers. You can also see a detailed explanation of the reasoning that was used to determine the correct answer, so if you miss any questions, you can find out where you went wrong so you can avoid repeating an error.

You can also take Full-Length AP Art History Practice Tests. These are comprehensive exercises that ask you questions spanning the full range of concepts you’ll be expected to know for the exam. You may want to kick off your review by taking one of the complete practice tests, as the insights you’ll receive can help you to build a custom AP Art History study plan. The results page for the free comprehensive online tests includes the same helpful information you get from the concept-specific practice tests, but can also help you focus your study sessions by showing you which topics you’ve got down pat, and the topics on which you’ll want to spend some time. After you brush up on your skills with the other Learning Tools, return to the Full-Length AP Art History Practice Tests to see how your knowledge level is progressing.

With the knowledge of what you’re up against and Varsity Tutors’ variety of free AP Art History resources at your disposal, you can feel completely confident walking into AP Art History on the first day of class or walking into your AP Art History exam!