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Home > AP Courses and Exams > AP Exam Questions > The AP Art History Exam The AP Art History Exam More About Art History... 2008-2009 AP Exam Formats AP Art History Course Home Page Exam Content The first AP Art History Exam was administered in 1972. In 1998, the AP Art History Exam premiered the long essay question requiring informed discussion of art beyond the European tradition. Changes to the AP Art History Exam beginning with the 2010 exam administration: Change in the order of the free-response questions: Questions 1 and 2 will be 30-minute essay questions. Question 1 will require students to incorporate in their response at least one example of art beyond the European tradition. Questions 3 through 9 will be 5- or 10-minute essay questions based on color images and/or text. Decision to not count prehistoric examples: The AP Art History Development Committee has been concerned over the years about students' use of prehistoric examples when answering the 30-minute long essays. These long essays typically ask the student to provide contextual information about the work of art, but there is little known about the particular cultures that produced prehistoric art. Students who use prehistoric examples cannot earn full credit because they cannot provide a factual discussion of the context. Therefore, beginning with the 2010 exam, prehistoric examples such as the Woman of Willendorf, the caves of Lascaux, and Stonehenge will not be accepted as appropriate examples. Emphasis on using examples from non-Western cultures other than Egypt and the Ancient Near East: The Development Committee is also concerned about the overuse of Egyptian and Ancient Near East examples for the essay question that asks students to discuss art beyond the European tradition. To address this issue, the committee will add the following statement to the Course Description for 2010: "One of the 30-minute essay questions requires students to incorporate at least one example of art beyond the European tradition into their essays. Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East are fully covered in the multiple-choice questions in Part I and the short-answer essays in Part II of the exam. The intent of this essay question is to draw from areas such as Africa (beyond ancient Egypt), the Americas, Asia, Islamic cultures, and Oceania." Multiple-Choice Questions For sample multiple-choice questions, refer to the Course Description.   AP Art History Course Description (.pdf/1.1MB) New! Free-Response Questions Below are free-response questions from past AP Art History Exams. Included with the questions are scoring guidelines, sample student responses, and commentary on those responses, as well as exam statistics and the Chief Reader's Student Performance Q&A for past administrations. Free-Response Questions 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 1999-2002 2009: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples and Commentary Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions 2008: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples and Commentary Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions 2007: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples and Commentary Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions 2006: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples and Commentary Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions 2005: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Grade Distributions 2004: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions 2003: Free-Response Questions Questions Scoring Samples Grade Distributions All Questions Scoring Guidelines Scoring Commentary Student Performance Q&A Scoring Statistics Sample Responses Q1 Sample Responses Q2 Sample Responses Q3 Sample Responses Q4 Sample Responses Q5 Sample Responses Q6 Sample Responses Q7 Sample Responses Q8 Sample Responses Q9 Grade Distributions Important Note: PDF Files The links to exam questions for this course are in Adobe® PDF format, and you will need to use the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view them. If you don't have Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher installed on your computer, choose the link for the Adobe Web site below for installation instructions. For help downloading and printing PDF files, choose the link "PDF Troubleshooting" below in "See also." See also... Exam Questions Index PDF Troubleshooting Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®

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