Following in the footsteps of AP United States History and AP European History, AP World History will be transitioning to an updated College Board exam next year. This new exam will have only seven documents to choose from for the Document Based Question (DBQ) as well as focusing on stimulus-based multiple-choice questions, which will be reduced from 70 to 55 questions. There will also be more of an emphasis on the writing portion of the exam, as it will now account for 60 percent of the test.

Despite these changes, AP World History teacher Mr. Steven Burr says prospective students need not be concerned.

“The essays will be completely different, so obviously I’ll address those differences, but the content is exactly the same,” Burr explained.

As far as the adjustments in the importance of writing go, Burr is heavily optimistic.

“I think this new system will be better for [Pali] students because they do so much better than the national average in terms of writing skills,” Burr elaborated.

Overall, this change will leave AP history classes with a uniform system of testing that will instill consistency.