The Expert Guide to AP African American Studies

African American Studies is one of the newest Advanced Placement offerings, launched in Fall 2024. It's designed to give students a deep understanding of African American history, culture, and experiences. Because it's such a new offering, it can be difficult to know what to expect from the course and AP exam. You'll need to be prepared to understand a variety of historical documents, make connections between different time periods, and analyze major themes. 

We're here to help you feel confident in class on and test day. In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the AP African American Studies test structure, content, scoring, and study strategies to help you succeed.

What's Tested on the AP African American Studies Exam?

What do students in AP African American Studies learn and what does the exam cover? While you can get an in-depth look at the class by checking out the College Board's AP African American Studies Course and Exam Description, if you find this too wordy or information-heavy, here's a brief, clearer overview of the class. AP African American Studies is designed to mimic an entry-level college course on the same topic. The course is organized into four chronological units:

Unit 1: Origins of the African Diaspora (20-25% of AP Exam)

This unit explores early African civilizations, focusing on the societies that existed before European colonization. Students will learn about West African kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, their trade networks, and their intellectual and artistic contributions.

The unit also covers the origins of the transatlantic slave trade, the forced migration of millions of Africans, and the impact of slavery on both Africa and the Americas. This includes the role of European colonial powers in the slave trade, the Middle Passage experience, and how enslaved Africans maintained their cultures and resisted oppression. Key themes include resistance, adaptation, and the preservation of African cultural traditions in new environments.

Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance (30-35% of the AP Exam)

Unit 3: The Practice of Freedom (20-25% of the AP Exam)

This unit focuses on movements and debates that shaped African American history in the 20th century. Students will analyze key moments such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power Movement. They'll also analyze the role of grassroots activism, such as the NAACP, SNCC, and Black Panther party, as well as legal challenges, and cultural expression in advancing African American rights and identity. This includes the activism of people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Students will learn about landmark events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Unit 4: Movements and Debates (20-25% of the AP Exam)

Unit 4 explores the cultural contributions of African Americans, including in literature, music, art, and philosophy. Students will study the evolution of African American artistic expression, from the spiritual and blues music of the 19th century to jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary music and art. Students will also analyze African American the works of African American scholars, writers, and intellectuals who helped shape discourse on race, identity, and justice in America. Specific topics that may be discussed include the rise of hip-hop culture, the election of Barack Obama, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the ongoing fight for racial justice and equity.

How is the AP African American Studies Exam Structured?

The AP African American Studies exam consists of three sections you'll take on test day, as well as a project you'll submit to your teacher before the exam. The exam is fully digital, which means you'll take the entire test on a computer using the Bluebook testing app. The entire exam will take 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete. Here are the sections of the test:

Individual Student Project

One of the more unique features of AP African American Studies is that part of your final AP score is based on a project you complete either prior to the AP exam or after the AP exam but before May 31. Your teacher will decide when your deadline for the project is. 

For the project, students complete a 3-week project where they choose a research topic, conduct research on the topic using multiple disciplines, and deliver a presentation to their teacher and classmates. The presentation is 8 minutes in total. For 5 of those minutes you'll be presenting your topic, and you'll answer questions from your teacher for 3 minutes to prove your understanding of the topic and the sources you used.

Your teacher will use a rubric provided by the College Board to score your project, and this score will make up 8.5% of your total AP score.

Multiple-Choice Section

The first section of the test consists of 60 multiple-choice questions. The questions will appear in sets of 3-4, and each set will begin with 1-2 sources. About half of the sources will come from required sources in the course framework. The other half will be sources that are related to the course content but that students haven't directly studied in class.

You'll have 70 minutes to answer the questions, and this section will account for 60% of your total AP score.

Individual Student Project--Exam Day Validation Question

For this short section (it's only 10 minutes long), you'll respond to a question related to your Individual Student Project, which we discussed above. The question will be one of the oral defense questions. (See all the potential oral defense questions on page 398 of the Course and Exam Description.) You'll need to provide analysis, reflection, comparison, or evaluation of at least one of the sources you used in your project for your response.

This response is worth 1.5% of your total AP score. 

Free-Response Section

The free-response section includes three short answer questions, and one longer document-based question (DBQ). You'll have 85 minutes to complete the entire section. It's recommended that you spend 40 minutes on the short-answer questions and 45 minutes on the DBQ, but this is only a recommendation. You'll be able to divide the time between the four questions in this section however you want.

For the short-answer part, students will have a recommended 40 minutes to answer the three questions, and they'll count for 18% of the final AP score. The section contains:

• 1 question based on a text source
• 1 question based on a visual source
• 1 question based on a broad thematic course concept

Each question will have three or four question parts.

For the DBQ, students will be presented with five documents that each have a different perspective on a historical development or process. Students will need to respond to the prompt with a thesis, describe the broader historical context related to the prompt, and use at least three of the sources to support their thesis. They'll also need to use at least one additional piece of evidence beyond what is given in the sources to support their argument. The DBQ is worth 12% of the total exam score.

Here's a chart summarizing the different parts of the AP African American Studies exam:

AP African American History Sample Questions

Now that you know the content of the African American Studies course and exam, here are some examples of the questions you'll see on the AP exam so you have an even better idea of what to expect. These questions come from the AP African American Studies Course and Exam Description.

Multiple-Choice Question

This question is based on topics learned in Unit 1. You'd need to know the importance of Mansa Musa when he was ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century. Mansa Musa had a significant impact in increasing the influence of West African empires on global trade networks. He didn't have a significant impact on fashion. This means A is incorrect. Similarly, he did not cause trade to be redirected toward the Atlantic Coast, nor did he attempt to expand into Europe. Therefore C and D are incorrect. The correct answer is B.

Short Answer Question

This is an example of a short answer question that uses a text-based source. The question is worth a total of four points, with each part worth 1 point. For each part, we've included examples provided by the College Board that would earn the point for that part. You only need to include ONE example for each part to earn the point, and there may be correct answers beyond the examples below.

Part A

• This period was known as the nadir, as it was the point when African Americans had no protection and endured extreme racial violence. 

• At this time, African Americans were being disenfranchised and were limited in their ability to advance economically and socially. 

• During this period, Southern states were implementing segregation laws and violating the newly established rights of African Americans.

Part B

•  A piece of evidence that Wells-Barnett provides to support her claim that Southern states were destroying the rights of African Americans was her reference to African Americans having the right to vote federally but being impeded by laws in Southern states. 

• A piece of evidence that Wells-Barnett references are the labor liens on crops. Through sharecropping, white landowners provided land and equipment to African Americans in exchange for a large share of the crops, which made economic advancement difficult. 

• A piece of evidence that Wells-Barnett provides to support her claim includes the railroad car regulations in Southern states that segregated where white and Black passengers could sit.

Part C

• During segregation, African Americans created businesses to meet the needs of their communities. 

• Black women activists founded organizations like the National Association of Colored Women to promote the well-being and advancement of women and girls.

• African Americans promoted safe spaces by creating their own religious institutions such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Part D

• Civil Rights activists challenged discriminatory practices in voting through nonviolent campaigns such as the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The campaign included voter registration drives and Freedom Schools.

• African American activists challenged the discriminatory practices in education described by taking legal actions against Black students’ unequal access to education. The NAACP supported the cases of families who believed their children were not receiving a quality education, and the Supreme Court decided that the education that African American students received was unconstitutional, which began a campaign of integration.  

• Members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense challenged discrimination by promoting their right to bear arms in cases of self-defense. In their ten-point program, the Black Panther Party advocated for ending police brutality by organizing community groups to monitor interactions between the community and law enforcement.

Document-Based Question

For this DBQ, you're given five sources to potentially use in your response:

• Louisiana Code Noir (1724)
• An Address to Slaves in the United States (1843)
• Address to the National Catholic Conference (1961)
• A photo of Muhammad Ali in Mecca (1972)
• A chart showing that young black adults are less Protestant than their elders (2021)

You can view the complete sources, as well as the detailed rubric for how the DBQ is graded, in the Course and Exam Description, beginning on page 429.

4 Tips to Prepare for the AP African American Studies Exam

Now that you know all about what's on the Advanced Placement African American Studies test, it's time to learn how to ace it. Follow these four tips so you can get a great score!

#1: Have a Solid Grasp of Chronology

Like other AP history courses, understanding historical periods and their connections is crucial for doing well in AP African American Studies. One of the best ways to get a good grasp of chronology is to create one or more timelines of major events, from the transatlantic slave trade to modern-day social movements. You can have one large timeline that includes everything, or create multiple timelines that each focus on a specific theme, such as Black culture, women's rights, etc. Creating these timelines will help you visualize the order in which events occurred, and how past events shaped future ones.

Beyond just memorizing dates, you should also focus on cause-and-effect relationships. For example, ask yourself how the abolitionist movement influenced the Civil Rights Movement. How did Reconstruction affect racial dynamics in the 20th century? Recognizing common themes such as resistance, leadership, migration, and cultural changes will help you draw connections between different topics. The stronger your knowledge of historical events is, the easier you'll find it to create strong essays and excel in the multiple-choice section. 

#2: Analyze Numerous Sources

The AP African American Studies exam heavily uses sources. Each set of 3-4 questions on the multiple-choice section references a source (either written or visual), as do two-thirds of the short answer questions. The DBQ has five sources, and you'll need to analyze at least three of them in your essay. Basically, you're going to be looking at and drawing conclusions from a lot of sources throughout the course and during the AP exam, so you should get comfortable doing this!

Expose yourself to a wide variety of sources, including primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are firsthand accounts, such as speeches, diaries, photographs, and newspaper articles from the time period being studied. Secondary sources, on the other hand, are scholarly analysis and interpretation of historical events. You should also study visual sources, such as photographs or posters, text-based sources, and data-based sources like graphs or charts. You can watch documentaries, listen to podcasts, and look at historical photographs to build your knowledge.

Make sure you're looking at sources from different time periods, too. As you analyze the sources, think about the point they're trying to make, any potential biases, how the author/source were influenced by the time period they were created, and the impact they've had since then.

#3: Understand the DBQ

The Document-Based Question is the single most important question on the AP exam: it's worth a total of 12% of your total AP score! It's also often the part of the AP exam where students struggle the most. By mastering this section can significantly boost your overall AP score.

To prepare, start by studying past DBQs. Because AP African American studies is such a new course, there aren't many examples to choose from, but you can see DBQs from past AP exams here, and there's a complete sample DBQ beginning on page 429 of the Course and Exam Description.

An important skill you'll need on the DBQ is incorporating outside knowledge. While you must use at least three of the provided documents in your essay, you also need to show your own broader understanding of the topic by discussing a topic not among those provided. This is another area where tip #2 comes in handy because the more potential sources you can write well about, the better the chance you'll have one relevant to your DBQ topic. The DBQ is an area where becoming familiar with the types of questions and sources you'll see, and practicing writing essays under tight time restrictions, can significantly improve your score. Learn other tips for acing the DBQ in our guide specifically on the key tips and strategies for writing a DBQ essay.

#4: Be Well-Prepared for Your Individual Student Project

Unlike most AP exams, AP African American Studies includes an individual research-based student project . This component allows you to explore a topic of your choice in greater depth. Between the project itself and the exam day validation question, they're worth 10% of your overall AP score, so preparing effectively is important to doing well on the AP exam.

Start by selecting a topic that genuinely interests you. Whether it’s the evolution of jazz music, the impact of Black feminist thought, the role of African American soldiers in wartime, etc., choosing a subject that genuinely excites you will make the research process more interesting and will motivate you to take a deep dive into the topic. Once you’ve settled on a topic, study both primary and secondary sources to build a strong foundation of knowledge. Keep in mind that your presentation won't  just be summarizing information; you'll need to make an argument or present a unique perspective on the topic.

Make sure your project has a clear thesis that you state early on. During your presentation, use visuals like maps, photographs, and graphs, to emphasize your points. Lastly, practice delivering your presentation multiple times before the final assessment. 

Summary: AP African American History Curriculum and Exam

Understanding the content and format of the Advanced Placement African American Studies  course and exam can help you decide whether you should take the course or not; it'll also show you what to expect if you do decide to enroll.

The AP African American Studies curriculum focuses on four topics:

• Origins of the African Diaspora (~900 BCE–16th century)
• Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance (16th century–1865)
• The Practice of Freedom (1865–1940s)
• Movements and Debates (1940s–2000s)

For the AP exam, you'll need to complete an individual student project which consists of an 8 minute presentation and oral defense. Your teacher will decide whether this will be completed before or after the AP exam. On test day, there'll be a multiple-choice section with 60 questions, a free-response section with three short answer questions and one document-based question, and a question related to your individual project. In order to do well in the course and on the exam, it's important to:

• Have a strong grasp of chronology
• Be familiar with a variety of sources
• Understand how to answer the DBQ
• Put significant time into your individual student project

What's Next?

Wondering when to start studying for your AP test? Read our AP study schedule guide and wonder no more!

It's not enough to just take an AP class, you also want to do well in it! Learn expert tips in our complete guide to acing your AP classes.

When will you find out how you scored on your AP exams? Learn when scores for every AP exam will be released and how you can access them.