Starting in the fall, the new AP World History curriculum will begin. My DS, who is a freshman this year, will have the opportunity to take it. I’m not sure if this is a good idea because it is new, and I wonder how well organized it will be. I also wonder what colleges think of it - will they accept it as college credit? Has anyone heard anything about this new course? Just looking for info.
The course itself is not new; the CB has redesigned it, as they do from time to time. They’re renaming the course “AP World History: Modern” and narrowing the focus so not to cover 10,000 years of history. Simultaneously, the CB is researching the validity of having an “AP World History: Ancient” to cover the material they’ve lopped off, but if such a course comes about, it will be years away.
If a college gives credit for the current WH course, they will most likely give credit for the revised one. Note though, especially amongst private colleges, fewer give credit now for WH than USH, in part,IMO, because the course is targeted to freshman and sophomores.
The syllabus itself is well-organized. How well-organized the implementation will be at the school level will depend on the school/teacher.
I’ll also add that APs for freshman and sophs, even if the college does not give credit,can still be a good thing. They add to course rigor, and the format of the APWH exam is similar to the APUSH and APEH exam, so the skills learned in the first course, particularly in analyzing primary sources, are invaluable for later classes.
This is likely to be the real factor at most schools. Some teachers might want to include some older material “on principle”, requiring the student to self-study newer material for the AP exam. It might a good idea to wait a year before taking the new WHMAP (WHAPM?) class, if that was an option, to give the instructors time to adjust to the redesign.
Again, getting back to my point that much depends upon the teacher.
While there’s something to be said about letting the kinks work out, waiting is not generally an option, particularly if the HS has a world history graduation requirement. Most juniors have to take USH, and many schools have an econ and/or gov requirement that is often taken by seniors. Also, the working the kinks out theory has taken several years for AP Physics 1, so I would not invest to much time thinking about that strategy.
Personally, if the OP’s kid can handle the course, unless they know at this point who the teacher is and that teacher is really bad, I’d opt for it for the experience and rigor if nothing else unless there is another AP social studies course that is an option for sophomores.
Colleges won’t care about her score-focused she won’t even have to report it and since she’s a sophomore nothing will be made of it.
However the academic challenge will be appreciated for admission and it’ll prepare her for Apush.
Where I live US History is a 2 year requirement with US History 1 (up to a certain time frame) and US History 2 (more recent history) both required for graduation and taken freshman and sophomore year. APUSH has only been allowed to replace US History 2. Our juniors take a Modern World History or AP World for graduation requirements. There is no senior year requirement and electives such as AP Gov’t or economics are taken whenever if desired. There is talk about a finance class becoming a requirement for graduation but not sure where that currently stands.
I wonder if APUSH only covers the more recent times if US History will gradually become a 2 year requirement in more schools or if older US History won’t be required by students who take APUSH?
The APUSH exam covers from 1491 (before the Europeans showed up) to present, so yes, students are required to know the older stuff.
Thanks for all of the feedback. Our school requires two years of World History. All freshmen are taking World History 1, but next year they have the option of taking either World History 2/Geography or AP World. We are leaning toward AP World since it is more challenging. DS is very organized and motivated so I think he can handle it. AP classes seem so daunting, but that’s probably more my issue than his. My older two children (now in college) never took AP classes so they are a bit of a mystery to me.