World History
SAT Subject Test in World History Practice
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Next Tests:
10/9
, 11/6
Introduction
The World History Subject Test measures your understanding of key developments in global history and your use of basic historical techniques. Basic techniques include the application and weighing of evidence, and the ability to interpret and generalize.
All questions on the World History test are multiple-choice, requiring you to choose the best response from five choices. Questions may be presented as separate items or in sets based on quotes, maps, pictures, graphs, or tables.
Test Basics
| Points | Minutes | Questions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200-800 | 60 | 95 |
Multiple-choice questions, covering the entire history of the world, from ancient times to the present, including all inhabitable continents. Also covering all historical fields: political and diplomatic, intellectual and cultural, and social and economic. |
Topics on the Test
| Chronological Material | Geographical Material | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 25% |
Prehistory and civilizations to the year 500 Common Era (C.E.) |
25% |
Europe |
| 20% |
500 to 1500 C.E. |
10% |
Africa |
| 25% |
1500 to 1900 C.E. |
10% |
Southwest Asia |
| 20% |
Post-1900 C.E. |
10% |
South and Southeast Asia |
| 10% |
Cross-chronological |
10% |
East Asia |
| 10% |
The Americas (excluding the United States) |
||
| 25% |
Global or comparative |
||
Skills and Prep
- Familiarity with terminology, cause-and-effect relationships, geography, and other data necessary for understanding major historical developments
- A grasp of concepts essential to historical analysis
- An ability to use historical knowledge in interpreting data in maps, graphs, charts, or cartoons
- Overall, prepare with a variety of reading approaches and academic courses, including courses in world history that focus on world cultures or area studies.
- Review your world history textbook, paying careful attention to any areas you're weak in, as well as to "periodization," the trends within major periods. Timelines are useful tools for doing this.
