Advanced Placement (AP) World History: Modern (also known as just AP World History, AP World, or WHAP) is a college-level course and examination offered to high school students in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program designed to help students develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts as well as interactions between different human societies. The course advances this understanding through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. Course Students used to study all prehistory and history, especially from 8000 BC to the present day. However, it was announced in July 2018 that the test would be changed to an AP World History: Modern exam that only contains content since 1200 CE, starting in the 2019–2020 school year, with plans for a new course that's about the time before called AP World History: Ancient. Students in the United States usually take the course in their sophomore year of high school, although they are not generally required to do so. The course is currently organized around four eras/periods and nine units: Period 1 - c. 1200 to c. 1450 Unit 1: The Global Tapestry Unit 2: Networks of Exchange Period 2 - c. 1450 to c. 1750 Unit 3: Land-Based Empires Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections Period 3 - c. 1750 to c. 1900 Unit 5: Revolutions Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization Period 4 - c. 1900 to the present Unit 7: Global Conflict Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization Unit 9: Globalization Exam The first section of the AP World History exam consists of 55 multiple choice questions with a 55-minute time limit. The questions are not divided up evenly between the 9 units. While previously the exam deducted 1/4 of a point for every incorrect answer, from 2011 onwards the penalty for incorrect answers has been removed. The number of multiple choice options is being reduced from five to four at the same time. The AP World History exam was first administered in 2002. The test underwent a major overhaul for the 2017 exam, however, due to the prodigious number of students that struggled with the free response section, the College Board decided to initiate yet another round of sweeping reform, to be put in effect in May 2018. Currently it has the same format as Advanced Placement United States History and Advanced Placement European History. The exam features