AP World History addresses four major skills that represent the ways historians think about the past. These skills have been described as “habits of mind.” This useful phrase should remind you that a skill needs to be practiced repeatedly until it becomes second nature. Because practice is an integral part of learning to think historically, the sections that follow include exercises to help you develop these “habits of mind.” Like shooting free throws, rehearsing dance moves, or playing scales, historical thinking skills need to be exercised regularly until you can use them easily and almost effortlessly.

While the skills described here are shared by all historians, world historians use them in distinctive ways. That’s because world history is different from, for example, U.S. history. World history deals with a much larger region (often the entire globe) and a much longer period of time (thousands of years). Thus, world historians practice historical thinking from a very broad point of view. As we discuss each skill separately, keep in mind that these skills overlap in many ways. For example, you can’t make a historical argument without also evaluating evidence. So as you develop one historical thinking skill, you will also be learning other skills.