Note: The College Board has redesigned the structure of AP European History classes, but as these changes will not take place until the 2015-2016 school year, this guide solely pertains to the current format of AP European History classes and exams.

Even if you’ve taken history classes before, the prospect of taking AP European History may seem particularly scary. AP classes are widely known for being extremely challenging in their coverage of a wide variety of topics in significant detail, and European History is a subject that lends itself to many details and requires its students to contextualize those details in different ways in order to draw out the complex ways in which historical concepts are interrelated; however, by first examining the broad topic areas that AP European History courses stress, then taking a look at the general structure of the AP European History exam and the material which it covers, and finally looking into some great AP European History resources available for free online, you can prepare yourself for the prospect of taking AP European History, learn how to keep up in a class you may already be enrolled in, or learn how to refresh your knowledge in preparation for a looming AP European History exam.

AP classes aim to replicate the experience of a college course for well-prepared high school students. In the case of AP European History, the course aims to deliver the same experience as a college-level introductory European history class. The course covers European history from the Renaissance (starting in 1450) to the present time, and focuses on the crucial intellectual, cultural, political, diplomatic, economic, and social events that have taken place during this time and had major influence in shaping the course of history and the modern world. Along with familiarizing students with these events and the larger narratives they together construct, students are expected to become familiar with the larger themes and patterns that this material expresses, along with being able to analyze primary historical sources in a historical context confidently, connecting new information to their existing historical knowledge and analyzing it in that light.

AP European History courses are typically concluded with each student taking the AP European History exam. Earning an exemplary score on this exam allows the student to earn college credit for his or her efforts. Like all AP exams, AP European History exam is a lengthy exam, clocking in at three hours and five minutes. It is made up of two seconds: a multiple-choice section, which lasts for fifty-five minutes, and a free-response section, which lasts for one hour and thirty minutes. Each of these sections are worth half of a student’s AP European History exam grade. The multiple-choice section contains eighty questions; about half of these questions pertain to events that took place between 150 CE and the French Revolution, and the other half pertain to events that took place after the French Revolution. About a quarter of the total questions (that is, about twenty questions) deal with nineteenth-century material, and an equal number of questions deal with twentieth-century events. The questions are also divided by the themes which they address: about twenty-seven questions (33% of all of the multiple-choice questions) deal with intellectual and cultural themes, another twenty-seven or so deal with diplomatic and political themes, and the final twenty-seven or so deal with economic and social themes.

The second section of the AP European History exam is the free-response, or essay-based, section. This section contains one documents-based essay question, which asks students to peruse a number of primary historical sources and reference them in constructing a response to a prompt. The section also contains two analytical essays which do not provide historical sources to analyze. Students get to choose from three prompts for each of the shorter essays, but must answer the single documents-based question with which they are prompted. As far as the timing of the section goes, students read over the materials for the documents-based question for fifteen minutes and then are given forty-five minutes to construct their response to it. After this, they are given seventy minutes to answer the two analytical essays. The documents-based essay question is worth 45% of the free-response section’s score; the two shorter essays are together worth 55% of the section’s score.

If you’re now wondering where you can find great resources that will both allow you to study for AP European History while making sure that you haven’t left any gaps in your knowledge, look no further than Varsity Tutors’ free AP European History resources, especially our free AP European History Practice Tests! Each free AP European History Practice Test functions as a little multiple-choice quiz and contains about a dozen problems of the sort that you could encounter on your AP European History exam. After completing an AP European History Practice Test, you get to see how well you did in comparison to other students who answered the same problems, as well as how long it took you to answer each problem and other statistics. You also get to see a full explanation of the correct answer for each problem, so if you happened to miss any questions, you can find out where you made your mistake and not make it again. Using Varsity Tutors’ free AP European History resources, you can make sure that you don’t fall behind in your AP European History course, and fill any knowledge gaps just as they arise. In this way, you’ll be able to feel completely ready to take on the AP European History exam!