All schools that want to label a course “AP” must get authorization by going through the AP Course Audit. This means submitting two things:
- A subject-specific AP Course Audit Form
- A course syllabus
Teachers have the option to create their own syllabus or adopt one of the sample syllabi provided. A teacher-created syllabus is checked by our reviewers to ensure that the course fulfills the AP Program’s course-specific curricular and resource requirements.
We offer plenty of resources, below, to help teachers understand course requirements and create a syllabus that fulfills these.
Designing Your AP European History Course
The AP European History course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in European history or Western civilization (1450 to the present). Your course needs to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the topics and materials in European history.
There are no specific curricular prerequisites for students taking AP European History.
Getting to Know the Course and Exam
The key document for each AP course is the course and exam description. Start by reviewing it to understand the objectives and expectations of the AP course and exam.
- AP European History Course and Exam Description (.pdf/5.38MB) - Describes in detail the AP European History course and exam. Includes the curriculum framework and a representative sample of exam questions.
Creating Your Syllabus
Use these resources to design your syllabus.
Download this document for more help creating your syllabus.
- Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History (.pdf/278KB) - Includes the guidelines reviewers use to evaluate syllabi along with three samples of evidence for each requirement. This guide also specifies the level of detail required in the syllabus to receive course authorization.
Your course must fulfill these requirements, and your syllabus should make it clear how the requirements will be addressed.
AP European History curricular requirements:
- The course includes a college-level European history textbook, diverse primary sources, and multiple secondary sources written by historians or scholars interpreting the past.
- Each of the course historical periods receives explicit attention.
- Students are provided opportunities to investigate key and supporting concepts through the in-depth study and application of specific historical evidence or examples.
- Students are provided opportunities to apply learning objectives in each of the themes throughout the course.
- Students are provided opportunities to analyze primary sources and explain the significance of an author’s point of view, author’s purpose, audience, and historical context. (Analyzing Primary Sources)
- Students are provided opportunities to analyze and evaluate diverse historical interpretations. (Analyzing Secondary Sources)
- Students are provided opportunities to compare historical developments across or within societies in various chronological and geographical contexts. (Comparison)
- Students are provided opportunities to explain the relationship between historical events, developments, or processes and the broader regional, national, or global contexts in which they occurred. (Contextualization)
- Students are provided opportunities to explain different causes and effects of historical events or processes, and to evaluate their relative significance. (Causation)
- Students are provided opportunities to identify and explain patterns of continuity and change over time, explaining why these patterns are historically significant. (Continuity and Change Over Time)
- Students are provided opportunities to articulate a historically defensible and evaluative claim (thesis). (Argument Development)
- Students are provided opportunities to develop and substantiate an argument using historical reasoning, considering ways diverse or alternative evidence could be used to support, qualify, or modify the argument. (Argument Development)
AP European History resource requirements:
- The school ensures that each student has a college-level European history textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet the curricular requirements) for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.
- The school ensures that each student has copies of primary sources and other instructional materials used in the course for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.
- The school ensures that each student has access to support materials for the AP European History course, including scholarly, college-level works that correspond with course topics; writings by major European history authors; as well as standard reference works such as encyclopedias, atlases, collections of historical documents, and statistical compendiums, either in a school or public library or via the internet.
The list below represents examples of textbooks that meet the resource requirements of AP European History and have met or exceed the required alignment to the learning objectives and skills in the course curriculum framework. The list below is not exhaustive and the texts listed should not be regarded as endorsed, authorized, recommended, or approved by the College Board. Not using a book from this list does not mean that a course will not receive authorization. Syllabi submitted as part of the AP Course Audit process will be evaluated holistically, with textbooks considered along with supplementary, supporting resources to confirm that the course as a whole provides students with the content delineated in the curricular requirements of the AP Course Audit.
The College Board has partnered with Learning List to provide independent instructional materials review services for schools and districts for several redesigned and new subjects. The example textbook lists which were reviewed by Learning List are for Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Computer Science Principles, Physics 1 and 2, Research, Seminar, European History, U.S. History, and World History.
These materials have been reviewed by Learning List. Inclusion on this example textbook list, however, does not indicate that the material is aligned to 100% of the course framework. Learning List’s detailed alignment reports identify the specific learning objectives and practices to which each material is and is not aligned to help teachers use these materials more effectively. See the Learning List reviews of these materials or contact Learning List for more information.
- Hansen, Valerie, and Ken Curtis. Voyages in World History, AP European History. 3rd edition. National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning.
- Palmer, R.R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer. A History of Europe in the Modern World, AP Edition. 11th edition. McGraw-Hill Education.
- McKay, John P., Clare Haru Crowston, Merry E. Weisner-Hanks, and Joe Perry. A History of Western Society Since 1300 for the AP® Course. 12th edition. Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group.