Exploring AP History Courses

For aspiring lawyers, historians, or politicians, the AP History courses might certainly seem fascinating. College Board offers a diverse array of history courses for students of all backgrounds, making it simple to find a course that interests you.

What AP History courses are there?

There are several AP History courses, including AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP European History, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Human Geography, AP United States Government and Politics, AP United States History, and AP World History. Each of these courses offers content that allows students to better understand the world around them. For example, AP Micro/Macroeconomics allows students to understand the economy as a whole (macro) and understand the economy as it relates to individual businesses and firms (micro). AP Psychology allows students to understand human behavior (something which is very much applicable to their own lives), and AP Human Geography allows students to understand demographic shifts in societies.

What is the structure of the AP exam for History courses?

Since there are so many AP History courses, the exam structure is slightly different for each. However, AP World History and AP US History have the exact same format: both courses have a multiple-choice section, followed by a free-response section consisting of a few short-answer questions, a long essay question, and a document-based question. AP Comparative Government and Politics and AP United States Government and Politics also have the same format as one another: a multiple-choice section, and then a free-response section with four questions (including one essay). AP Psychology and AP Human Geography have similar formats to this as well, but with 2 or 3 free-response questions, respectively. Finally, AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics have a multiple-choice section and a free-response section with 3 questions.

Pros and Cons of AP History courses

AP History courses truly allow students to gain a nuanced understanding of the world around them through a variety of lenses, including an economic lens, a history-based lens, a politics-based lens, etc. However, the largest downside to these courses is the amount of homework that students are bound to be assigned. Each of the AP History courses requires students to learn a huge amount of course content, which means students will often have note-taking homework most nights, if not every night. Despite this, AP History courses can truly be insightful and beneficial for a student to take.

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