AP European History Exam: 2021 Results

The following data reflect the 74,202 students worldwide who took either the paper or the digital AP European History Exam in May. Data from students who tested in June are not yet available.

AP European History score distributions, 2018 and 2019 vs. 2021

The following table enables comparisons of student performance in 2021 to student performance on the comparable full-length exam prior to the covid-19 pandemic. This year’s AP European History students demonstrated stronger knowledge and skills than the students who took the comparable exam in the years immediately preceding the pandemic. (Because the 2020 exam had fewer free-response questions and no multiple-choice section, it is not on the same score scale.)

It’s also important to honor the work of students who did not qualify for a score of 3+, but who nonetheless developed basic understandings and skills in the course. As a reminder, the most recent research on students who earned a score of 2 on the AP European History Exam found that they proceed to earn higher grades when taking the course in college than students with the same high school GPA, SAT score, race, and gender.

The May 7 In-School Paper Exam

The largest exam date for AP European History was May 7, so the following information is specific to the exam version administered on that date.

As usual, students scored higher on the multiple-choice section than on the free-response questions.

Multiple-choice section:

• Course Periods/Units:
  • AP European History students scored similarly across all periods of the course, a credit to teachers who are so ably balancing the various epochs and geographies from the Renaissance to the present, from Italy to England.
• Course Themes:
  • Students performed best on questions related to the themes of economic/commercial developments and cultural/intellectual developments.
  • Students scored less well on questions about the theme of interactions between Europe and the world.
• Historical Thinking Skills:
  • Students scored impressively high on multiple-choice questions related to Skill 3, Claims and Evidence in Sources; 39% of students answered most or all of such questions correctly.
  • Many students also demonstrated solid proficiency on multiple-choice questions focused on Skill 5: Making Connections, which involves identifying patterns of causation, continuity, and change.
  • Students scored lowest on multiple-choice questions related to Skill 4: Contextualization.

Free-response section:

Short Answer Questions

• The highest performance in the free-response section was on Short Answer Question 1 in which students evaluated a quite difficult primary source passage: de Stael’s commentary on revolution. A massive 30% of AP European History students achieved perfect scores on this question as they described de Stael’s argument, summoned evidence to support it, while also identifying its limitations. Students’ work on this primary source was often very impressive.
• The lowest performance within this year’s AP European History Exam was on Short Answer Question 3 about religion in daily life, 1450–1700. 12% of students who chose this question earned perfect scores on it and 28% received 0 points.

Document-Based Question (DBQ)––British Imperial Rule in India and Liberalism

• 80% of students earned the thesis point.
• 55% of students earned the contextualization point
• Evidence: 25% of students earned all 3 evidence points; 41% earned 2 points; 27% earned 1 point; 7% earned 0 points.
• Analysis & Reasoning: 5% earned 2 points; 25% earned 1 point; 70% earned 0 points.

Long Essay Question

• Students demonstrated different strengths within the 3 different long essay options:
  • The most popular topic, by far, was “the effect of the printing press, 1450–1650,” chosen by 68% of students.
    • 60% of these students earned the thesis point;
    • 61% earned the contextualization point;
    • 33% earned both evidence points, 25% earned 1 evidence point, 41% earned no evidence points;
    • 6% earned both analysis and reasoning points, 54% earned 1 analysis and reasoning point, 40% earned no analysis and reasoning points.
  • 15% of students chose “the effect of the Enlightenment, 1688–1815” topic.
    • 55% of these students earned the thesis point;
    • 67% earned the contextualization point;
    • 37% earned both evidence points; 23% earned 1 evidence point; 40% earned no evidence points;
    • 6% earned both analysis and reasoning points; 28% earned 1 analysis and reasoning point; 66% earned no analysis and reasoning points.
  • 17% of students chose “the cultural effect of the First World War” topic.
    • 44% of these students earned the thesis point;
    • 77% earned the contextualization point;
    • 16% earned both evidence points, 23% earned 1 evidence point, 60% earned no evidence points;
    • 6% earned both analysis and reasoning points; 27% earned 1 analysis and reasoning point; 67% earned no analysis and reasoning points.

  The May 19 Digital Exams

  To support student access, different testing modes—paper and digital—were essential. To protect exam security, many different exam versions were necessary. Accordingly, to provide students with similar opportunities for success regardless of which version they took, each version of the exam had to be analyzed separately by psychometricians to identify its unique difficulty level so that standards for scores of 3, 4, and 5 could then be separately identified for each exam version. Analyses focused on:

  1. Differences in the testing mode (paper or digital). For sections of the exam that proved easier to take digitally, the digital versions require more points for each AP score. For sections of the exam that proved easier to take on paper, the paper exam requires more points for each AP score.
  2. Differences in the difficulty of specific questions. When exam questions prove easier, more points are required for each AP score, and when exam questions prove more difficult, fewer points are required on one version than another.
  3. Differences in versions of the exam. The net result for this year’s AP European History Exams is that out of 140 points possible, half of the digital versions were easier than the paper version and half the digital versions were more difficult than the paper version. As a result:
     1. On the easiest digital version, a student needed to earn 5 more points to receive an AP score of 3 or higher than students who took the paper version.
     2. On the hardest digital version, a student needed to earn 5 fewer points to receive an AP score of 3 or higher than students who took the paper version.