2012 AP (Advanced Placement) Scores Thread!

No it's not. The histories that actually require the depth (Art, US, Euro) are noticeably harder, especially given the fact that the World History test still has a larger focus on post-1600 history. If I had to pick out the hardest AP test, or at least AP History, I'd go with AP Art History.

I disagree, though I see where you're coming from. Though for clarification, APWH is one of the hardest AP History exams out there, and arguably is up there in terms of difficulty.

My reasoning:

1. From my knowledge, a lot of high school sophomores taking AP History courses either will take APWH or AP Euro, depending on the availability in their high schools. (FYI: Schools choose either between APWH or AP Euro to offer to their students). Also, because since APWH will be the first AP that sophomore-year high school students take, the learning curve for them is quite high. They will be coming in without knowing how to write a proper college-level historical essay. Nor how to analyze historical content critically. As a result, they will have to develop and advance their writing capabilities + their analytical skills in a set amount of time before the AP exam period comes around.

For some students, upping their writing capabilities to levels beyond their imaginations is a rough journey. And I was one of them when I had to do that for AP Euro back in sophomore year of high school.

2. Second, I do agree that the content in APWH is broad. However, the difficulty lies in the broad time frame of the content covered. For the average person, even without the need to delve deeply into the content, they might have a difficult time grasping all of the concepts, themes, and facts down because of the broad time frame that's covered for the exam.

3. As I said earlier, I have taken all AP History exams, and have seen the difference between each AP history exam's essay formats myself. From my own experience, I find that the essay format in AP Euro and the AP U.S. History exams is somewhat straightforward. And with enough essay practice + good grasp of the historical material necessary, it won't be hard tackling those essays. Besides a slight difference in their DBQs (APUSH requires you to use background knowledge for its DBQ), both exams have a thematic essay, and a compare and contrast essay. Both exams' thematic essay and compare and contrast essays are so similar in structure that if you know how to write a FRQs for AP Euro, you'll have no problem writing the APUSH FRQs. Or vice versa.

Also, I found that the "what is the essay looking for?" factor has a slightly lower difficulty level. Not to mention, the time period covered for AP Euro and APUSH are much narrower (AP Euro covers ~600 years worth of history, and APUSH covers ~400 years, respectively, though with more depth).

Now lets look at the APWH essays. The DBQ essay is similar to the AP Euro DBQ format. Here's the huge kicker (and this is the core reasons why APWH is the hardest of all AP history courses) : The continuity/change-over-time and the comparative essay is completely different from the thematic and the compare and contrast essay found in AP Euro and APUSH. Not only do you have to apply your broad historical knowledge to writing both of those essasys effectively, but also structure your essay in a way that the essay is looking for in the first place. From what I found, the combination of both factors makes it somewhat tricky to get the hang of those essays at first. Arguably, it scrambles many peoples' minds.

A) Continuity/CoT (Change Over Time) essay requires one to demonstrate a historical idea/theme changing over time and analyze the historical implications as a result. Pointing out the change-over-time is easy, but hitting the bigger picture (historical implications) is an entirely different realm.

B) For the comparative essay, it requires one to explore interactions between societies or historical themes and events and relate to the historical implications due to the interactions. This essay may look like a typical "compare and contrast" essay, but one has to understand the interactions as well as its implications in order to answer the essay fully. In other words, its a bit more broad and involves a bit more outside-the-box/critical thinking than usual.

And from my own personal experience, one of the toughest things I had to do while self-studying for the APWH exam was understanding the structure of the essays I would be writing and understanding what those essays were asking for. Understanding the content/theme/ideas down was no problem for me. TBHO, even from someone who has done very well in AP history exams, APWH had a curve ball - the essay portion - I had to carefully navigate through. I had to study sample essays and its structures carefully, making sure that I would write what the essays were looking for on test day.

4. Here are the statistics (2011 exams):

- AP World History: 48.4% with 3 or above (9.9% with a 5)
- AP U.S. History: 52.1% with 3 or above (11.1% with a 5)
- AP European History: 64.6% with 3 or above (10.6% with a 5)

However, those statistics only tells part of the story why APWH is one of the hardest AP history exams out there. Understanding + comparing the structure and the content of each exam goes the rest of the way. In the end, the unique essay structures found in the APWH exam, the sheer amount of content covered from a broad time frame, and those who take the exam - significant number of them being sophomore-year high school students - is the reason why this exam is one of the toughest AP history exams out there.