Mrs. Vargas

The 2026 AP European History Exam scores: 5: 16%; 4: 33%; 3: 25%; 2: 18%; 1: 8% The 2026 AP European History exam was taken by ~91,000 students, less than 1% of the U.S. high school population. AP European History Free-Response Questions (FRQ) Each AP exam has multiple versions, for different time zones. The commentary below focuses on the version taken by the majority of AP European History students: apcentral.collegeboard.org/m… AP European History Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) AP European History performed well across all units of the course, but strongest on questions related to Units 3 and 4 — Absolutism and Constitutionalism, and the Scientific, Philosophical, and Political developments of 1648–1815. AP teachers’ skill in teaching the Enlightenment, the rise of constitutional monarchies, and early modern state-building was evident. AP European History Short Answer Questions (SAQs) SAQ 1, the secondary source analysis based on historian Jonathan Healey’s work on 17th-century England: Many students handled Parts A and B well, demonstrating a solid ability to read and understand complex historical texts. Part C, which asked students to extend or modify the argument with additional evidence, was the most challenging part, distinguishing students earning AP 4s and 5s from those earning other scores. SAQ 2, the primary source analysis of the Munitions Girls painting: Students earning AP 3s were able to succeed on parts A and B, reflecting their preparedness to analyze visual primary sources and situate them historically, whereas students receiving AP 1s and 2s were not. As with SAQ 1, Part C proved the most difficult, again serving as a key differentiator between AP 4s/5s and lower scores. AP European History Document-Based Question (DBQ): Peter the Great and Catherine the Great The DBQ asked students to analyze documents related to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and then to craft an evidence-based essay that argued which of the two leaders did more to transform Russia. Here is how students fared on each rubric row: • 87% of students earned the Thesis/Claim point — a strong result, showing that the large majority of AP European History students can construct a historically defensible argument after analyzing primary sources. • 56% of students earned the Contextualization point, placing the rulers’ programs within the broader context of European intellectual, political, or cultural history. • 95% of students earned at least one Evidence from Documents point, demonstrating the ability to use primary source content as historical evidence. • 35% of students earned the Evidence Beyond the Documents point — a strong differentiator of AP 4s and 5s, requiring students to summon relevant, outside historical knowledge not contained in the document set. • 35% of students earned the Analysis and Reasoning: Sourcing point, demonstrating they could evaluate a document’s historical context, purpose, audience, or point of view. • 27% of students earned the Analysis and Reasoning: Complex Understanding point. This was the most advanced point to earn on the DBQ, requiring students to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the historical topic through sophisticated connections, qualifications, or corroborations. AP European History Long Essay Questions (LEQ) Students chose one of three Long Essay prompts. Here is a summary of performance across the three options: LEQ 4, the World War I question, was selected by about three times more students than those who selected LEQ 3 and LEQ 2, and it was also the highest-scoring Long Essay topic: an impressive 24% of students who wrote this essay achieved perfect scores of 6/6 points on it (I believe this is the strongest performance I’ve ever seen on an AP European History long essay!). The prompt clearly drew well-prepared students, and performance on all four scoring rows was notably strong: 73% earned the Thesis point, 73% earned the Contextualization point, 60% earned both Evidence points, and 29% earned both Analysis and Reasoning points — all well above LEQ 2 and LEQ 3 performance. LEQ 3, the 19th-Century Industrialization and Reform question, showed a noteworthy pattern: 83% of students earned the Contextualization point — the highest contextualization success of any LEQ this year — but 57% of students earned the Thesis point, 35% earned both Evidence points, and 11% earned both Analysis and Reasoning points, all lower than student performance on LEQ 4. 10% of students who wrote this essay achieved perfect scores of 6/6 points on it. LEQ 2, the Social Hierarchies (1450-1600) question, is the one I would have selected to write about if I’d taken this year’s exam, since I’ve spent the past year immersed in 15th-century European history for my personal reading project – all those Burgundians, all those Florentines – but it would likely have been my undoing, as it proved to be quite a difficult topic for those who selected it. 58% of students earned the Thesis point, 68% earned the Contextualization point, 36% earned both Evidence points, and 13% earned both Analysis and Reasoning points. 10% of students who chose this topic achieved perfect scores of 6/6 points on it, demonstrating impressive historical reasoning ability across a topic that spanned multiple centuries. All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2026 will be posted here when available: apstudents.org/score-distrib…