The AP history courses seek to apprentice students to the practice of history by explicitly stressing the development of historical thinking skills while learning historical content. Students best develop historical thinking skills by investigating the past in ways that reflect the discipline of history, most particularly through the exploration and interpretation of a rich array of primary sources and secondary texts and through the regular development of historical argumentation in writing. 

Videos to Explain the Reasoning Skills

AP History Disciplinary Practices

Practice 1: Analyzing Historical Evidence

Primary Sources
  • Describe historically relevant information and/or arguments within a source.
  • Explain how a source provides information about the broader historical setting within which it was created
  • Explain how a source's point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience might affect a source's meaning.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of a source's point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
  • Evaluate a source's credibility and/or limitations.
Secondary Sources
  • Describe the claim or argument of a secondary source, as well as the evidence used.
  • Describe a pattern or trend in quantitative data in non-text-based sources.
  • Explain how a historian's claim or argument is supported with evidence.
  • Explain how a historian's context influences the claim or argument.
  • Analyze patterns and trends in quantitative data in non-text-based sources.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of a historical claim or argument.

Practice 2: Argument Development

  • Make a historically defensible claim in the form of an evaluative thesis.
  • Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence.
  • Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical evidence.
  • Consider ways that diverse or alternative evidence could be used to qualify or modify an argument.

AP History Reasoning Skills

Skill 1: Contextualization

  • Describe an accurate historical context for a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain how a relevant context influenced a specific historical development or process
  • Use context to explain the relative historical significance of a specific historical development or process.

Skill 2: Comparison

  • Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.
  • Explain relative similarities and/or differences between specific historical developments or processes.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.

Skill 3: Causation

  • Describe the causes or effects of a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development or process.
  • Explain the difference between primary and secondary causes and between short- and long-term effects.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of different causes and/or effects.

Skill 4: Continuity and Change over Time

  • Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
  • Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.

Paul Sargent Makes History