College Board decided last year that they would redo the curriculum for all AP European History classes. The hope is that the new curriculum be a little easier for students, AP Euro teacher Catherine Whitten says.

“I think if last year’s AP U.S. [History] redesign is any indication I think our scores will actually go up,” Whitten said.

The class is not just being taught in a new way — the AP Euro test itself is being redesigned so that it’s easier to comprehend. The questions on the AP test will be more direct than the previous years. The hope for this year is that the test will go a lot smoother and be less stressful says Whitten.

“It’s going well I guess — it’s actually a lot more work than I thought it would be,” sophomore Hayley McCune said.

The stress level of AP Euro students has been at ease so far this year McCune thinks. This is all thanks to new curriculum. Whitten agreed and said since the class will be more big-picture oriented, the students work load will be lighter and the information will be more comprehensible.

“The questions are going to be more complicated, but there is less risk of students encountering a question they don’t know anything about,” Whitten said.

This new change hasn’t made the class any easier, though. Just because the workload was lightened doesn’t mean the class was made any less difficult. The main goal of the class is still to be more challenging says Whitten.

Whitten is very excited to teach with this new curriculum. She has high hopes for the students this year.

“We still cover all the same stuff but it does allow me to kinda breeze over stuff that I don’t want to talk about in as much depth and really get indepth with stuff i find more nteresting or I find students will connect more with.” said Whitten