Is AP European History difficult? If so, in what ways?

I think difficult is a matter of opinion. I personally thought it was harder than AP US History, but probably as hard as AP World History. When you think about the sheer amount of content, US History is just the history of the US and only goes back to 1492 (when Columbus sailed the ocean blue), World History theoretically covers all 192 countries all the way back to 1450, and European History covers the 44 European countries and also goes back 1450. When you look at it logically, the US History can get deeper into the actual historical events because it is only one country while World History has to stay at a much higher level. In my experience, European History was an interesting balance between getting into the details and staying more high level.

I think one of the the hardest parts was just how fluid the European Landscape was as countries and kingdoms /empires came and went. The amount of wars that Europe had was also hard to keep straight between the crusades, the was between England and France, The English Civil War, The Napoleonic Wars, and of course the World Wars. The monarchies and empires and the people in charge were also hard to remember. I think keeping the events in the right chronological order across countries was also difficult. I found that my classmates who excelled at memorizing did well, but I had to understand the full story of each country/war/event to remember. That all said though, I loved my European History class and ended up getting a 5 on the exam. I was hard, but I do think World History was harder.