How to Prepare for the History Teacher License Test: An 8-Week Plan by Domain Weight

Last verified: 31 October 2026. The weights come from the candidate guide for History teachers (pp. 6-7), and the standards from the History teacher standards document. This guide is independent: it is not affiliated with ETEC, Qiyas (the National Center for Assessment), the Ministry of Education or any government body.

In short: an eight-week plan that splits your time across the seven domains by weight: two weeks of Islamic history (27%), two weeks of Saudi history (23%), a short teaching session every week plus one full week of skills and teaching methods (27%) that ends with your first full mock, one week for medieval and modern history (5% + 5%), a first week that covers the development of history as a discipline (3%) and prophets' and ancient history (10%), and a final week of review and mock exams. The next sitting is expected in late January 2027, so adjust the plan to finish before your date (dates).

How we divide the time

Islamic history and teaching alone are about half the test (54%), and with Saudi history they reach 77%, so these three domains get six of the eight weeks. Watch two names in the test guide: the domain called "Medieval History" covers Europe and the New World from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era, and "Modern History" covers the modern and contemporary Arab world. If a domain is already strong from your studies or teaching, shorten its time and add it to your weakest domain after the week-one diagnosis.

Rules for every week

• Dates in both calendars: write each major event with its Hijri and Gregorian dates (for example the Hijra in 1 AH, and the fall of the First Saudi State in 1233 AH / 1818 CE), because ordering questions rely on both.
• Read the standard, then practise: each standard has indicators in what the test covers, and each question measures one indicator. Start each topic with its indicators, then answer its questions in practice mode.
• Read the explanation of every option: a wrong option shows you the usual mix-up between two events, states or figures, so write down what you got wrong.
• The teaching session: skills and teaching methods is one of the two largest domains (27%) and its questions need practice more than memorising, so give it thirty minutes every week on teaching-method and inquiry questions (standards 6.11.12 and 6.11.14).
• One timeline: draw a single timeline on one sheet that runs from the prophets to Vision 2030 and add what you learn each week. It links domains that the test treats separately.
• Review your mistakes: redo last week's wrong answers every Sunday.
• End of every week: practise the week's topics, then take a full timed mock exam from week 7.

Week 1: Diagnosis, the development of history, prophets and ancient history

• Day one: the free questions (10) to see where you stand across the domains.
• 6.11.1: the concept of history, its origins, development and sources, primary against secondary sources, schools of historical writing, basic historical concepts, the division of periods (prehistory and history are separated by writing), and key historians such as Herodotus, Ibn Khaldun and al-Tabari.
• 6.11.2: prophethood and the message and the difference between them, and the lives of the prophets and messengers, peace be upon them, their calls and how their peoples responded. The reference is the Quran and authentic Sunnah.
• 6.11.3: the ancient civilisations of the Near East (the Nile, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Anatolia and Persia), the ancient kingdoms of the Arabian Peninsula (the Nabataeans, Kinda, Ma'in and Saba), the origin of the Arabs and their tiers (the extinct, the pure and the arabised), and the state of the Peninsula before Islam.
• End of the week: practise these three standards, and note your three weakest standards from the diagnosis.

Week 2: Islamic history (1): the Prophet's biography and the Rightly Guided Caliphs

• 6.11.4: the state of Arabia at the revelation, the stages of the call (secret, then public) and the events of the Makkan period, the Hijra and the building of the state in Madinah, the great battles with their dates (Badr 2 AH, Uhud 3 AH, the Trench 5 AH, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah 6 AH, the conquest of Makkah 8 AH), and the Prophet's death, peace be upon him, in 11 AH.
• The Rightly Guided Caliphs: the life of each and his main works (the wars of apostasy and collecting the Quran under Abu Bakr; the registers and the Hijri calendar under Umar; the unified copy of the Quran and the first navy under Uthman), the conquests, and the political, administrative and economic systems of their time.
• Study this part as the established history books present it, and do not confuse the date of an event with the caliph in whose reign it fell.
• End of the week: practise all of standard 6.11.4.

Week 3: Islamic history (2): from the Umayyads to the Mamluks

• 6.11.5: the Umayyad state (41-132 AH) with its capital Damascus and the Arabisation of the registers and coinage under Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; the Abbasid state (132-656 AH) with its capital Baghdad and the House of Wisdom; the independent states that rose in its time (al-Andalus and others); and then the Mamluk state.
• For each state ask four questions: when it rose and fell, why it weakened, what its foreign policy was, and what its main institutions were (such as the chamberlain's office in the Umayyad state and the vizier's post in the early Abbasid state).
• The Mongol invasion and the Crusades: motives, results and effects, including the Battle of Hattin (583 AH) and the Battle of Ain Jalut (658 AH).
• The intellectual movement and Islamic civilisation and its effect on Asia and Europe, and the comparison between the Arabs' condition before and after Islam.
• End of the week: practise the whole domain (6.11.4 and 6.11.5), then review the mistakes from the last two weeks.

Week 4: Saudi history (1): the First and Second Saudi States

• 6.11.8: conditions in the Peninsula before the state, the founding of the First Saudi State in 1139 AH / 1727 CE by Imam Muhammad ibn Saud in Diriyah, the pact between him and Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in 1157 AH / 1744 CE, and the stages of the reform call, its foundations and its link to the state.
• The expansion of the First State, its imams and main features, and its end with the fall of Diriyah in 1233 AH / 1818 CE.
• The Second Saudi State: founded in 1240 AH / 1824 CE by Imam Turki ibn Abdullah with Riyadh as its capital, and ended in 1309 AH / 1891 CE. Focus on a common question: how resistance and national feeling after the fall of the First State led to the Second.
• Compare the two states on borders, capital, rulers and features in a one-page table.
• End of the week: practise standard 6.11.8.

Week 5: Saudi history (2): the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• 6.11.9: King Abdulaziz: his birth and upbringing, the recovery of Riyadh in 1319 AH / 1902 CE, his work of unification, then the proclamation of the name Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1351 AH / 1932 CE, and his death in 1373 AH / 1953 CE.
• The kings after him in order (Saud, Faisal, Khalid, Fahd, Abdullah and Salman), the main events of each reign and its achievements. Practise reciting the order from memory.
• Historic sites in the Kingdom and why protecting them matters, such as Hegra (al-Hijr), historic Diriyah and historic Jeddah.
• The Kingdom's role in the Arab and Islamic worlds and in founding organisations, and the goals of Vision 2030 and its pillars (a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation).
• End of the week: practise all of Saudi history (6.11.8 and 6.11.9), then review the mistakes from the last two weeks.

Week 6: Medieval and modern history

• 6.11.6 (Medieval History): the history of Europe and the New World: the Middle Ages and their limits (the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and of Constantinople in 1453 CE), the Renaissance, the age of exploration and colonialism and its effect on the Arab world, the founding of the United States, the unification of Italy and Germany and the Eastern Question, the comparison of the two world wars, and the founding of the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945.
• 6.11.7 (Modern History): the modern and contemporary Arab world: the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the mandates, Western colonisation after the Great Arab Revolt, independence movements, the founding of the Arab League in 1945 and the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and assessing the Ottoman state's policy towards the Arabs.
• These two domains have few questions (4 each), so do not sink into detail. Learn the turning-point dates and the causes and results of each event.
• End of the week: practise both domains, then review the mistakes from Islamic and Saudi history.

Week 7: Skills and teaching methods, and your first full mock

• 6.11.10: critical and historical thinking: judging different views of one event, analysing assumptions, bias and the adequacy of evidence in a historical document, telling fact from opinion, reading historical tables, charts and maps, and explaining cause and effect.
• 6.11.11: the importance and aims of the history curriculum, building national identity and responsible citizenship, and linking history to Islamic studies, Arabic and geography.
• 6.11.12: varied teaching methods: deductive, inductive, storytelling, role play, field trips and cooperative learning, allowing for individual differences, and concept maps and mind maps (such as family trees and the succession of rulers) and the timeline.
• 6.11.13: difficulties in learning and teaching history: the abstract idea of time, memorising dates, anachronism (reading the present back into the past), and misconceptions and how to treat them.
• 6.11.14: inquiry and historical analysis: guided, semi-guided and free inquiry and designing a lesson around one of them, and linking it to problem solving. In semi-guided inquiry the teacher poses the question and gives part of the method, and the students choose the tools.
• End of the week: practise this domain, then take your first full timed mock exam in two hours with no phone. Compare its result with your week-one diagnosis, domain by domain.

Week 8: Review

• Go over the mistakes from the first full mock and return to its two weakest domains. Start with Islamic history or teaching if one of them is there, as each is 27% of the questions.
• A second full mock exam in the middle of the week, then review its mistakes.
• Two days before the test: a third full mock exam, then a light review of your timeline and comparison tables. Do not start a new topic on the last day.
• Test day: check the ID you need and what is allowed, sleep early and arrive early.

If you have less time

If fewer than eight weeks remain, start with the diagnosis and compress the plan in this order: Islamic history and skills and teaching first, then Saudi history, then prophets' and ancient history, then the rest. Keep the last three days for two full mock exams and a review of their mistakes.

This plan is our suggestion for organising your time and does not guarantee any score, and your mock exam score is an estimate of readiness, not an official result. Start unit practice with Islamic history (27%) and skills and teaching methods (27%), and keep the full mock exam for the end of the plan.