History Teacher License Test Content: 7 Domains, 14 Standards and Weights
Content of the History teacher license test: the seven domains and weights (Islamic history 27%), all 14 standards, ETEC's question style, and why there is one test rather than two levels.
- Questions and time
- 88 questions · 120 minutes
- Pass mark
- 50%
- Exam fee
- SAR 100 for the subject test
Start with 10 free questions to find what needs more work. No sign-up, with answer explanations.
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Start with 10 free questions to find what needs more work. No sign-up, with answer explanations.
Try 10 free questions and see your levelLast verified: 31 October 2026. Our sources are the candidate guide for the Teachers' Professional License test in History and the History teacher standards, both published by the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) (1441 AH / 2020 edition; the latest edition, and the guide is a trial edition). 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: the History test covers 14 standards in 7 domains. The largest are Islamic history and history skills and teaching methods at 27% each, then Saudi history at 23%; those three together are 77% of the questions. Prophets' history and ancient history is 10%, and three small domains are 3%, 5% and 5%. There is no History 1 and History 2; it is a single test. ETEC publishes the weight for each domain only, not for each standard.
One test for history
ETEC publishes one guide and one set of standards for history teachers, unlike science, maths and English, which each have two levels. Geography, social studies and sociology are separate subjects with their own guides and standards, so do not mix them up with history.
Test format
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Number of questions | 88 questions |
| Question type | Multiple choice with four options; each question measures one indicator of one standard |
| Duration | 120 minutes (two hours) |
| Delivery | Paper or computer depending on the subject; it appears in your personal profile |
| Language | Arabic |
| Calculator | Not allowed |
| Scoring | Criterion-referenced; wrong answers carry no penalty |
| Level scores | 50 for Practitioner Teacher, 70 for Advanced Teacher, 80 and above for Expert Teacher (Professional License Regulations, Article 4) |
The seven domains and their weights
These weights come from the figure and table on pages 6 and 7 of the candidate guide. The number of questions out of 88 is worked out from these weights.
| Domain | Official weight | Standards | Questions out of 88 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development of History as a Discipline | 3% | 1 | 3 |
| Prophets' History and Ancient History | 10% | 2 | 9 |
| Islamic History | 27% | 2 | 24 |
| Medieval to Modern World History | 5% | 1 | 4 |
| Modern Arab History | 5% | 1 | 4 |
| Saudi History | 23% | 2 | 20 |
| History Skills and Teaching Methods | 27% | 5 | 24 |
| Total | 100% | 14 | 88 |
Each question measures one indicator, and the test does not have to cover every indicator. Watch the names of two domains in the guide. "Medieval History" does not mean the Islamic Middle Ages: its content is the history of Europe and the New World from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era. "Modern History" is the modern and contemporary Arab world. Islamic history up to the Mamluk state belongs to "Islamic History".
The 14 standards one by one
Standard names follow the standards document (numbered 6.11.1 to 6.11.14; the PDF prints them reversed, such as 1.11.6; the English is our translation), and the "What it measures" column is our summary of each standard's indicators. ETEC gives no weight for individual standards, so the weight beside each domain is shared among its standards.
Development of History as a Discipline (3%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.1 | The concept, origins, development and sources of history | The concept of history and its origins and sources, comparing schools of history by their outlook and features, basic historical concepts, telling the historical ages apart by their features, and the stages and fields of historical writing with the main historians of earlier nations |
Prophets' History and Ancient History (10%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.2 | Prophethood, the message, the history of the prophets and their impact | Telling prophethood from the message and the prophets' effect on nations, the story of Adam's creation and descent to earth, and the history of the prophets and messengers with their peoples' reactions (their lives, their calls and where they were sent) |
| 6.11.3 | Ancient civilisations of the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula | The main features of the Near Eastern civilisations (the Nile valley, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Asia Minor, Persia), the ancient Arab kingdoms (Nabataeans, Kindah, Ma'in, Saba), the origin, layers and genealogies of the Arabs and their link to the Semites, and the political and cultural picture of the Arabian Peninsula in the pre-Islamic era |
Islamic History (27%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.4 | The Prophet's biography and the Rightly Guided Caliphs | The state of Arabia at the time of the Prophet's mission, the stages of the call and the events of the Meccan period, how the Islamic state took shape in Madinah after the Hijrah, the political, economic, administrative and social systems under the Prophet and the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the lessons of the biography, and the features, lives, conquests and cultural traits of the Rightly Guided era (9 indicators) |
| 6.11.5 | Islamic states from the Umayyads to the Mamluks | When each state began and why it ended, the main lines of its foreign policy, internal revolts, the independent dynasties from the Abbasids to the Mamluks, military organisation and conquest, the intellectual movement, the Mongol and Crusader invasions, a comparison of the Arabs' condition before and after Islam and the effect of Islamic civilisation on Asia and Europe, and how political, administrative, economic, social and urban systems developed (9 indicators) |
Medieval to Modern World History (5%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.6 | Europe and the New World from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era | The start, end and general features of the European Middle Ages, European systems and the effect of Islamic civilisation on them, the changes of the Renaissance and the modern age, the rise of the New World, the stages of United States history from independence to the interwar years, American relations with Europe and the world and Arab-American relations, the European alliances (Italian unification, German unification, the Eastern Question), a comparison of the two world wars, the motives for the geographic discoveries and colonialism, and why world organisations were founded (10 indicators) |
Modern Arab History (5%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.7 | The modern and contemporary Arab world | The geography of the Arab world, the main events of its modern history, its condition after the First World War, Western colonialism after the Great Arab Revolt, independence movements and the rise of political entities, the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, assessing Ottoman policy toward the Arab world, and why Arab entities and organisations were founded and what they aimed at |
Saudi History (23%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.8 | The First and Second Saudi States | The religious, political, social and economic conditions before the First and Second Saudi States, the lives of their rulers, the stages and foundations of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's call and its link to the Saudi State, how the First State formed, expanded and ended, and the basic features of the two states |
| 6.11.9 | The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | The lives of King Abdulaziz and the kings after him (birth, upbringing, main achievements, death, personal traits), his efforts to build the state and unify the Kingdom and the events of that period, the main events and civilisational achievements of each reign, historic sites and why they must be preserved, the Kingdom's leading role worldwide and in the Islamic and Arab worlds and in protecting Islamic identity and world peace, the aims of Saudi Vision 2030, the figures who helped build the nation, and the Kingdom's role in founding Arab, Islamic and international organisations (8 indicators) |
History Skills and Teaching Methods (27%)
| Standard | Name | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 6.11.10 | Critical and historical thinking skills | Evaluating points of view on events, analysing assumptions, bias and the sufficiency of evidence in documents, telling fact from opinion, helping students tell historical stories, explain events and draw lessons, seeing more than one way to look at cause and effect, reading historical information in charts and graphs, and training students in observation, classification and analysis (7 indicators) |
| 6.11.11 | The value of the history curriculum and students' attitudes | Why history is taught and what it aims at, the expected effect of learning it, simplifying the links between events to build connected knowledge, using technology that helps analysis and reasoning, strengthening national identity and responsible citizenship, encouraging students to collect samples, pictures and models, and linking history with Islamic studies, Arabic, geography, sociology and economics |
| 6.11.12 | Varied teaching methods for classroom interaction | Allowing for individual differences in activities, applying varied methods and strategies in light of how the subject's knowledge is structured, training students in mind maps and concept maps (family trees, ruler lineages, the succession of states), and in reading and drawing historical maps and timelines |
| 6.11.13 | Research on history teaching and learning difficulties | Keeping up with the latest studies on teaching history, dealing with the main difficulties in teaching it, spotting misconceptions, and encouraging students to propose alternative solutions to historical situations and predict their results |
| 6.11.14 | Inquiry and historical analysis | Types of inquiry and how to use them in teaching history, building students' inquiry skill and linking it to problem solving, designing a lesson plan around inquiry methods, and helping students reflect on their answers, their inquiries and the processes they used |
The three largest domains hold five teaching standards, two Islamic history standards and two Saudi history standards. The smallest domains (history as a discipline at 3%, medieval to modern world history at 5% and modern Arab history at 5%) each have a single standard, but the world history standard has 10 indicators.
Question style in ETEC's guide
The guide shows ten sample questions with the reasoning behind each answer, then 25 practice questions with an answer key giving each question's standard and indicator. They show the style of the test:
- Cause questions: why the post of "hajib" appeared under the Umayyads (caliphs feared assassination and imitated kings), and why the Byzantine Empire was founded (Diocletian split the Roman Empire between 285 and 305 CE).
- Comparing and describing precisely: the duties of viziers in the early Abbasid period (supervising the state diwans, correspondence and military affairs, hearing people's cases and appointing governors), and how the fall of the First Saudi State relates to the rise of the Second (Saudi resistance and national feeling against foreign rule).
- World history: five of the ten samples come from the "Medieval History" domain, including Byzantine influence on language and Orthodoxy in Russia, the Renaissance humanists (Erasmus and Thomas More), Margaret Thatcher (1979 to 1990) and the privatisation of state enterprises, and the Allies' disagreement in the Second World War over how much authority a state may exercise on land its forces occupied.
- Teaching questions: one sample asks which task needs the historian to think chronologically; the answer is explaining historical causation, because cause and effect depend on time order.
- Concept questions: history defined as the study of the human past, why Herodotus is called the "father of history", and how American historians' use of census data in the 1960s and 1970s shaped family and local history.
- The 25 practice questions: three on the prophets, seven on ancient civilisations (the geography of Greece, the Sumerians and writing, the meaning of "Tawy", the Nabataeans, Aelius Gallus's expedition, the history of Saba), ten on the biography and the Rightly Guided Caliphs (rebuilding the Kaaba in 605 CE, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, collecting the Quran under Abu Bakr, Uthman's fleet, the siege of Constantinople in 50 AH / 670 CE), three on the Umayyads and two on the concept of history. None of them is on Saudi history, modern Arab history or teaching.
The ten samples touch five of the seven domains (none for prophets' and ancient history or for modern Arab history). ETEC itself notes that the guide's examples do not cover every aspect of the test and do not reflect how easy or hard the real questions are.
How to use this table when you study
- Start with the free questions to see which domains are weakest for you.
- Start with the three large domains: Islamic history (24 questions), skills and teaching methods (24) and Saudi history (20) add up to 68 of the 88 questions. The study plan is built on these weights.
- Do not treat the teaching domain as a light one: it has 24 questions, as many as all of Islamic history, and they ask about historical thinking, inquiry and teaching methods, not memorisation.
- ETEC's practice questions do not touch Saudi history, so go through its two standards (6.11.8 and 6.11.9) indicator by indicator from the standards text.
- Medieval to modern world history and modern Arab history are worth 4 questions each, so read their indicators but do not give them the time you give the large domains.
Your score on our questions is an estimate of readiness, not an official result. Each unit in unit practice is one of these seven domains, so if the free questions show a weakness in Saudi history or teaching skills, you can practise that domain on its own.
Finished reading? Try a set of questions
Start with 10 free questions to find your weakest units. Keep practising with the full question bank and mock exams from SAR 26.
Sources and references
- ETEC – Professional License Test for Educational Professions (dates, scoring, FAQ and e-services) etec.gov.sa
- ETEC – Candidate guide for History teachers (2020 trial edition): domains, weights and sample questions media.etec.gov.sa
- ETEC – Subject standards for History teachers (1441 AH / 2020) media.etec.gov.sa