The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for determining a short-term driving tendency. The apparatus may include a driving information collecting unit configured to collect driving information including a vehicle speed, and an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle of the driver and a forward vehicle, a short-term driving tendency calculating module configured to receive a plurality of input variables for determining the short-term driving tendency and calculate a short-term driving tendency index using a fuzzy control theory, and a calculation prohibition control module configured to check the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle of the driver and the forward vehicle and prohibit calculation of the short-term driving tendency index when the inter-vehicle distance is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value.