The Wise Guide
to a 5
on the Advanced Placement
United States History Exam
Friday
May 11, 2012
8:00 AM
Exam Format
Time Total: 3 hours 5 minutes
Section I: 80 Multiple Choice Questions
50% of final grade
55 minutes
Section II:50% of final grade
Part A: DBQ Essay (22.5%)
15 minutes for reading, highlighting, outlining, etc.
45 minutes for writing
Part B: 1 Essay (13.75%)
5 minutes reading
30 minutes writing
Part C:1 Essay (13.75%)
5 minutes reading
30 minutes writing
Exam Tips
Read and follow the directions carefully.
Your grades will benefit from following directions, but suffer if you don't. If the directions state, "Answer one of the two questions in Part B and one of the two questions in Part C" and you answer both Part B questions, the grade received on the exam will probably not reflect accurately what you know about the topics. Phrases like "All of the following... EXCEPT" or "Which of the following did NOT..." contain critical words. If an essay asks for two examples, then you need to give two. You must pay attention to them, or you will not respond correctly to the question. Be sure to first carefully analyze the question, thinking through what is being asked, and separate out the elements that must be addressed in the response.
Be aware of the time available throughout the test, and concentrate on questions you can respond to best.
Virtually all classroom and standardized tests have time limits. Skilled test-takers make a quick estimate of the amount of time the various questions or sections of a test will require, stay aware of the time available throughout the test, and concentrate on questions they can respond to best. On the multiple-choice section, note the number of questions and the time allotted for them.
Use all of the exam time.
Use all the time available for the exam. If you reach the end of the test with time to spare, go back to the questions you skipped, or review your essays.
Fill in bubbles for the multiple-choice questions carefully.
Most high school students are familiar with filling in the circles or ovals on machine-scored answer sheets. But even the most experienced test-takers can make the critical mistake of getting responses out of sequence, for example, marking an answer for question five, when they meant to respond to question six. Such an error can happen easily when you skip a question. So that this doesn't happen to you, put a mark in your exam booklet books (not on the answer sheets) when you bypass a question. Check frequently to be sure that the number of the question on your answer sheet corresponds to the number of the question in your exam booklet.
Make notes and/or make an outline of your answer in the exam booklet.
Because of the time limitation in the free-response section, you don't have time to write rough drafts and then recopy answers. However, you can use the space provided in the exam booklets to make notes and/or to make an outline of your answer. As you write your essays, cross out words and sentences, and even move a part from one section to another. Save a little time for reviewing your essays so that you can edit or revise them slightly.
Use the reading time to plan your essays.
Remember that the time provided to do the free-response questions is limited. Use the mandatory 15-minute reading period and the five minutes suggested planning time for each standard essay to plan your answers carefully -- to think about the major points you want to make and the evidence they can include to support these statements. Before you start writing your essays, be sure you understand what the essay question is asking you to do.
Support essays with specifics.
Write enough to answer questions fully and to make your ideas convincing by supporting them with specific details. Long answers are not necessarily the best answers, but answers that are very sketchy or filled with unsupported generalizations do not receive high scores. In the time allowed for each question, should be able to write several substantial paragraphs and to develop your critical analysis at some length.
Do NOT bring cell phones into the testing room. Your score will be disqualified if you are even seen using a phone during the break!
Source: The College Board
PRACTICE TEST SOURCES
Log in to your portfolio to find more practice exams!
Make sure that you review the following:
PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATIONS:
Teddy Roosevelt --> "Square Deal"
Franklin Roosevelt --> "New Deal"
Harry Truman --> "Fair Deal"
John F. Kennedy --> "New Frontier"
Lyndon Johnson --> "Great Society"
Ronald Reagan --> "Reaganomics"
SIGNIFICANT SUPREME COURT CASES:
Marbury v. Madison - 1803
McCulloch v. Maryland - 1819
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - 1831
Dred Scott v. Sandford - 1857
Plessy v. Ferguson - 1896
Schenck v. U. S. - 1918
Korematsu v. U. S. - 1944
Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, KS) - 1954
Mapp v. Ohio - 1961
Baker v. Carr - 1962
Engle v. Vitale - 1962
Gideon v. Wainwright - 1963
Escobedo v. Illinois - 1964
Miranda v. Arizona - 1966
Tinker v. Des Moines - 1969
The New York Times Co. v. U. S. - 1971
Roe v. Wade - 1973
U. S. v. Nixon - 1974
Bakke v. The Regents of the University of California - 1978
New Jersey v. TLO - 1985
VernoniaSchool District v. Action - 1995
Jones v. Clinton - 1997
REFORM MOVEMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY:
Abolitionism
-- Nat Turner
-- Frederick Douglass
-- Harriet Tubman
-- John Brown
-- William Lloyd Garrison
-- Sojourner Truth
Women's Suffrage --> Seneca Falls Convention
-- Lucretia Mott
-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-- Susan B. Anthony
-- Carrie Chapman Catt
Populism
-- the Grange
-- Farmers' Alliance
-- silver vs. gold
-- William Jennings Bryan --> "Cross of Gold" speech
Temperance
-- Carrie Nation
-- prohibition (a "dry" America) -- Volstead Act (1919)
-- 18th Amendment (1920)
Progressivism
-- muckrakers
-- Governor Robert LaFollette (WI)
-- initiative, referendum, recall
-- 16th (1913), 17th (1913), 19th (1920) Amendments
-- Jane Addams & Hull House --> settlement movement
Civil Rights
-- Booker T. Washington
-- W. E. B. DuBois
-- Marcus Garvey
-- Rosa Parks
-- Little Rock Central H. S. integration
-- Greensboro, SC sit-ins
-- NAACP
-- SNCC
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
-- March on Washington -- "I have a dream..." speech
-- Malcolm X
-- Black Panthers
-- Civil Rights Acts of 1964 & 1968
-- Voting Rights Act of 1965
-- 24th. Amendment (1964)
-- affirmative action
Modern Feminism
-- Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique
-- N. O. W.
-- E. R. A.
-- Roe v. Wade (1973)
-- Sandra Day O'Connor
-- Geraldine Ferraro
-- Janet Reno
-- Madelaine Albright
"Brown" Power
-- Caesar Chavez
-- Brown Panthers
Native American Rights
-- A. I. M.
-- Wounded Knee standoff (1973)
"Grey" Power
-- A. A. R. P.
IMPORTANT LITERARY WORKS:
Common Sense -- Thomas Paine
The Federalist Papers
Uncle Tom's Cabin -- Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Influence of Sea Power on History: 1660-1783 - Alfred Thayer Mahan
A Century of Dishonor - Helen Hunt Jackson
The Frontier in American History - Frederick Jackson Turner
How the Other Half Lives - Jacob Riis
The Jungle -- Upton Sinclair
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck
Silent Spring -- Rachel Carson
Unsafe At Any Speed -- Ralph Nader
The Feminine Mystique -- Betty Friedan
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- Dee Brown
SOME KEY LEGISLATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY: Don't forget to review the amendments!
Alien & Sedition Acts - 1798
Indian Removal Act - 1830
Homestead Act - 1862
Freedman's Bureau Act - 1866
Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882
Pendleton Act - 1883
Dawes [Severalty] Act - 1887
Sherman Anti-Trust Act - 1890
Pure Food and Drug Act - 1906
Federal Reserve Act - 1913
Espionage & Sedition Acts - 1918
National Origins Act - 1929
Social Security Act - 1935
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) - 1935
Lend-Lease Act - 1941
Taft-Hartley Act - 1947
Civil Rights Act - 1964
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - 1964
Voting Rights Act - 1965
War Powers Act - 1973
Americans with Disabilities Act - 1990
Patriot Act - 2001
AMERICA'S WARS / MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS:
1775-1781 -- American Revolution
1812-1814 -- War of 1812 -- James Madison
1846-1848 -- Mexican-American War -- James Polk
1861-1865 -- Civil War -- Abraham Lincoln
1898 -- Spanish-American War -- William McKinley
1914-1918 (US: 1917-1918) -- World War I -- Woodrow Wilson
1939-1945 (US: 1941-1945) -- World War II -- FDR & Harry Truman
1950-1953 -- Korean War -- Harry Truman & Dwight Eisenhower
1964-1973 -- Vietnam War -- Lyndon Johnson & Richard Nixon
1991 -- Persian Gulf War -- George H. W. Bush
1999 -- Kosovo -- Bill Clinton
2001-- present -- Afghan War - George W. Bush
2003 - present -- Iraqi War - George W. Bush
Source:
PREVIOUS DOCUMENT BASED QUESTIONS AND ESSAY QUESTIONS
DBQs
- Analyze the ways in which the Vietnam War heightened social, political, and economic tensions in the Unites States. Focus your answer on the period 1964 to 1975.
- For the years 1880 to 1925, analyze both the tensions surrounding the issue of immigration and the United States government’s response to these tensions.
- Analyze the ways in which technology, government policy, and economic conditions changed American agriculture in the period 1865-1900. In your answer be sure to evaluate farmers’ responses to these changes.
- In what ways did the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson respond to the political, economic, and social problems of the United States? Assess the effectiveness of these responses.
- Discuss the changing ideals of American womanhood between the American Revolution (1770s) and the outbreak of the Civil War. What factors fostered the emergence of “republican motherhood” and the “cult of domesticity?” Assess the extent to which these ideals influenced the lives of women during this period. In your answer be sure to consider issues of race and class.
- Analyze developments from 1941 to 1949 that increased suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- To what extent did the American Revolution fundamentally change American society? In your answer, be sure to address the political, social, and economic effects of the Revolution in the period from 1775 to 1800.
- From 1775 to 1830, many African Americans gained freedom from slavery, yet duringthe same period the institution of slavery expanded. Explain why BOTH of thosechanges took place. Analyze the ways that BOTH free African Americans andenslaved African Americans responded to the challenges confronting them.
- In what ways did ideas and values held by Puritans influence the political, economic, and social development of
the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660s?
- Analyze the international and domestic challenges the United States faced between 1968 and 1974, and evaluatie how President Nixon’s administration responded to them.
FRQs
- Early encounters between American Indians and European colonists led to a variety of relationships among the different cultures. Analyze how the actions taken by BOTH American Indians and European colonists shaped those relationships in TWO of the following regions. Confine your answer to the 1600s.
New England
Chesapeake
Spanish Southwest
New York and New France
- Analyze the impact of the market revolution (1815-1860) on the economies of TWO of the following regions.
The Northeast
The Midwest
The South
- Following Reconstruction, many southern leaders promotes the idea of the “New South.” To what extent was this “New South” a reality by the time of the First World War? In your answer be sure to address TWO of the following.
Economic development
Politics
Race relations
- Presidential elections between 1928 and 1948 revealed major shifts in political party loyalties. Analyze both the reasons for these changes and their consequences during this period.
- Analyze the reasons for the Anti-Federalists’ opposition to ratifying the Constitution.
- Use TWO of the following categories to analyze the ways in which African Americans created a distinctive culture in slavery.
Family
Music
Oral traditions
Religions
- Analyze the extent to which the Spanish-American War was a turning point in American foreign policy.
- Analyze the extent to which the 1920s and 1950s were similar in TWO of the following areas.
Impact of technology
Intolerant attitudes
Literary developments
- Settlers in the eighteenth-century American backcountry sometimes resorted to violent protest to express their grievances. Analyze the causes and significance of TWO of the following:
March of the Paxton Boys
Regulator Movement
Shays’ Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion
- In what ways did the Second Great Awakening in the North influence TWO of the following?
Abolitionism
Temperance
The cult of domesticity
Utopian communities
- To what extent did the role of the federal government change under President Theodore Roosevelt in regard to TWO of the following.
Labor
Trusts
Conservation
World Affairs
- “Landslide presidential victories do not ensure continued political effectiveness of legislative success.” Assess the validity of this statement by comparing TWO of the following presidential administrations.
Franklin Roosevelt (1936)
Lyndon Johnson (1964)
Richard Nixon (1972)
Ronald Reagan (1984)
13.Analyze the ways in which British imperial policies between 1763 and 1776
intensified colonials’ resistance to British rule and their commitment to republican
values.
14.Analyze the social, political, and economic forces of the 1840s and early 1850s that led
to the emergence of the Republican Party.
15. Choose TWO of the following organizations and explain their strategies for advancing
the interests of workers. To what extent were these organizations successful in
achieving their objectives? Confine your answer to the period from 1875 to 1925.
Knights of Labor
American Federation of Labor
Socialist Party of America
Industrial Workers of the World
16. Analyze the home-front experiences of TWO of the following groups during the
Second World War.
African Americans
Japanese Americans
Jewish Americans
Mexican Americans
17.Analyze the political, diplomatic, and military reasons for the United States victory in
the Revolutionary War. Confine your answer to the period 1775–1783.
18.Analyze the ways in which controversy over the extension of slavery into western
territories contributed to the coming of the Civil War. Confine your answer to the
period 1845–1861.
19.Analyze the roles that women played in Progressive Era reforms from the 1880s
through 1920. Focus your essay on TWO of the following.
Politics
Social conditions
Labor and working conditions
20. Explain the causes and consequences of TWO of the following population movements
in the United States during the period 1945–1985.
Suburbanization
The growth of the Sun Belt
Immigration to the United States
21.Analyze the origins and development of slavery in Britain’s North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776.
22.To what extent did political parties contribute to the development of national unity in the United States between 1790 and 1840?
23.Compare and contrast the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1840s-1850s with the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1920s-1920s.
24.African American leaders have responded to racial discrimination in the United States in a variety of ways. Compare and contrast the goals and strategies of African American leaders in the 1950s-1960s.
Source: The College Board
THE SEVENTEENTH AND EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
Concepts
Evangelism
Indentured Servitude
Joint-stock company
Mercantilism
Middle Passage
Proprietary Colony
Royal Colony
Salutary Neglect
Tariffs
Events
Bacon’s Rebellion
Glorious Revolution in England
Great Awakening
Great Migration
King Philip’s War
King William’s War
Pequot War
Salem witchcraft trials
The starving time
People
Absolutists
Congregationalists
Jonathan Edwards
Benjamin Franklin
Anne Hutchinson
Pilgrims
Pocahontas
Powhatan
Puritans
Sir Walter Raleigh
Separatists
John Smith
George Whitefield
Roger Williams
Places
Charter colony
The Chesapeake
Jamestown
The lower (deep) South
Massachusetts Bay colony
Middle colonies
New England
Policies, Agreements, Court Rulings, Etc.
Dominion of New England
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Halfway Covenant
Maryland Toleration Act
Mayflower Compact
Navigation Acts
THE LATE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES
Concepts
Adams’ “midnight appointments”
Assembly line
Clipper ships
First Bank of the Unites States
Interchangeable parts
Lowell system
Second Bank of the United States
Standard oil
Translatlantic cable
U.S. Steel Corporation
Utopian communities
Washington’s Farewell Address
Washington’s neutrality proclamation
Yellow journalism
Events
Battle of New Orleans
“Bleeding Kansas”
Boston Massacre
Boston Tea Party
Boxer Rebellion
British burn Washington, D.C.
Chesapeake Affair
Constitutional Convention of 1787
Credit Mobilier scandal
“Cross of Gold” speech
“Era of Good Feelings”
Federalist Papers
Filipino insurrection
Fisk-Gould scandal
French and Indian War
German and Irish immigration
Gold Rush in California
Harrison at Tippecanoe Creek
Hartford Convention
Haymarket Square riot
Homestead Strike
Indian removal
King George’s War
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Maysville Road Veto
Mexican-American War
Pullman strike
Queen Anne’s War
Reform movements
Seneca Falls Conventions
Seward Purchase of Alaska
Shays’ Rebellion
Sherman’s march through Georgia
Sioux Wars
South Carolina Exposition and Protest
South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification
Spanish-American War
Trail of Tears
U.S.S. Maine
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Undeclared naval war with France
Union Pacific and Central Pacific joined/transcontinental line
Whiskey Rebellion
XYZ Affair
People
John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Jane Addams
American Antislavery Society
American Federation of Labor
Susan B.Anthony
Antimasonic Party
Chester Arthur
Elizabeth Blackwell
John Brown
William JenningsBryan
James Buchanan
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
Civil Service Commission
Committees of Correspondence
Coxey’s Army
Eugene V. Debs
Thomas A. Edison
Emerson and Thoreau
Millard Fillmore
First Continental Congress