Final Review Sheet for the AP Exam
AP Government and Politics
Final Review Sheet for the AP Exam
1) Here are some recommendations answering multiple choice questions: Do not panic if you come across some questions you find very difficult. The tests are designed with questions of varying difficulty in order to differentiate between levels of preparation.
2) Keep your eye on the time. You have 45 minutes to answer 60 questions. That gives you an average of 45 seconds on each question. When you run into a question that you find difficult or confusing move on. Obsessing about a few questions will only hurt you. Answer all of the questions that you definitely know on your first read-through. Then go back and do the others. Sometimes the act of going through the entire test will jog your memory so that questions that seemed difficult the first time seem much easier the second time.
3) No points will be subtracted for incorrect answers. Answer ALL questions before the time runs out.
4) You are able to write on the test, so do it. Circle any EXCEPT questions in order to remind you that you’re looking for the FALSE statement.
5) Do not change an answer unless you are absolutely sure that your new choice is correct. Erasures must be clear. Make sure you take a good white eraser with you and clean it if it gets dirty. The carpet actually works well as a cleaner.
Types of AP Government Multiple Choice Questions
The basic information type:
Since the 1970s, which long time democratic region of the U.S. has shifted its electoral support to the Republican Party? a) New England; b) The Far West; c) The Great Plains; d) The South; e) the Rocky Mountains.
The application type:
Which of these would be most likely to vote in a presidential election: a) An unemployed 45 year old white male; b) A 54 year old Asian with a high School diploma; c) A 34 year old black female college professor; d) A 22 year old white male college student; e) A 58 year old white male carpenter.
The EXCEPTtype:
All of these are functions of interest groups except: a) Making campaign contributions; b) Lobbying execution branch agencies; c) Providing information to members of Congress; d) Helping members of Congress draft legislation; e) nominating candidates for public office.
The roman numeral type:
Which of the following describe limitations that may constitutionally be placed on freedom of speech and freedom of the press?
I. Under no circumstance may the government limit speech or censor the media.
II. The government may censor the press in the interest of national and military security.
III. The government may outlaw obscene publications
IV. The government may prevent individuals from engaging in “offensive” speech.
(a) I only; (b) II only; (c) II and III only; (d) III and IV only; (e) II, III, and IV only.
The Review…
Constitutional Underpinnings
Understand the basic characteristics of:
- The Articles of Confederation.
- The Constitution of 1787
- Direct democracy vs “republican federalism”
- Virginia Plan
- New Jersey Plan
- Great Compromise
- Electoral college
- The Anti-Federalists
- The Federalist Papers
Understand Federalist #10, #51 & #78
What is Federalism? (It is NOT what the Federalists wrote about.)
What are the powers of the national versus the state governments?
What are concurrent powers?
Limited Government (Constitutionalism)
Checks and Balances
What is the Bill of Rights? How and why was it ratified?
Make sure you know the important Amendments.
How may the Constitution be amended?
How many times has it been amended?
Understand Constitutional legislative powers. What is the “necessary and proper
clause?”
Which is regarded as the “Federalist Amendment?”
How do these contradict?
Know the various “terms of office” for all three branches
Which are realignment elections? Why?
What are the contributions of each of the following to the structure and characteristics of American government?
Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
John Adams
James Madison
John Marshall
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt (FDR’s 4 terms create the “modern American presidency.”)
Ronald Reagan
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J. Mamer 2005 Northwood High School
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Questions on Congress
What are the formal requirements to be elected to the House of Representatives?
What are the formal requirements to be elected to the Senate?
How many members are in each house?
To what term lengths are they each elected?
In general what are the rules of debate in the House?
In general what are the rules of debate in the Senate?
How different?
Which bills are, by tradition, introduced in the House?
What is an appropriations bill?
How many Senate votes are needed to end a filibuster? What is the process called?
What are the primary “roles” of a member of Congress?
What does the staff in a congressional office do?
What are the major advantages of being the incumbent?
What percentage of budget expenditures are considered uncontrollable (or
mandatory and, essentially, spent before the budget is even discussed)?
Congressional Committees
What goes on in committees? Why?
What can a committee do to a bill?
How does one get assigned to committees?
What are the strongest influences on selection to congressional committees?
How does one become a committee chair?
What is a conference committee?
Why subcommittees? (Positive & Negative)
Phrases pertaining to Congress
Divided Government
Senatorial courtesy
Log Rolling
Bicameralism
The House Rules Committee
Closed Rule
Open Rule
In the Senate what is a “hold”?
Seniority System
Franking Privilege
Filibuster and Cloture
What are the characteristics of the president of the Senate
How is the Speaker of the House chosen? Characteristics or powers of theoffice?
On Congressional/Presidential Relations understand the following:
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964
The War Powers Act 1973
Watergate
The Boland Amendment of 1984
The Iran-Contra Affair
Executive privilege
An Executive Agreement
Civil Service Commission
Pendleton Act
Hatch Act
The New Hatch Act
Office of Personnel Management
General Accounting Office
Understand the growth in numbers of people employed by the federal government from the beginning (1789) to 2005. (That is, from the very small to very large...)
Understand the growth in numbers of people employed by the federal government from the 1950s to 2005. (That is, not much change…)
Know the approximate number of individuals a new president appoints.
Who was in charge “bureaucratic reform” (reinventing government) during the Clinton Administration? Did the size of the Federal Government increase or decrease under Clinton? (Slight decrease.)
Which president employed the greatest number of vetoes? (In other words which president was elected four times?)
How many Senators are necessary to convict in a Senate impeachment trial? Which presidents have been impeached? Who else can be impeached?
How many Senators are necessary to screw in a light blub? How many Senators are necessary to screw in a light blub if the ceiling is forty feet high?
Which branch of Congress has the power to confirm presidential nominations? (Name at least three that were NOT approved.)
Define the term “senatorial courtesy?”
The Courts, especially the Supreme Court
Understand the following terms:
A writ of mandamus
ex post facto laws
A writ of certiorari
amicus curiae
precedent
Habeas corpus
Why does the Supreme Court agree to hear a case?
What is judicial review? Where did it come from?
What is the “term length” for Federal judges? Why?
How might judges be selected at state and local levels?
What would the term “intentional ambiguity” (in a law) mean?
What is original jurisdiction?
What is appellate jurisdiction?
What is a Trial court?
What is an Appellate court?
Distinguish questions of law from questions of fact.
Which kinds of issues has the Court avoided?
What are Civil Rights?
Who was Earl Warren?
What were the most important characteristics of the Warren Court?
Very Important Court Cases (Remember, you have a list of many others). Fill in the year of each from memory.
McCullogh vs. Maryland Year?
Marbury v. Madison
Mapp v. Ohio
Brown v. Board of Education
Griswold v. Connecticut
Baker v. Carr
Miranda v. Arizona
Gibbons v. Ogden
Marbury v. Madison
Plessy v. Ferguson
Roe v. Wade
Political Parties:
The American party system developed as the result of?
In the most general sense trace the history the American party system.
Why has the United States been stuck with a two party system?
In California, who can vote in a party's primary?
Who can vote by absentee ballot?
Describe the characteristics of recent presidential conventions...
Upon which criteria do most choose vice-presidential running mate?
The major political parties are more interested in votes than in principles.
Therefore, the major political parties are not ideological.
What about Third Parties?
Describe the fate of most “third party” movements.
What is the GOP?
Answer the following questions about American Political Parties from memory. Keepyour answers short.
What was the view of faction expressed by James Madison in Federalist #10?
Identify the first two political parties in the United States and describe howand why they emerged?
How did most of the political parties in Western Europe emerge?
Political Parties are not in the Constitution.
You should review all of theAmendments.
Direct Democracy is rarely what we have in the United States. In the United Stateswe have a Republic or a Representative Democracy.
Democrats and Republicans
FDR set the agenda for Democrats in the 20th Century. What programs andchanges did FDR represent?
What programs did JFK Democrats represent?
What were the programs of Lyndon Johnson? How do they fit with FDR’sprograms?
Barry Goldwater was the Republican nominee in 1964. He lost all statesexcept Arizona and the deep south. Why is he significant?
What happened to the Democrats between 1964 to 1968 in the two areasidentified below?
O Civil Rights and the Southern Backlash:
O Vietnam:
What values did Richard Nixon “claim” to represent in 1968? What did hemean by the “silent majority”?
What were the major characteristics of the Carter Administration?
Carter lost his bid for reelection. What groups formed the "Reagan Coalition"in 1980? What values did this coalition claim to represent?
What were the major components of the winning Bush coalition in 1988?
What were the major components of the Bush loss in 1992?
What policies did Bill Clinton campaign for in 1992? What policies did BillClinton campaign for 1996? What is the significance of this difference?
What do you think were the major components of George W. Bush’s victory in2000?
One of the major splits in the Democratic Party since 1972 has been betweenliberals and the moderate-conservatives of the DLC. What is this about?
Propaganda:
What are media consultants and public relations experts?
What is the most popular form of media? So what?
What are Negative TV ads? So what?
Where does most of the campaign dollar go?
Elections and Voting:
Identify the Campaign Reform law of 1971 (amended in 1974). What changes did itproduce?
- Answer: Created the FEC. Required disclosure of contributions andexpenditures. Provided limits on contributions and subsidies for presidentialcandidates of qualifying parties.
Understand the outlines of McCain-Feingold.
What does the “media” stress during presidential elections? (Horserace politics, notissues…)
Why don’t more people vote?
Under what conditions are people most likely to vote?
Know how “the franchise” has expanded in American History.
What is a primary election? Who votes in primaries? How is that different form thosethat vote in general elections? So what?
Which party has control of the House of Representatives? How long?
Which party has control of the Senate? How long?
How does the Electoral College work? So what?
How does a lobbyist get access to decision makers?
What are PACs? What kind of groups use them?
How do most people become a Democratic or Republican? Why?
What roles have been played by minor parties in American elections?
What is the initiative?
Court cases pertaining to campaigning and elections:
Baker v. Carr (1962): “One person, one vote” This Warren Court decisionordered legislative districts to be as equal to one another in population aspossible.
Buckley v. Valeo (1976): This decision protects campaign spending.Legislatures can limit contributions, but not how much a candidate spends ofhis or her own money. It has been a major roadblock to campaign financereform
Shaw v. Reno (1993) Blocks “racial gerrymandering.” Race cannot be the soleor predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries.
Terms pertaining to campaigning and elections:
Closed primary
Open primary
Ticket splitting
Off-year election year
Midterm election year
Presidential election year
Terms pertaining to campaign finance after 1974:
Soft Money
Hard Money
Information that might be useful for the Free Response section:
Understand the Public Citizen report on Enron’s influence over AmericanGovernment Officials.
Be aware of Enron’s contributions to United States Senators and thepresidential campaign of George W. Bush
Identify the roles of lobbyists in legislation.
Identify the Telecommunications Act of 1996. What did it do? Who wrote it?So what?
Identify “issue advocacy” ads
Identify Public Interest Groups like:
- Common Cause
- Public Citizen
What do they do?
Identify “iron triangles.”
Identify the “Australian ballot”
In a general sense know these simple labels for some propagandatechniques. They might be very useful in writing a free response, but rememberthat they are normally used in combination.
Transfer
Testimonial
Glittering Generality
Card Stacking
Name Calling
Plain Folks
Bandwagon
The use of “sound bites”