General Review Tips
• Prioritize - Focus on topics/areas of weakness first
• Avoid trying to memorize too much - Review “big picture” concepts
first, specific terms/name/events later
• Look at old materials - Review in-class and reading notes, past essays
& tests, study materials from Fall final
• Try different approaches - There is no “best” way to review
(alone/group, on-line/book/flash cards, practice tests/packets – it
depends on your learning style – try mixing it up).
• Find a “middle ground” - Some review better than no review. Too
much review is counterproductive.
• Be positive – You have learned a lot this year & the AP exam is graded
on a major curve.
AP Exam Multiple Choice Information
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55 minutes for 80 questions
Each question has 5 possible answers
Multiple Choice counts for ½ of total score
No points lost for wrong or skipped questions.
Questions get progressively more challenging.
BIG curve on multiple choice - Score over 40 likely
earns a 3 (passing score) – over 50 likely earns a 4
and over 60 a 5.
• Chronology of Questions:
– 16 (20%) pre 1790; 36 (45%) 1790-1914; 28 (35%) 1915 – 1990
• Topic of Questions:
– 28 (35%) Politics; 28 (35%) Social/Cultural; 12 (15%) Foreign
Policy; 8 (10%) Economics; 4 (5%) Cultural/Intellectual
AP Exam Essay Information
• There is 1 DBQ essay you must write on and 4 FRQ prompts
of which you must write on 2. You will be required to write one
FRQ on a topic prior to 1880 and one FRQ on a topic after that
date.
• 130 minutes (15 min reading period; 45 min. suggested for
DBQ; 70 minutes for other 2 FRQs)
• The 5 total essay prompts will range in their topics
chronologically and thematically.
AP Essay Writing Tips
• READ prompts multiple times
• Brainstorm & make a quick “plan of attack”
• Introduction needs some brief background on “big picture”
followed by an on-topic thesis
• Body paragraphs need to BLEND details with analysis.
(Facts & explanations).
• Grading is “holistic” – no points “taken away”, just earned. If
in doubt, make a guess.
A few AP US Exam review websites:
Time lines:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/timeline/timelineO.cfm
http://chaos1.hypermart.net/fullsize/US1750fs.gif
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0902416.html
Terms grouped by “era”
http://www.mredmoody.com/ush-ap-preperation.html
http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/history/index.htm
General review websites:
http://highschoolsurvivalguide.com/APUSH.html
http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/
http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/AHAPCourseMainPage.htm
Brainstorm significant people,
events, themes, trends and/or
ideas from 1877-1920
Key concepts to consider
• Successes/Failures of Reconstruction
• Why/how America industrialized during the late
19th century; how westward expansion tied into
that (frontier thesis, land, Native Americans,
wealth, technology, labor unions/issues, etc.)
• Causes/consequences of immigration &
urbanization
• How/why political change and progressive
reforms gain momentum (regional/urban vs
rural, muckrakers, reformers/presidents)
• How/why the US foreign policy changes from
1898-1919
• Compare and contrast the US foreign
policy after the first world war and after the
second world war. Consider the periods
1919-1928 and 1945-1950.
To what extent did the
United States achieve
the objectives
that led it to enter the
First World War?
• Historians have argued that Progressive
reform lost momentum in the 1920s.
Evaluate this statement with respect to
TWO of the following:
– Regulation of business
– Labor
– Immigrants
• Compare and contrast the programs and
policies designed by reformers of the
Progressive era to those designed by
reformers of the New Deal period. Confine
your answer to programs and policies that
addressed the needs of those living in
poverty.
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/working conditions
To what extent did the role of the
federal government change
under President Theodore
Roosevelt in regards to TWO of
the following:
Labor
Trusts
Conservation
World Affairs
• 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
1910s-1920s.
Analyze the extent to
which the SpanishAmerican War was a
turning point in American
foreign policy.
Analyze the impacts of TWO of the
following on the American
industrial worker between 1865 &
1900.
Government Actions
Immigration
Labor Unions
Technological Changes
• Compare and contrast the attitudes of
TWO of the following toward the wealth
that was created in the U.S. during the late
19th century.
• Andrew Carnegie
• Eugene Debs
• Booker T. Washington
• Ida Tarbell
• How were the lives of the Plains Indians in
the second half of the 19th century affected
by technological developments and
government actions?
• From whom and to what extent was the
American West a land of opportunity from
1865 to 1890?
• Following Reconstruction, many southern
leaders promoted the ideas of a “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
• Evaluate the impact of the Civil War on
political and economic developments in
TWO of the following regions:
• The South
• The North
• The West
Focus your answers on the period between
1865 and 1900.
• Describe the patterns of immigration in
TWO of the periods listed below. Compare
and contrast the responses of Americans
to immigrants in these periods.
• 1820-1860
• 1880-1924
• 1965-2000