The+AP+US+History+Exam

Of course, all of you want to know "What is going to be on the test?" Great question. In short, I don't know... I know that it will cover a vast array of topics that deal with US History. I can give you some information about the approximate percentage of questions that deal with each particular era and them. I can tell you what the format of the test will be. But outside of that, I don't know exactly what will be on this test. If you were looking for what this year's DBQ and FRQ topics will be, you've come to the wrong place.

Here's what I do know about the test. All of this information comes from the 2008-09 Professional Development Workshop Handbook for AP US History.

The Exam The exam is 3 hours and 5 minutes in length and consists of two sections: a 55 minute multiple-choice section and a 130-minute free-response section. The free-response section begins with a mandatory 15 minute reading period. Students are advised to spend most of the 15 minutes analyzing the documents and planning their answer to the document-based essay question (DBQ) in Part A. Suggested writing time for the DBQ is 45 minutes.

Parts B and C each include two standard essay questions that, with the DBQ, cover the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present. Students are required to answer one essay question in each part in a total of 70 minutes. For each of the essay questions students choose to answer in Parts B and C, it is suggested they spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing.

Both the multiple-choice and free-response sections cover the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present, although a majority of questions are on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Mulitple-Choice Section The multiple-choice section tests students' factual knowledge, breadth of preparation, and knowledge-based analytical skills. The majority of multiple-choice questions are on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Approximately 20 percent of the questions deal with the period from the first European explorations through 1789, 45 percent with the period 1790 through 1914, and 35 percent with the period 1915 to the present. There may be a few multiple-choice questions on the period since 1980. Political institutions and behavior and public policy account for approximately 35 percent of the questions, and social and cultural developments account for approximately another 40 percent. The remaining questions are divided between the areas of diplomacy and international relations (15 percent) and economic developments (10 percent). There are 80 questions in this section. Please note that one-fourth of a point is deducted for each incorrect response. No points are deducted for a blank answer. Random guessing, therefore, is discouraged, however, if you have some knowledge of the question and can eliminate one or more answer choices, selecting the best answer from among the remaining choices is usually to your advantage.

This portion of the exam is worth 50 percent of the final exam grade.

Free-Response Section As mentioned above, you will be answering three questions in this section. All students will answer the document-based question (DBQ), and then you will answer one of the two questions from both Part B (typically early American history until the time of the Civil War) and Part C (post-Civil War). Note that the "cut off date" between the two parts is not precise - sometimes a "Reconstruction" question will appear in Part B and its possible that a Civil War question could appear in Part C. Note: Neither the DBQ nor any of the four essay questions in Parts B and C will deal exclusively with the period since 1980.

Your responses are graded on a scale of 0-9. The DBQ is worth 45% of the final score for this portion of the exam. Each FRQ is worth 27.5% of the final score for this portion of the exam.

Overall, the free-response section accounts for 50% of your final score for the exam.

Other Statistics The following statistics are based on the 2006 exam. Over 300,000 students took the exam during this particular year. Out of those 300,000 students:

11.0% earned a 5 19.1% earned a 4 22.3% earned a 3 26.2% earned a 2 20.7% earned a 1

A score of 3 or higher is considered passing by most colleges in the US.

In the multple-choice section, the overwhelming majority of students who got at least two-thirds of the mulitple choice questions right earned a 4 or 5 on the exam (all of them passed). In fact, those who scored at least 46 out of a possible 90 points (after accounting for incorrect responses) passed the exam. (Just 2.4% who scored between 46 and 60 points on the multiple choice portion of the exam did not pass.)

On the DBQ - the average score was 3.16 out of 9 points possible. On the other four essays, the average score varied anywhere from 2.62 to 3.05 out of 9 points possible.