Advanced Placement (AP) United States History (also known as AP U.S. History or APUSH () is a college-level course and examination offered by College Board as part of the

Advanced Placement Program Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and cour ...

Course

The AP U.S. History course is designed to provide the same level of content and instruction that students would face in a freshman-level college survey class. The course covers 9 periods of US History, spanning from the

pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

to the present day. The percentage indicates the exam weighting of each content area: AP U.S. History classes generally use a college-level textbook as the foundation for the course.

Textbooks

Commonly used textbooks that meet the curriculum requirements include: *''America's History'' ( Henretta ''et al.'') *'' American History: A Survey'' (

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) *''American Passages'' ( Ayers ''et al.'') *'' The American Pageant'' ( Bailey ''et al.'') *''

The American People ''The American People'' is a history textbook published by Pearson Education Incorporated. The editors of the text are Gary B. Nash of the University of California at Los Angeles, Julie Roy Jeffrey of Goucher College, John R. Howe of the Univ ...

'' ( Nash ''et al.'') *''By the People'' (

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ...

) *''The Enduring Vision'' ( Boyer ''et al.'') *''Give Me Liberty!'' ( Foner) *''Liberty, Equality, Power'' (Murrin ''et al.'') *''Out of Many'' ( Faragher ''et al.'') *''A People and a Nation'' ( Norton ''et al.'')

Conservative criticism

American conservatives Conservatism in the United States is a Political philosophy, political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, Tradition, traditionalism, Republicanism in the United States, republicanism, and limited ...

have criticized the course framework for downplaying

American exceptionalism American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations.Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state' ...

’ Education Committee, but later withdrawn. The course framework was revised in 2015 in response to the criticism. In 2014,

student protests Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or acad ...

in Colorado were held over plans by the Jefferson County Public Schools district board to revise the AP US History curriculum to emphasize citizenship, patriotism, and respect for authority.

Exam

The AP U.S. History exam lasts 3 hours and 15 minutes and consists of two sections, and Section I is divided into two parts. Section I, part A includes 55 multiple choice questions with each question containing four choices. The multiple choice questions cover American History from just before European contact with Native Americans to the present day. Questions are presented in sets of two to five questions organized around a primary source or an image (including, but not limited to, maps and

political cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine ...

s). Section I, part B includes three short-answer questions. The first two questions are required, but students choose between the third and fourth questions. In total, students are given 95 minutes (55 for the multiple choice section and 40 for three short-answer questions) to complete section I. Section II of the exam is the free-response section, in which examinees write two

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

s. Section II, part A, is a document-based question (DBQ), which provides an essay prompt and seven short primary sources or excerpts related to the prompt. Students are expected to write an essay responding to the prompt in which they utilize the sources in addition to outside information. Section II, part B, provides three thematic essay prompts. Students must respond to only one of the three essay prompts. (In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the AP exams were administered remotely as drastically shortened open-note exams. The AP US History exam consisted of a single modified DBQ essay.) Each long essay question on the AP exam may address any one of three possible historical reasoning processes: patterns of continuity and change, comparison, or causation. Each of the essay questions will address the same historical reasoning process. There is a fifteen-minute reading period for students to read the essay prompts, take notes, and brainstorm, but students may begin to write the essays before this period ends. Students will then have 100 minutes to write the two essays; 60 minutes are recommended for the DBQ and 40 minutes for the long essay, but students are free to work on the two essays as they see fit. In May 2011, the AP U.S. History Test was taken by 402,947 students worldwide, making it second in terms of number of examinees, behind the

AP English Language and Composition Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition (also known as AP English Language, APENG, or AP Lang) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program. When AP exams were first impleme ...

exam.

Scoring

Section I is worth 60% of the total AP exam score, with 40% of the total exam score derived from the student's performance on the multiple choice section and 20% of the total exam score derived from the student's performance on the short answer questions. The remaining 40% of the total exam score is derived from section II; the document-based question is worth 25% of the total exam score, while the long essay question is worth 15% of the total exam score. The score distributions since 2007 were:

Composite score range

The College Board has released information on the composite score range (out of 180) required to obtain each grade:AP: The Grade-Setting Process
. Retrieved 9 May 2008. Note: The above composite score cut points reflect the pre-2011 grading formula which deducted 0.25 points for every incorrect multiple choice answer.

References

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External links

Advanced Placement History education History of the United States