AP US Government

🏛 AP Gov 5-hour Cram Finale

AP US Government Cram Finale Trivia

Game of 5s: Units 2-3 Review Mega Trivia

*Just a heads up, the following list of resources contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, Fiveable will receive a small commission. This helps support our content creation and allows us to continue to make resources like this. Thank you for the support!


So you want a 5 on your AP Gov exam? Duh! Of course you do! Whether you want to study politics in college or not at all, the credits you can earn from AP Gov will come in handy. You’ll get credit for an intro to government course that can save you time with your general requirements and/or jump ahead to higher level politics classes.

Live Stream Replay: Interactions Among Branches (Unit 2) Review

Last year, only 13% of students that took the AP Gov exam scored a 5. You’ll need to surround yourself with the absolute best resources if you are headed toward a high score.

Although there are thousands of teacher websites and other free content across the internet, these five resources are proven to help students pass the exam with flying colors. Some of them are free, some cost as much as $40, but when you consider the amount of college credit you can earn, it’s a worthy investment to pass this exam.

Trivia Replay: AP US Government Game of 5s

 Kind of like tutoring, but in a group and all online. Every Tuesday night at 9pm, an experienced teacher hosts a live review to discuss topics and write practice essays live. You can rewatch any of the live sessions as many times as you want!


The key feature that Fiveable has that you won’t find in any of the other listed resource is a live, real teacher to answer your questions whenever you have them. If you attend sessions live, you can submit questions for the teacher to discuss. The replay will get time-stamped with the answered questions, which makes it really easy to go back and review that answer


The cool thing about Fiveable is that even though the live reviews are at the core of this resource, there are several other key features like trivia games that members play live! There are thousands of members across the world and you can see how you stack up against them!



 It’s a prep book, but the entire book is made up of images, graphic organizers, and flow charts! It’s relatively small at just 237 pages, unlike those thick prep books, and the amount of text is very limited. One of our favorite spreads is the How a Bill Becomes a Law Board Game!


 Some of the content in AP Gov can be really confusing or overwhelming, but this book is incredibly visual so it helps you make sense of each topic. Plus, there are tons of charts that will directly compare things and time lines to make sense of order of events.


Throughout the book, there are little icons that specify whether a topic is “must know,” “should know,” or “could know”. This is an incredibly helpful feature to help you narrow down all of the content and focus on just what you need to get a 5.



 Paul Sargent is an AP Gov and AP Euro teacher that has been developing his website and YouTube channel for years. There are tons of lectures, study guides, and other helpful videos linked throughout the site.


Like many AP classes, there are many ways to connect the content to real world events, but AP Gov is particularly relevant. Sargent does an excellent job linking interesting articles to each topic for further reading and to help connect these topics to current events.


 On Youtube, Sargent has a series called “Bit by Bit” that does an excellent job of breaking down the concepts into bite-sized chunks. Here’s the playlist for Gov – http://www.sargenotes.com/ap-government.html


 It’s an app! Actually, it’s a super useful app and super affordable ($2.99). There are 300 questions on here 

that cover all of the topics in a really straightforward way to help you study terms. These practice questions are not stimulus-based like the exam, but rather quick recall so you can play it a whole bunch of times.

 Vocabulary is such a big part of any AP exam and this app was created by teachers who truly understand the value of studying key terms. You can play the whole deck or focus just on a time period. Either way, if you play this a few times a week, you’ll be golden.


For every question, there is a detailed explanation in case you need a reminder for why the right answer is right. Each explanation also includes why the other three answers were wrong and it’s all right in the app so you don’t have to stop and Google anything.



AMSCO US Government & Politics: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Exam

 It’s a bit more than your average prep book, but way less than a textbook. A lot of teachers just use this as the textbook because it is so much more condensed in a good way! Each chapter is 10 pages or less and just gets to what’s important.



 It’s super easy to read and if you get it soon, you could definitely read the whole thing.



Every chapter has practice questions at the end, which are amazing! There are multiple-choice, short-answer, long-essay, and document-based questions that you can practice throughout. The only downside is the answer key is super secure and for teachers only, so you won’t have a quick way to check if you were right.



Bonus Resource: Facebook group for AP Gov students!
Join the Facebook group at 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/apgopostudents


What resources do you use? Tweet us at 

Live Stream Replay: Argumentative Essay Writing Workshop

5 AP US Government Resources for Students Who Want a 5 

 Hi, I’m Nicole Johnston from New Jersey!

 I’m an AP Gov teacher and streamer at Fiveable. This year’s exam is different than we expected, but I’m here to help. I’ve put together this study guide to help keep you on track while you are studying from home. You can 

follow this guide on your own with a free Fiveable account

! I’ll also be joining a group of students live on Wednesdays @ 8pm ET during cram sessions. 

This year, the AP US Government exam will look different than you were expecting. As we’re all on quarantine 😷 due to COVID-19, the College Board has decided to update the format and content of the test to fit an online testing format.

You’ll have 45-minutes to take the exam online and it will only cover units 1-3. If you have already studied content from unit 4 and 5, don’t stress! It’s all worth knowing.

2- ⚖️ Interactions Among Branches of 

3- ✊🏽 Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

4 – 🐘  American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

 Wherever you are in the world, this is the time you’ll take the test. Unless you have been approved for the make-up date in June, but only your school can request that. You’ll take the test online. There will be a practice simulation posted by College Board within the next few weeks.

With so many school closures and the stress of a global pandemic, this review season will be different than usual. If this is your first AP exam, welcome! Don’t worry, it’s not usually this chaotic.


We’ve put together this plan for you to follow between now and May. This will cover all of the units and leave you time to practice questions before test day. Some classes may have done units out of chronological order throughout the year, which is ok. The units don’t have to be taught in order. If you are learning new material on your own and need some help, use the chat bubble on 

. We’ll answer any questions you may have. 


All of the required resources are free. 

  We’ve also linked a few other websites, articles, and YouTube videos that you can access for free. Some of the suggested resources include paid products. There are some documentaries that you can find on streaming sites with a paid membership and we’ll also list streams and practice questions that require a paid cram pass on Fiveable.

Before we begin, take some time to get organized. Remote learning can be great, but it also means you’ll need to hold yourself accountable more than usual. 


🖥 Create a study space.
Make sure you have a designated place at home to study. Somewhere you can keep all of your materials, where you can focus on learning, and where you are comfortable. Spend some time prepping the space with everything you need and you can even let others in the family know that this is your study space. 


📚 Organize your study materials.
Get your notebook, textbook, prep books, or whatever other physical materials you have. Also create a space for you to keep track of review. Start a new section in your notebook to take notes or start a Google Doc to keep track of your notes. Get your self set up!



📅 Plan designated times for studying.
The hardest part about studying from home is sticking to a routine. Decide on one hour every day that you can dedicate to studying. This can be any time of the day, whatever works best for you. Set a timer on your phone for that time and really try to stick to it. The routine will help you stay on track.



🏆 Decide on an accountability plan.
How will you hold yourself accountable to this study plan? You may or may not have a teacher or rules set up to help you stay on track, so you need to set some for yourself. First set your goal. This could be studying for x number of hours or getting through a unit. Then, create a reward for yourself. If you reach your goal, then x. This will help stay focused!

unit 1: foundations of american democracy

Unit 1 introduces the concept of democracy and its various forms. The documents that first started the United States are analyzed by looking at the challenges and promises associated with each. The division of power within our government: individual rights vs government authority and state vs federal government powers are at the heart of this unit and discussed within each founding document. 

: A full review of the types of democracy, the difference between government and politics as well as the functions of government are discussed. 

: A deep dive into the foundational documents you need to know for the exam.

: A review of the compromises leading to the ratification of the Constitution. 

 (Scherz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District)

if you have more time or want to dig deeper:

⚖️ unit 2: interactions among branches of government

Unit 2 dives into the separation of powers between our three branches of government. It looks at the specific powers of each branch as outlined in the Constitution and how each branch has grown in power through the years. The system of checks and balances and the role each branch plays in holding the other accountable is analyzed. 

: This stream provides a review of the legislative and judicial branches including their powers and role within the federal government.

 This stream provides a review of the executive branch including its powers and role within the federal government.

: This video from Crash Course reviews the separation of powers between the three branches of government. It also looks at the ways each branch “checks” the other. 

✊ unit 3: civil liberties and civil rights

Unit 3 takes the principles of our government established in Units 1 and 2 to analyze maintaining those principles while balancing liberty and order. The role of the 

 and the 14th amendment in guaranteeing civil rights and liberties for all citizens is at the heart of this unit.  

AP Gov New Format (FRQ) Study Guide


Quizlet is a useful tool for memorizing key terms and other pieces of information. It’s especially useful in AP Gov, with the 27 amendments and the 15 required court cases. A good Quizlet deck will help you memorize not only these terms but other useful pieces of information.

⚡Tune in to our 

 for upcoming streams. Find the 2020 exam schedule, learn tips & tricks, and get your frequently asked questions answered on 

Fiveable’s Guide to the 2020 AP Exam Updates

unit 1 (15-22%): foundations of american democracy

AP Gov Unit 1 focuses on 3 concepts: democracy and its types, the battle between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, and what Federalism is and its forms. As it’s the foundation (pun not intended) of the rest of the course, it’s important to understand these 94 terms.

A daunting number, trust me I know 😅. Luckily there are some key terms you can focus on learning before getting to the rest of them. These ones are vital to the rest of the course and difficult to learn in comparison to the others.

🌳State of Nature: Basically the time before governments and society. Complete freedom occurs, which is both good, as yay freedom, but also bad, as no government can protect you.

📰Articles of Confederation: The first constitution of the United States, focused on preserving the individual states’ power. It was replaced because it led to the inability of the federal government to do things like collect taxes and regulate trade.

Constitutional Convention: The meeting of state delegates in 1787 to design a new constitution. Lots of compromises occurred, such as the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Federalist #10: Written by James Madison as Publius, it argues for diversity as a way to safeguard liberty. Specifically in creating a number of factions that will prevent a tyranny of the majority and mob rule.

Federalist #51: Also written by James Madison as Publius, it argues for the separation of powers within the federal government. This is to keep one faction from amassing power and creating a tyranny of the minority.

💲Fiscal Federalism: A type of federalism focused on the power of the federal government through money. Specifically, their means of manipulating states by allocating the budget and grants. 

New Federalism: A move towards the devolution of federal power to the states, basically taking power from the federal government and giving it to the states. 

unit 2 (25-36%): interactions among branches of government

Unit 2 focuses on another 3 topics: the 3 branches of government, how they function, and how they interact with each other. So the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, what they do, and their interactions with each other. 

Now a recommendation, don’t try and memorize these. Instead, use these to test your knowledge of how a branch functions and its interactions with the other branches. I’ll present some key elements you should know from unit 2 so you can study those better.

📄Legislative branch: Used to create and pass laws. Made up of 2 parts, the House and the Senate, with 435 and 100 voting members respectively. Know how a bill is created and flows through these two bodies on its way to become a law. Know the types of committees and some of the major ones, like the House Ways and Means Committee. 

Executive Branch: Used to enforce the laws of the legislative branch. Know the different roles and powers of the president. Review the bureaucracy and its organization from the president to different departments and agencies. 

🔍Judicial Branch: Used to review the laws of the legislative branch. Know that judicial review was established after the constitution was ratified. 

✔️Checks and Balances: How do the different branches of government interact with each other? Know the triangle of how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches interact. Look at vetoes and how they’re overruled, for an example of one interaction.

unit 3 (13%-18%): civil liberties and civil rights

Unit 3 is where the amendments really come into play, especially the ones on civil rights. The bill of rights, due process, various social movements, and the Supreme Court cases will be major topics. These 38 different cards will allow you to better memorize important court cases and amendments.

AP Gov – Civil Liberties and Rights by Sandy_Midgley

There are some key terms you’ll want to know, covering court cases, clauses, and amendments.

14th Amendment: Due Process Clause: Extremely important, makes sure that people, both citizens and non-citizens, cannot be deprived of their rights without due process, or proper usage of law. 

⛪ Establishment Clause: The government cannot favor one religion over another. The Lemon test determines if the government is promoting any religion. 

13th, 14th, and 15th: amendments: Remember in this order, slavery is gone and so slaves are free, all people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, all male citizens of voting age can vote.

🏫Brown v. Board of Education: Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, separate but equal is not actually equal. All public schools are desegregated. 

unit 4 (10%-15%): american political ideologies and beliefs

Unit 4 deals with ideologies and how we measure them. It deals with the Democratic and Republican parties and their ideologies. These 44 terms will help you understand the various aspects of this unit, especially polling.

Even though this is a shorter section, you’ll really want to know the different types of polling and how they work.

Scientific Polling: Polls that are precise and reliable. They use random sampling in order to get accurate data.

🎲Random Sample: A way of sampling where every member of a population has a chance of being polled.

🎉Political Parties: The two main ones in the United States are the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats generally support more social spending with less regulation on personal freedom. The Republicans generally support less social spending but more limitations on personal freedom.

Economic Policies: Keynesian and Supply-side are two main ones. Keynesian uses government spending to stimulate the economy, used in the New Deal. Supply-side, or trickle-down, cuts taxes and regulations in order to grow the economy, used by Reagan.

Unit 5 is all about voting and covers lots of topics–how we vote, political parties, political campaigns, and the media. These 70 terms will help you learn all these different topics.

AP Government - Political Participation by Carpenter-Economics

This section is quite a bit larger than the others, so I’ll help focus down what you need to learn.

🗳️Voting Styles: Rational choice, retrospective, prospective, and clothespin voting are the 4 styles. They stand for, respectively, individual best interest, liking a candidate’s past actions, liking a candidate’s promises and ideas, and voting for the lesser evil.

✊Political Efficacy: Efficacy is not exactly a word used often, so remember it like this. Efficacy sounds kind of like efficiency, which stands for the ability to get something done, and efficacy stands for your belief that what you do can affect things. So political efficiency would be an ability to get governmental actions done, and political efficacy would be the belief that you can change something in government.

Differences between primaries and caucuses: Primaries, open where anyone can vote and closed where only party members can, have people vote on which candidate they want. Caucuses also have voting, but people discuss and vote on candidates at meetings.

🤑527 organizations: Seeing as it’s hard to remember a number, think of them this way. 527 has to do with numbers, just like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as they deal with money. Now, what does that number mean? It means that they raise and spend money on political candidates, and so are tax-exempt

✍️ Need practice writing AP US Gov free-response questions? Here are all of AP GOPO’s 

AP US Government Exam Prep 2020

browse by unit

Live Cram Sessions 2020

Free Reviews 2020

Free Response Questions (FRQ)

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government

Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Unit 5: Political Participation

Current Events

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)

Blogs

discussions

creators

Jenni MacLean

Robby May

Allison Powell

Nicole Johnston

Eric Beckman

Kevin Steinhauser

Fatima Raja

Brandon Wu

Akhilesh Shivaramakrishnan

Annika Tekumulla

Isabela Padilha Vilela

Samantha Howey

AP US Government Exam Prep 2020

browse by unit

Live Cram Sessions 2020﻿

Free Reviews 2020﻿

Free Response Questions (FRQ)﻿

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy﻿

Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government﻿

Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights﻿

Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs﻿

Unit 5: Political Participation﻿

Current Events﻿

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)﻿

Blogs﻿

discussions

creators

Jenni MacLean﻿

Robby May﻿

Allison Powell﻿

Nicole Johnston﻿

Eric Beckman﻿

Kevin Steinhauser﻿

Fatima Raja﻿

Brandon Wu﻿

Akhilesh Shivaramakrishnan﻿

Annika Tekumulla﻿

Isabela Padilha Vilela ﻿

Samantha Howey﻿