AP US History

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Studying for the AP US History Exam? We’ve compiled  list of study guides for every unit so you can focus on studying and not waste any time looking for resources!




The APUSH course covers the entirety of US History: from the early days of Cahokia to the Revolutionary War, to the Gilded Age, World Wars, and beyond! Now I know what you’re thinking…that’s a lot of information, but that’s where this list comes in! Below you’ll find a collection of study guides and quick tips that puts everything you need to know all in one place.




These guides were produced by our team of teachers and students who have passed the exam. They include all that you need to get a 5 on the exam, keep reading for more!

Please note! Due to the COVID outbreak, the 2020 exam only covers units 1-7. 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


🔥Quick Tip: Don’t stress too much about this unit as it only makes up a small percentage of the exam, but do make sure to have a strong understanding of Native interactions with Europeans and how European exploration impacted the Americas.


Native American Societies Before European Contact

Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration,and Conquest

Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans



🔥Quick Tip: Pay attention to regional differences and similarities, these will shape the development of the colonies and their different points of view later on in the course.


Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans

The Seven Years’ War (The French and Indian War)

 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution

The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification



🔥Quick Tip: Note the development of an American Identity as it will be a major continuity throughout the course. This is a turning point because previously, colonists adhered to distinctly British culture, but here we see Americans begin to form a culture of their own that will greatly influence society and politics late on.



The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson

Study Guides for Every AP US History Unit 

AP United States History, also known as, APUSH, is an advanced placement class offered by the College Board that covers the history of America from the Revolutionary War to the presidency of Obama. AP U.S. History is very similar to AP World History, only it focuses on America and its relations with the world, rather than how the world is inter globally connected. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about the APUSH course!👇

AP U.S. History focuses on American history beginning c. 1492 CE to the present day. Here, you will study how America became a world power, its global relations, the emergence of new technology, work, and exchange, the new ideas of American identity and ideals, American culture, and so on. In AP U.S. History, there are 9 periods, or chunks of time, to study and learn about.

Visit app.fiveable.me for a full library of APUSH resources including unit-by-unit reviews, breakdowns of specific key concepts, cross-unit reviews, and exam skills!

The AP US History exam is very similar to the AP World exam, containing:

A 55 question Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) section,

The exam is split in half, starting with MCQ first, then the writing section. The MCQ is worth 40% of your exam score, the SAQ worth 20%, DBQ worth 25%, and the LEQ worth 15%. In total, the exam will last about 3 hours and 15 minutes. AP US History contains many of the same skills acquired from AP World History, so it is a good idea to keep practicing them.

The MCQ, as mentioned before, consists of 55 stimulus-based questions and lasts 55 minutes. Stimulus-based means that on the exam, there will be a primary or secondary source that you have to read or look at in order to choose the correct answer.

For example, the exam might have an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, which you must use to answer the questions that follow. Usually, these questions are presented in groups of 2-5 per source.

It is a good idea to practice analyzing the purpose and the content of the source in order to answer these questions more efficiently. A tip to help you on your exam during the MCQ is to skip questions you don’t know in order to finish faster, as you only have 1 minute per question on the exam.

Check out this Fiveable replay for APUSH MCQ practice with Fiveable's founder Amanda DoAmaral 

After the MCQ is the first writing portion of the exam, the SAQ, or short-answer questions. You are given 4 questions.  You are required to answer the first 2 questions, but here’s the fun part - you get to choose between the 3rd or 4th question, meaning that you only have to answer 3 out of the 4 questions. You get 40 minutes or so in order to answer them.

:  Make sure you clearly label parts A, B, and C, to be more organized and skip a line in between them. Generally, Part A should be 1-2 sentences, Part B should be 2-3 sentences, while Part C should be the most in-depth, 3-4 sentences.

The DBQ, or document-based question,  is where you will be presented with 7 documents and a prompt that you need to answer, using the 7 documents.  You will have to group these documents to form a thesis and write an essay in order to support your thesis. Usually, there will be primary and secondary sources, and at least one image you have to analyze. You will then use historical thinking skills and evidence to support your argument. You are also given 1 hour to complete it and it is worth 25% of your exam.

The LEQ, or long essay question, is where you will be presented with 3 prompts, and must choose one to answer in the form of an essay. The prompts will require you to use historical thinking skills like compare and contrast, causation, or continuity and change. Here, you are given no sources to draw from, except your knowledge of US history. A good tip for both your DBQ and LEQ is to pre-write what you’re going to write so you don’t forget along the way. Each prompt focuses on different periods of time studied in the course, but all three questions will be based on the same historical thinking skill. You will have 40 minutes to write it and it is only worth 15% of your exam.

Watch as Matthew Scherbarth goes through everything you need to know to crush your APUSH DBQs and LEQs!

Hopefully, this guide has given you some more insight into exactly what the APUSH course entails! Best of luck with your exam prep! Happy Studying!

What is AP US History?

Field Notes is a collection of articles curated by students and teachers from around the world detailing their academic experiences.

Prior to my Sophomore year, many of my peers described Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) as a class where students are destined to fail and learn nothing of importance to life.  Yet, I found that APUSH actually proved to be awakening—and frankly quite detrimental—to my understanding of the modern world, our protection of it, and the politics that surround it.

As none of my previous history classes had covered the Civil War, I found APUSH fascinating.  The class taught me much more than a lesson on how the United States came to be.

Rather, it served as a lesson on the protection of minorities and the plights of women.  A lesson that taught us that as the next generation, we could be the change that ends in history not being rewritten another time.

As a freshman, I was a subservient student to good grades.  Therefore, I suffered from a teacher who constantly started heated political debates in the classroom and segregated students.  The teacher later resigned due to accusations of involvement in a white supremacist group.

Most students probably don't relate to such an extreme example as to why they might hate history.  But what I went through in my Freshman global studies class ignited a fire inside me.  Before I took APUSH, I could not be swayed that another history class wouldn’t be a matter of survival until the school year ended.

Once I reached the end of APUSH, I was able to think to a new degree.  I realized that female subordination wasn’t denounced in the 1800s, in the movies of the 1950s and 60s, or even today.

For example, women were abused by their husbands on a regular basis in 20th-century movies.  Even now, varying opinions on the purpose of women in society spark arguments in different regions of the world.  Some countries still enact laws enabling subordination under male family members.

Another example is how it took until 2018 for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.  Before 2018, the Saudi Arabian government forced the majority of Saudi women to be dependent on their husbands for financial support—they could not drive to work on their own.

Due to cultural stigma, many of these women still will not be able to find jobs.  Sexism runs rampant from the idea that women are subservient to men.

Civil Rights for African Americans, LGBT, Women, and Native Americans

Girls with Sharp Sticks, by Suzanne Young, is an amazing example of the fight for women’s rights.  It is a story of young women chosen to be trained on how to be proper wives.  The novel parallels many boarding schools for girls in the early twentieth century.  These schools trained women to have “proper responses” to the abuse they would endure by their husbands.

While this is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in the fight for civil rights, I don't recommend it to anyone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the extreme depictions of abuse.

Ideas from the novel concerning civil rights don't only apply to women, but they also apply to African-Americans and other ethnic groups living in the United States.

One of the most common examples is African-American slaves.  The Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 was the first law that finally freed the slaves.  Before the early 1800s, slavers took Africans from their homeland to America on a journey called the Middle Passage.

 least two million of them horrifically died from causes such as dysentery, measles, scurvy, and smallpox. 

 They lived in overcrowded conditions with urine and feces riddling their living place: the lower deck.

The Impact of Slavery on Colonial America

Simply ending the problem of slavery only led to more complex problems, however.  Racism was still rampant within the United States.  Well into the 1950s, African-Americans suffered from the “separate but equal” ideology of Jim Crow laws.  They were more likely to live in poverty compared to Caucasian citizens.

Another ethnic group that became incorporated into the framework of the United States includes Mexican-Americans.  These Mexican-Americans lived in Texas and other states that became annexed into the United States during the Mexican-American War.  They have been discriminated against since the declaration of the US Constitution.

As Nativist sentiment grew, those coming from Europe due to the Irish Potato Famine and other catastrophes around the 1870s would be met with similar hate.

Additionally, Chinese-Americans and other Asians were blamed with job loss for nonimmigrant Americans.  The United States even barred the immigration of some Asian ethnic groups.

In the lessons you learn from United States History, AP or not, the true value lies within what you will take with you.

For me, the takeaway of APUSH was our generation's human rights political movements.  This includes the rights of women and ethnic groups across the globe seeking to immigrate to the United States.

AP US History Exam Prep 2020

browse by unit

Live Cram Sessions 2020﻿

Free Reviews 2020﻿

Thematic Guides﻿

Document Based Questions (DBQ)﻿

Unit 1: 1491-1607﻿

Unit 2: 1607-1754﻿

Unit 3: 1754-1800﻿

Unit 4: 1800-1848﻿

Unit 5: 1844-1877﻿

Unit 6: 1865-1898﻿

Unit 7: 1890-1945﻿

Unit 8: 1945-1980﻿

Unit 9: 1980-Present﻿

Course Introductions﻿

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)﻿

Short Answer Questions (SAQ)﻿

Long Essay Questions (LEQ)﻿

Blogs﻿

discussions

creators

Caleb Lagerwey﻿

Jenni MacLean﻿

Robby May﻿

Nicole Johnston﻿

Becca Schaeffer﻿

Will Pulgarin﻿

Andrew Fultz﻿

Melissa Longnecker﻿

Jamie Reese﻿

Pat DiFilippo﻿

Matthew Scherbarth﻿

Kate Regan﻿

Liam Machlin﻿

Sander Owens﻿

Fatima Raja﻿

Ashley Rossi﻿

Nicole Donawho﻿

Sally Kim﻿

James Glackin﻿

Sean Rowland﻿

Rebecca Zhu﻿

Lee Gaines﻿

Austin Becksvoort﻿

Live Cram Sessions 2020

Free Reviews 2020

Thematic Guides

Document Based Questions (DBQ)

Unit 1: 1491-1607

Unit 2: 1607-1754

Unit 3: 1754-1800

Unit 4: 1800-1848

Unit 5: 1844-1877

Unit 6: 1865-1898

Unit 7: 1890-1945

Unit 8: 1945-1980

Unit 9: 1980-Present

Course Introductions

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)

Short Answer Questions (SAQ)

Long Essay Questions (LEQ)

Blogs

Caleb Lagerwey

Jenni MacLean

Robby May

Nicole Johnston

Becca Schaeffer

Will Pulgarin

Andrew Fultz

Melissa Longnecker

Jamie Reese

Pat DiFilippo

Matthew Scherbarth

Kate Regan

Liam Machlin

Sander Owens

Fatima Raja

Ashley Rossi

Nicole Donawho

Sally Kim

James Glackin

Sean Rowland

Rebecca Zhu

Lee Gaines

Austin Becksvoort