AP US History

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AP US History Open House

🇺🇸 APUSH 1-hour Cram Makeup Finale

apush cram finale - last minute q+a

AP US History Finale Review Trivia

🇺🇸 APUSH 5-hour Cram Finale

👋 Worried about the FRQs on an upcoming APUSH exam or the actual AP exam? Don't worry! We're here to help you with a quick overview of what to expect on the Document-Based Question (DBQ) and the Long Essay Question (LEQ), as well as provide some advice from students who have done well on the APUSH exam.


 Writing the essays for AP US History takes an immense amount of practice and discipline. 

The APUSH FRQ section consists of two essays: the DBQ and the LEQ. The DBQ is an essay in which you have to answer a given prompt using seven documents that interpret the historical event. The LEQ is an essay with a variety of prompts where you have to create an argument without any stimuli.

The biggest advice for doing well on the APUSH essays is planning. Take this student's advice:

"It was much faster to write once I had all of the information planned based on the rubric requirements" - Arthi

It may seem like a waste of time to plan out your essay when you have less than an hour to write, but it makes a difference! You can plan however you plan best: a mental outline, a bulleted list, a more fancy outline, or any other method that works for you.

The DBQ is the longer/more involved of the two essays for APUSH. You are given 60 minutes to write it, of which the first 15 are a planning/reading period.

You don't have a choice on the DBQ prompt, but it will only cover a topic from 1754 - 1980 (periods 3-8). The DBQ also includes seven documents that will interpret the events described in the prompt. The first step is to categorize those documents into 2-4 groups based on their common elements/views on the prompt.

You can increase your score just by knowing what to do. Simply writing a strong essay may not score as well if you don't know how to get all the points. Each one of these will score one point unless stated otherwise. Here's a quick, easy-to-read summary of the DBQ rubric:

One of the easiest ways to get all of these points is to write it all down in a checklist next to your planning and tick them off as you go through.

"When I write essays, I like to have a checklist with me so I can keep count of what points I am confident I have earned" - Anna

Here's an outline that will help you write a concise, great essay!

 Hopefully this guide can serve as your map to success!

The LEQ is the shorter of the two essays—you only have 45 minutes to write it. However, you have a choice between three prompts based on the periods: 1491 - 1800, 1800 - 1898, and 1898 - 2001. All three prompts will be about similar themes, so pick the one you can write about the most!

Like the DBQ, knowing the rubric is crucial! Each one of these will score one point unless stated otherwise.

Replay of a Live LEQ Scoring stream with someone who has been an AP Reader!

Complete Review of APUSH Content with Possible Essay Topics by Period!

Throughout your review, remember these simple words: you will do fantastic! If you're reading this guide, it means you are taking steps to prepare for your exam. By following some of the advice we have given, you will become a much better writer and allow you to nail those essays!

AP US History Free Response Help - DBQ/LEQ

🇺🇸 Ready for a revolutionary way to prepare for your AP exams? You're in the right place! And make sure to check out Fiveable's 

Before we deep dive into how Enlightenment thinking affected the American Revolution, we should establish exactly what it was, so:


The Age of Enlightenment was a period of time during the 18th century (1700s) in Europe where political, scientific, social, and philosophical ideas flourished and underwent radical change.

Enlightenment thinkers questioned traditional hierarchical structures and authority; they argued that humans could develop society through rational thinking.

video on the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution

 in a way that would prevent the tyranny of one branch of government. He believed that independent legislative, judicial, and executive branches would keep each other in check and balance each others' powers (*cough* think about our 

He's the reason why the American government is composed of 3 independent branches: Congress (legislative), the Presidency (executive), and Supreme Court and lower courts (judicial).

The branches can check each others' actions. For example, the president can veto a law passed by Congress.

Consent of the Governed (and life, liberty, and property) 🦅

 argued that a government's power and legitimacy was based in the support that the people gave it. He also stated that a 

government's role was to protect the rights of the people

 (or their lives, liberties, and property).

Thus, if a majority of the people didn't view a government as legitimate and consent to its rule or if the government failed to protect the people's rights, then the citizens could (and should) overthrow it. 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau explained that a government and its people would be part of a "social contract". This meant that the citizens would agree to give up some of their rights and obey the authority of the government. For example, citizens could be prosecuted by the government if they committed a crime.

In exchange, the government would be responsible for protecting the people's rights, like their freedom to speak freely, and maintaining political order.

The people, however, would be the main source of political power through popular sovereignty. Therefore, they could influence their governments actions by 

(or, occasionally, throwing a coup 🙈 ).

 (haha, get it? because of the revolution) the relationship that a government had with its people, and many of democratic ideals were inspired by Enlightenment era thinkers!

If you want some more review check out this introduction 🎥 

key documents and foundations of the American Revolution

How did Enlightenment thinking affect the American Revolution?

👉 Check out the Fiveable APUSH Course Page 

First off, you might be wondering what on earth a secondary source is, and that's OK. AP History courses have a lot of weird terminology, so it's completely understandable! 

First off, a source is any material that is not from the author of the text in question; in this case, the exam. 

A primary source is one that describes or depicts events firsthand, such as a photo, a diary entry/letter, a speech, etc. 

What we are concerned about, a secondary source, is an analysis of those first-hand accounts, or of history itself. These are those books or articles about history, including textbooks, that your teacher might have you read to actually learn the history, rather than learning exclusively from original sources. 

To learn how to do this, let's take a look at a sample secondary source from the APUSH course manual, found 

. This is a sample excerpt from the interpretation SAQ.

Want to practice some more SAQs check out this 🎥 

So, how might one go about approaching this source?


👉 As you have probably learned already, the attribution is a good place to begin. This is especially helpful in reading secondary sources because most secondary sources on the APUSH exam will be from books written by scholars specializing in the subject. 📚 The title will also contain the subject that the excerpt is about. In this case, we can see it is about women in turn of the century New York, referring to around 1900. This probably means it is about women's rights, more specifically change and expansion of roles. A quick glance at question a) reveals that this is the case. ✔️

👉 Now, we can begin reading the actual source material. A common first approach would be to carefully read it, underlining parts we find important, and then move on to the questions. It is perfectly fine if you approach it this way, but I have found there is a better and more efficient way. As you will not need to do extensive quoting of this, you will just need to look for key ideas. Something like this:

📅 The date 1910 in the excerpt seems to confirm our hunch about when it was written.

💃 Dancing seems to be the only key detail in the first paragraph. Learn to be able to scan and skip what is just additional detail, especially on a Short Answer Question, where the excerpt will not be very extensively used.

🍸 The second paragraph's key ideas seem to be that dancing was part of a larger trend toward a greater public social life. 

And with that, the key idea is distilled: 💭 

In the early 1900s, women began to have a greater public social life, e.g. dancing. 

After reading the excerpt, you should have a good summary sentence in mind for comparison purposes of the form 

At this time, A changed in B way, for example C. 

You might not use this exact verbiage in an answer, but it will definitely prove helpful in answering questions or writing essays.

Practice more document analysis with this 

How do I read secondary sources in APUSH?

Don’t run into roadblocks this year! 🚧 Make sure you Join Fiveable and sign up for the 

 for access to weekly APUSH live streams and content that will help you earn the score you want. 

When considering the causes of the American Revolution, we often think back to what we learned in very early history classes. For many of us, that is about all of those acts, especially taxing tea, because everyone knows the British colonists love their tea! ☕ The actual causes were much more complicated than that.

By the mid-eighteenth century (1700s), there had been English settlers on the East Coast for about 150 years. They were beginning to diverge culturally from the British Isles, especially in places further from the population centers in New England. This, coupled with the differing lifestyle, meant that the colonists began to feel less connected with England.

New philosophical ideas by revolutionary thinkers of the Enlightenment gave the colonists new ideas about government. The Enlightenment was a new school of thought developed by philosophers and scientists such as John Locke, who formed new ideas about government by the people (democracy). 📚

And thirdly, those taxes! After the Seven Years War, England was broke and needed money. In order to cover the cost, the country decided to tax the colonies. However, the colonists had no representation in Parliament, the body responsible for creating these taxes. Hence, the issue largely stemmed from England wanting more control over the colonists and their trade with other nations. England's desire for colonial control over their economic livelihood eventually led to dissension that led to events such as the Boston Tea Party and Massacre. 💰

Now, this may seem a little confusing, since I haven't even mentioned the actual events of the Revolutionary War that began with the famous "Shot Heard Round the World" and ended with the 1783 Treaty of Paris. This is because the American Revolution is typically used to refer to the new ideas and changes that led to the Revolutionary War. 🇺🇸

Hopefully, the information above has cleared up some of your confusion about this pivotal conflict! 

If you still want more information, watch this 🎥 

What Caused the American Revolution?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBZNBbiMyQ&feature=emb_title

In this video, Tom Richey discusses a full overview of AP US History with a focus on the course themes, periods 1-9, Native American tribes, the early colonies, the American Revolution, the formation of states, the Constitution. This video is perfect as an APUSH study guide to help you with multiple choice, short answer questions, LEQs (including CCOT, Comparison, & Causation), and DBQs related to this time period. Skip the US history crash course videos & use these APUSH review videos instead.



AP US History Exam Prep 2020

browse by unit

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

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

Thomasina Lester﻿

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

Thomasina Lester