Advanced Placement United States History (AP US History, AHAP or APUSH) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program. The Advanced Placement Program is a program that offers college level courses at high schools across the United States and Canada. ... Each May, participating Canadian, American, and some international educational institutions offer the Advanced Placement examinations, the natural focal point of the Advanced Placement program. ... The CollegeBoard offers several awards to students who take AP exams. ... The Advanced Placement Program, commonly known as Advanced Placement, or AP, is a United States and Canada-based program that offers high school students the opportunity to receive university credit for their work during high school. ... AP Biology is a course offered by the College Board to high school students in the United States to earn credit for a college-level biology course. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Advanced Placement Chemistry (or AP Chemistry) course and the corresponding exam offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program allows United States high school students to potentially earn college-level credit in chemistry. ... The Advanced Placement Chinese Language and Culture (commonly known as AP Chinese Language and Culture or AP Chinese) course is offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program. ... This college-level course is both a survey of the various forms of government found throughout the world and an in-depth study of specific governments and approaches to politics. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Advanced Placement English Language and Composition (or AP English Language and Composition or AP Lang ) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... AP Environmental Science is for highly motivated students with interest in interdisciplinary science. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... This course is for foreign language students interested in college-level courses or gaining advanced college credit. ... This course is for foreign language students interested in college-level work or credit. ... Categories: | ... Advanced Placement Human Geography (or AP Human Geography) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program. ... Categories: | ... Categories: | ... This course prepares students for the AP Latin Literature test. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This course is for advanced students interested in college-level work in economics and/or gaining advanced standing in college. ... Categories: | ... AP Physics B is an advanced placement science course that is separated into five different sections of study: Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Physics, Waves and Optics, and Atomic and Nuclear Physics. ... This article relates to the AP test. ... In collaboration with the College Board and with funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Security Education Program, an AP Russian Language and Culture course and exam is under development through the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR). ... The AP Spanish Language exam is part of the College Boards Advanced Placement Program. ... The AP Spanish Literature exam is part of the College Boards Advanced Placement Program. ... AP Statistics students engage in the exploratory analysis of data, using graphical and numerical techniques. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... AP United States Government and Politics is a college-level course offered through the College Boards Advanced Placement Program, which surveys the structure and function of American government and politics that begins with an analysis of the Constitution, the foundation of the American political system. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... American history redirects here. ... The College Board is a not-for-profit examination board in the United States that was formed in the nineteenth century as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). ... The Advanced Placement Program is a program that offers college level courses at high schools across the United States and Canada. ...

Course

This course is for students desiring a freshman college-level course in United States history. The course is a survey of the nation's history from 1492 to the present using a college-level textbook such as The American Pageant, used by 40 percent of all AP US History classes, Out of Many, and Alan Brinkley's American History: A Survey, as well as Gary B. Nash's The American People, Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty The National Experience, A People and a Nation, The Enduring Vision, and Edward L. Ayers' American Passages, among others. Students may use supplemental materials, such as review books, to prepare for the examination. Students are also required to write college-level essays and participate in class discussion in preparation for the exam. No high school or college course is required to take the AP test, however. American history redirects here. ... The American Pageant, Seventh Edition (Brief), by Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy. ... Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University. ... Eric Foner (born February 7, 1943 in New York City) is an American historian. ...

Exam

The AP US History exam lasts 3 hours and 5 minutes and is comprised of two parts. Part I consists of 80 multiple choice questions with each question containing five choices. Students have 55 minutes to complete this part of the exam. The questions cover American History from the colonial era to modern times (from 1607 until nearly the present day.) In addition to traditional-style questions, there are often a few political cartoons, maps, and charts to interpret. The questions in this part tend to flow from easier questions to harder ones. In 1775, the British claimed authority over the red and pink areas on this map and Spain ruled the orange. ...

Part II of the exam is the free-response section, composed of a document-based question (DBQ) and two thematic essays, commonly called free-response questions. Part II begins with the DBQ, which provides an essay prompt and anywhere from nine to thirteen primary sources ("documents") related to the prompt. Students are expected to write an essay responding to the prompt in which they utilize the documents in addition to outside information. The remainder of Part II consists of four essay prompts--two are from the pre-Civil War period and two are from the post-Civil War period. Students must write two essays: one from each set. There is a mandatory fifteen-minute reading period for students to read the prompts and the documents, take notes, and brainstorm, however they may not begin writing the essay until this period has ended. They then have 115 minutes to write the three essays. It is recommended that students spend 45 minutes on the DBQ and 35 minutes on each essay, since the DBQ counts for more points than either essay, but the only timing enforced is the full 115 minute period. ^[1] A document-based question (DBQ), also known as data-based question or death by question because of the fear they inspire in students, is an essay or series of short-answer questions that is constructed by students using ones own knowledge combined with support from several provided sources. ... For other uses, see Essay (disambiguation). ...

Cheating

The exam is heavily monitored to prevent illicit activity and cheating. Proctors are present during all exams and cell phones and electronic devices are banned from the testing rooms. Students are not allowed to discuss multiple choice questions with anyone at any time and may only discuss essay questions 48 hours after the exam.

Scoring

The multiple-choice section of the exam accounts for 50% of the final score, as does the free-response portion. For the former, each multiple-choice question answered correctly earns 1.125 points. Those answered incorrectly subtract 1/4 of a point, while questions omitted do not affect the multiple-choice score. A perfect score on the multiple-choice section is 90. As for the free-response, the DBQ is worth 45% of the section's total value, while the two thematic essays are each worth 27.5% (55% combined). ^[2]

Grade distribution

In the 2007 administration, 311,000 students took the exam from 10,465 schools. The mean score was a 2.74. This exam was the most widely taken AP exam in 2007.^[3]

The grade distribution for 2007 was:

Popularity

The AP United States History Test is the most popular AP exam, with over 300,000 test-takers per year over the last several years. To put this into perspective, more than 1 in every 1000 American residents takes the test every May. ^[4]

Composite score range

The College Board has released information on the composite score range (out of 180) required to obtain each grade:^[5]

References

External links

• AP United States History on CollegeBoard.com
• U.S. History for AP Students (note cards by era; outlines & summaries, too)
• Digital History (resources that include multimedia summaries)
• [1]