Introduction to US History

Welcome to AP US History

Advanced Placement (AP) US History is an accelerated, comprehensive course designed to provide learners with the content knowledge and skills development necessary to be successful at the collegiate level, and depending on the score earned on the ap exam in May, learners may earn college credit; the awarding of credit is at the discretion of the college or university.

Learners will proceed through 9 chapters that are intended to provide the content knowledge foundation and document analysis and writing skills needed to demonstrate proficiency on the ap exam as well as in college courses.

Format of this review textbook

This textbook is designed to allow learners to learn and practice at their own pace; each lesson is intended to take learners no more than 10 minutes to read the content and is immediately followed by a short quiz focusing on recall and understanding of the material; each quiz question will include explanations for the correct choice and the incorrect choices. Learners will also find 3 full-length practice exams that will include content from all parts of the course.

Format of the AP US History exam

The AP US History exam is divided into 2 parts: stimulus-based multiple-choice questions (mcqs) and short answer questions (saqs) are included in the first part; the document-based question (dbq) and a long essay question (leq) comprise the second part of the exam.

Learners have 55 minutes to answer the 55 multiple-choice questions and can expect a variety of documents (“stimuli”) that may include maps, excerpts from primary and secondary source documents, political cartoons and posters, and artwork.

For the short answer questions, learners have 40 minutes total to complete 3 written responses; all test takers must answer the first 2 short answer questions and then they may choose which of the following questions to answer.

For the document-based question, the suggested time, including a 15-minute reading period, is a total of 60 minutes, and test takers need to successfully analyze a majority of the documents provided in the body of their written response to the prompt.

For the long essay question, the suggested time is 40 minutes, and test takers will choose 1 of 3 prompts to which to respond.

Scoring of the AP exam

The College Board scores the AP exams on a 1-5 scale, with 5 representing the highest score. While many colleges and universities award credit hours for scores of 3 and above, it is up to the discretion of each college or university, or their appropriate state system, as to what constitutes the credit awarding score threshold.

Timeline for AP US History

While many students will take an approximately 8-9 month course culminating in the ap exam in May, this review textbook and course are designed for learners using a variety of timelines and projected schedules. Below you will find 3 potential timelines, but the appropriate timeline is the one that works best for your individual needs and schedule. Achievable’s individualized study plan can help you personalize your schedule for the best results.