AP United States History

What the course covers

9 units, with exam weights

1. Unit 1

   Period 1: 1491–1607

   4-6% of examFree
   Diverse Native societies adapted to North America's environments; European exploration, the Columbian Exchange, and Spanish conquest reshaped the Atlantic world and set off lasting debates about labor, race, and sovereignty.
   7 topics

   1. 1.1Contextualizing Period 1
   2. 1.2Native American Societies Before European Contact
   3. 1.3European Exploration in the Americas
   4. 1.4Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest
   5. 1.5Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System
   6. 1.6Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans
   7. 1.7Causation in Period 1

2. Unit 2

   Period 2: 1607–1754

   6-8% of exam
   Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonies took different shapes; distinct British colonial regions emerged, transatlantic trade and slavery expanded, and colonists developed habits of self-rule and ties to Britain that later pulled in opposite directions.
   8 topics

   1. 2.1Contextualizing Period 2
   2. 2.2European Colonization
   3. 2.3The Regions of British Colonies
   4. 2.4Transatlantic Trade
   5. 2.5Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans
   6. 2.6Slavery in the British Colonies
   7. 2.7Colonial Society and Culture
   8. 2.8Comparison in Period 2

3. Unit 3

   Period 3: 1754–1800

   10-17% of exam
   British victory in the Seven Years' War led to new imperial policies, colonial resistance, and a revolution grounded in Enlightenment and republican ideas. Americans then built new governments, debated the Constitution, formed the first parties, and contested land and borders with Native nations and European powers.
   13 topics

   1. 3.1Contextualizing Period 3
   2. 3.2The Seven Years' War (The French and Indian War)
   3. 3.3Taxation Without Representation
   4. 3.4Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution
   5. 3.5The American Revolution
   6. 3.6The Influence of Revolutionary Ideals
   7. 3.7The Articles of Confederation
   8. 3.8The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification
   9. 3.9The Constitution
   10. 3.10Shaping a New Republic
   11. 3.11Developing an American Identity
   12. 3.12Movement in the Early Republic
   13. 3.13Continuity and Change in Period 3

4. Unit 4

   Period 4: 1800–1848

   10-17% of exam
   The young republic expanded democracy for white men, argued over federal power, and was remade by the market revolution. Religious revival fed waves of reform, while slavery spread with cotton and sectional divisions deepened.
   14 topics

   1. 4.1Contextualizing Period 4
   2. 4.2The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson
   3. 4.3Politics and Regional Interests
   4. 4.4America on the World Stage
   5. 4.5Market Revolution: Industrialization
   6. 4.6Market Revolution: Society and Culture
   7. 4.7Expanding Democracy
   8. 4.8Jackson and Federal Power
   9. 4.9The Development of an American Culture
   10. 4.10The Second Great Awakening
   11. 4.11An Age of Reform
   12. 4.12African Americans in the Early Republic
   13. 4.13The Society of the South in the Early Republic
   14. 4.14Causation in Period 4

5. Unit 5

   Period 5: 1844–1877

   10-17% of exam
   Expansion under Manifest Destiny and the Mexican–American War reopened the question of slavery in the territories. Failed compromises led to secession and a Civil War that ended slavery, and Reconstruction redefined citizenship before it was abandoned.
   12 topics

   1. 5.1Contextualizing Period 5
   2. 5.2Manifest Destiny
   3. 5.3The Mexican–American War
   4. 5.4The Compromise of 1850
   5. 5.5Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences
   6. 5.6Failure of Compromise
   7. 5.7Election of 1860 and Secession
   8. 5.8Military Conflict in the Civil War
   9. 5.9Government Policies During the Civil War
   10. 5.10Reconstruction
   11. 5.11Failure of Reconstruction
   12. 5.12Comparison in Period 5

6. Unit 6

   Period 6: 1865–1898

   10-17% of exam
   Industrial capitalism transformed the nation. Railroads and settlement remade the West and dispossessed American Indians, the South sought industry while imposing segregation, immigrants filled growing cities, and workers, farmers, and reformers challenged the concentration of wealth and power.
   14 topics

   1. 6.1Contextualizing Period 6
   2. 6.2Westward Expansion: Economic Development
   3. 6.3Westward Expansion: Social and Cultural Development
   4. 6.4The "New South"
   5. 6.5Technological Innovation
   6. 6.6The Rise of Industrial Capitalism
   7. 6.7Labor in the Gilded Age
   8. 6.8Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age
   9. 6.9Responses to Immigration in the Gilded Age
   10. 6.10Development of the Middle Class
   11. 6.11Reform in the Gilded Age
   12. 6.12Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded Age
   13. 6.13Politics in the Gilded Age
   14. 6.14Continuity and Change in Period 6

7. Unit 7

   Period 7: 1890–1945

   10-17% of exam
   The United States became a world power through empire and two world wars, while Progressive reform, the cultural conflicts of the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the New Deal redefined the role of government and the meaning of American identity.
   15 topics

   1. 7.1Contextualizing Period 7
   2. 7.2Imperialism: Debates
   3. 7.3The Spanish–American War
   4. 7.4The Progressives
   5. 7.5World War I: Military and Diplomacy
   6. 7.6World War I: Home Front
   7. 7.71920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology
   8. 7.81920s: Cultural and Political Controversies
   9. 7.9The Great Depression
   10. 7.10The New Deal
   11. 7.11Interwar Foreign Policy
   12. 7.12World War II: Mobilization
   13. 7.13World War II: Military
   14. 7.14Postwar Diplomacy
   15. 7.15Comparison in Period 7

8. Unit 8

   Period 8: 1945–1980

   10-17% of exam
   Cold War containment shaped foreign and domestic policy, postwar prosperity built suburbs and a mass culture, and movements for civil rights and liberation, youth protest, and environmentalism challenged the status quo before the turmoil of the 1970s fed a conservative resurgence.
   15 topics

   1. 8.1Contextualizing Period 8
   2. 8.2The Cold War from 1945 to 1980
   3. 8.3The Red Scare
   4. 8.4Economy after 1945
   5. 8.5Culture after 1945
   6. 8.6Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s)
   7. 8.7America as a World Power
   8. 8.8The Vietnam War
   9. 8.9The Great Society
   10. 8.10The African American Civil Rights Movement (1960s)
   11. 8.11The Civil Rights Movement Expands
   12. 8.12Youth Culture of the 1960s
   13. 8.13The Environment and Natural Resources from 1968 to 1980
   14. 8.14Society in Transition
   15. 8.15Continuity and Change in Period 8

9. Unit 9

   Period 9: 1980–Present

   4-6% of exam
   A conservative resurgence reshaped politics, the Cold War ended, digital technology and globalization transformed work, immigration from Latin America and Asia changed the population, and the nation confronted terrorism, war, and new domestic challenges in the 21st century.
   7 topics

   1. 9.1Contextualizing Period 9
   2. 9.2Reagan and Conservatism
   3. 9.3The End of the Cold War
   4. 9.4A Changing Economy
   5. 9.5Migration and Immigration in the 1990s and 2000s
   6. 9.6Challenges of the 21st Century
   7. 9.7Causation in Period 9

The exam, part by part

4 parts, 3 h 15 min in all.

• Section I, Part A: Multiple Choice

  Questions

  55

  Time

  55 min

  Weight

  40%

  Format details

  Stimulus-based sets of 3 to 4 questions with 4 choices each. Stimuli include primary texts, secondary texts, images (cartoons, posters, photographs, art), charts or data, and maps. At least one set of paired text stimuli appears in either the multiple-choice or the short-answer section.

• Section I, Part B: Short Answer

  Questions

  3

  Time

  40 min

  Weight

  20%

  Format details

  Task types: saq-secondary, saq-primary, saq-nontext

  All 3 questions are required (no choice, starting May 2027) and each has source material: Q1 secondary text source(s), Q2 a primary text source, Q3 a primary or secondary non-text source. Each question focuses on a different period between 1491 and 2001. About 13 minutes each.

• Section II, Question 1: Document-Based Question

  Questions

  1

  Time

  1 h

  Weight

  25%

  Format details

  Task types: dbq

  Seven documents on a development between 1754 and 1980. The 60 recommended minutes include a 15-minute reading and planning period.

• Section II, Question 2: Long Essay

  Questions

  1

  Time

  40 min

  Weight

  15%

  Format details

  Task types: leq

  One required prompt (no choice, starting May 2027) with a short orienting statement. It spans roughly half of the course chronology, and students may focus on one or more developments named in the prompt rather than the whole span.

Skills the exam scores

• 1.ADevelopments and Processes: identify

  Identify a historical concept, development, or process.

• 1.BDevelopments and Processes: explain

  Explain a historical concept, development, or process, including how and why it happened.

• 2.ASourcing and Situation: identify

  Identify the point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience of a source.

• 2.BSourcing and Situation: explain

  Explain a source's point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience.

• 2.CSourcing and Situation: significance

  Explain why a source's point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience matters, including how these limit what the source can be used to show.

• 3.AClaims and Evidence: identify the claim

  Identify and describe the claim or argument in a text-based or non-text source.

• 3.BClaims and Evidence: identify the evidence

  Identify the evidence a source uses to support its argument.

• 3.CClaims and Evidence: compare

  Compare the arguments or main ideas of two sources.

• 3.DClaims and Evidence: support, modify, refute

  Explain how specific claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source's argument.

• 4.AContextualization: identify

  Identify and describe the historical context for a specific development or process.

• 4.BContextualization: explain

  Explain how a specific development or process is situated within a broader historical context.

• 5.AMaking Connections: patterns

  Identify patterns among, or connections between, historical developments and processes using comparison, causation, or continuity and change.

• 5.BMaking Connections: relationships

  Explain how one historical development or process relates to another.

• 6.AArgumentation: claim

  Make a historically defensible claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

• 6.BArgumentation: evidence

  Support an argument with specific and relevant evidence, describing examples and explaining how they support the claim.

• 6.CArgumentation: reasoning

  Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of evidence.

• 6.DArgumentation: complexity

  Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument with diverse and alternative evidence to build a complex argument.