MahadtheMentor Road to a 5οΈβ£: AP U.S. History
APUSH Required Factual Content List
The AP U.S. History Exam tests your understanding of historical developments, skills, and concepts across nine periods in U.S. history. The exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and consists of both multiple-choice and free-response questions.
Section | Question Type | # of Questions | Weight | Timing |
I β Part A | Multiple Choice | 55 | 40% | 55 minutes |
I β Part B | Short-Answer (SAQ) | 3 (Q1, Q2 req.; choose Q3 or Q4) | 20% | 40 minutes |
II β Part A | Document-Based Question (DBQ) | 1 | 25% | 60 minutes (includes 15-min reading period) |
II β Part B | Long Essay Question (LEQ) | 1 (choose from 3) | 15% | 40 minutes |
Content Coverage by Unit
Unit | Time Period | Weight |
Unit 1 | 1491β1607 | 4β6% |
Unit 2 | 1607β1754 | 6β8% |
Unit 3 | 1754β1800 | 10β17% |
Unit 4 | 1800β1848 | 10β17% |
Unit 5 | 1844β1877 | 10β17% |
Unit 6 | 1865β1898 | 10β17% |
Unit 7 | 1890β1945 | 10β17% |
Unit 8 | 1945β1980 | 10β17% |
Unit 9 | 1980βPresent | 4β6% |
Exam Themes
The following eight themes are central to course content:
Section Details
Skill | Multiple Choice | SAQ | DBQ | LEQ |
1. Developments and Processes | Identify and explain historical trends, events, or processes | Required to describe and explain historical developments | Must explain historical developments and connect them to documents and the prompt | Must develop a historical argument that centers around a major development or process |
2. Sourcing and Situation | Analyze the authorβs purpose, audience, or context of a source | Especially emphasized in Q1 and Q2 using provided sources | Analyze 2 documents for point of view, purpose, audience, or historical context | Not directly assessed |
3. Claims and Evidence in Sources | Identify claims and evidence in texts and how they support the authorβs argument | Q1 and Q2 ask students to analyze claims/evidence in a document | Analyze claims and support arguments using and beyond the documents | Not directly assessed |
4. Contextualization | Identify historical context in which an event or source is situated | Sometimes assessed in Q3 or Q4 | Must explain broader historical context for the DBQ prompt | Required to situate the essay topic in a broader historical setting |
5. Making Connections | Analyze change over time, cause and effect, or comparisons across periods or regions | Often part of Q3 or Q4 | Make thematic or chronological connections between documents and content | Required to use reasoning processes like comparison, causation, or continuity/change |
6. Argumentation | Not explicitly assessed | Not explicitly assessed | Central skill: defend a thesis with evidence from sources and outside knowledge | Central skill: make a claim, support it with reasoning and evidence, and show complexity |
Task Verb | Definition |
Compare | Provide a description or explanation of similarities and/or differences. |
Describe | Provide the relevant characteristics of a specified topic. |
Evaluate | Judge or determine the significance or importance of information, or the quality or accuracy of a claim. |
Explain | Provide information about how or why a relationship, pattern, position, situation, or outcome occurs, using evidence and/or reasoning. βExplain howβ typically requires analyzing the relationship, process, pattern, position, situation, or outcome, whereas βexplain whyβ typically requires analysis of motivations or reasons for the relationship, process, pattern, position, situation, or outcome. |
Identify | Indicate or provide information about a specified topic, without elaboration or explanation. |
Support an argument | Provide specific examples and explain how they support a claim. |
Helpful Videos | Helpful Websites |
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