TESTING INFO   

 

DATE:        FRIDAY MAY 8^TH, 2009

COST:             T.B.D. (around $80)

SIGN UPS:      T.B.D. (around Jan or Feb)

REVIEW SESSIONS LED BY TEACHER:

 

For seven (7) weeks, starting the first week of March, there will be a weekly 2 hour review session to help you prepare for the A.P. U.S. History exam.   This review will be led by Mrs. Jumper in her class room on a day/time TBD.  This is optional – but highly recommended.

 

OTHER PREPARATION:

 

While the purpose of this course is to help prepare you to do well on the A.P. exam – the sad reality is there is a limited amount of time and an incredible amount of material.  The class will move fast and highlight just a portion of that which you will need to be responsible for.  Therefore, you may want to use other resources to help you prepare.  There are books in the classroom you may check out, helpful links listed on the website, and you might want to invest in an APUSH prep book.  In addition, doing well in your English class and focusing on your writing skills are imperative.  As you will see below, the test is 50% writing. 

 

The Exam

 

3 hours, 5 minutes

 

Section 1:  55 min. Multiple Choice

 

Section 2:  130 min Free Response (essays)

 

 

Scoring the Exam

 

Multiple Choice:         50% of grade

 

Free Response:           50% of grade

 

     DBQ Essay is 45% of Free Response

 

     2 Standard Essays are 55% of Free Response

 

To score a grade of 3 or above, you need to answer about 60 percent of the multiple-choice questions correctly—and write acceptable essays in the free-response section.

 

 

AP Grades

 

Most colleges and universities will give you college credit for a score of 3 or above.  There are some that will not; however, those organizations still look favorably upon the AP course on your transcript.  The following is the grade breakdown:   

 

            5          Extremely well qualified

 

            4          Well qualified

 

            3          Qualified

 

            2          Possibly not qualified

 

            1          No recommendation

 

 

Section I: Multiple-Choice       55 min          80 questions

 

The multiple-choice questions are designed to test your factual knowledge, breadth of preparation, and knowledge-based analytical skills.

 

Correct Answers = 1 point

 

Wrong Answers = -1/4 point

 

Blank Answers = 0 points

 

Breakdown by Years:

 

20%  Pre-Columbian to 1789

 

45% 1790 through 1914

 

35% 1915 to the present

 

 

Breakdown by Theme:

 

35%  Political Institutions, Behavior, and Public Policy

 

40%  Social and Cultural Developments

 

15%  Diplomacy and International Relations

 

10%  Economic Developments

 

 

A substantial number of questions pertain to more than one theme – such as traditional topics like the impact of legislation on social groups and the economy, or the pressures brought to bear on the political process by social and economic developments.

 

 

In answering the multiple-choice questions – remember that haphazard or random guessing is unlikely to improve scores because of the penalty of ¼ point.   But if you have some knowledge of the question and can eliminate one or more answers, it's usually to your advantage to choose what you believe is the best answer from the remaining choices.

 

 

Section II: Free-Response          130 min             3 Essays

 

The essay questions give you the chance to demonstrate your mastery of historical interpretation and your ability to express your views and knowledge in writing.  This section covers the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to 1980.

 

 

Mandatory 15 minute reading period to start out

 

Part A: DBQ (Document Based Essay Question)

 

Part B: Standard Essay – choose one of two options

 

Part C: Standard Essay – choose one of two options

 

 

DBQ

 

Spend most of your first 15 minutes analyzing the documents and planning your answer to the DBQ in Part A. It's recommended that you spend 45 minutes writing the DBQ essay.

 

 

Although confined to no single format, the documents contained in the DBQ rarely features familiar classics like the Emancipation Proclamation or Declaration of Independence, though the documents' authors may be major historical figures. The documents vary in length and format, and are chosen to illustrate interactions and complexities within the material. In addition to calling upon a broad spectrum of historical skills, the diversity of materials will allow students to assess the value of different sorts of documents.

 

 

When appropriate, the DBQ will include charts, graphs, cartoons, and pictures, as well as written materials. This gives you the chance to showcase your ability to assess the value of a variety of documents. The DBQ usually requires that you relate the documents to a historical period or theme and show your knowledge of major periods and issues.

 

 

For this reason, outside knowledge is very important and must be incorporated into the student's essay if the highest scores are to be earned.

 

 

To earn a high score it's also very important that you incorporate the information you learned in your AP U.S. History class. The emphasis of the DBQ will be on analysis and synthesis, not historical narrative.

 

Your DBQ essay will be judged on thesis, argument, and supporting evidence. The DBQ tests your ability to analyze and synthesize historical data, and assess verbal, quantitative, or pictorial materials as historical evidence.

 

 

Standard Essay Questions

 

You'll have a total of 70 minutes for the standard essay questions. It's recommended that you spend 35 minutes on each essay: five minutes planning and 30 minutes writing.

 

 

The standard essay questions may require that you relate developments in different areas (e.g., the political implications of an economic issue); analyze common themes in different time periods (e.g., the concept of national interest in United States foreign policy); or compare individual or group experiences that reflect socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, or gender differences (e.g., social mobility and cultural pluralism).

 

 

Although historiography is not emphasized in the examination, you are expected to have a general understanding of key interpretations of major historical events. Some questions are based on literary materials but the emphasis will be on the relationship between the material and politics, social and economic life, or related cultural and intellectual movements, not on literature as art.

 

 

Standard essays will be judged on the strength of the thesis developed, the quality of the historical argument, and the evidence offered in support of the argument, rather than on the factual information per se. Unless a question asks otherwise, you will not be penalized for omitting specific illustrations.

 

 

Attached is the grading rubric for essays.  It will also be used to grade your essays in the A.P. class.

 

 

The following are strategies for answering the free-response questions.....

 

§                     Answering essay questions generally requires a good deal of training and practice. Students too often begin to write immediately, creating a string of disconnected, poorly planned thoughts. You need to learn to attack questions methodically and to plan your answers before putting pencil to paper.

 

§                     Carefully analyze the question, thinking through what is being asked, and identify the elements that must be addressed in the response. Others require you to consider all the similarities between people or events, and then to think of all the ways they are different.

 

§                    After you have determined what is involved in answering the question, consider what evidence you can incorporate into your response. Review the evidence you learned during the year that relates to the question and then decide how it fits into the analysis. Does it demonstrate a similarity or difference? Does it argue for or against the generalization that is being addressed?

 

§                   Whenever you offer evidence to illustrate contrast or similarity, clearly state your intent. Then, with additional information or analysis, elaborate on the ways in which these pieces of evidence are similar or different. If there is evidence that refutes a statement, explain why it argues against the statement. Your answer should reflect an understanding of the subtleties of the questions.

 

§                      Begin writing only after you have thought through the evidence you plan to use, and have determined what your thesis statement will be. Once you have done this, you will be in a position to answer the question analytically instead of in a rambling narrative. You will also know whether you are going to argue on a side that supports or refutes the statement, and whether similarities outweigh the differences.

 

§                      Learn how to present your thesis statement: describe your overarching framework and then position your supporting evidence so that it is obviously directed to the question—not just a string of abstract generalizations. State your points as clearly as possible, not leaving it to the reader to infer what is meant or how something illustrates a point.

 

§                      If you have done the analytical work required prior to writing, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of the question. You should be able to state your thesis, introduce the elements that support the thesis, and demonstrate the logic that led you to link the elements in support of the thesis. By applying these ideas you will construct an excellent essay.

 

While essay writing in general is a valuable exercise, you may wish to work specifically on free-response questions from previous AP Examinations. This will allow you to compare your own responses with those that have already been scored and evaluated by faculty consultants. Free-response questions are available through the Advanced Placement Program^® in numerous formats:  the classroom, web sites, and AP prep book, etc.