AP US History Exam - UPDATED

Exam timing

Students will be given 45 minutes to read and respond to Question 1 and then 5 minutes to upload their response.

This question presents students with 5 historical sources, 1 of which will be a non-text-based source. This question assesses students’ ability to:

Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.

Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least 4 documents.

Use at least 2 additional pieces of specific historical evidence (beyond that found in the documents) relevant to an argument about the prompt.

For at least 2 documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.

Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.

Corresponding free-response question (FRQ) type in the course and exam description binder

Modified Document-Based Question (DBQ). The prompt for the 2020 modified DBQ may be derived from any of Units 3–7, and will include 5 documents (instead of 7). The rubric will be lightly modified to match the reduced number of documents, awarding 1 point for using 2 documents and an additional point for using 4 documents. An additional point will be awarded for effectively incorporating a second piece of outside knowledge into the argument. Students can earn up to 2 points for sourcing (1 point for each document).

Units 3-7 (Students may choose to, but do not need to, provide content knowledge from units 1 and/or 2 for context)

Units 1-2 (although students may choose to provide content knowledge from units 1 and/or 2 for context), 8–9