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By on July 11, 2017 , UPDATED ON June 14, 2022, in AP If you have read any of my other blog posts, you know that there is one thing that I say consistently: if you want to do well on the APUSH exam, you have to practice taking the APUSH exam. You want me to develop a strategy for Multiple Choice Questions? Don’t you just pick the right answer?Well, yes and no. The APUSH exam is designed for you to demonstrate your historical thinking skills; in that sense, if you have prepared well throughout the year, you should be ready to take the exam. Sweet! But it’s also a test, and just like the SAT and the ACT, the more you practice with sample questions and get familiar with the format of the exam, the better you are likely to do. So, while just practicing the test without knowing the content of US History won’t do you much good, neither will just learning the content and never practicing taking the APUSH exam. But you can’t just practice taking the test if you never develop a strategy for tackling the test. In this blog post, I will outline some strategies for approaching the multiple choice portion of the APUSH exam. At the end of the blog post, you should practice these strategies with the example questions I provide. Ultimately, it will be the time you put into studying that will help you feel comfortable with any strategy you decide to use but know this: it is possible to knock the APUSH exam out of the park! So what’s your strategy for Multiple Choice questions?I’m so glad you asked! Here are some of the most important stats for the Multiple Choice portion of the APUSH exam:
You might be saying right now, “This is impossible! That’s way too fast.” While I’m not arguing that time will be tight, try practicing taking the multiple choice exam with the following strategies in mind. 1. Know the question type. Generally speaking, the APUSH exam will have you read, or analyze, a document, map, or photograph and answer several questions about it. Check out this example from the 2017 APUSH Practice exam as an example of this. Once you understand that nearly all the multiple choice questions will all be grounded in analysis of a specific text, you have a better idea of how to practice for this portion of the exam. 2. Read with a purpose. Let’s take the example above as our guide for this strategy. You could read the entire passage before you read the questions; however, you are likely to have to go back and read the passage again to be able to answer the question. Remember: you only have 55 minutes to finish this thing, so use your time wisely. Read the questions first, and then tackle the passage. Let’s practice with question #50. 1. Which of the following actions by the Clinton administration best reflects the ideas about the scope of government expressed in the excerpt? After reading the question, and the four potential answers, we know that we have a limited scope to choose from: (1) military action (which I would place under the bucket of foreign policy), (2) welfare reform (domestic policy), (3) free trade agreements (foreign policy), and (4) universal health care (domestic policy). OK, now let’s look at the excerpt: “The era of big government is over but we can’t go back to a time when our
citizens were just left to fend for themselves. We will meet them by going forward as one America, by working together in our communities, our schools, our churches and synagogues, our workplaces across the entire spectrum of our civic life.” As I read that passage, I bolded several words that imply that President Clinton was speaking to citizens of the United States, such as “our citizens” and “one America.” This means I can automatically disregard options A and C, which deal with foreign policy – President Clinton wasn’t talking about America’s place in the world, but rather, how citizens interact with each other. As I decide between B and D, I am noticing that there’s nothing specific about this speech discussing universal health care, but there are general statements about the end of “big government” but acknowledging that Americans can’t be “left to fend for themselves.” Here, President Clinton is talking about entitlements broadly, which would be under a welfare program. The best option (and the correct answer) for this question would be B. By reading with a purpose, I can eliminate erroneous answer choices quickly and efficiently. 3. Answer the question that is being asked This seems like a no brainer. Why would anyone ever answer a multiple choice question that they weren’t being asked? Well, it’s easier to do than you might think. 51. The ideas expressed by Clinton in the excerpt were most similar to those of which twentieth-century president? For this question, it’s really easy to get stuck because Clinton was a Democratic and this question lists three Democrats – Johnson, Roosevelt, and Wilson. But the question isn’t asking about party affiliation; instead, it’s asking about ideas. Let’s go back to the passage. “The era of big government is over but we can’t go back to a time when our citizens were just left to fend for themselves. We will meet them by going forward as one America, by working together in our communities, our schools, our churches and synagogues, our workplaces across the entire spectrum of our civic life.” I bolded the portions of the text that will help you answer this question. Clinton is talking about a limited government and increasing the role of private life. Johnson, who advocated for the Great Society program, wouldn’t agree with that philosophy. Neither would FDR of “the New Deal” fame. And Wilson definitely believed the government should be big. The best (and correct) answer on this list is the only Republican – (B) Reagan. Make sure you know what the question is asking you to do and answer that question only. Wow. That’s a lot to think about; can I practice the APUSH multiple choice questions now?I thought you’d never ask. These 4 APUSH practice multiple choice questions will give you enough of an opportunity to practice the strategies above, but you should look for multiple exams to practice on this Magoosh blog.
Alright; now get to crushing the APUSH exam! Questions 1-2 refer to the picture below. 1. This newspaper most directly
reflects 2. This headline was most likely intended to Questions 3-4 refer to the passage below “Along the eastern coast of the United States, where the numbers of Americans of Japanese ancestry is comparatively small, no concentration camps have been established. From a military point of view, the only danger on this coast is from Germany and Italy. . . .But the American government has not taken any such high-handed action against Germans and Italians – and their American-born descendants – on the
East Coast, as has been taken against Japanese and their American-born descendants on the West Coast. Germans and Italians are “white.” Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps. Anyway, there are no Italian-American, or German- American citizens in such camps.” 3. In the passage above,
Howard is arguing that 4. Howard’s critique that the United States was fighting foreign powers based on their human rights abuses while committing
the same abuses at home most closely aligns with which protest movement? Correct Answers:
By the way, Magoosh can help you study for both the SAT and ACT exams. Click here to learn more! Which of the following most likely accounts for the limits of US settlement in portions?Which of the following most likely accounts for the limits of United States settlement in portions of North Carolina and Georgia depicted on the map? The lands were set aside for American Indian reservations.
What stance did the US take towards the USSR during the Cold War Apush?What stance did the US take towards the USSR during the Cold War? The US used political, diplomatic, and economic tools to try and contain the USSR.
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