AP US History study plan

Map British taxation and colonial resistance from 1763 to 1776 onto a timeline, labeling each act and the colonial response it triggered.

Compare the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution on taxation, representation, and executive power, naming three specific failures each was designed to fix.

Explain how disputes over the Bank, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and foreign policy produced the first party system.

Trace the expansion of white male suffrage and the rise of Jacksonian democracy between 1800 and 1840, citing two state constitutional changes.

Interpret four primary sources (an excerpt from Federalist No. 10, Washington's Farewell Address, a Jefferson letter, and a Cherokee petition) for argument, purpose, and point of view.

Sequence the compromises and conflicts from the Mexican Cession through Reconstruction, 1848 to 1877, on a causal chain that states what each compromise settled and what it deferred.

Explain how Manifest Destiny, the cotton economy, and the Fugitive Slave Act each pushed sectional tension toward secession.

Assess Reconstruction by contrasting the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments with the Black Codes, the Compromise of 1877, and post-1877 disenfranchisement.

Describe three ways railroads, steel, trusts, and mass immigration reshaped labor, cities, and national politics between 1865 and 1898.

Compare the strategies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois and place both in the context of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Trace U.S. entry into and conduct of both world wars, citing three specific policies or acts for each, such as the neutrality acts, Lend-Lease, the War Industries Board, and Japanese American internment.

Explain the causes of the Great Depression and evaluate the First and Second New Deal by sorting programs into relief, recovery, and reform.

Sequence Cold War containment from the Truman Doctrine through détente, tying each policy to a specific crisis in Berlin, Korea, Cuba, or Vietnam.

Analyze how postwar prosperity, suburbanization, the GI Bill, and the civil rights movement reshaped American society between 1945 and 1980.

Evaluate continuity and change in civil rights from Brown v. Board through the Voting Rights Act, identifying three turning points.

Write three thesis statements, one each for a political, an economic, and a social prompt, that take a defensible position and preview two supporting categories.

Complete a 55-question multiple-choice section in 55 minutes and categorize every miss by period and by skill.

Explain three cross-period continuities, such as debates over federal power, race and citizenship, and foreign intervention, using evidence from at least two periods each.

Compare three pre-Columbian societies, such as the Pueblo, Iroquois, and Mississippian peoples, on environment, governance, and economy.

Explain the Columbian Exchange's biological, economic, and demographic effects on both hemispheres.

Distinguish Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonization by motive, labor system, and relationship with Native peoples.

Describe how the Atlantic slave trade and Bacon's Rebellion each reshaped labor systems in the Chesapeake and the Carolinas.

Analyze the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment as forces that prepared colonial society for independence.

Sequence the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, 9/11, and the post-2001 wars, naming one domestic consequence of each.

Explain the causes and effects of political polarization since 1980, including the Reagan Revolution, the Contract with America, and the 2000 election.

Evaluate continuity and change in immigration, technology, and the economy from 1980 to the present using at least four pieces of evidence.

Practice document sourcing (historical situation, intended audience, purpose, and point of view) on six primary documents in 12 minutes.

Complete a second full-length timed practice exam covering multiple choice, short answer, and document-based questions under exam conditions.

Rank all nine periods by percentage correct and build a ranked list of the 20 weakest concepts.

Rewrite two low-scoring DBQ body paragraphs using evidence from the period where you scored lowest.

Drill the 20 weakest concepts from week 7 to 90% recall across three spaced self-quizzing sessions.

Write four thesis statements in five minutes each on prompts spanning Periods 3 through 8, checking each against the rubric's thesis criterion.

Rehearse short-answer timing twice (three questions in 40 minutes), concentrating on the explain and compare verbs.

Assemble a one-page evidence bank of 15 specific facts (acts, court cases, elections) usable across multiple prompts.