HiSET Social Studies cheat sheet

Reconstruction amendments: 13th abolished slavery (1865), 14th granted citizenship and equal protection (1868), 15th protected voting rights regardless of race (1870).

The Constitution's three-fifths and fugitive-slave clauses showed slavery's role in early federal compromise; the Missouri Compromise (1820) paired Maine's free statehood with Missouri as a slave state.

Civil War turning points: Antietam (1862) enabled the Emancipation Proclamation; Gettysburg and Vicksburg (both July 1863) shifted momentum to the Union.

Progressive Era reforms: 16th amendment (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th (Prohibition), 19th (women's suffrage, 1920).

New Deal programs (1933-1939) expanded federal economic regulation, exemplified by the Social Security Act (1935) and the Wagner Act protecting union organizing.

Civil Rights milestones: Brown v. Board (1954) ended school segregation; Civil Rights Act (1964) barred public-accommodation discrimination; Voting Rights Act (1965) enforced the 15th Amendment.

Cold War containment doctrine: Truman Doctrine (1947) and Marshall Plan aimed to block Soviet expansion in Europe; NATO formed in 1949.

Federalism timeline: dual federalism (pre-1930s) gave way to cooperative federalism, with grants-in-aid and national standards increasing federal leverage.

Neolithic Revolution: settled agriculture and surplus food production (c. 10,000 BCE) enabled cities, specialization, and stratified societies.

River-valley civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Shang China) depended on irrigation, flood cycles, and centralized record-keeping such as cuneiform and hieroglyphics.

Classical empires: Han China and Rome both built road networks and standardized currency; both faced nomadic pressure and internal fiscal strain.

The Silk Roads and Indian Ocean trade spread goods, ideas, and religions (Buddhism, Islam) and later transmitted the Black Death in the 1340s.

Renaissance and Reformation (14th-16th centuries) challenged Church authority; printing (Gutenberg, c. 1450) accelerated literacy and dissent.

Industrial Revolution began in Britain (c. 1750) with coal, steam, and textiles; urbanization and child labor prompted reform legislation.

Decolonization after 1945: India (1947), Ghana (1957), and most African states gained independence by the 1960s, often through negotiated or armed struggle.

Genocide and human-rights norms: the Holocaust led to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention.

Separation of powers: Article I (Congress, legislative), Article II (President, executive), Article III (courts, judicial); each branch checks the others.

Checks examples: presidential veto, Senate confirmation and treaty ratification, judicial review (Marbury v. Madison, 1803), congressional override by two-thirds.

Bill of Rights: first ten amendments protect speech, religion, assembly, due process, and fair trial; incorporation applies most to states via the 14th Amendment.

Federal election rules: House members serve 2 years, President 4, Senators 6; the Electoral College needs 270 of 538 votes.

How a bill becomes law: introduction, committee action, floor vote in both chambers, conference to reconcile versions, presidential signature or veto.

Judicial review lets courts void laws conflicting with the Constitution; precedent (stare decisis) guides later rulings.

Voting expansion: 15th (race), 19th (sex), 23rd (D.C. presidential), 24th (poll tax ban), 26th (age 18) amendments.

Scarcity forces trade-offs; opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative forgone.

Supply rises with price, demand falls with price; equilibrium is where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded.

Elasticity: demand is elastic when quantity responds strongly to price (many substitutes, luxury); inelastic for necessities like insulin.

GDP = C + I + G + (X - M); real GDP adjusts for inflation using a base-year price index.

Inflation erodes purchasing power; CPI tracks a market basket, and the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to cool demand.

Market structures range from perfect competition (many sellers, identical goods) to monopoly (single seller, high barriers).

Comparative advantage: total output rises when each party specializes in the good with the lower opportunity cost and trades.

Fiscal policy uses government spending and taxes; monetary policy uses interest rates and reserve requirements.

Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator; longitude lines run pole-to-pole and measure east or west of the prime meridian.

Climate zones: tropical near the equator, dry in subtropical belts, temperate in mid-latitudes, polar near the poles; altitude also lowers temperature.

Push factors (famine, war, persecution) drive emigration; pull factors (jobs, safety, freedom) attract immigration.

Demographic transition: high birth and death rates give way to low rates as sanitation and medicine improve, with a population bulge in between.

Map projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction; Mercator preserves direction but exaggerates polar area.

Urbanization concentrates populations in cities; site (physical setting) and situation (relative location) explain settlement growth.

Resource distribution shapes trade: oil reserves cluster in the Persian Gulf, while arable land and fresh water are unevenly spread.

Primary sources are produced at the time by participants; secondary sources interpret or summarize primary evidence.

Bias detection: identify the author, date, audience, and purpose, and separate factual claims from evaluative language.

Correlation is not causation; check for confounding variables, sample size, and whether the source is representative.

Chronology and periodization: place events on a timeline and distinguish cause, effect, and concurrent developments.

Reading charts: check axis labels, units, scale, and whether the y-axis starts at zero before comparing magnitudes.

Point of view in documents: compare two accounts of the same event and identify where they diverge and why.

Fact vs. opinion: facts are verifiable; opinions express judgment and often contain evaluative words such as 'best' or 'should'.

Gross domestic product measures final goods and services produced within a country in a year; it excludes intermediate goods and used sales.

Unemployment rate = unemployed ÷ labor force × 100; discouraged workers who stop searching are not counted.

Business cycle phases: expansion, peak, contraction (recession), trough; two consecutive quarters of falling GDP is a common recession rule.

Money functions: medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value; the Fed controls money supply through open-market operations.

Comparative advantage: specialize where opportunity cost is lowest; trade raises total output even if one party is absolutely better at everything.

Price ceilings below equilibrium cause shortages; price floors above equilibrium cause surpluses.

Federalism divides power between national and state governments; the 10th Amendment reserves unspecified powers to the states or the people.

Bill of Rights protections: 1st (speech, press, religion, assembly, petition), 4th (search and seizure), 5th (self-incrimination, due process), 6th (speedy trial, counsel).

Electoral College: 538 electors, 270 needed; states award electors based on House seats plus two senators.

Judicial review lets courts void laws conflicting with the Constitution; precedent (stare decisis) guides later rulings.

Voting expansion: 15th (race), 19th (sex), 23rd (D.C. presidential), 24th (poll tax ban), 26th (age 18) amendments.

Checks and balances: veto override needs two-thirds of both chambers; Senate confirms appointments and ratifies treaties.

Reconstruction amendments: 13th abolished slavery (1865), 14th granted citizenship and equal protection (1868), 15th protected voting rights regardless of race (1870).

Civil War turning points: Antietam (1862) enabled the Emancipation Proclamation; Gettysburg and Vicksburg (both July 1863) shifted momentum to the Union.

Progressive Era reforms: 16th amendment (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th (Prohibition), 19th (women's suffrage, 1920).

New Deal programs (1933-1939) expanded federal economic regulation, exemplified by the Social Security Act (1935) and the Wagner Act protecting union organizing.

Civil Rights milestones: Brown v. Board (1954) ended school segregation; Civil Rights Act (1964) barred public-accommodation discrimination; Voting Rights Act (1965) enforced the 15th Amendment.

Cold War containment doctrine: Truman Doctrine (1947) and Marshall Plan aimed to block Soviet expansion in Europe; NATO formed in 1949.

Neolithic Revolution: settled agriculture and surplus food production (c. 10,000 BCE) enabled cities, specialization, and stratified societies.

River-valley civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Shang China) depended on irrigation, flood cycles, and centralized record-keeping such as cuneiform and hieroglyphics.

The Silk Roads and Indian Ocean trade spread goods, ideas, and religions (Buddhism, Islam) and later transmitted the Black Death in the 1340s.

Industrial Revolution began in Britain (c. 1750) with coal, steam, and textiles; urbanization and child labor prompted reform legislation.

Decolonization after 1945: India (1947), Ghana (1957), and most African states gained independence by the 1960s, often through negotiated or armed struggle.

Genocide and human-rights norms: the Holocaust led to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention.

Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator; longitude lines run pole-to-pole and measure east or west of the prime meridian.

Climate zones: tropical near the equator, dry in subtropical belts, temperate in mid-latitudes, polar near the poles; altitude also lowers temperature.

Demographic transition: high birth and death rates give way to low rates as sanitation and medicine improve, with a population bulge in between.

Map projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction; Mercator preserves direction but exaggerates polar area.

Urbanization concentrates populations in cities; site (physical setting) and situation (relative location) explain settlement growth.

Resource distribution shapes trade: oil reserves cluster in the Persian Gulf, while arable land and fresh water are unevenly spread.