AP United States History
In 2021, AP United States History will be offered in person on:
- Test Date: Friday May 15 2020, 02:00 PM EDT
- Score Release Date: July 2021
Student's Choice Study Book:
2021 Test Information and Resources
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Test Details
The AP United States History exam will consist of 1 online free response question. The total time for the exam will be 45 minutes. The test is open note and open book. Read more about the College Board's academic integrity policy.
Units Covered
The units covered on the 2021 AP United States History exam will be adjusted to encourage fairness amongst students who have missed varying levels of school due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Units covered: Units 3-7 (Students may choose to, but do not need to, provide content knowledge from units 1 and/or 2 for context)
Units not covered: Units 1-2 (although students may choose to provide content knowledge from units 1 and/or 2 for context), 8–9
Test Questions
Modified Document-Based Question (DBQ)
Question #1
Time: 45 minutes
Weight: 100%
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.
AP United States History: Popular Resources
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College Board is taking a strong stance against cheating on the 2021 online United States History test. The following anti-cheating measures will be deployed on testing day to prevent cheating amongst students:
- Submitted work will be run through plaigarism detection tools (similar to TurnItIn)
- College Board will watch online resources looking for collaboration amongst students (shared Google Documents, Discord groups, internet forums)
- Teachers will review the student's submitted work and are encouraged to inform the College Board if the work looks different than what a student normally produces.
- College Board will use additional unreleased heuristics to determine whether or not students have cheated in any way.
Students found violating the academic integrity policy will suffer severe consequences, including:
- If found cheating, test scores will be cancelled.
- If found distributing exam content or exam responses, or found coordinating effors to distribute exam content or responses, the student will will be blocked from testing and their scores will be cancelled.
- Students found in violation of any academic integrity violations will have their high school notified of the violation, and action can be taken accordingly at the high school level.
- Additionally, any organization the student has sent or will send College Board score reports to will be notified of the academic integrity policy violation.
- Students who violate the policy will further be barred from taking any additional College Board exams such as the SAT or AP tests.
- In certain situations, College Board will include local law enforcement to determine if prosecution of the student is possible.
- If you have knowledge of online cheating occuring, please notify the College Board. Reports are anonymous and can be made online.