Improve Your Test Scores

Keep Your Test & Make Corrections

After your test has been graded, keep your copy of the test questions and be sure to do test corrections in order to gain back some of the points you have missed.  This will also help you prepare for...

Review Questions

The first twenty or so questions on each test will come directly from tests that you have previously taken.  Be sure to skim over old tests, paying special attention to questions you missed in the past so that you don't make the same mistake twice.

UNit Vocabulary

Pay very close attention to your unit vocabulary lists.  This is the main resource you should use to prepare for multiple choice tests.

Make flashcards to remember definitions of individual terms if you wish, but pay special attention to the relationships between  key terms.  I don't list key terms on your sheet in a random order.  There is usually a very good reason that terms are listed closely together.

Take for example this grouping of key terms from Unit 3:
  • Strict interpretation
  • Loose interpretation
  • Necessary & proper (elastic) clause
  • Hamilton's economic plan
  • Bank of the United States
You would need to know not only the meaning of each individual term, but also have the understanding that:
  • Hamilton's economic plan called for the creation of a national bank in order to manage the nation's struggling, debt-ridden economy.
  • The Constitution does not explicitly authorize the creation of such a bank.
  • Hamilton had a loose interpretation of the language of the Constitution and wanted to flex the power of the national government in order to meet new demands.
  • Hamilton argued that under the "necessary and proper" (elastic) clause, the government could stretch its constitutional power to regulate commerce by creating a national bank.
  • The creation the national bank angered those like Jefferson who had a strict interpretation of the Constitution and believed that the bank would become a tool of the elite, urban minority to subjugate the agrarian majority.

NY Regents Questions

The state of New York publishes online versions of its past exams.  Although some of the questions are not quite as challenging as the AP Exam, this is probably that most extensive online bank of questions you can find.

Each document is a final cumulative exam, so you may have to ignore many of the questions you haven't learned about if you use this site toward the beginning of the school year.  By the end of the school year, however, this should be an excellent resource to help you review.

American Pageant  Questions

Your American Pageant textbook provides 14 multiple choice study questions at the end of each chapter.

This is the first time that American Pageant has included multiple choice questions in many years.  Frankly, many of these questions are of poor quality, focus on historical minutiae, or are just not the type of question you can expect to see on the AP Exam.  Additionally, the textbook does not provide an answer key.

So, is studying the American Pageant  multiple choice questions a total waste of time?  No.  But your efforts might be better spent elsewhere, especially if you get stuck trying to find the answer to a particularly troublesome question.