AP Exams
AP US Government practice and prep course
Constitutional foundations, institutions, civil liberties, political beliefs, civic participation, and the four free-response formats. Start with 13 free questions. The full course adds the lessons, the study guide, and practice tests.
Course outline
- How the AP U.S. Government exam uses what you knowThe exam's structure, the four free-response tasks, the five skills, and what changes in the digital Bluebook format.8 questions
- What a complete AP Government answer must doCheck concept, actor, authority, evidence, and task verb so an accurate fact becomes a complete answer, with worked revision examples.Lesson
- Where American government gets its authorityNatural rights, popular sovereignty, limited government, republicanism, the three models of democracy, and how the Declaration differs from the Constitution.12 questions
- Why the Articles could not hold the Union togetherSix structural weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the collective-action problem, Shays' Rebellion, and how the Constitution responded.13 questions
- How the Constitution distributed power and left disputes openRatification rules, the Great, Three-Fifths, and Electoral College compromises, Article V, separation of powers, and the checks that make limited government enforceable.16 questions
- Madison, Brutus, and the argument over a large republicFederalist Nos. 10, 51, and 39 and Brutus No. 1: what problem each addresses and how to match a claim to the document that best supports it.12 questions
- Why states still matter in a national systemExclusive, reserved, and concurrent powers, the Supremacy Clause, fiscal federalism (grants and mandates), and federalism's multiple access points.13 questions
- Where federal power stopsMcCulloch v. Maryland and United States v. Lopez: the reach and limits of congressional power, conditional spending, Gonzales v. Raich, and the Fourteenth Amendment.19 questions
- Unit 1 Review: Where power comes fromA cumulative review and practice set for Unit 1: democratic ideals, the Articles, the Constitution, foundational documents, federalism, McCulloch, and Lopez.19 questions
- Why the House and Senate do not work the same wayCompare the House and Senate by terms, constituencies, debate rules, and exclusive powers, and learn to identify which chamber and which power a scenario describes.15 questions
- What moves a bill through CongressTrace a bill through committee, floor action, reconciliation, and presentment, and distinguish cloture, veto override, mandatory spending, pork, and logrolling.15 questions
- Why members of Congress face competing pressuresUse delegate, trustee, and politico models and the pulls of party, district, interest groups, and electoral timing to explain how members of Congress vote.15 questions
- How presidents use formal and informal powerSort presidential tools by constitutional or statutory source, from appointments, vetoes, and treaties to executive orders, signing statements, and persuasion.16 questions
- What can stop a presidentMatch each check on the president, from appropriations and oversight to judicial review, confirmation, impeachment, and elections, to the actor and tool that carry it out.17 questions
- Why presidents appeal directly to the publicExplain the bully pulpit, going public, and the State of the Union, and how presidential communication shapes congressional bargaining without changing the law.13 questions
- How judicial review limits elected branchesLearn how Marbury v. Madison established judicial review, what Federalist No. 78 says about judicial independence, and how standing and case-or-controversy rules limit the courts.16 questions
- How precedent shapes Supreme Court decisionmakingUnderstand stare decisis, certiorari, judicial activism and restraint, and how appointments and the other branches can respond to or limit Supreme Court decisions.18 questions
- Why agencies make policy after Congress actsFollow a statute from delegation through notice-and-comment rulemaking to judicial review, and learn iron triangles, issue networks, merit systems, and patronage.15 questions
- Who keeps the bureaucracy in checkIdentify how Congress, the president, courts, and inspectors general hold agencies accountable at the same time, from appropriations and GAO audits to OMB review.15 questions
- How one policy moves through all three branchesFollow a single clean-air policy from statute to agency rule to court challenge and back to Congress, and see why power is shared and accountability is diffuse.14 questions
- Unit 2 review: how institutions share powerReview Congress, the presidency, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy together, then test yourself on a stalled nomination and a full Unit 2 practice set.23 questions
- Why the Bill of Rights reaches the statesSeparate civil liberties from civil rights and trace how the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause carried the Bill of Rights to state governments through selective incorporation.13 questions
- Establishment and Free Exercise: know which clause you are inDistinguish the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses and apply Engel, Yoder, Smith, and Fulton to school and religious-burden scenarios.13 questions
- Match the setting to the speech standardApply Schenck, Brandenburg, Tinker, and New York Times Co. v. United States, and sort speech into the right category: symbolic speech, obscenity, defamation, and time-place-manner limits.17 questions
- Heller, McDonald, and who the right bindsKeep Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and Rahimi in their lanes: what the Second Amendment right is, which governments it binds, and how courts judge specific regulations.16 questions
- Procedure versus substance in due processSeparate procedural from substantive due process and apply Gideon, Miranda, the exclusionary rule, and privacy cases such as Griswold and Dobbs to rights-of-the-accused scenarios.18 questions
- How civil rights claims become policyTrace how protest, litigation, and legislation combine to turn rights claims into enforceable policy, from Letter from Birmingham Jail to Brown, the Civil Rights Act, and Title IX.16 questions
- When majority rule meets equal protectionUse Brown, Baker v. Carr, Shaw v. Reno, Rucho, strict scrutiny, and the affirmative-action debate to explain how Equal Protection limits what majorities may do.16 questions
- Unit 3 review: rights meet government powerReview the whole unit: incorporation, religion, speech, the Second Amendment, due process, social movements, and Equal Protection, anchored by the ten required cases, with a practice set.12 questions
- Why shared values do not produce one policy answerPolitical culture values, Adam Smith's four principles, and how to connect a value to a policy conclusion with a clear mechanism.15 questions
- Where political beliefs come fromPolitical socialization: family, school, peers, media, organizations and events, plus generational vs. life-cycle effects and group patterns.15 questions
- What a poll can and cannot showPopulation, sampling, poll types, question wording, margin of error, and the limits of what poll data can prove.15 questions
- How ideology becomes economic and social policyFiscal vs. monetary policy, Keynesian and supply-side approaches, and liberal, conservative and libertarian tendencies on markets and social policy.17 questions
- Unit 4 review and practice setReview of values, socialization, polling, and ideology as policy tools, with data, trend, and source analysis plus the book's Unit 4 practice set.16 questions
- Who can vote and who votesVoting rights versus voting behavior, franchise amendments, models of voting, and what turnout data and state election rules can show.18 questions
- Why the U.S. has a two-party systemParty functions, winner-take-all rules, realignment, candidate-centered campaigns, and how third parties and major parties interact.15 questions
- How interest groups influence governmentInterest-group routes to influence, resources, free riders, iron triangles and issue networks, and Federalist No. 10.15 questions
- Why presidential and congressional elections produce different strategiesThe Electoral College, primaries and conventions, reapportionment versus redistricting, and how different maps change campaign strategy.17 questions
- What campaign money can and cannot doPersuasion versus mobilization, contributions versus independent expenditures, BCRA, Citizens United, and why spending does not guarantee wins.15 questions
- How news media shape political attentionAgenda setting, the watchdog function, framing, horse-race coverage, and the limits of claims about media effects.13 questions
- How social media changed political informationGatekeeping, direct communication, targeting, selective exposure, fragmentation, credibility, and what 2024 Pew data can and cannot show.16 questions
- Unit 5 review and practice setReview of voting, parties, interest groups, elections, campaign money, and media, with a concept application and the book's Unit 5 practice set.20 questions
- Read the verb, find the mechanism, then apply the conceptLearn to find the actor, action, and consequence in a scenario, name the concept precisely, and obey each part's task verb in the three-point Concept Application question.13 questions
- Read political data without inventing a claimIdentify variables and denominators, describe patterns, draw only supported conclusions, and connect data to a course concept in the four-point Quantitative Analysis question.14 questions
- Compare a new Supreme Court case with one you knowRecall the required case accurately, name the shared constitutional basis, compare facts and holdings explicitly, and connect the unfamiliar case to the named concept in SCOTUS Comparison.12 questions
- Build an argument from a foundational documentChoose evidence from the prompt's listed documents, explain why it supports your thesis, and answer a genuine alternative perspective to earn all six Argument Essay points.12 questions
- Applied civics project: trace one route to government actionA seven-step project: pose a neutral research question, map course concepts, gather four sources, analyze, complete a civic activity, state a finding, and present it.1 questions
- What you should know without notesA closed-notes final review: thirteen foundational documents, fourteen required cases, branch powers and checks, the four FRQ jobs, and current cases kept in context.12 questions
- Manage the digital exam in real timePlan your three hours: pace 55 multiple-choice questions and four free-response tasks, use Bluebook features well, and recover from hard items.10 questions
- Practice Exam 1: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
- Practice Exam 1: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions
- Practice Exam 2: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
- Practice Exam 2: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions
- Practice Exam 3: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
- Practice Exam 3: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions