Guiding Instruction: The AP U.S. History Free Response Essays

Michael Henry

To succeed on the Advanced Placement (AP) United States history examination, students must demonstrate competency in three areas: content knowledge, document analysis/synthesis, and writing proficiency. On the three hour and five minute test, students face eighty multiple choice questions, a document based essay question and two free response questions. The multiple choice questions make up one half of a student's final grade with the three essays accounting for the other fifty percent. Thus, a student must master substantial content knowledge and effective writing skills to succeed on the test. This article looks at one aspect of that writing process. It analyzes the free response section of the test by examining the types of questions/prompts that appeared on the test from 1994 to 2006. It offers insights into the patterns of questions and suggests how teachers might better prepare their students for the exam.

Until 1994 students selected one essay prompt from five choices on the free response section. The questions ranged from the age of exploration to the mid 1960s. Since 1994, the free response area has been divided in two parts with students, in the first section, selecting one of two prompts that deal with the age of exploration through the late nineteenth century. In the second portion, students choose between two questions from the late nineteenth century to the end of Richard Nixon's presidency.

The free response questions offer a challenge to both students and teachers. They are critical to students' success on the test with the two questions accounting for 27.5 percent of the final score on the exam. To demonstrate competency, students must construct a strong thesis, organize their knowledge, and develop an argument supported by substantial, relevant information. All this must be accomplished within a recommended thirty-five minute time frame for each prompt.

For teachers, the section provides a partial curriculum guide during the year. Instructors must structure their syllabus to reflect the content and writing skills necessary to develop student mastery in this area of the exam. An understanding of the chronology and the types of the topics that have appeared in the free response section can provide a valuable instructional tool. Such information can help define the scope of classroom instruction, determine content selection, and guide skill development.

Chronological Distribution of Free Response Essays

With four prompts appearing each year on the test, there were fifty-two questions on the free response section from 1994 to 2006. By sorting the questions/prompts into six chronological periods, a picture emerges concerning the time frames most popular with test developers at Educational Testing Service (Table 1). An analysis of the chronological topics that have appeared on the free response section offers insights for both teachers and students. Instructors can construct essay prompts that simulate the types of questions likely to appear on the examination. Further, the information offers guidance to teachers about the topics and time periods to emphasize in classroom activities and assignments. Thus, the scope of past prompts provides a pathway for a more effective approach to the AP United States history curriculum.

From 1994 to 2006, prompts/questions from three eras were most numerous: 23 percent of the questions came from the years 1920-1960; followed by 21 percent from the period 1820-1870; and 17 percent came from the years 1870-1920. In total, these three periods accounted for 61 percent of the prompts. The fewest prompts came from the pre-1763 era (15 percent), the years 1763-1820 (12 percent), and the post-1960 period (12 percent). These years made up 39 percent of the questions on the free response section.

The information suggests teachers can most effectively prepare their students for the free response essays by focusing on the years 1820 to 1960. This era has been most heavily represented on the examination in the last 13 years. In contrast, there have been only 6 prompts beyond 1960, and only 2 of these questions asked students to go beyond 1968 in their answer. These patterns point to spending substantial class time on the years between the Missouri Compromise and the conclusion of the Eisenhower presidency rather than rushing through the course content to reach the Carter and Reagan administrations before the May testing. Further, while the years before 1820 cannot be ignored, they probably should consume no more that 20 to 30 percent of classroom instruction.

Multidimensional Nature of the Free Response Questions

A second avenue of investigation of the free response section was through an examination of the multifaceted characteristics of the prompts. A significant number of the prompts (71 percent) were of this type. They required students to choose among several elements or aspects of a time period and/or historical event in constructing their response. Test takers were asked to integrate political, social, cultural, geographic, and economic elements into their answer within a single prompt. For example, on the 1995 AP exam, students analyzed the ways the British policy of salutary neglect affected legislative assemblies (political), commerce (economics) and religion in America before 1750. Thus, in order to score high on this question, students needed to consider three different elements of colonial life: political, economic, and religious.

The thirty-seven prompts contained 105 references to various elements of social science and historical development. Using two sorting methods, these elements were grouped into seven categories (Table 2). In most cases, the prompts had clearly stated labels. Students were instructed to choose among economic, political, social, or religious elements of a topic and discuss how these factors explained aspects of American historical development. With other prompts, however, the manifest content required extrapolation because the elements within the question were not overtly defined. For example, in one case, students were asked to assess the impact of moral arguments, beliefs, or values on a historical issue. This prompt asked about cultural/intellectual issues and was placed in that category.

An examination of the categories of elements on the free response section provides instructional insights for AP teachers. Most instructors realize the core of their curriculum should revolve around political, social, and diplomatic history. And the component distributions suggested these three areas were central in preparing students to write free response essays.

While teachers should continue emphasizing these aspects of instruction, they cannot ignore another important social science discipline in their classrooms, however. Economic elements were the most commonly referenced social science/historical aspect among the free response essay prompts. In fact, when economic components were combined with political, social, and diplomatic factors, these four areas represented almost 75 percent of all prompt references in the section.

This analysis suggests that economic development must be an integral part of the AP United States history curriculum. Issues such as distribution of wealth, labor relations, consumerism, economic change and status, technological developments, and financial matters should be combined with political, social, and diplomatic occurrences to provide preparation for free response essay writing.

Although representing only 10 percent of the references on the free response prompts, the inclusion of questions about geographic/expansion aspects of American development offer recommendations to AP teachers as well. Most instructors deal with American territorial expansion in the nineteenth century. They examine land acquisitions from the Louisiana Purchase, the Florida Purchase Treaty, and Manifest Destiny in the 1840s and 1850s. Several of these topics appeared in prompts on the free response section.

Yet, there were other questions beyond land acquisition that asked students to identify and use geographic regions of the western hemisphere (i.e., Middle Atlantic, Chesapeake, New England, Southwest, etc.) in their analysis. Test takers had to link geographic characteristics with economic, social, and political developments. The appearance of these elements indicated that teachers should emphasize both political and cultural geography in their instruction. Teachers cannot merely roll out maps when discussing nineteenth-century American expansion and then put them in the closet until the next year. They must reinforce regional and sectional geography and cultivate a sense of place throughout the course.

Also, while religious references made up 7 percent of the multifaceted components of the free response questions, five of the seven references were from the years before 1763. This concentration indicates that teachers make religious development the spine of their instruction during the early parts of the survey. With students likely to see prompts concerning religion in Part B of free response essays, an understanding of colonial, religious development could provide students with greater choice on the free response section and enhance their performance.

Finally students are unlikely to encounter references to military battles in the free response section. There were, however, a number of questions that dealt with military/diplomatic issues (Table 2). The causes and consequences of armed conflicts from the Mexican War to Vietnam were part of eight prompts. In addition, seven prompts involved the years after 1930 and assessed America's military and diplomatic participation in world affairs. This data suggests that teachers emphasize results of armed conflicts rather than specific battles in their classrooms, and they spend significant time in the last weeks before the test analyzing America's role in international relations.

Promoting choice on classroom free response essays

It is clear from the free response essay prompts on the AP United States history test since 1994 that choice abounds in the section. Not only were students asked to choose between two prompts in Part B and Part C of the section, but they often selected among various social science and historical components of a problem within a question. This indicates that teachers should construct their in-class essays to reflect choice and help their students make quick, sound decisions as they prepare to write essay answers.

In class, teachers should always provide students with a choice of prompts on essay exams. Students need practice in selecting between and among prompts and their components. Giving students a single question on an essay exam will not allow them to develop the skill of making quick decisions under time constraints, which are the conditions they will confront during the AP testing. Also, in-class prompts should be multifaceted in nature. Students must learn to select and integrate multiple aspects of American development into their in-class essays.

One direct, albeit simple strategy to help students make these determinations is to have them construct a list of all relevant information they know about each question as a pre-writing exercise. This process provides a quick assessment of their knowledge of each question before beginning their essays. It provides a visual picture of students' understandings and allows for informed decisions about question choices. Instructors should caution their students, however, to list only information that fits the topic and the time period under consideration.

Students can also use this strategy with multifaceted prompts. In order to decide which aspects of a problem to include in their essay, students should divide the question into its components and then list the facts and concepts they know about each part of the question. The aspects with the longest, relevant list of ideas should be selected for the essay response. Of course, teachers must also work with students on other skills of writing including thesis development, topic sentence construction and support for the thesis. It is, however, important not to ignore the basic, but critical skill of making sound decisions regarding question options.

An investigation of the free response essay section from 1994 to 2004 contains curricular guideposts for AP United States history. It provides both teachers and students with information about the chronology most likely to appear on the test and the types essay prompts featured in the section. This analysis of essay prompts can be a significant tool for improving the teaching of AP United States history and raising student performance on the AP exam.

Michael Henry is adjunct professor of history at Prince George's Community College and consultant for the College Board