I took the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam 3 weeks ago on Tuesday May 10 around 8:00 am and am completely positive that I passed ( for BYU ) / got at least a 4.
Exam Description, structure and subject matter
The AP U.S. Government and Politics exam has 6 main topics, they are:
Constitutional Underpinnings and Federalism. 5-15% of the exam
The Articles of Confederation and their Problem, The Constitutional convention ( some of the major arguments at it, and their compromises ), the constitution , reserved, implied expressed and enumerated powers, federalism, devolution, Federal Mandates, categorical grants, Fiscal Federalism, Block grants, the elastic clause, the amendments to the Constitution, the process of amending the constitution etc.
Political Beliefs and Behaviors 10-20% of the exam
Public Opinion, Political Socialization, U.S. political culture, Polling, Political Ideologies, General Political beliefs of demographic groups ( like based on education, age,race, gender, income), voter turnout ( and factors that decrease voter turnout), voting trend and patterns ( based on demographics, ideologies, parties etc,) , the expansion of suffrage over time and the amendments that expanded suffrage,etc.
Linkage Institutions 10-20% of the exam
Institutions that connect the government to the people and the people to the government, see Question 1 of the 2016 FRQs. Political Parties,Political Party definition and functions, Political party systems, The general platforms of the 2 major political parties in the U.S., reasons why the U.S. has a two party system, party eras and critical elections/realignment, party realignment, How Political parties are linkage Institutions, minor parties and their functions, Differences between Political Parties and Interest Groups, Definition and Goals of Interest groups, Ways Interest groups accomplish their goals, PACs and super-PACs, types of Interest groups, How interest groups are linkage institutions, factors that help Interest groups succeed , The power elite, Pluralist and hyper pluralist theories ,The Mass Media, definition and how it is a linkage institution, the medias role in setting the public policy agenda, horse race journalism, Campaigns and Elections, campaign finance, soft and hard money, presidential primaries, the incumbency advantage, the electoral college, 527 groups etc.
Institutions of the Government 35-45% of the exam
The Legislative, Executive ( including the federal bureaucracy ) and Judicial branches of the Government, their structure, their powers, their relations with each other, the way the create and implement policy etc.
Public Policy 5-15% of the exam
The process of creating Policy, policy fragmentation, the federal budget, entitlements, economic policy, foreign policy etc.
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 5-15% of the exam
Differences and Definitions of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties in the bill of rights, Supreme court cases that dealt with Civil Liberties and Civil rights, Congressional Legislation that deals with them. selective incorporation and the 14th amendment, Civil Rights history and expansion, etc.
The Exam is divided into 2 sections, Multiple choice and Free Response. There are 60 Multiple choice questions and 45 minutes to finish them, while there are 4 Free Response questions and you have 100 minutes to answer them. The Multiple Choice section accounts for 50% of my grade and Each FRQs account for 1/8 of my grade while the whole FRQ section accounts for 50% of my grade.
My experience in taking the Exam and preparing for it
I think I got around 56/60 on the Multiple choice and around 40/60 on the Free Response but I am not sure on the FRQs. The points to score conversion vary from year to year, but in 2009 you needed 93 out of 120 points to get a 5, and I think I may have reached the threshold, or higher, but I won't know until July 9. On the Multiple choice I was doing fine , and then I came to question 19. I determined what I thought was the correct answer and bubbled in the corresponding bubble on the answer sheet. Then I skipped a question on the booklet and read the 21st question . I determined what I thought was the answer and bubbled it in on the 20th column! NOT THE 21st! I then read the 22nd determined what I thought was the answer went to bubble it in and saw that the next column was for 21 not 22 ! I looked back at the booklet and saw that I had skipped the 20th question. I read it determined what I thought was the answer , and It turned out to be the same letter as 21 and the same letter I had bubbled in! This was with Heavenly Fathers help and he helped me do well on the exam. I am grateful to him and know that without him I could never have passed the AP BIO exam and the AP Chem exam.
Here are the Free Response Questions:
Released 2016 AP U.S. GOV FRQs
No. 1 2016 FRQ. Example of AP U.S. Government free response question.
1.Linkage Institutions-such as Political Parties, the media, and interest groups-connect citizens to government and play a significant role in the electoral process.
(a) Describe one important function of political parties as a linkage institution in elections
(b) Describe the influence of the Media on the electoral process in each of following:
- Gatekeeping/agenda setting
- Scorekeeping/horse race journalism
(c) Describe two strategies interest groups to influence the electoral process
(d) Explain how, according to critics, interest groups may limit representative democracy
Here are my simplified answers too 2 of them ( more or less ) as good as I could remember:
1(a) One important function of political parties as a linkage institution in elections is that they inform and educate citizens about candidates running for governmental office.
(b) The Media's Role of agenda setting influences the electoral process by giving candidates that have the same or similar policy agenda as the public policy agenda the Media sets an advantage ( in the electoral process* ) because the Public think that the issues in that policy agenda are important.
Horse Race Journalism influences the electoral process by giving candidates who are winning in the polls an advantage and get more votes ( the Bandwagon effect ) in the electoral process*. The Bandwagon effect happened with Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries.
(c) One Strategy that interest groups use to influence the electoral process is financial campaign contributions through PACs. Other strategies is that Interest groups can endorse candidates , encourage their members to vote for them and send out emails to support their candidates
(d) Interest groups may limit representative democracy by using lobbying to influence congresspeople to go against the will of their constituents who they are supposed to represent.
2(a) The percentage of non-Hispanic Whites in the population decreases over the time period between 1980 and 2050
(b)The percentage of whites in the population decreasing effects the republican party negatively.Because Whites are more likely to vote Republican and when the percentage of people who are more likely to vote republican in the population decreases, the percentage of the votes the Republican party receives of the whole electorate decreases, making their electoral success decrease.
(c) They make it more likely to have the Democratic party to be the Majority Party and for the Party leaders in Congress to be more likely to be part of a racial minority groups ( like a Hispanic Majority leader or a Black Whip ).
(d) the President can appoint more Judges that are part of racial Minorities , which are then subject to Senate confirmation. The President can also support granting Illegal immigrants rights if that don't go against the law and pay a fee. Finally the President can commission a wall to be built on the Mexican American border to take care that the Laws are faithfully executed.
I have taken multiple practice exams and have gotten a 5 on the most recent one before my exam, although I graded my own FRQs with the released scoring guidelines. I have read and used the Complete Idiots Guide to American Government, Shmoop exam review, cracking the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam 2016 edition Princeton review, AP U.S. Government and Politics Crash Course REA, ( haven't read all of the 550 book )550 AP U.S. Government and Politics practice questions Princeton Review and other resources like U.S. Government crash course ( haven't watched all of these ) and ethel woods notes ( haven't read all of these, mostly used the questions ) to study for the exam.
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