AP U.S. History Past Exam Questions

Free-Response Questions

Below are free-response questions from AP U.S. History Exams administered before the course and exam were initially redesigned in 2014-15.

If you require an accessible version of any documents on this page, please email [email protected]. We will respond to your email within 3 business days.

Looking for free-response questions and scoring information from the 2015 exam and later? Visit The AP U.S. History Exam. See also: AP U.S. History Document-Based Questions, 1973-1999 (.pdf/32.2MB)

Note about "Form B" Exams

Prior to the May 2012 exam administration, for selected AP subjects, another version of the exam called "Form B" was administered outside of North, Central, and South America.

2020: Free-Response Questions

The 2020 free-response questions are available in the AP Classroom question bank.

2015: Free-Response Questions

The 2015 sample response PDFs (.pdf/32.8MB) were updated to reflect changes to the rubrics that took effect with the 2016 AP U.S. History Exam.

2015: Free-Response Questions

Questions

Student Performance

Samples, Scoring Guidelines, and Commentary

Free-Response Questions

Scoring Guidelines

Student Performance Q&A

Scoring Statistics

Score Distributions

Introduction and Preface

Short Answer Question 1

Short Answer Question 2

Short Answer Question 3

Document-Based Question 1

Long Essay Question 2

Long Essay Question 3

Resources