The Best AP US History Quizzes You Should Be Taking

The Best AP US History Quizzes You Should Be Taking SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Looking for AP US History quizzes? You're in luck. We have a long list of quizzes you can use throughout the year, or in the spring when you’re studying for the APUSH test. Read on to get an AP US History workout! How to Use These Quizzes We chose the most comprehensive, detailed quizzes we could find online – some from teachers’ websites, others from general study resources, and many from textbook websites. All of these quizzes test specific eras of American history, for example the Gilded Age or the Cold War. By using quizzes that test certain time periods, you can figure out which eras of US history you know well, and which ones you need to do extra work on. If you want a mix of questions from different eras, hang tight for our post on AP US history practice tests – these contain multiple-choice sections with a mix of questions about each era of US History. So how should you use the quizzes? We recommend the following two strategies for studying for AP US History. Quiz As You Go Throughout the year, as your class covers certain time periods, find quizzes that match up and take them. For example, as your class wraps up a unit about the Revolutionary War, go through some of the quizzes that test the same time period. This will help you retain the information better and learn throughout the year. (Not to mention this will help you study for in-class tests and get better grades in your AP US History class!) Furthermore, learning the material well the first time will reduce the need for frantic spring cramming. Yeah, you'll still probably need to brush up on some dates and names before the AP test (when was the French and Indian War again?), but having a solid understanding of the different major eras and events in US History, like the events that led to the Revolutionary War, will save you a lot of study time. If you work to retain information throughout the year, you won't have to cram so hard in the spring. Use the Quizzes for Targeted Spring Studying You'll probably do your most intense studying in the spring, in the run-up to the AP exam in May. You can use the quizzes to review material you learned earlier in the year, like information on the colonies or the War of 1812. It can be hard to remember details you learned in September before the AP test in May, so definitely take advantage of these quizzes to jog your memory and review material from early in the year. You can also use the quizzes to target time periods you didn’t learn very well or are having a hard time remembering. Civil War not your thing? Hit the Civil War quizzes. Can’t get the Cold War years straight in your head? Quiz them! Taking the Quizzes There may be some highly-specific questions that you’ll have trouble with since many of these questions come from textbooks. However, if you know the era well enough you should be able to work through most of the questions using process of elimination. In fact, it’s actually quite helpful to go through these quizzes since the APUSH test is written by a different team of writers than your textbook was, so you need to be prepared to think about questions from a slightly different point of view. If you can do well on quizzes written by multiple authors, you will be well-prepared to tackle multiple choice on the real AP US history test. One final word of caution: note that if your class’s textbook website is linked here, chances are your teacher will use these quizzes in class. So don’t use the quizzes from your own book unless your teacher doesn’t use them! You wouldn’t want to duplicate work doing in class, or worse, get accused of cheating. Use quizzes from the other sources instead. AP US History Quizzes Here are the quizzes, organized by website. Click on each one to explore quiz format. The majority are multiple choice, though there are some true/false quizzes sprinkled in as well. Since each site has about 30 quizzes, there are more than 400 quizzes here! So don't attempt them all in one sitting! Many of the textbook web pages are for editions of the books that are a few years old. For example, the American Pageant website below is from the 12th edition, even though that book is now up to the 16th edition. However, the changes between editions aren't dramatic, since history textbooks mainly add information or in some cases change the focus or point of view when they're revised. You can still get excellent quizzes on the main events of each era using these quizzes. For some of the textbook web pages, you'll have to do a bit of navigating to get to the quizzes. While most websites list all of their chapter quizzes all on one page, others separate them out. For example, the first website, American Passages, put their quizzes in separate chapter pages. It's a bit cumbersome, but a few clicks can lead to hundreds of free quiz questions. First, select the relevant chapter to get to the quiz questions. For the ones that are just numbered, not named, that will take some guess work, but you can find them. To take an example, in the pictures below, I'm trying to find a quiz on the Civil War. In the "Navigate By Chapter" drop-down menu, I select "Chapter 15." Success! Chapter 15 is about the Civil War years (as well as the immediate aftermath). Next I click on the "ACE the Test" link in the blue sidebar. I click on "ACE Practice Tests," which opens up a new window with the quiz. Voila! The quiz. Note that most of the websites are more straightforward than this one. Check them out below and start studying! American Passages Making America The Enduring Vision The American Pageant American History: Connecting with the Past The Unfinished Nation Experience America Give Me Liberty! The American Experiment A People and a Nation America: A Narrative History Other Quiz Sites AP US History Quizzesat Albert.io APUSH Quizzes at Raleigh Charter High School US History Quizzes at HistoryTeacher.net What’s Next? Did you know many colleges require SAT Subject Tests in addition to AP tests? Get a complete list of schools that require SAT Subject Tests, and learn the best time to fit Subject Tests into your schedule (hint: if you’re taking AP US History, you should strongly consider the US History subject test). Have you taken the SAT or ACT yet? Thinking about a retake? Learn if your score will improve on a retake, and start studying with the best SAT prep books around (ACT version here). Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: