AP US History: Sample Multiple Choice

Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

The following five multiple-choice questions are taken from a previous AP U.S. History Examination. Once you have answered them, you can link to a page that presents the questions with the correct answers and their rationales.

1. Which of the following most accurately describes the attitude of seventeenth-century Puritans toward religious liberty?
   
   
1. Having suffered persecution in England, they extended toleration to everyone.
2. They tolerated no one whose expressed religious views varied from their own views.
3. They tolerated all Protestant sects, but not Catholics.
4. They tolerated Catholics, but not Quakers.
5. They had no coherent views on religious liberty.
   
   
2. The French and Indian War was a pivotal point in America's relationship to Great Britain because it led Great Britain to
   
   
1. encourage colonial manufactures
2. impose revenue taxes on the colonies
3. restrict emigration from England
4. ignore the colonies
5. grant increased colonial self-government
   
   
3. By the time of the Revolution, the American colonists had generally come to believe that creation of a republic would solve the problems of monarchical rule because a republic would establish
   
   
1. a highly centralized government led by a social elite
2. a strong chief executive
3. a small, limited government responsible to the people
4. unlimited male suffrage
5. a society in which there were no differences of rank and status
   
   
4. The Ordinances of 1785 and 1787 were notable accomplishments because they
   
   
1. established the principle that western lands are the joint property of all the states
2. initiated a territorial policy that provided for the orderly creation of new states
3. made possible a policy of American Indian relations that enabled new western areas to be settled peacefully
4. put land into the hands of the actual settler rather than the speculator
5. were the basis for the future settlement of the dispute with Britain over the northwest posts
   
   
5. Thomas Jefferson opposed some of Alexander Hamilton's programs because Jefferson believed that
   
   
1. the common bond of a substantial national debt would serve to unify the different states
2. the French alliance threatened to spread the violence of the French Revolution to America
3. the federal government should encourage manufacturing and industry
4. Hamilton's programs were weakening the military strength of the nation
5. Hamilton's programs favored wealthy financial interests

See the answers and rationales.

For more sample questions, as well as information about free-response questions and how they are scored, check out "The 1996 AP U.S. History Free-Response Guide with Multiple-Choice Section." It's available in the AP Aisle (under U.S. History) in the College Board store.

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