Curt Lader - AP US Government and Politics Premium: With 5 Practice Tests

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About the Author

Curt Lader taught Social Studies for 36 years and AP U.S. Government and Politics for 13 of those years at Northport High School on Long Island before retiring. He holds a Masters degree in Education from Queens College and Professional Diploma in Educational Administration from St. Johns University.

Contents

As you review the content in this book and work toward earning that on your AP U.S. Government and Politics Exam, here are five essentials that you MUST know above everything else:

If you master Barrons Essential 5, you will develop confidence and get that 5. After reviewing the material in the book, taking the practice multiple-choice questions at the end of each unit, and taking the practice exams in the book, you will be ready for the exam.

T he Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics course and test, unlike the other Social Studies AP courses and tests, is contemporary in nature. The students taking the course and the test are among the most politically aware.

Updating this book reflects a 24-year cycle of test changes that were incorporated when the first edition of the Barrons AP U.S. Government and Politics was published. The 12th edition, like the 11th edition, has more changes than any previous edition. This edition also includes updates and changes to the new AP U.S. Government and Politics curriculum and exam implemented in the 2018-2019 school year. There have not been any changes to the multiple-choice section of the test. It is still comprised of 55 multiple-choice questions, each with four answer choices. However, there are now four different types of free-response questions, one of which is an argumentation essay.

The curriculum is organized by unit with each unit having Big Ideas. Each unit has what the curriculum calls Enduring Understandingscore ideas that students should remember; Learning Objectives, what students must be able to do; and Essential Knowledge, what students need to know. All content on the exam will be derived from these three areas. For the first time, there will also be required foundational documents and required Supreme Court cases that every student must know.

This edition is organized around the five units and five Big Ideas that are linked to the Enduring Understandings. Each of the five chapters correlates to the five units of the curriculum. Each unit has specific types of multiple-choice questions and one free-response question that reflects an Enduring Understanding and Learning Objective of that unit.

In preparing for the revisions for this edition, I have relied on the guidance provided by the College Board. I want to recognize my editor, Kristen Girardi, who provided guidance and support. I also thank my wife, Phyllis, who is without a doubt the best editor I have ever known. I could not have completed this book without their support.

Curt Lader
June 2019

The AP U.S. Government and Politics exam is administered once a year in May. More than 300,000 students nationwide took the test in May 2018. This book offers a comprehensive review of the Enduring Understandings, Learning Objectives, and Essential Knowledge taught in the AP U.S. Government and Politics course, with many historical examples cited for illustration. In addition, each chapter contains:

An overview of the Enduring Understandings concepts and labeled key concepts students should understand, and the specific content that students must know

Key terms

Big Ideas

Required documents

Required Supreme Court cases

Historical and contemporary examples

Multiple-choice questions at the end of each chapter that highlight stimulus material, such as graphs and tables, excerpts from a text-based source, visual stimulus such as maps and political cartoons, questions that have a comparison, and questions that rely on recall or identification or definition of key terms. A comprehensive explanation is provided for each question. The final section of the book offers the opportunity to take two practice tests that include 55 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and four free-response questions (FRQs) that include a short answer with a scenario, an analysis/comparison question of a required Supreme Court case compared to a Supreme Court case that is summarized, a stimulus question that has a map, graph, and so on, and in the fourth FRQ, an essay that requires you to take a position and defend it, called an argumentation essay. A comprehensive answer explanation is provided for each multiple-choice question, and a model answer and rubric are provided for all free-response questions and the argument essay.