Aim for FiveUS History

Exam guide

The AP® United States History exam

When it is, how it's set up, what's on it, how students have scored, and a straight answer on how hard it is.

Your exam:

Checked against College Board's website in October 2026.

When is the 2027 exam?

Date
, session 1 (usually morning). Your AP coordinator sets the exact start time.
Length
3 hours 15 minutes
How you take it
Fully digital: you answer everything in the Bluebook testing app.
Calculator
No calculator.

See every exam on one page in the 2027 exam calendar.

New

What's new for the May 2027 exam

College Board changed 4 things about the US History exam. Open one to see what it means for you.

  • All three short-answer questions are required

    You no longer choose between Question 3 and Question 4: there are 3 short-answer questions, and you answer all of them. Each one is about a different time period.

    See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · Short-Answer Question (SAQ) section)

  • Every short-answer question comes with a source

    Question 1 gives you one or more secondary sources (like a historian's writing), Question 2 a primary text source, and Question 3 a non-text source, like an image, a map or a chart.

    See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · Short-Answer Question (SAQ) section)

  • One long essay prompt, with a short intro

    Instead of picking one of three long essay prompts, everyone answers the same one. It's a broad prompt that opens with a short statement to get you oriented and suggest areas you could write about.

    See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · Long Essay Question (LEQ) section)

  • The document-based question covers a wider span of time

    The DBQ covers a wider stretch of the course, so you can use evidence from more of what you've learned. The scoring rubrics and the multiple choice section don't change.

    See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · Document-Based Question (DBQ) and What Stayed the Same? sections)

Updated October 3, 2026 from College Board's pages. All 2027 exam changes

How the exam is set up

The sections of the 2027 US History exam
SectionQuestionsTimeShare of score
Multiple choiceSets of questions about the same source.55 questions55 minutes40%
Short answerAll 3 are required, each with a source: a secondary source (such as a historian's writing), a primary source, and an image, map, or chart.3 questions40 minutes20%
EssaysBoth are required. The long essay is one prompt, with no choice, starting with the May 2027 exam.A document-based question and a long essay1 hour 40 minutes40%

What's on the exam

College Board says roughly how much of the exam comes from each unit. The biggest are Unit 3, Period 3: 1754–1800 (10–17%), Unit 4, Period 4: 1800–1848 (10–17%), Unit 5, Period 5: 1844–1877 (10–17%), Unit 6, Period 6: 1865–1898 (10–17%), Unit 7, Period 7: 1890–1945 (10–17%) and Unit 8, Period 8: 1945–1980 (10–17%).

  1. Unit 1Period 1: 1491–16074–6%
  2. Unit 2Period 2: 1607–17546–8%
  3. Unit 3Period 3: 1754–180010–17%
  4. Unit 4Period 4: 1800–184810–17%
  5. Unit 5Period 5: 1844–187710–17%
  6. Unit 6Period 6: 1865–189810–17%
  7. Unit 7Period 7: 1890–194510–17%
  8. Unit 8Period 8: 1945–198010–17%
  9. Unit 9Period 9: 1980–Present4–6%

How it's scored

Multiple choice is scored by computer, and a wrong answer costs you nothing, so answer every question. The free-response answers are scored in June by AP teachers and college professors, using a rubric.

Each section's points are weighted by its share of the score, added up, and turned into a score from 1 to 5. College Board doesn't publish exactly how many points each score needs, and the cutoffs can change a little from year to year.

Want a rough idea of where you stand? Try the US History score calculator with your practice test results. For the 1 to 5 scale and college credit, see how AP scores work.

How students scored in 2026

AP® United States History scores in 2026, percent of students
Score of 5
14%
Score of 4
37%
Score of 3
23%
Score of 2
18%
Score of 1
8%

Scores of 3 or higher (74% of students) have green bars; 2s and 1s have gray ones. A 3 is where many colleges start to give credit.

In 2026, 74% of students scored 3 or higher, and 14% got a 5. The most common score was a 4.

In 2025, 516,738 students took the exam. 73.7% scored 3 or higher, 14.2% got a 5, and the average score was 3.30. College Board hasn't published the 2026 number of students or average score yet.

The 2027 exam has some changes (see what's new above), so these scores came from a slightly different exam.

Source: College Board's AP United States History score distributions. Percentages are College Board's, rounded, so they may not add to exactly 100. Compare every course.

Is AP® United States History hard?

Judging by pass rates alone, US History is one of the easier exams to pass. In 2026, 74% of students scored 3 or higher: tied for the 9th highest pass rate of the 27 exams on this site. 14% got a 5, tied for the 4th lowest share of 5s.

AP US History covers more than 500 years, from 1491 to today, and Periods 3 to 8 carry most of the weight.

Every multiple choice question comes with a source, and 60% of your score comes from writing: three short answers, a document-based essay and a long essay.

Knowing the facts isn't enough on its own. The essays are scored on skills like using evidence, explaining causes and building an argument, so practice them against the rubric.

Pass rates show how students did, not exactly how hard the material is. They also depend on who takes each exam and how much they prepared. See every course's pass rate.

Get ready on this site

Where these facts come from

College Board runs the exams and can change the rules. If something here doesn't match their site, trust their site.