Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics, also known as AP US Gov & Pol, AP US Gov, AP Go Po or AP Gov, is a college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

-level course and examination offered to high school students through the College Board

College Board

The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...

's Advanced Placement Program

Advanced Placement Program

The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...

. This course surveys the structure and function of American government and politics

Politics of the United States

The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...

 that begins with an analysis of the United States Constitution, the foundation of the American political system. Students study the three branches of government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

, administrative agencies that support each branch, the role of political behavior in the democratic process, rules governing elections

Elections in the United States

The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...

, political culture, and the workings of political parties and interest groups.

Topic Outline

The material in the course is composed of multiple subjects from the Constitutional roots of the United States to recent developments in civil rights and liberties. The AP United States Government examination covers roughly six subjects listed below in approximate percentage composition of the examination.

Constitutional Underpinnings of United States Government (5-15%)

• Considerations that influenced the formulation and adoption of the Constitution
  History of the United States Constitution
  The United States Constitution was written in 1787, but it did not take effect until after it was ratified in 1789, when it replaced the Articles of Confederation. It remains the basic law of the United States...
  
  
• Separation of powers
  Separation of powers
  The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...
  
  
• Federalism
  Federalism
  Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
  
  
• Theories of democratic government
  Democracy (varieties)
  -Direct democracy:Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, is any form of government based on a theory of civics in which all citizens can directly participate in the decision-making process...
  
  

Political beliefs and behaviors (10-20%)

• Beliefs that citizens hold about their government and its leaders
• Processes by which citizens learn about politics
  Political socialization
  Political socialization is a concept concerning the “study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors”. It refers to a learning process by which norms and behavior acceptable to a well running political system are...
  
  
• The nature, sources, and consequences of public opinion
  Public opinion
  Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
  
  
• The ways in which citizens vote
  Elections in the United States
  The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...
  
   and otherwise participate in political life
  Civic engagement
  Civic engagement or civic participation has been defined as "Individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern."-Forms:...
  
  
• Factors that influence citizens to differ from one another in terms of political beliefs and behaviors

Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media (10-20%)

• Political parties and elections
  Elections in the United States
  The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...
  
  
  • Functions
  • Organization
  • Development
  • Effects on the political process
  • Electoral laws
    Election law
    Election law is a discipline falling at the juncture of constitutional law and political science. It researches "the politics of law and the law of politics"...
    
     and systems
• Interest groups, including political action committees (PACs)
  • The range of interests represented
  • The activities of interest groups
  • The effects of interest groups on the political process
  • The unique characteristics and roles of PACs in the political process
• The mass media
  Media of the United States
  Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...
  
  
  • The functions and structures of the media
  • The impact of media on politics

Institutions of National Government: the Congress, the Presidency, the Bureaucracy, and the Federal Courts(35-45%)

• The major formal and informal institutional arrangements of powers
• Relationships among these four institutions, and varying balances of power
• Linkages between institutions and the following:
  • Public opinion
    Public opinion
    Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
    
     and voters
  • Interest groups
  • Political parties
  • The media
    Media of the United States
    Media of the United States consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S...
    
    
  • Subnational governments
    U.S. state
    A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
    
    

Public policy (5-15%)

• Policy making in a federal system
• The formation of policy agendas
• The role of institutions in the enactment of policy
• The role of the bureaucracy and the courts in policy implementation and interpretation
• Linkages between policy processes and the following:
  • Political institutions and federalism
  • Political parties
  • Interest groups
  • Public opinion
  • Elections
  • Policy networks

Civil rights and civil liberties (5-15%)

• The development of civil liberties and civil rights by judicial interpretation
• Knowledge of substantive rights and liberties
• The impact of the Fourteenth Amendment
  Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
  The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
  
  on the constitutional development of rights and liberties

The exam

The exam consists of two sections:

• Section I: Multiple-Choice (45 minutes, 60 questions)
• Section II: Free-response (100 minutes, 4 questions)

In all a total of 120 points are attainable, with each section being worth 60 points.

Grade distribution

In the 2007 administration, 160,978 students took the exam from 6,306 schools.
In the 2008 administration, 177,522 students took the exam.
In the 2009 administration, 189,998 students took the exam.
In the 2010 administration, 211,681 students took the exam.
The grade distributions for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were:

Final Score	Percent (2007)	Percent (2008)	Percent (2009)	Percent (2010)
5	6.0%	12.2%	13.1%	12.5%
4	18.9%	13.1%	17.0%	13.3%
3	26.9%	25.2%	25.4%	25.4%
2	32.1%	25.8%	24.2%	24.0%
1	16.1%	23.7%	20.2%	24.7%
Mean Score	2.67	2.64	2.78	2.65

External links

• AP United States Government and Politics at CollegeBoard.com