us history staar test

us history staar test

Comprehensive Study Guide for the US History STAAR Test

1. Introduction to the US History STAAR Test

A. The U.S. History EOC is designed to test the critical knowledge and literacy skills of students enrolled in U.S. History. The exam also measures the students’ ability to apply social studies skills to the understanding of major events, themes, and issues in United States history. The content of the exam includes topics such as geography, music, art, African American Studies, economics, politics, and protests. The exam consists of 41 multiple-choice items found in sections 1 and 3, which are worth 50 percent of the examination. Each multiple-choice item is worth one point for a total of 41 points. The exam also contains three sections. One of the sections covers an internal choice, Document-Based or Thematic Essay, which is worth 25 points or 20 percent of the exam. All sections measure basic to complex thinking skills. All sections are enhanced with interrelated social studies process skill competencies. The combination of all sections totals up to 91 points.

This guide and the US History STAAR test will cover material from the Declaration of Independence to the present. The new test is an End of Course (EOC) exam. The course examines the events and issues of American history from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the present. Emphasized in the course is the examination of significant events and personalities that have helped form the United States. Throughout the year, the student will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to understand the cause and effect principles, which have caused the United States to become the most powerful nation in the world.

2. Key Historical Events and Figures to Know

1776 – Declaration of Independence 1787 – US Constitution Manifest Destiny – 1800-1850 Slavery Events Civil War – 1861-1865 Lincoln’s Assassination – 1865 Reconstruction – 1865-1877 Industrialization Immigration Progressive Era – 1890-1920 Imperialism World War I – 1914-1918 Roaring Twenties Great Depression World War II – 1939-1945 Cold War Era 1949 – Communism Brown v. Topeka Board of Education – 1954 Civil Rights Movement Vietnam War Watergate Scandal 1754-1763 – French-Indian War 1775-1783 – American Revolution 1803 – Louisiana Purchase 1861-1865 – Civil War 1898 – Spanish American War 1914-1918 – World War I 1941-1945 – World War II

When preparing for the US History STAAR Test, it is important for you to be familiar with a variety of important historical events as well as individuals who played significant roles in those events. You should know specific details about them, including background information, causes or reasons for them, effects or consequences, locations, time periods, and other key details that help you remember the importance of them. In the following section, you will find brief descriptions of several important historical events and figures that you may want to study in order to prepare for the US History STAAR Test.

3. Analyzing Primary and Secondary Sources

Secondary Source: Interpretations, not created at the time of the event being studied, that are based on primary sources. It is an account of the past provided after the event, usually after original records or documents have been studied. It is a commentary or summary of a primary source. It attempts to describe a source, give meaning to a source, put it into context, analyze it, and explain biased parts. Sometimes these sources are often correct, such as expansions and explanations, but frequently are not that reliable. All secondary research questions are answered by analyzing various sources of data imperative to completing your research and essential to answering your posed research questions by examining multiple dating techniques, dating the primary wood, acquiring radiocarbon dates, other markings or subjected evaluations of various art or scientific types of data, all of which collectively allow the primary source, its responsible authors, the suggested or hypothesized origin or single theory to be challenged or confirmed.

Primary Source: A firsthand account, original documents, or artifacts that provide evidence of the time, person, place, ideas, details, and date of an event. A primary source can be official U.S. documents such as the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, or an artifact such as the fragments of the Berlin Wall. It may also be comments or events that are written or recorded around the time the event being studied happened, usually firsthand and possibly by an eyewitness, or comments by someone with special knowledge. They relate to, describe, or are spoken in the time of the event or place being studied. They may have a physical connection in the form of a letter, diary, photo, object, page of a newspaper record, song, or anything else directly created by people involved at that time. They may or may not be recorded by someone not present during the event being documented, but all first recordings, writings, collections of data records are so classified.

4. Effective Test-Taking Strategies

Answer every multiple-choice question. It is to your advantage to do so. Your exam score is based on the number of questions that you answer correctly. There is no penalty for guessing. If you have absolutely no idea, pick one you do not know. Remember that the STAAR Multiple Choice Questions have four answer choices, one correct, and three incorrect. Your odds are 25% if you pick randomly. Eliminate answer choices that are clearly incorrect. Make an educated guess from among the remaining answers. If you cannot completely eliminate an answer choice, it may be in your best interest to make a guess from among the remaining answers.

Unless you do not know, pick something for every question. There is no penalty for guessing. Use the process of elimination: if you can eliminate one or two answer choices as patently absurd, your chances of guessing wisely go up. Note that the exam will not have two responses with opposite meanings as answer choices. Answer the questions to the best of your ability. Do not leave a question blank. However, if you answer such questions by any method other than guessing, your final scores may be lower or higher than if you had guessed. Therefore, to maximize your scores, you are advised to consider the following guidance:

5. Practice Questions and Mock Tests

6. The document that called for the colonies to draft new constitutions is best known as which Declaration? A) The Declaration of Colonial Rights B) The Declaration of Independence C) The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies D) The Declaration of Self-Reliance

5. What organization was founded by Samuel Adams? A) Sons of Liberty B) St. John’s Episcopal Church C) Parliament D) Tea Party

4. What individual, in reaction to the Intolerable Acts, fired “the shot heard ’round the world?” A) Sam Adams B) Thomas Jefferson C) Thomas Paine D) Paul Revere

3. To the Framers, the greatest threat to liberty was not the power of government but rather A) monarchy. B) factions. C) tyranny. D) the rights of man.

2. What is a commonly believed motivation for the writing of the Declaration of Independence? A) The British government did not have enough men with experience in governing the American colonies. B) Stable and proper constitutions had always been the natural outgrowth of the concern for the common good. C) The colonies bore no responsibility for the French and Indian War, which was actually a British imperial struggle. D) Most Americans regarded themselves as part of a great “civilized world” of empires from which they had a right to seek common recognition of their independence.

1. What does the term “representative government” mean? A) Government officials are chosen to speak for their constituents. B) The citizens vote their opinions into law, and those opinions are heard by elected officials. C) Government officials are free to make laws without input from their constituents. D) The U.S. government will always have three branches representing three different components of this country.