052114 United States History A
Credit by Exam Study Guide
This Credit by Exam Study Guide can help you prepare for the exam by giving you an idea of
what you need to study, review, and learn. To succeed, you should be thoroughly familiar with
the subject matter before you attempt to take the exam.
Every question that appears on the Credit by Exam is grounded in the knowledge and skills
statements and student expectations within the state-mandated standards, the Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). It should be noted that the exam will not test every student
expectation. However, it is important that students study and know the entire scope of the TEKS
so that they can develop a complete understanding of the content. The CBEs are global exams
grounded in the TEKS and are not designed to be a final exam for the University of Texas high
school courses. You can view the TEKS for this exam online at
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=6148. Since questions are not taken from any one
source, you can prepare by reviewing any of the state-adopted textbooks.
CBEs and End of Course Exams
TEA recently instituted a new policy for exams for acceleration under 19 TAC Chapter 74
Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions, §74.24. The Algebra 1, Biology,
English 1, English 2, and United States History exams for acceleration (credit by exams with no
prior instruction) must have been validated to meet the rigor of the end of course exams.
However, credit by exams used for credit recovery do not need to meet this rigor. We are still
offering credit by exams (with prior instruction) in these subjects for credit recovery only. For
more information about this policy change, please visit:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=2206.
About the Exam
The Credit by Exam consists of 80 multiple-choice questions that are equally weighted. You will
be allowed 3 hours to take the exam.
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Study Guide
Concepts and Objectives
The bulleted list and sample questions below may not refer to all the material that will be on the
exam. This list only provides additional information for some of the student expectations tested
in the U.S. History, First Semester Credit by Exam. The exam covers the time period of U.S.
history from 1607–1941 with an emphasis on the period 1877–1941. Ultimately, you should use
the TEKS to guide your exam preparation.
Themes in U.S. History
• Which nations colonized America?
• What was the relationship between the colonies and England prior to the Revolution?
o Examine reasons for colonization.
o Look at how each of the areas (New England, Middle Colonies, and Southern Colonies)
developed economically and politically.
o Examine the road to revolution. (What did each side do that moved to war?)
• What were the causes of the Revolutionary War?
• What is Constitutional Government? How did the U.S. develop Constitutional Government?
• How was the economy of the U.S. established through the actions of Alexander Hamilton
and Congress?
• Why and how was there movement west?
o Examine the conclusion of the French and Indian War in terms of its contributing to
opening the Northwest Territory.
o Examine acts like the Northwest Ordinance and the Homestead Act of 1862 for
encouraging growth west.
o Examine philosophies like Manifest Destiny, White Man’s Burden, and Dollar
Diplomacy as rationales for movement.
o Examine economic benefits like the discovery of gold and improved farming techniques
and machines for encouraging growth.
o Examine the role of compromise in movement west (i.e., Missouri Compromise, etc.).
o Examine the use of force in the movement west.
• Native Americans
• Mexican War
• How did the U.S. end up in a Civil War?
o Examine the differences in needs between the North and the South.
o Look at the difference between states’ rights and federal control.
o Explain the issues surrounding tariffs.
• Constitutional
• Compromise of 1832
o Examine issues surrounding free versus slave states.
• Missouri Compromise
• Compromise of 1850
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Fugitive Slave Act
• Dred Scott Case
• John Brown’s Raid
o Explain why the election of 1860 was the “final straw” for Southerners.
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• How did the process of Reconstruction reunite the country?
o Debate over who would control Reconstruction (President v. Congress)
o Failure to impeach President Andrew Johnson
o Civil Rights/Reconstruction Amendments (13, 14, 15)
o Carpetbaggers and scalawags
o Tenant farming and share cropping
o Election of 1876 as the end
• Explain the importance of the Gilded Age.
o Presidential administrations from Hayes through McKinley
o Industrialization
o Inventions and scientific contributions
o Growth of public education
o Urbanization
• Change from rural to urban
• Overcrowding
o Growth of railroads
o Immigration
• Contributions of immigrants
• Legal reactions
o Robber Barons versus Captains of Industries (Were the men who accumulated wealth
getting money unfairly or positive leaders of business?)
o Laissez-faire government
o Scandals
o Reform movements
o Farmer problems
o Explain the positives and negatives of the late 1800s as a conservative period.
• Explain how the early 1900s is a Progressive (liberal) period.
• Explain the impact or lack of impact of Congressional laws like the Sherman Antitrust Act
and the Interstate Commerce Act on controlling big business.
• What were aspects of the U.S. foreign relations from 1865 to 1941?
o Manifest Destiny
o White Man’s Burden
o Dollar Diplomacy
o Gunboat Diplomacy
o Relationship with other nations in the western hemisphere
o Spanish-American War
o Open Door Policy
o Taking of the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico
o Relationship with Latin America, particularly Mexico
o World War I
o Rejection of the League of Nations
o Washington Conference
• How were the 1920s reflective of conservative policies?
• What are the causes of The Great Depression of the 1930s (began in 1929)?
• How is the 1930s an example of liberal philosophy?
o Reform of government
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o Recovery of business, banks, industry, labor, etc.
• Explain the differences of conservative and liberal governmental philosophy and actions.
o Conservative
• Late 1800s
• 1920s
o Liberal
• Early 1900s
• 1930s
Vocabulary
Amendments 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Articles of Confederation
Bi-metalism
Bolsheviks/Russia getting out of World War I
Cattle Kingdom
Chisholm Trail
Common Sense by Thomas Payne
Conservative
Corporation
Crédit Mobilier
De Lôme Letter
Dumbbell tenements
Election of 1860
FDIC
First and Second Great Awakening
Fourteen Points
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Great Awakening
Great Railroad Strike
Harlem Renaissance
Homestead Act
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Individual proprietorship
Insular Cases
Interstate Commerce Act
Introduction of cotton to the South by John Rolfe
Knights of Labor
League of Nations and opposition
Louisiana Purchase
Magna Carta
Mayflower Compact
Mexican Cession
Missouri Compromise
Monroe Doctrine
New Deal
Northern Securities Trust
Annexation of Texas
Battle of the Argonne Forrest
Bleeding Kansas
Carpetbaggers
Central Powers
Coercive Acts
Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)
Convention of Seneca Falls
Court-packing Plan
Dawes Act
Dollar Diplomacy
Dust Bowl
Expansionist
Federal Reserve
Flappers
French and Indian War
Gilded Age
Great Depression
Gunboat Diplomacy
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Steel Strike
Imperialism
Initiative
Interlocking directorate
Interstate Commerce Commission
John Brown’s Raid
Know Nothing Party
Liberal
Lusitania
Manifest Destiny
McKinley Tariff
Middle Colonies
Monopoly
Muckrakers
New England
Open Door Policy
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Open Range
Partnership
Progressive
Pullman Palace Car Strike
Recall
Red Scare
Rough Riders
Salutary (benign) neglect
Scopes Trial
Second Continental Congress
Sharecropper
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Silverites versus Goldbugs
Southern Colonies
Stamp Act
Tammany Hall
Teapot Dome and Elk Hills
Tenant farmer
The Compromise of 1850
The Dred Scott Decision
The Grange
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Missouri Compromise
The Red Record
Townshend Act
Triple Alliance/Triple Entente
Trust Busting
U.S. Constitution
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Wagner Act
White Man’s Burden
Wounded Knee
Zimmerman Note
Palmer Raids
Populists
Prohibition
Pure Food and Drug Act
Reconstruction
Referendum
Sacco-Vanzetti Case
Scalawags
Scottsboro Case
Seward’s Folly
Sherman Antitrust Act
Shot Heard Around the World
Social Darwinism
Spanish-American War
Sugar Act
Tea Act
Temperance
The Compromise of 1832
The Declaration of Independence
The Federalist Papers
The Jungle
The League of Nations
The National Bank versus Jackson
Town meetings
Trail of Tears
Trust (as a business combination)
Tweed Ring
USS Maine
Underground Railroad
Watchful Waiting
Wisconsin Plan
Yellow Journalism
Supreme Court Cases
Marbury v. Madison
Plessy v. Ferguson
People
Alexander Graham Bell
Alfred Landon
Andrew Johnson
Benjamin Franklin
Booker T. Washington
Charles Lindbergh
Clarence Darrow
Alexander Hamilton
Andrew Carnegie
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Benjamin Harrison
Catherine Beecher
Chester A. Arthur
Claude McKay
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
Dorothea Dix
Dred Scott
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Eugene V. Debs
Forty-niners and Fifty-niners
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Jackson Turner
George Washington Carver
George Whitefield
Geronimo
Gifford Pinchot
Grover Cleveland
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Tubman
Henry Clay
Henry Ford
Horace Mann
Huey P. Long
J. P. Morgan
James A. Garfield
Jane Addams
John C. Calhoun
John D. Rockefeller
John Dewey
John J. Pershing
John Rolfe
Jonathan Edwards
Langston Hughes
Leland Stanford
Leonard Wood
Louis Armstrong
Marcus Garvey
Marian Anderson
Matthew C. Perry
Queen Liliuokalani
Richard Achilles Ballinger
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel F. B. Morse
Sanford Dole
Sons of Liberty
Susan B. Anthony
Tecumseh
Terence Powderley
Thomas Edison
Upton Sinclair
W. E. B. DuBois
Washington Carver
William Jennings Bryan
William Lloyd Garrison
William Randolph Hearst
William Tweed
Presidents from Andrew Johnson – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Sample Questions
These sample questions will give you an idea of the types of questions you can expect on the
Credit by Exam. These are provided to illustrate the format of the exam. They are not the actual
exam. In order to be successful on the exam, you must study and review the TEKS and the
concepts previously listed.
Multiple-Choice
1. Which of the following nations did not colonize the Americas?
A
B
C
D
England
France
The Netherlands
Greenland
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2. The Chisholm Trail is the most famous of the
A
B
C
D
mass production businesses.
railroad lines.
restaurants cowboys went to in Abilene, Kansas.
long cattle drives.
3. Which of the following business giants and his business is not correctly matched?
A
B
C
D
Andrew Carnegie and automobiles
Leland Stanford and railroads
Cornelius Vanderbilt and shipping/railroads
John D. Rockefeller and oil
4. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were congressional acts passed
as a direct result of
A
B
C
D
Ida Tarbell’s pamphlet “The Red Record.”
Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle.
Roosevelt’s daughter’s death.
Taft’s weight issue.
5. During the 1920s, many people, businesses, and banks had taken on heavy _____ in order
to try to cash in on the business boom.
A
B
C
D
debt
machinery
responsibilities
real estate
Answer Key
Item Number
Correct Answer
1
2
3
4
5
D
D
A
B
A
TEKS
expectation
111.32(b)(1)(A)
111.32(b)(2)(B)
111.32(b)(2)(A)
111.32(b)(4)(A)(B)
111.24(b)(13)(A)
TAKS
objective
1, 4
1, 3
3
4
3
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