AP® United States History 2024 Scoring Guidelines - Question 2 - Long Essay Question

Sep 29, 2026

AP® United States History 2024 Scoring Guidelines for Question 2 (Long Essay Question) define how to earn points for evidence-based historical reasoning. The rubric details General Scoring Notes on defensible historical content knowledge and clarity, then specifies criteria for thesis/claim and contextualization. It explains decision rules, common pitfalls, and example responses that meet or do not meet each scoring level for assessing relative importance of causes of conflict from 1500 to 1763.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

General Scoring Notes

Thesis/Claim (Row A)

Contextualization (Row B)

2024 # AP® United States History Sample Student Responsesand Scoring CommentarySet 1 Inside: Long Essay Question 2Scoring GuidelinesStudent SamplesScoring Commentary © 2024 College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement, AP, AP Central, andthe acorn logo are registeredtrademarks of College Board. Visit College Board on the web: collegeboard.org . AP Central isthe official online home forthe AP Program: apcentral.collegeboard.org. AP® United States History 2024 Scoring Guidelines Question 2: Long Essay Question, European and Native American Competition 6 points ## General Scoring Notes • Except where otherwise noted, each point of these rubrics is earned independently; for example, a student could earn a point for evidencewithout earning a point for thesis/claim. • Accuracy: The components of these rubrics require that students demonstrate historically defensible content knowledge. Given the timed natureof the exam, essays may contain errors that do not detract from their overall quality, as long as the historical content used to advance theargument is accurate. • Clarity: Exam essays should be considered first drafts and thus may contain grammatical errors. Those errors will not be counted against astudent unless they obscure the successful demonstration of the content knowledge, skills, and practices described below. Evaluate the relative importance of the causes of conflict among Europeans and Native Americans from 1500 to 1763. © 2024 College Board AP® United States History 2024 Scoring Guidelines | ReportingCategory | Scoring Criteria | | | --- | --- | --- | | Row A
Thesis/Claim
[0-1 points] | 0 points
Does not meet the criteria for one point. | 1 point
Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line ofreasoning. | | | Decision Rules and Scoring Notes | | | | Responses that do not earn this point:
• Are not historically defensible.
• Only restate or rephrase the prompt.
• Do not respond to the prompt.
• Do not establish a line of reasoning.
• Are overgeneralized. | Responses that earn this point:
• Provide a historically defensible thesis or claim about the relative importance of thecauses of conflict among Europeans and Native Americans from 1500 to 1763. The thesisor claim must either provide some indication of the reason for making that claim ORestablish categories of the argument. | | | Examples that do not earn this point:
Provide a restatement of the prompt
• “Many factors caused competition between Europeans andNative Americans in the period from 1500 to 1763. ”
Provide a historically defensible claim, but do not establish a lineof reasoning
• “Native Americans controlled land in North America beforeEuropeans arrived. ”
Provide a claim that is not historically defensible
• “A European policy of assimilating Native Americans throughboarding school education and associating land claims toindividuals rather than tribes led to competition between thetwo groups. ” | Examples that earn this point:
Establish a line of reasoning that evaluates the topic of the prompt
• “Europeans and Native Americans fought over cultural differences, land expansion, andresources. However, the most significant cause of competition was culturalmisunderstanding since differences in organization justified wars between Europeans andnatives. ”
Establish a line of reasoning that evaluates the topic of the prompt with analytic categories
• “Trade alliances and encroachment on Native lands led to increasing competition withEuropean colonists. ”
Establish a line of reasoning
• “Native Americans and Europeans fought over land. ” [Minimally acceptable thesis/claim] | | | Additional Notes:
• The thesis or claim must consist of one or more sentences located in one place, either in the introduction or the conclusion [which may not be limite

FAQs

What is the main prompt being evaluated in Question 2?

The evaluation focuses on the relative importance of the causes of conflict among Europeans and Native Americans from 1500 to 1763.

What must a thesis/claim do to earn 1 point in Row A?

It must respond with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning, including an indicated reason or analytic categories.

What kind of contextualization earns 1 point in Row B?

Responses must accurately describe a broader historical context relevant to conflict among Europeans and Native Americans from 1500 to 1763, not an overgeneral or irrelevant statement.

Sep 29, 2026

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