unit 8 progress check: mcq apush
What’s Covered
The Cold War: Containment, arms race, Korea, Vietnam, and domestic anticommunism. Postwar Prosperity: GI Bill, economic boom, suburban expansion, Sun Belt migration. The Red Scare: McCarthy, loyalty oaths, public fear. The Civil Rights Era: Brown v. Board, direct action, SNCC, SCLC, legislation, and backlash. Vietnam and Protest: Public opinion, protest movements, Tet Offensive, trust crisis. Social Reform and Reaction: The Great Society, feminism, counterculture, environmentalism, and conservative backlash. Political Decline: Watergate, the end of postwar optimism, and a rise in government skepticism.
MCQ Structure
The unit 8 progress check: mcq apush draws on:
Source sets: Cartoons, documents, and tables with 2–3 questions each. Standalone recall and logic questions—focused as often on causation as on data. Reasoning skills: Causation, comparison, and continuity/change over time.
Discipline in MCQs is about reading for reasoning, not just what happened.
Sample MCQs with Reasoned Answers
1. Cold War Motives
What motivated the U.S. to adopt the policy of containment?
A. Rebuild Europe’s economy B. Limit the expansion of Soviet communism C. Reduce immigration D. End racial segregation
Answer: B. Every major policy up to mid1970s plugs into containment.
2. Civil Rights Strategy
Which tactic differentiated SNCC from the NAACP in the early 1960s?
A. Federal lobbying B. Armed resistance C. Sitin direct action D. Media ad campaigns
Answer: C. SNCC focused on disciplined, nonviolent public disruption.
3. Vietnam and Public Opinion
The Tet Offensive is most significant because it:
A. Secured a U.S. military victory B. Burst U.S. confidence in war management C. Ended the draft D. Ended containment strategy
Answer: B. The televised assault forced a “credibility gap.”
4. Great Society Reforms
Which was enacted as part of the Great Society?
A. Social Security B. Medicare C. New Deal D. Voting Rights Act
Answer: B (or D, depending on nuance). Both are Unit 8 touchstones.
5. Watergate
What was the primary result of the Watergate scandal?
A. Expansion of executive power B. Heightened public distrust of government C. End of the Red Scare D. Passage of the GI Bill
Answer: B. Watergate’s legacy is a public that questions its leaders.
Strategies for MCQ Success
Read the stem and all options first. Don’t let panic bias your reading. Eliminate by logic: Wrong era, causation, or actor drop choices fast. Source questions: Author, bias, and date matter. What’s the message or argument? Reason by skill: Is it asking for cause, consequence, or comparison? Match your answer to the logic, not the date. Time management: 1 minute per question is the discipline—stay on pace.
Pitfalls and How to Avoid
Confusing chronological order (Red Scare I vs. II, preWW2 vs. postWW2 civil rights). Missing question focus (“best explains,” “primary impact,” “most significant”). Not linking to broader themes—Cold War shapes both foreign and domestic, civil rights influence Vietnam protest, public trust wanes after repeated failures.
Routines for Review
After practice sets, track misses by reasoning skill (not just content). Where gaps form, drill with focused questions (e.g., civil rights action, Watergate consequences, Vietnam media impact). Practice document questions—not every answer is in the caption; sometimes it’s about the bigger argument.
Final Discipline
The unit 8 progress check: mcq apush is about seeing the web, not just the nodes. Each question is a miniature reasoned argument—eliminate, anchor, and defend. Practice is repetition, but logic wins tests. Structure every study session for cause, not luck. History rewards the reader who connects, not just the one who remembers. Score high by reasoning—not reciting. Structure always outlasts panic.