CSET Social Science Subtest 2 Study Guide

U.S. history: 35 multiple-choice questions

• 0001 Pre-Revolutionary Era and the War for Independence American Indian cultural groups; the European struggle for North America and the 13 English colonies; colonial rule compared; the enslavement of Africans across the Americas; the causes, conduct and effects of the war.
• 0002 The Development of the Constitution and the Early Republic Where the founding documents came from, in Enlightenment thought and colonial experience: the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers; ratification, Federalists against Anti-Federalists.
• 0003 The Emergence of a New Nation Early parties; Jeffersonian and Jacksonian ideas; foreign policy before the Civil War; sectional identities; the West and Manifest Destiny; Indian policy; slavery and abolition; reform movements.
• 0004 Civil War and Reconstruction Nullification and secession; strengths of the Union and the Confederacy; turning points; the war's effects; Reconstruction as planned and as carried out; segregation laws; the three Reconstruction amendments, 13th to 15th.
• 0005 The "Gilded Age" Entrepreneurs and industrialists; industrialization, immigration, working conditions and early labor organizations; Populism and Progressivism; federal Indian policy; urbanization.
• 0006 The U.S. as a World Power Imperialism and the Spanish-American War; the Panama Canal, the Open Door, Big Stick, Dollar and Moral diplomacy; World War I abroad and on the home front.
• 0007 The 1920s The Red Scare and the organizations of the decade; the 18th and 19th Amendments; immigration policy; the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance; radio, mass production and the growth of cities.
• 0008 The Great Depression and the New Deal The 1929 crash and the answers of Hoover, Congress and the New Deal; the human toll and migration; regional programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Central Valley Project; organized labor.
• 0009 World War II Origins of American involvement; foreign policy before and during the war; internment, the Holocaust, the fighting forces, the home front, technology and the atomic bomb; policy after the war.
• 0010 Post-World War II America Migration patterns; the larger federal role; technology since 1945; domestic policies from Truman to the present.
• 0011 Post-World War II U.S. Foreign Policy Origins of the Cold War; the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and the alliances; Korea; McCarthyism; presidential foreign policies; Vietnam.
• 0012 Civil Rights Movement Its leaders, events, laws and court cases; the struggles of African Americans and of other minorities; the women's rights movement.

U.S. geography: 4 multiple-choice questions

• 0013 Tools and Perspectives of Geographic Study What defines a region and why regions matter; geographic information systems, remote sensing and map projections.
• 0014 Geographic Diversity of Natural Landscapes and Human Societies Ecological settings; how economies came to depend on one another through the agricultural, industrial and post-industrial revolutions; human settlements; cooperation and conflict over territory.
• 0015 Culture and the Physical Environment How settlement patterns answer the physical environment; how environmental policy and social policy are tied.

The subtest

• 39 multiple-choice questions and 3 constructed-response questions: one extended and one short on U.S. history, one short on U.S. geography.
• Multiple-choice questions are 70% of the score and constructed-response questions 30%.
• 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 15 more minutes for a nondisclosure agreement and tutorial. Passing score: 220.

U.S. history: extended response

• Compare the positions of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists on ratifying the Constitution. Explain how the dispute was settled and what it added to the document.
• Explain two causes of Populism in the late 19th century, and assess how far the reforms of the Progressive Era answered the Populists' demands.

U.S. history: short response

• Describe two ways in which the New Deal changed the role of the federal government in the economy.
• Explain how the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were tied to Reconstruction, and name one way a later generation applied one of them.

U.S. geography: short response

• Explain why many cities of the eastern United States grew up along the fall line. Use one named city as your example.
• Describe how a geographic information system could help a city decide where to build a new school.