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Advanced Placement®—Social Studies
Grades 9–12
Achieve AP® success with AMSCO® coursebooks
Make college-level content accessible to all students without sacrificing the rigor required for success.
Organized by the most current CEDs, AP® texts by AMSCO® deliver streamlined content with just the right level of subject depth and text complexity. Develop collaboration, writing, and analytic skills with features such as Think As a Historian, Think As a Political Scientist, and Write as a Psychologist.
Diagnose student performance and build exam confidence and competence with carefully crafted AP®-style multiple-choice and free-response questions correlated to specific learning objectives from the course framework. Check for student understanding and assess skills with a complete practice test that mirrors the directions, timing, question formats, and content scope of the actual AP® exam.
All with the benefit of decades of AP® expertise with our team of veteran AP® teachers, Exam Readers, Test Item Writers, Table Leaders, APSI Instructors, and College Board Consultants!
“
AMSCO® has been a godsend to my students. It has made difficult information to learn much more accessible and digestible...my students were able to gain college credit at a high rate. I absolutely recommend textbooks by AMSCO® as a valuable tool in the AP® classroom.
”
Paula W.
CCSD/Advanced Technologies Academy, Las Vegas, Nevada
Advanced Placement® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these products.
Titles in This Program
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Program Features & Resources
Features
The Promise and Challenge of Advanced Placement®
Prepare Students for Success
- Consistently updated and modeled after the most current AP® course and exam descriptions, AP® editions provide scaffolded instruction, high-quality primary sources, guided inquiry, rich content, and multiple practice opportunities—all necessary for success on the AP® exam.
- Students will learn to think critically, evaluate sources, and develop coherent arguments—skills required in college, career, and civic life.
Detailed Alignment to College Board Frameworks
Successfully Navigate the AP® Course and Exam
- Each text has been carefully correlated to the corresponding AP® course and exam framework and promptly updated following College Board course updates and exam revisions.
- Written and reviewed by College Board consultants and award-winning instructors, our materials meticulously cover the entire course scope and expectations in the proper sequence and within a concise narrative.
Making AP® Accessible to ALL Students
Readability
- Making college-level content accessible to high school students is of the utmost importance in ensuring success.
- Each text is carefully written and designed to ensure all students comprehend key ideas, learn and use concept vocabulary, and build their analytical and writing skills.
Scaffolded Learning Tasks
- AMSCO® curriculum builds capacity, without sacrificing rigor, and supports students in developing the content knowledge and skills necessary to be successful.
- In early chapters, guiding questions accompany primary sources to build a particular analytical skill.
- Initial inquiry and essay tasks are designed to be narrow in scope, allowing students to master smaller skills first.
- Instruction and tasks to develop disciplinary practices and reasoning skills move from simple to complex as students gain competence.
Streamlined Content
- Each text is built to meet the specific thematic learning objectives as well as the Key Concepts, Key Topics, or Enduring Understandings for each unit. As a result, the depth and breadth of content coverage aligns precisely with the AP® frameworks and exams.
Look Inside
Interactive Editions
NEW Interactive Editions—Break Down Learning Barriers
Interactive editions now available for AP® United States History, 4th Edition & AP® World History: Modern.
Interactive editions available for back to school for AP® United States Government and Politics & AP® Human Geography.
You want all your students engaged in learning. We use the latest instructional technology and design to ensure accessibility and help you create a dynamic, inclusive classroom.
Better comprehension for ALL students
Comprehension is the gateway to meaning, and our state-of-the art Immersive Reader technology delivers.
ALL students have the power to
- adapt the reading passage based on their own abilities and learning differences.
- translate and hear the text in their native language—dozens of languages available.
- enhance learning using a picture dictionary, add line focus (1, 3, or 5 lines of text), or identify parts of speech and syllables.
- customize readability by changing font type, size, and background colors.
Interactive Texts—identify and extract textual evidence
Students can quickly
- identify, label, and comment on textual evidence.
- collect evidence in a digital notebook.
- reference textual evidence when completing activities and responding to free response questions.
Engage students through collaboration
Reduce reluctance to participate through the Collaboration Wall.
Students and teachers can use familiar social media tools to
- participate in dynamic discussions both online and in small groups.
- share ideas and perspectives based on meaningful, text-based questions.
- track and grade participation in real time.
Inform instruction and intervention with real-time data and user-friendly reports
Teachers can quickly
- create student and class proficiency reports based on the College Board's Course and Exam Descriptions.
- review participation scoring for collaborative and discussion activities.
- access a comprehensive grade book.
- generate item analysis and usage reports by student or class.
Teacher Materials
Teacher Resources
A Teacher Resource is available for each Advanced Placement® title. Best-choice answers are identified for each multiple-choice question and describe content that students might include in good responses to all free-response questions. Each question from the student edition is correlated to the College Board Curriculum Framework in the Teacher Resource for each text.
Chapter & Unit AP® Test Practice
All of the items in chapter and unit tests, whether multiple-choice or free-response, have been meticulously constructed to model the format and quality of those on the exam. Each question is tied to a specific learning objective, and teachers have access to scoring rubrics and model answers.
Summative Assessment
Each text also includes a complete practice exam mirroring the directions, timing, question formats, and content scope of the actual AP® exam. Each test item is correlated to a specific learning objective from the exam framework, allowing teachers to quickly diagnose individual and class performance.
The Teacher Resource is sold only to educators and shipped to school or district addresses only. A verified classroom set purchase of the student edition (print or digital) is required.
Correlations
Detailed Alignment to College Board Frameworks
Successfully Navigate the AP® Course and Exam
Each text has been carefully aligned to the corresponding AP® course through content correlations and exam framework and continuously updated following College Board course updates and exam revisions.
Correlations are available in the Teacher Resource for each text.
AP® United States History, 4th Edition
AP® World History: Modern
AP® United States Government & Politics, 3rd Edition
AP® European History, 2nd edition
AP® Human Geography, 2nd Edition
AP® Psychology, 2nd Edition
AP® Macroeconomics
AP® Microeconomics
Customer Reviews
Advanced Placement® Social Studies Editions by AMSCO®
“In my role as High Schools Gifted Education Facilitator for Effingham County School District (GA), I purchase supplementary resources for courses serving our gifted and high achieving high school students. I’m always interested in materials that will truly help prepare these students for success on the Advanced Placement® Exams they take in May. The AMSCO® AP® U.S. History Exam text is highly respected and utilized at both high schools as a supplementary text. Several teachers previewed the recently released AMSCO® AP® Human Geography Exam and AMSCO® AP® Psychology Exam texts, and they were very impressed with the organization and content. While our end of the year budget only allowed us to purchase a class set of one title for each school, I’ve already been asked to obtain more copies next year."
High School Gifted Program Facilitator
Effingham County Schools
Guyton, Georgia
Government & Politics
“This book packs all of the knowledge and rigor necessary for my students to excel on their AP® Exam each year in a more digestible format for high school students. We saw large increases to pass rates after switching to the AMSCO® AP® United States Government book by Wolfford.”
AP® US Government Politics Teacher
Social Studies Department Chair
Forest High School, Ocala, Florida
World History
“What impressed me the most about the preparation manual for AP® World History from AMSCO® (Perfection Learning) was its attention to the format of the AP® exam. Other guides hit the topics in the College Board provided curriculum framework well but what sets this book apart is how those topics are directed at the skills necessary to succeed on the AP® exam. This moves beyond the assessments which are similar in difficulty and style to the items on released tests. This prep manual builds on this critical feature by employing the skills necessary for the exam within the passages to show students how historical arguments are made using various types of evidence.”
Social Studies Instructional Coach Houston, Texas
United States History
“I find the AMSCO® to be an invaluable APSI and classroom resource, primarily because of its easy-to-use layout and organization, alignment with the revised AP® U.S. History curriculum, and practice test items including numbers free-response questions. The Think as a Historian and Historical Perspectives features are added bonuses that encourage students to think about how historical thinking skills and the perspectives of historians are embedded into the course. I highly recommend this preparation guide as an accessible tool for students and teachers alike to supplement college-level texts in the AP® U.S. History classroom."
Teacher
Rockdale County High School
Conyers, Georgia“I’ve used the “AMSCO®” book in AP® U.S. History for over a decade. It is consistently a student favorite for its ease of use and straightforward style. It is evident that the book is written by classroom teachers which makes it particularly practical and useful for relevant review. The book’s recent updates to keep current with the changes in the AP® U.S. History curriculum have been uniquely helpful and timely during this transition period.”
Social Studies Department Chair
Lincoln Northeast High School
Lincoln, Nebraska“We have been using AMSCO® for years as a supplement to our textbook. Students often comment on how helpful AMSCO® is in helping them to understand the key information in each historical period. AMSCO® had the new redesign material ready when College Board transitioned to the new format, and it was instrumental in helping our students prepare for the AP® exam.”
AP® U.S. History Teacher
Orlando, Florida“AMSCO’s Advanced Placement® United States History is a great complement to the AP® U.S. History curriculum. I use it exclusively in the classroom and my students really like the format. The focus on historical thinking skills has been especially helpful in teaching essay writing, and my students writing has improved.”
AP® United States History & AP® European History Teacher
Orlando, Florida“In my 30 years teaching AP® U.S. History, I’ve seen dozens of review books come and go. The best, and the one I always recommend to teachers, is the AMSCO® Advanced Placement® U.S. History text. It is concise, accurate, attuned to the course framework, well organized, student-friendly, and just what a review text should be.”
Teacher
Alexandria, Virginia
Authors
Developed with Leading Experts
The Bridge to College and Career Readiness
- From AP® United States History to AP® Psychology, AMSCO® publishes superior social studies content from today’s leading experts.
- AMSCO® authors and reviewers are known throughout the country as teachers and leaders within their respective disciplines.
- Serving as College Board Consultants, APSI Instructors, Table Leaders, Exam Readers, and Test-Item Writers for Advanced Placement® exams, our authors and reviewers have deep content knowledge, strong pedagogy skills, and in-depth understanding of College Board curriculum frameworks and exams.
What does it take to create an AMSCO® edition of an Advanced Placement® text? A team of dedicated authors, reviewers, and editors who are truly masters of their disciplines.