Practice a College Board-style short-answer question on Period 9: Contemporary America. Write your response, then reveal the model answer to see exactly what earns each point.
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?"
— Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, 1981
A
Briefly describe ONE idea about government expressed in the passage.
✓ Model answer (earns the point)
Reagan argues that government itself is the source of the nation's problems, not the solution to them — a fundamental challenge to the New Deal and Great Society tradition that had defined American politics for nearly 50 years. He defends self-rule against the idea that society had become too complex for ordinary people to govern themselves.
Why it scores: Identifies a specific idea drawn directly from the passage (anti-government conservative philosophy) with concrete language. "Reagan was conservative" would be too vague to earn the point.
B
Explain ONE cultural or social effect of European perceptions of Native Americans on Native peoples during 1980–Present.
✓ Model answer (earns the point)
Reagan's policies dramatically reduced top marginal tax rates — from 70% to 50% (1981), then to 28% (1986) — shifting the tax burden downward while tripling the national debt from $900 billion to $2.7 trillion. The combined effect of tax cuts, increased defense spending, and reduced domestic spending produced economic growth and lower inflation but also widened income inequality and created a structural deficit that became a defining issue for decades.
Why it scores: Names a specific economic effect (tax cuts and the debt explosion) with clear causal reasoning and concrete data (tax rates and debt figures).
C
Explain ONE economic effect of early Spanish colonization on Native societies in the period 1980–Present.
✓ Model answer (earns the point)
Reagan's presidency shifted the ideological center of American politics rightward — even Democrats accepted market-oriented policies, deregulation, and welfare reform. Specific examples include deregulation of industries like airlines, banking, and trucking; air traffic controllers' union (PATCO) broken in 1981; appointment of conservative judges including Supreme Court Justices O'Connor and Scalia. Bill Clinton's later "era of big government is over" speech (1996) and welfare reform (1996) showed how completely the political consensus had moved.
Why it scores: Names a specific political effect (rightward shift of both parties) with clear causal reasoning and multiple concrete examples (PATCO, judges, Clinton's welfare reform).
How to score points on SAQs
Be specific. "Reagan changed things" doesn't score. "Reagan cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%" does.
Name names and places. Graders look for concrete proper nouns — empires, rulers, religions, regions.
Stay in the time period. Unit 9 is 1980–Present. Don't use Genghis Khan's grandchildren conquering Baghdad in 1258 if the prompt asks about Unit 2.
Answer the actual question. If it asks "identify," give an example. If it asks "explain," give an example PLUS a sentence connecting it to the prompt.
Keep it tight. 1–3 sentences per part is plenty. Long answers don't score higher; they just waste exam time.