APUSH Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes, Explained Simply

What the APUSH historical thinking skills and reasoning processes mean, how they appear on the exam, and simple ways to practice causation, comparison and continuity.

By the Dayob Editorial Team · Updated · 3 min read

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The AP U.S. History course is built around skills as much as content. Every multiple-choice question and essay prompt targets one of a small set of historical thinking skills and reasoning processes. Knowing what they are helps you recognize what a question wants, and practice the right way.

The historical thinking skills

SkillIn plain wordsWhere you see it
Developments and processesKnow and explain historical events and trendsMultiple choice, SAQs
Sourcing and situationExplain how a source's author, purpose, audience and context shape itDBQ sourcing point, multiple choice
Claims and evidence in sourcesIdentify an argument and the evidence behind itSecondary-source SAQs and multiple choice
ContextualizationPlace a development in its broader historical settingDBQ and LEQ contextualization points
Making connectionsLink developments across time and themesEssays, complexity point
ArgumentationBuild a claim supported by evidence and reasoningDBQ and LEQ

The three reasoning processes

  • Causation: explain why something happened and what resulted. Strong answers distinguish primary from secondary causes and short-term from long-term effects.
  • Comparison: explain similarities and differences between developments, places or groups, and why they existed.
  • Continuity and change: explain what changed and what stayed the same over time, and why.

LEQ and DBQ prompts almost always signal one of these. "Evaluate the extent to which X changed Y" is continuity and change; "evaluate the relative importance of causes" is causation.

Practicing each skill

Sourcing

Pick any primary source and answer in one sentence each: who wrote it, for whom, why, and in what situation? Then add: "Because of this, the source likely…" That second sentence is what earns credit.

Contextualization

For a topic such as the New Deal, write three or four sentences on what came before (the 1929 crash, mass unemployment, Hoover's response) without discussing the New Deal itself. That's the habit essays reward.

Causation

Draw a simple cause-and-effect chain for a major event, then rank the causes. Ask: which cause made the others matter?

Comparison

Use a two-column chart for two developments, such as the First and Second Great Awakenings, and finish with one sentence explaining the most important difference.

Skills and complexity

Combining skills is a common route to the complexity point on essays: corroborating sources, explaining both similarity and difference, or connecting a development to a later period. See how this plays out in the DBQ guide.

Measure your progress

Skills improve with feedback. Score practice essays with the official rubrics and track your totals with the APUSH score calculator. For the content side, start with the periods overview.

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Further reading from official sources

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