SAT Subject Test in United States History facts for kids

The SAT Subject Test in United States History was a special one-hour test about American history. It was a multiple choice test, meaning you picked the best answer from a list. The College Board created and gave these tests. Students often took this test to show colleges what they knew about US history. It helped colleges decide who to accept.

Before 1995, these tests were called Achievement Tests. From 1995 to 2005, they were known as SAT IIs. The US History test was very popular. In 2009, over 119,000 students took it.

However, on January 19, 2021, the College Board stopped offering all SAT Subject Tests, including the US History one. This change happened right away in the United States. For students outside the US, the tests were phased out by the summer of 2021. This decision was made because of changes in college admissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How the Test Was Set Up

The US History Subject Test had 90 multiple choice questions. Students had one hour to answer all of them. Each question gave five possible answers. Your score on the test was based only on how well you answered these questions.

The questions covered many different topics in American history:

• About 31–35% of questions were about political history. This means they focused on governments, laws, and leaders.
• About 13–17% were about economic history. These questions looked at how people made money, traded, and used resources.
• About 20–24% were about social history. This covered how people lived, their cultures, and daily life.
• About 13–17% were about ideas and culture. This included art, music, literature, and important thoughts.
• About 13–17% were about foreign policy. These questions focused on how the US interacted with other countries.

The questions also covered different time periods in history:

• About 20% focused on the time from the earliest days up to 1789. This includes the time before Europeans arrived and the American Revolution.
• About 40% focused on the period between 1790 and 1898. This covers the early years of the US and the Civil War.
• About 40% focused on the period from 1899 to the present day. This includes the 20th century and more recent events.

How Scores Were Calculated

For each multiple choice question, students earned 1 point for a correct answer. If an answer was wrong, they lost a small fraction of a point (1⁄4). If they left a question blank, they got 0 points for it.

These points added up to a "raw score." This raw score was then changed into a "scaled score." The way the raw score was converted could change a little depending on how hard that specific test was.

The "scaled score" was the only score that colleges and students saw. This score ranged from 200 to 800. An 800 was the best possible score you could get. In 2009, the average score on the test was 599.

Getting Ready for the Test

The College Board suggested that students prepare for the test by taking a year-long US History course. This course should be at a level that gets you ready for college.

The test required students to understand:

• Historical facts and ideas.
• Cause and effect relationships (why things happened).
• geography (where things happened).
• How to understand information from charts, maps, and other pictures.

Many questions on this test were similar to those found in the AP US History exam before 2015. Taking an AP class or a similar challenging history class could greatly improve your chances of doing well on this test.