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Twenty representative questions weighted the way the real exam is, most falling between 1790 and 1877, each with the answer and a short explanation of why the wrong choices trap test-takers.
By Alex Stone5 min readLast fact-checked June 2026
Twenty practice questions for CLEP US History I, weighted the way the real exam is: most of them fall between 1790 and 1877, where about 70 percent of the test lives. Score 16 of 20 here and you are in passing range. Miss more than four, and the pattern of your misses points straight at the era to review next. Every question below is explained on video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.
When I took this exam for my degree at Thomas Edison State University, the move that mattered was not memorizing more colonial trivia. It was drilling questions in the exam's format until the post-1790 material, the antebellum crises, the war, and Reconstruction, felt automatic. Use these the same way. For the plan around them, see the CLEP US History I 30-hour study plan and the pillar guide.
Watch the full video walkthrough above, then test yourself on the twenty questions below. Each one is explained on the video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.
1. The first permanent English settlement in North America was founded in 1607 at: Jamestown. Plymouth came thirteen years later and Boston not until 1630, so the date is the tell.
2. The Mayflower Compact of 1620 is significant because it was: An early framework of colonial self-government. It bound the Pilgrims to make and obey their own laws by majority rule, not a declaration of independence or a treaty.
3. The economy of colonial Virginia was built largely on which cash crop? Tobacco, made profitable by John Rolfe around 1612. Cotton dominated only later, in the Deep South.
4. The Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 came primarily to: Build a community around their religious vision, John Winthrop's "city upon a hill," not to find gold or escape debt.
5. The 1730s and 1740s religious revival led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards was the: Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening came in the early 1800s, so do not confuse the two.
6. The 1765 law taxing printed materials that sparked "no taxation without representation" was the: Stamp Act. The Townshend Acts and the Intolerable Acts came later.
7. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence was: Thomas Jefferson, with edits from Adams and Franklin. Washington was commanding the army.
8. The American victory at which 1777 battle convinced France to join the war? Saratoga. Yorktown in 1781 was the final major battle, not the turning point that brought France in.
9. The first national government, too weak to tax and lacking an executive, was created by the: Articles of Confederation. Its weakness is what drove the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
10. The Great Compromise of 1787 settled the fight over representation by: Creating a two-house Congress: a House by population and a Senate with equal state votes. The Three-Fifths Compromise was the separate deal about counting the enslaved.
11. The 1803 purchase that roughly doubled the size of the United States was the: Louisiana Purchase, bought from France under Jefferson.
12. The 1820 deal admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state was the: Missouri Compromise. For why the antebellum compromises carry so much weight on this exam, see the antebellum period.
13. Andrew Jackson's forced relocation of southeastern Native nations was authorized by the: Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee removal became the Trail of Tears.
14. The belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent was called: Manifest Destiny, a term from the 1840s that helped drive western settlement and the war with Mexico.
15. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 launched the organized movement for: Women's rights, with its Declaration of Sentiments.
16. The 1857 Supreme Court ruling that enslaved people were not citizens was: Dred Scott v. Sandford, which also held that Congress could not bar slavery in the territories.
17. The Civil War began in April 1861 with the Confederate attack on: Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. Harpers Ferry was John Brown's 1859 raid.
18. Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in: The Confederate states in rebellion, not the loyal border states. Nationwide abolition came with the Thirteenth Amendment.
19. The July 1863 Union victory seen as the war's turning point was the Battle of: Gettysburg, which stopped Lee's invasion of the North.
20. The 1865 amendment that abolished slavery throughout the United States was the: Thirteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth granted citizenship in 1868 and the Fifteenth protected voting in 1870.
The point of twenty questions is not the twenty. It is the pattern. When I scored a practice set, I marked which era each miss came from, then spent the next session on that era alone. Two misses in the antebellum block means an evening on the compromises and Dred Scott. Two in Reconstruction means an evening on the Reconstruction amendments. The real exam weights 1790 to 1877 heavily, so misses there cost the most and are the fastest to fix.
A single twenty-question set is a snapshot, not a study plan. To pass with margin you need volume: enough questions, in the exam's format, with explanations that turn a wrong answer into a correction. That is the gap free question banks leave open, and it is what Flying Prep's CLEP US History I practice is built for: 800+ questions reviewed against the current College Board outline, every one explained, with a free trial that covers a few hundred before you decide. If your budget is strictly free, the Modern States voucher covers the $97 exam fee; use it for the voucher, not its dated course content.
About 16. The CLEP scaled passing score is 50 out of 80, which works out to roughly 80 percent. If you clear 16 of 20 consistently across a few sets, you are in passing range.
No. These are representative practice questions in the exam's style and era weighting. The real exam draws from a much larger pool, which is why practice volume, not memorizing any single set, is what moves your score.
Because the exam is. About 70 percent of CLEP US History I covers 1790 to 1877. Practice that mirrors that weighting is more useful than practice spread evenly across the whole period.
The Flying Prep CLEP US History I question bank has 800+ questions with explanations, reviewed against the current outline. The College Board's official study guide includes one practice exam if you want a paper option.
Alex Stone founded Flying Prep after earning her bachelor's degree from Thomas Edison State University using 27 CLEP and DSST exams to test out of 99 credits. She built Flying Prep to help working adults and returning students take the same path.
Last fact-checked June 2026
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