CREDIT BY EXAMINATION - HISTORY

Policies Effective for the Academic Year 2008-2009*

*This is to be used as a guide only. Policies are subject to change.

UT Austin provides you with the opportunity to earn course credit by examination. Such credit will satisfy degree requirements in the same way as credit earned by passing a course, except that it will not count as credit earned in residence. Although you may take tests before you enroll in UT Austin, you must be a currently or previously enrolled student in order to receive credit. Unsuccessful attempts to earn credit by examination will not become part of your official transcript.

Faculty members in the Department of History select the tests, set the levels of performance required for credit, and specify who is eligible to take the tests. DIIA-Student Testing Services assists the department by communicating policies, giving the tests, and reporting the credit.

State law requires that all graduates of Texas state colleges complete at least six semester hours in United States history courses. This does not mean that History 315K and 315L are required courses. Any U.S. history course, upper or lower division, may apply toward the required six hours.

CREDIT BY EXAMINATION FOR LOWER-DIVISION HISTORY COURSES

TESTS USED BY UT AUSTIN

UT AUSTIN TEST FOR CREDIT IN HISTORY 315K OR HISTORY 315L

STATE OF TEXAS LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENT
The Texas legislative requirement specifies that no student may receive an undergraduate degree from a public institution in Texas until he/she has passed six semester hours of United States history. To accommodate students who wish to satisfy the legislative requirement of six hours of U.S. history, outside normal classroom work, the department offers the option of credit by examination. One may receive credit by examination for both History 315K and 315L.

The two courses for which examinations are regularly offered are The United States 1492-1865 (HIS 315K) and The United States since 1865 (HIS 315L). The examinations are offered twice each year, toward the middle of the Fall and Spring semesters. 

Each examination is composed of items requiring two long essays and four mini-essay identifications based on assigned readings. Each essay should require no more than an hour, and each identification should require no more than fifteen minutes. An identification requires that you answer the following questions about a significant person, place, event, or concept: who or what, when and where, and why historically important. A maximum of three hours working time is allowed.

ELIGIBILITY FOR CREDIT BY EXAMINATION IN HISTORY 315K OR HISTORY 315L
To be eligible for credit by examination, you must not already have a passing or failing grade in HIS 315K or 315L or an equivalent course. In addition, if you are enrolled during the current semester in one of these history courses for as long as the date on which the official enrollment is taken (twelfth class day for long semesters and fourth class day for summer sessions), then you cannot receive credit by examination for that course.

NOTE: Graduating seniors are strongly encouraged to take the test well before the semester in which they plan to graduate. The Department of History strongly discourages students from attempting both examinations during one test period.

Level of Performance Required for Credit
To earn credit by examination for History 315K or 315L, you must make a grade of C or better (i.e., satisfactory or better) on EACH essay and EACH identification you write. You will choose essay topics and identifications from options provided.

Students taking the UT Austin Test for Credit in HIS 315K or HIS 315L are expected to read and study a textbook and five supplemental books, as listed below. Also provided below are study guides for all the assigned reading. The books are usually available for purchase at the University Co-op on Guadalupe, or you may try an internet bookseller. Any edition of these books would be acceptable.

Each year, regrettably, a number of students take the test without adequate preparation. In fact, the failure rate has been quite high on the exam--even as high as 90%. This is because many students do not read and study the assigned books, they neglect to use the study guide in preparing for the exam, or they do not possess sufficient communication and analytical skills (skills better developed in a classroom setting and with the help of an instructor rather than through independent study). Please do not waste your time and money taking the examinations if you have not read and studied the assigned books and the study guide. The reading lists, study guides, and the examinations themselves are all designed by regular history department faculty, who are also in charge of grading the exams. Their expectation is that students who pass the credit by exam course will have demonstrated the same level of comprehension and skill as students who earn a grade of C or better in a regular UT Austin history course.

Reading List for the UT Austin Test for Credit in HIS 315K

Well before the scheduled date of the examination, students should study carefully the books listed below. The exam questions are based on (but not necessarily identical to) the questions following each listed text. Be thorough and specific in preparing your answers to the study guide questions so that you will have a deep well of knowledge and understanding to draw upon during the exam.

On the mini-essay identifications, students often have trouble identifying potential identifications and addressing "historical importance." Consider persons, places, events/developments, or concepts to be potential identifications if they are important to answering the questions listed below for America, A Narrative History. For example, the development of a tobacco economy is key to explaining major aspects of the Chesapeake colonies (relevant to questions #2 and #3), such as its profit-hungry migrants and demand for massive numbers of laborers. In explaining its "historical importance," you might address one or both of the following questions: How does this person, event, etc. illustrate certain key aspects of his, her, or its historical time and place? How was this person, event, etc. instrumental or influential in bringing about historical change? The point is to approach history not as a set of discrete unrelated facts merely to be memorized but as a story that the facts help you to sort out and tell. People, events, policies, etc. have meaning within this story. Grasping the significance of, for example, the tobacco economy, will allow you to better remember and relate its key factual components and to locate it within the larger history. Here is an example identification answer for "tobacco economy":

"A tobacco economy first developed in the Chesapeake during the 1620s when a Virginia colonist figured out a way to grow a mild form of the weed. Tobacco became the region's most important crop. Migrants arrived in droves there to cultivate it and to export it to England, where it was very popular. Tobacco made many Chesapeake planters rich, but not before they found a source of labor to tend to their crop. Tobacco demands a great deal of labor to grow. Planters found their source of labor first in indentured servants and later in slaves."

George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, America, A Narrative History, Brief Fourth Edition, Volume One (Norton, 1997; ISBN 0-393-970655).

1. What specific conditions encouraged early modern Europeans to undertake voyages of exploration and discovery? What factor would you argue was most essential to this development and why?

2. In what ways did the New England colonies, the Middle colonies, the Chesapeake colonies, and the Carolina colonies each represent a distinct region? Were these various regions "American" by 1750 - i.e., were their common traits more important than their differences?

3. How and why did a system of forced labor - first indentured servitude and then slavery - emerge in the colonial South? Why did the New England and the Middle colonies rely much more upon free labor than slave? Be sure to explain the key factors involved in the shift from servitude to slavery in the colonial Chesapeake. What forms of resistance did enslaved African Americans employ against slavery during the colonial era?

4. What social, economic, and cultural forces gave rise to the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in colonial America? How did these movements shape the world of 18th -century Americans?

5. Explain the arguments of both supporters and opponents of the Stamp Act. To what extent (i.e., consider both sides) did the Stamp Act and other key British measures between 1763 and 1774 represent a departure from previous imperial policies? Why did the colonial opposition to British policies finally abandon their appeals to Parliament and the King and seek independence in 1776? Why did a number of Americans remain loyal to England during the Revolutionary War?

6. How "revolutionary" was the American Revolution? Consider its effects on nationalist sentiment, political institutions and ideals, and the lives of women and enslaved African Americans between 1776 and 1820. Why did many U.S. leaders and voters deem it necessary to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution in 1787? How did the anti-Federalists play a crucial role in this process? Why did party conflict so quickly develop between Jeffersonian Republicans and Federalists during the 1790s? How did both succeed in shaping American society?

7. How did the 2nd Great Awakening differ from the Great Awakening of the previous century? Why were the 2nd Great Awakening, the "cult of domesticity," and the Seneca Falls Convention significant in U.S. history? What do each of these developments tell us about the changes enveloping American society during the first half of the 19th century? How does reference to the "cult of domesticity" and the 2nd Great Awakening help us to more fully understand the call for and the concerns of the Seneca Falls Convention?

8. How was the new democratic political system of the Jacksonian period different from the old political system? Why did party conflict between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs emerge in the 1830s and upon what key issues did it focus? Why do you think that racial conflicts intensified during this era, when democratic values were so often praised?

9. Offer five differences between the Northeast and the Old South between 1800 and 1840. What was the significance of each of these differences? Which one do you think was most important and why? Did the West have more in common with the North or the South? What political, economic, and cultural characteristics did these three regions share during this period?

10. How did the abolitionist movement differ from most colonial-era antislavery movements? Why did many antislavery whites in the North scorn and despise the abolitionist movement? How did southern slaveholders respond to abolitionist arguments?

11. How did the rise of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old South and westward expansion affect enslaved African Americans? Consider working and living conditions, family, and culture. In what ways did life under slavery tend to differ from one region of the South to another?

12. Trace the events that led to the war with Mexico. How did American actions contribute to the outbreak of war? How did Mexican actions? Who tended to oppose the Mexican War and why? The historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the American frontier was a "safety valve," which, by siphoning off surplus population from settled areas and providing families with land and employment, reduced social and political conflict. Would you argue that the new lands acquired by the U.S. as a result of the Mexican War represented a "safety valve" or a "Pandora’s box of unexpected trouble"? Why?

13. For about three decades, the Second Party System (or Jacksonian Party System) contained the various conflicts that arose among Americans over issues such as the U.S. National Bank, nullification, and the extension of slavery into the territories won from Mexico. Its two parties also remained national parties. Why did this national political system crumble during the 1850s and come to be replaced by two major sectional parties in the 1860 presidential election? Be sure to consider the major sectional conflicts of the 1850s (the Kansas-Nebraska Act, etc.) and their root causes in preparing your answer.

14. Why did eleven southern states secede between 1860 and 1861 and form the Confederacy? Why did the North so bitterly oppose secession and choose to wage a war for "Union"? How did the Lincoln administration’s war aims evolve during the Civil War of 1861-1865 and why?

Robert J. Allison, ed., The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself (Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995; ISBN 0-312-11127-4); and David W. Blight, ed., Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (Bedford Books, 1993; ISBN 0-312-07531-6).

Describe Equiano's and Douglass's relationship to Africa, their families, other slaves, their various masters and mistresses, religion, and white laborers. How different were their experiences under slavery? How did Equiano resist his enslavement? How did Douglass? What were the major turning points in their respective decisions to gain their freedom and how did they finally achieve this? To what extent did their conceptions of slavery and liberty diverge?

Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel, Jr., The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America (Norton, 1984; ISBN 0-393-30225-3).

What do you learn from this book about economic life, religious culture, and familial relationships (between the sexes as well as between parents and children) in the world of Mary Fish? What do you learn about the impact of the American Revolution on her and her family? What do the authors mean by the statement that Mary Fish "remained to the end of her life less a daughter of the Revolution than a child of the Puritans"?

James H. Merrell, The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal (Norton, 1989; ISBN 0-393-96017-X).

At the beginning of his book, Merrell comments, "If the ebb and flow of challenge and response, crisis and calm, disintegration and reformation gives Catawba history something of a rollercoaster rhythm, it is, I think, more attuned to the pattern of the past than the tragically plummeting trajectory so commonly charted." How did European disease, trade, settlement, and the American Revolution play a role in the Catawba's "rollercoaster" history? How did Catawba culture change as a result? How did it survive and what specific evidence does Merrell find that it did?

Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels (Ballantine Books, 1990; ISBN 0-345-34810-9).

James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee, and Joshua Chamberlain are the key actors in Shaara’s historical novel about the battle of Gettysburg. What were their different motivations for participating in the war? How does each play a crucial role in the battles outcome? To what extent do they share similar ideas about "duty"? Given this history of the battle of Gettysburg, why do you think that Lee was glorified throughout much of the South after the war despite the Confederacy's defeat?

Reading List for the UT Austin Test for Credit in HIS 315L

George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, America, A Narrative History, Brief Fourth Edition, Volume Two (Norton, 1997; ISBN 0-393-970671).

1. How did everyday life change for former slaves after emancipation? Why did Congress introduce its own plan for reconstructing the ex-Confederate states? How successful were radical governments in the South in imposing Reconstruction? Why did northern support for Reconstruction dissipate?

2. What was the doctrine of the New South? How did policies of segregation become entrenched in the New South? What means did the region's state governments use to disenfranchise blacks?

3. Why did conflict break out between whites and Plains Indians during the latter half of the 19th century? How similar was racial conflict in the West (between whites and Plains Indians) to that of whites and blacks in the South? How did federal Indian policy change during the 1880s and why?

4. How did railroads help to foster a "managerial revolution"? How did new strategies and new forms of enterprise play a role in the growth of big business? How did the new pattern of industrial work affect workers? Compare and contrast the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. Why did the union movement attract only a minority of the labor force by 1900?

5. Explain the rise of the "social gospel" (in Chapter 20), "fundamentalism" (in Chapter 25), and "religious revival" in the 1950s (Chapter 31). What were the key characteristics of each?

6. What were the proposals of the Farmers' Alliance, and in what way were they meant to benefit indebted farmers and other debtor classes? In what ways were women involved in the Populist movement? Discuss the key reasons for the rise and fall of the Populists. Why did the Republicans emerge as the dominant party in 1896?

7. Why did so many Americans support U.S. involvement in the Spanish-American War? What was that war’s outcome and significance? Why had a strong interest in overseas expansion emerged by the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

8. What were the main beliefs on which progressivism rested? Why did progressivism flower in the first two decades of the 20th century, and why did it especially attract women? How did "muckrakers" play a role in progressive reform efforts? What important reforms did progressives achieve? In what ways did reformers fail to realize their visions?

9. Explain U.S. involvement in World War I. What were the Fourteen Points and why did Wilson promote them? How successful was he in achieving them? Why did women gain the right to vote in 1919 with the 19th Amendment?

10. What ignited the anti-radical "Red Scare" of 1919-1920 (Chapter 24)? The second "Red Scare" (Chapter 30)? Compare and contrast the two. What role did the federal government - i.e., the Committee on Public Information, A. Mitchell Palmer, Harry Truman, and Joseph McCarthy - play?

11. How did the economic weaknesses of the 1920s lead to the Great Depression? What was Herbert Hoover's Depression program? On what assumptions was it based? What assumptions did Franklin Roosevelt hold about the effects of relief on people, and what key measures did he recommend for relief during the early New Deal? How did the policies of the "Second New Deal" differ from those of the first?

12. Why did the U.S. enter World War II? Describe the major war aims of the Allied Powers. What were the major reasons given for the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? How did World War II change the attitudes of women and minorities toward their status in American society? Describe the major events that gave rise to a cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

13. Why did the Supreme Court overturn Plessy v. Ferguson in Brown v. Board of Education? What important ideas influenced Martin Luther King's approach to civil rights protest? How did John F. Kennedy respond? What did the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts achieve? Why did a black power movement emerge, how did it challenge liberal goals, and what did it achieve?

14. Explain how the Great society fought its war on poverty - i.e., what assumptions inspired it and what did its key programs attempt to accomplish? Compare the achievements and shortcomings of the Great Society with the New Deal.

15. Explain why college campuses became centers of antiwar protest. Why did the Mexican American civil rights movement and the feminist movement emerge during the 1960s and 1970s? What legal and political gains did these movements make?

16. What was Nixon's strategy in his presidential campaign in 1968? In 1972? What was Watergate and why is it significant? Why did Nixon face impeachment? Do you think that Watergate is best understood as a product of Nixon's personal failings or of the deep divisions that had grown in American society during Vietnam war, as illustrated by the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago? Explain.

Robert M. Utley, The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull (Random House/Ballantine Books, 1993; ISBN 0-345-38938-7).

Consider Utley's statement that "Sitting Bull's claim to significance beyond his own tribe rests on his role in the collision of two cultures." What did you learn from this book about differences between the traditional way of life and culture of the Lakota Sioux on the one hand, and on the other hand the "civilization program" that the U.S. government--acting through men like Nelson Miles and James McLaughlin--sought to impart to, or impose upon, the Sioux? How were the Lakota people divided among themselves? What was the Ghost Dance, and how was it related to the 1890 "battle" of Wounded Knee?

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (Laurel/Dell/Bantam, 1968; ISBN 0-440-31488-7).

What episodes from Anne Moody's life best illustrate her character? Before becoming a civil rights worker, how did she respond to segregation, discrimination, disfranchisement, and racial violence? What particular dilemmas did she confront as a young black woman in the South, at work, at home, and at school? How did widely held ideas about women and about skin color affect her relationship with her mother, her father, and stepfather? Why do you think that she became a civil rights worker? How did her work shape her ideas on the efficacy of nonviolence and the possibility of meaningful change?

Lisa See, On Gold Mountain (St. Martin's Press, 1995; ISBN 0-312-11997-6).

How did larger historical developments - railroad construction in the U.S., exclusion and changing immigration laws, the economic boom of the 1920s, the internment of the Japanese during World War II, and the Communist revolution in China - shape the lives of the Fong See and his family members in very personal ways? What can one learn from this book about the Chinatown that the See and Wong families inhabited and their relationship to it? Compare and contrast how Fong See and Ticie approached life "on Gold Mountain". What brought and kept them together despite these obstacles? What finally drove them apart? Do you believe that the conflicts between Ray and Fong See or Sissee and Fong See were mainly cultural or generational? Explain.

George C. Herring, America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975, third edition (McGraw-Hill, 1996; ISBN 0-07-028393-1).

According to Herring, what role did "nationalism" and "communism" play in motivating the Vietnamese wars against France and the United States? Why does he argue that the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was "a logical, if not inevitable, outgrowth of a world view and a policy, the policy of containment?" What events does he believe to be the key turning points in America's increasing military commitment, and why? After reading Herring's book, what do you think of Tindall and Shi's decision to discuss the year 1964-1968 under the heading "The Tragedy of Vietnam"?

TEST ADMINISTRATION

Test Periods: The test is offered on campus several days before class registration in September and March. Test schedules giving details will be available online before the beginning of each testing period. Both History 315K and 315L are offered at the same time. The Department of History recommends that only one test be taken during one test period.

Test Registration: You must register for a test online.

Test Registration for Students with Disabilities: If you require academic accommodations or assistance due to a documented disability, you should contact these two offices at least five business days before the day of the test:

• Services for Students with Disabilities, in the Office of the Dean of Students at ssd@uts.cc.utexas.edu,  http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/, or (512) 471-6259 to seek approval for authorized accommodations;
• DIIA-Student Testing Services at (512) 232-2662 to register and make arrangements to take the test.

Registration Fee and Test Fee Payment: The total test fee is $70 for each history test. When you confirm your registration for a test you will be immediately billed a non-refundable test registration fee of $15. The remainder of the test fee will be billed after you take the test. Payment is due within 14 days after the test administration. 

Repeating the Test: You may take the UT Austin Test for Credit in History 315K or History 315L only once.

Admission to the Test Room: When you register online you will be given the location of your test room. You must present, at the test room, a generally accepted form of identification that includes both your signature and photograph. Without such identification, you will be admitted only if you bring and relinquish a photograph of yourself. You should take several sharpened No. 2 pencils to the test room; all other test materials will be provided.

Test Results: Results are available about 15 working days after the test date, in time to register for classes. Once they are available, results may be found online.

COLLEGE BOARD ADVANCED PLACEMENT EXAMINATION IN HISTORY

The College Board Advanced Placement Examinations in History serve as bases for credit in five courses, History 306N or History 315K and 315L or History 309K and 309L, depending on which Advanced Placement Examination in History is taken.

The College Board AP Examinations are offered once a year in May, usually in high schools that offer College Board Advanced Placement courses. Although determined by each school giving the test, registration deadlines are no later than March. Test results are available in July.  Please visit the College Board's Web site for current test registration fees at  http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/cal_fees.html.  These tests are not offered on the UT Austin campus.

The AP Examinations are based on course descriptions prepared by The College Board. A course description, which includes sample questions, is available for these examinations at the College Board's web site www.collegeboard.com/apcentral/.

If a high school in your vicinity is not administering AP Examinations, you can request special testing arrangements by contacting AP Services, Box 6671, Princeton, NJ 08541-6671, 1-888- CALL- 4- AP.

Level of Performance Required for Credit

The College Board AP Examinations have a score range of 1-5. Satisfactory scores for credit are as follows:

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE HIGHER-LEVEL EXAMINATION IN HISTORY

UT Austin also awards credit for history on the basis of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Higher-Level Examination in History with regional concentrations in Europe, Africa, or the Americas.

Level of Performance Required for Credit

IB Examinations have a score range of 1-7. Satisfactory scores for credit by examination are as follows:

PETITIONING/CLAIMING CREDIT

UT Austin students must petition (or claim) their credit to have it appear on their official transcript. DIIA-Student Testing Services reports petitioned credit to the Office of the Registrar.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING HISTORICAL ESSAYS

Understand what is being asked.

This is a major area where students frequently run into trouble. Be sure to read the question carefully, paying special attention to the verbs (compare and contrast, trace, agree or disagree, explain, evaluate) used and any specific instructions. Also, adhere to the time frame required by the question (e.g., if it asks you to deal with the period 1607 to 1763, don't end in 1750!) You might ask yourself why the instructor has chosen the time frame that he or she has.

Decide what material is relevant to the question.

Often students attempt to relate everything they know about the subject of the question in their essay. I call this a "data-dump." It is an approach you should try hard to avoid. In order to allow yourself time to address a number of points and issues, you must decide what material is relevant to the question. You should further decide what of that relevant evidence is necessary to include and best supports your points.

Integrate facts and ideas.

Should you pay more attention to facts or ideas in writing a historical essay? The answer is that you should pay ample attention to both. Writing history involves the interpretation (rather than simply a narration) of historical facts. The lectures, readings, and videos provide you with a body of information that you must not only be familiar with but also must interpret in relation to questions. This means that your essay should address how and why the evidence you have cited is significant to addressing the question posed.

Remember that a historical essay is not simply a statement of opinion. You must demonstrate that you have an informed opinion by referring to specific evidence that support your points. While writers of fiction are free to create places, people, and events, historians must ground their interpretations in evidence.

Writing a historical essay is a little like constructing a brick building. The bricks might represent the facts that historians must also use. Without bricks, you have little more than a blueprint of your building. Similarly, an argument cannot stand without facts to support it. Once you have collected your bricks, you need some mortar to hold the bricks together. The mortar might represent the historian's interpretation and ideas. Just as a builder needs mortar to build a strong, solid, and hopefully grand building, the historian must bring facts together with his or her interpretations and ideas in order to construct a coherent and powerful essay.

Develop a thesis.

A thesis briefly summarizes your argument and furnishes general reasons for that argument. It should appear in the introduction to the essay. Your thesis should directly address the question posed. The rest of your essay is devoted to explaining and supporting your thesis, so save the details for the body of your essay. Often an essay question has no one correct thesis; several different arguments can be successfully developed.

Avoid making simplistic, perfunctory, or limited arguments.

This is perhaps the most important aspect of writing history. An historian's most challenging task is to try to make sense of a complex and contradictory array of historical evidence. The best essays convey that complexity without descending into chaos and confusion. Historians should not ignore key pieces of evidence that contradict their argument but instead should either defend or modify their position in light of the evidence.

Pointers for writing:

• Create an outline of your essay. An outline will allow you to view the big picture of your argument, so you can more easily revise or add to it as you examine the evidence.

• Use paragraphs. Each paragraph should develop a major point of your argument.

• You should introduce your paragraph with a topic sentence that tells the reader what you are going to do in the paragraph. Taken together, your topic sentences should clearly express your essay's argument.

• Be warned that students often try to make too many major points in one paragraph. Each paragraph should develop only one major point of your general argument.

• Build a convincing argument. Your essay should lead the reader from paragraph to paragraph by carefully explaining each of its major points. The reader should not have to wander through your essay or read your mind. An essay is a form of communication, so explain your position as a clearly and cogently as possible and write legibly. Avoid "padding" (rambling and ranting). This suggests a lack of preparation.

• Your essay must have an introduction and conclusion. The intro should be fairly brief (3-5 sentences) and should include your thesis. The conclusion should summarize why yours is a persuasive argument.

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