United States Constitution Exam: Study Guide

On Monday, March 9, you will take an end-of-unit exam on the United States Constitution. It will be a combination of multiple-choice and short-essay questions. You will be not be able to use notes for the exam, but you will be able to refer to the Constitution itself (bring your Hip Pocket Constitution).

Your tools for studying include:

• The United States Constitution unit reading packet (Sections 4.1–4.5)
• Your filled-out Table of Contents of the U.S. Constitution
• Your Constitution Hip Pocket Guide
• Your class notes you have been keeping in your Humanities notebook

You will need to know the following concepts for the multiple choice questions:

• The major elements of the Constitution (Articles, amendments, etc.)
• The categories of Amendments (see Section 4.3)
• the three branches of government and why the Framers divided power between them
• the Preamble of the Constitution: what it means
• due process
• judicial review
• popular sovereignty
• federalism
• the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution: what it says and means
• checks and balances
• major Supreme Court decisions and their significance (see Section 4.5)
• how the Constitution is amended

For the short-essay section of the test, be prepared for questions on the following:

• How to amend the Constitution
• The difference between a strict construction and a loose construction of the Constitution. (You might be given a controversial constitutional issue, like the right to bear arms, and have to summarize the debate between a strict and a loose constructionist.)
• The six guiding principles of the Constitution. (You might be directed to a clause in the Constitution and be asked to identify which of these principles are at work, similar to the exercise we did in class.)
• The different powers of the three branches. (You might be presented with a conflict between two branches of government, and have to decide, like a Supreme Court judge, how to settle the matter with the text of the Constitution as your guide.)

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Posted by Justin Wells : 03/04/2009