Follow the path from colonies to a new government

This part of the oral exam moves across people, wars, documents, dates, and the work of early leaders. Do not learn it as one long list. Build a time line, then place each name or event in the right part.

Use a six-step story

Begin by marking the two words before and after. They tell you which side of European arrival the question belongs on. A people native to a land are the people already there before later arrivals; use that meaning without sorting every option in the question. Next comes the colonial period. People crossed the Atlantic for different mixes of freedom, safety, and work. The colonies did not all begin for one reason, and not every journey was voluntary. Five of the original states were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

Then comes the break with Britain. Put causes before results: disputes about taxes, representation, local control, and troops helped create the move toward independence. A declaration announced the decision. A war against Britain made that decision real. Do not move later American wars backward into this part of the story.

After independence, the new country needed a lasting plan for national government. Keep that plan separate from essays written to explain and defend it while the states considered approval. One set up government; the essays tried to persuade readers to support it. Asking what a text was meant to do is often easier than relying on a famous title alone.

For early leaders, make three columns: work on a document, leadership in war, and government office. A person may belong in more than one column, but not every column. Alexander Hamilton, for example, was the first Secretary of the Treasury. When two famous names seem possible, use the verb in the question: wrote, commanded, served, supported, or started. For dates, attach each year to one action—adopted, drafted, signed, or approved—because these actions did not happen on the same day.

Where answers go wrong

• Choosing service in the British legislature as a reason colonists crossed the Atlantic. A government post is not the kind of migration motive described in this topic.
• Using a later war when the question asks about the struggle against Britain for independence. First identify the opponent and the goal, then choose the conflict.
• Moving a cause or battle from the later war inside the country into the independence era. Keep the break with Britain separate from the war between North and South.
• Assigning a famous text to any famous founder. Sort people by the exact task in the question instead of choosing the best-known name.
• Using an independence document, the first amendments, or Civil War texts when the question asks about the plan written in 1787; or giving the approval essays the job of declaring independence or ending the Revolution. First identify the stage, then the document's job.
• Remembering the right month and day with the wrong year. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4 in the year 1776. Keep that action together with its full date.

Try it aloud

For each prompt, first say the stage silently: before European arrival, colonies, independence, the new plan of government, or early government. Then use the question's verb to select the person, place, or event.