AA Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield AA facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the primary role of the legislative branch? → Making laws
2. In communication, what is 'feedback'? → The response a receiver sends back to the sender
3. What is judicial review? → The power of courts to declare laws unconstitutional
4. What type of memory stores information for a brief period of seconds to minutes? → Short-term memory
5. In institutional economics, Thorstein Veblen introduced the concept of 'conspicuous consumption' to describe: → Purchasing goods to signal social status rather than for utility
6. If f(x) = x² - 1, what is f(3)? → 8
7. Which sentence best demonstrates an objective, academic tone? → Research indicates that the policy has produced mixed outcomes across demographic groups.
8. Which economic system dominated medieval Europe, binding peasants to the land in exchange for military protection? → Feudalism
9. What research method involves manipulating one variable to observe its effect on another? → Experiment
10. The philosophical position that reality exists independently of minds perceiving it is called: → Realism
11. A writer argues that a politician's proposal must be wrong because the politician was once arrested. This is an example of which logical fallacy? → Ad hominem
12. Which literary device is used when an author hints at future events in a narrative? → Foreshadowing
13. What is the term for the process by which a conditioned stimulus loses its ability to elicit a conditioned response? → Extinction
14. What does the term "Malthusian catastrophe" refer to? → the population exceeds food supply
15. Which model links a country's interest rates, exchange rates, and capital flows under a fixed exchange rate regime? → Mundell-Fleming model
16. Who is the individual credited with establishing and developing the principles of capitalism? → Adam Smith
17. Which element of a short story establishes the time, place, and initial circumstances of the narrative? → Setting
18. The Cold War was primarily characterized by which type of rivalry between the US and USSR? → Ideological, political, and proxy conflicts
19. Which gas makes up the largest percentage of Earth's atmosphere? → Nitrogen
20. Which two countries were engaged in the Hundred Years War? → France and England
21. Which of the following best describes the philosophical method of 'thought experiments'? → Hypothetical scenarios used to explore philosophical questions and test intuitions
22. The Coase Theorem suggests that externalities can be resolved efficiently without government intervention when: → Property rights are well-defined and transaction costs are low
23. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which need is at the base of the pyramid? → Physiological needs
24. Which economic term describes the total market value of all goods and services produced within a country's borders in a given year? → Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
25. The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a flourishing of African American culture in which decade? → 1920s
26. What does the concept of "supply" represent in Economics? → Supply
27. Which of the following sentences demonstrates the correct usage of the word 'affect'? → The news of his death greatly affected those who knew him well.
28. In sociology, Max Weber's concept of 'verstehen' refers to: → Empathetic understanding of the meanings individuals attach to their actions
29. What is the median of the data set: 3, 7, 9, 12, 15? → 9
30. The multiplier effect in Keynesian economics predicts that an initial increase in government spending leads to: → A larger total increase in GDP due to successive rounds of spending