I know, I know. But I've got some advice on how to make sure all of your hard work pays off on test day—both some general tips and some specific advice on how to write a DBQ. Get a good night's sleep for the two nights preceding the exam.
This will keep your memory sharp! Eat a good breakfast and lunch, if the exam is in the afternoon before the exam with protein and whole grains. This will keep your blood sugar from crashing and making you tired during the exam. Don't study the night before the exam if you can help it. Instead, do something relaxing. You've been preparing, and you will have an easier time on exam day if you aren't stressed from trying to cram the night before.
Below I've laid out how to use your time during the DBQ exam. I'll provide tips on reading the question and docs, planning your essay, and writing! First thing's first: r ead the question carefully , two or even three times.
You may want to circle the task words "analyze," "describe," "evaluate," "compare" to make sure they stand out. You could also quickly jot down some contextual information you already know before moving on to the documents, but if you can't remember any right then, move on to the docs and let them jog your memory.
It's fine to have a general idea of a thesis after you read the question, but if you don't, move on to the docs and let them guide you in the right direction. Next, move on to the documents. Mark them as you read—circle things that seem important, jot thoughts and notes in the margins.
After you've passed over the documents once, you should choose the four documents you are going to analyze more deeply and read them again. You probably won't be analyzing the author's purpose for sources like maps and charts. Good choices are documents in which the author's social or political position and stake in the issue at hand are clear. Once you've read the question and you have preliminary notes on the documents, it's time to start working on a thesis.
If you still aren't sure what to talk about, spend a minute or so brainstorming. Write down themes and concepts that seem important and create a thesis from those. Remember, your thesis needs to answer the question and make a claim! When you've got a thesis, it's time to work on an outline.
Once you've got some appropriate topics for your body paragraphs, use your notes on the documents to populate your outline. Which documents support which ideas? You don't need to use every little thought you had about the document when you read it, but you should be sure to use every document.
Make sure your outline notes where you are going to include your contextual information often placed in the first body paragraph, but this is up to you , your specific example likely in one of the body paragraphs , and your synthesis the conclusion is a good place for this.
Make sure you've also integrated the four documents you are going to further analyze and how to analyze them. Make sure you use all the documents! I can't stress this enough. Take a quick pass over your outline and the docs and make sure all of the docs appear in your outline.
If you go over the planning time a couple of minutes, it's not the end of the world. This probably just means you have a really thorough outline! But be ready to write pretty fast. If you have a good outline, the hard part is out of the way! You just need to make sure you get all of your great ideas down in the test booklet.
Don't get too bogged down in writing a super-exciting introduction. You won't get points for it, so trying to be fancy will just waste time. Spend maybe one or two sentences introducing the issue, then get right to your thesis.
For your body paragraphs, make sure your topic sentences clearly state the point of the paragraph. Then you can get right into your evidence and your document analysis. As you write, make sure to keep an eye on the time. You want to be a little more than halfway through at the minute mark of the writing period, so you have a couple minutes to go back and edit your essay at the end.
Keep in mind that it's more important to clearly lay out your argument than to use flowery language. Sentences that are shorter and to the point are completely fine. If you are short on time, the conclusion is the least important part of your essay. Even just one sentence to wrap things up is fine just so long as you've hit all the points you need to i. When you are done, make one last past through your essay. Make sure you included everything that was in your outline and hit all the rubric skills!
Then take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back. Remember the drill for prep: establish a baseline, build skills, take another practice DBQ, repeat skill-building as necessary. Make sure that you know the rubric inside and out so you will remember to hit all the necessary points on test day! It's easy to lose points just for forgetting something like your synthesis point. This may seem like a lot, but you can learn how to ace your DBQ! With a combination of preparation and good test-taking strategy, you will get the score you're aiming for.
The more you practice, the more natural it will seem, until every DBQ is a breeze. Haven't registered for your AP test yet? See our article for help registering for AP exams. Studying for World History? See these AP World History study tips from one of our experts. One of the single most important parts of your college application is what classes you choose to take in high school in conjunction with how well you do in those classes. Our team of PrepScholar admissions experts have compiled their knowledge into this single guide to planning out your high school course schedule.
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How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide. Choose Your Test. He's ready to start studying! Preparing for the DBQ The general preparation process is to diagnose, practice, test, and repeat. AP European History For this exam, you'll be given a minute reading period and 45 minutes of writing time.
Who knows—maybe this will be one of your documents! AP World History For this exam, you'll be given a minute reading period and 45 minutes of writing time.
Finding a Trusted Advisor to Look at Your Papers A history teacher would be a great resource, but if they are not available to you in this capacity, here are some other ideas: An English teacher. Ask a librarian at your school or public library! If they can't help you, they may be able to direct you to resources who can. Don't fill it with fluff. Maybe 5. For the AP US History exam in particular, the graders are looking that you connect your argument to outside information, although you probably don't have a wide range of events to relate to since you haven't started the course, keep that in mind for the future.
Aug 14 PM 0 0. Just do an intro as opposed to just a thesis, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. Do you just write each paragraph about a different document?
How should the format be? This dude knows what he's talking about. Don't just rely on the docs though, and don't use fluff. For well-written conclusion, summarize the entire paper.
Link the conclusion to the thesis. Spend around 10 minutes proofreading your work at the end of the exam. It is important to proofread your work to make sure it does not contain any grammatical mistakes. Please make sure that the body paragraphs answer the question and link to the thesis, this is the most important part of the paper.
Understand: Before writing, make sure that you understand the sources and the essay question. Duration: Remember that the exam duration is 3 hours and 15 minutes. Study: Practice how to write a DBQ before the actual exam. Identify: Find the key-points from the sources to include in your essay. Read all Documents: Make sure you have read all of the sources, prior to writing the paper. Read the Outline: Following the DBQ essay outline is essential for understanding how to structure the paper during the exam.
Categorize: Put each point into categories. This will come in useful for writing the body paragraphs. Do you need more help? Following a sample DBQ essay can be very useful for preparation. Usually, when practicing for exams, students commonly refer to an example for understanding the DBQ structure, and other revision purposes. Click on the button to open our DBQ example from one of our professional writers. Feel free to use it as a reference when learning how to write a DBQ.
Following steps and outlines is a great way to learning how to write a DBQ essay. As well as writing tips. Time management is vital for the positive result. Following our advice will enable you to get a good grade by learning how to write a good DBQ. Because learning the apush DBQ format is essential.
These documents range from transcripts of folk songs, to excerpts from letters and newspapers, to demographic maps. There are several components of a solid response to this question. The DBQ is worth a total of 7 raw points. Here's how you could earn full credit, according to the scoring guidelines.
Many felt that Anglo-Saxon, were a more fit race than any to expand, and Christianize and civilize the rest of the world Doc. Yellow journalism created outrageous attitudes with dramatized accounts of Spanish mistreatment of the Cuban which motivated Americans to support a military intervention. For the Long Essay, you must choose between three prompts. Here's an example of a potential prompt:. Your essay should include many of the same elements as your answer to the DBQ, but there are no documents to analyze and reference , so you'll have less time to write.
The essay is worth 6 raw points. Here's how you could earn full credit for the sample question above, per the scoring guidelines. One of FDR's quirks was that he always had to be painted completely green from head to toe before being seen in public. Using this strategy, he successfully prevented people from noticing his wheelchair for years.
Here, we'll go over how each section on the AP US History exam is scored, scaled, and combined to give you your final AP score on the scale. On the multiple-choice section, you earn 1 raw point for each question you answer correctly; this means that the max score you can earn here is 55 points. No points are taken off for incorrect answers.
Each of the three short-answer questions is worth 3 points, so there are 9 points possible in this section. The DBQ is scored out of 7 points and is based on the following criteria, per the scoring guide :. Lastly, the Long Essay is out of 6 raw points and is scored using the following criteria:. On essay questions, points are taken off for errors only if they detract from the quality of the argument being made in other words, don't go making up historical facts to support your argument.
Grammatical and other technical errors aren't a big deal as long as they don't inhibit the grader's ability to understand what your essay is saying. Raw scores can be converted to scaled scores out of Here's how to do that for each section:.
Here is a chart to show you approximately how these scaled scores translate to final AP scores:. Source: The College Board. I made my best estimates based on other AP score conversion charts because there was no official scaled-to-AP-score conversion chart online for US History. Your AP teacher or review book might have a more accurate score conversion system you can use for official practice tests. AP US History is a grueling test that requires intense critical thinking and analytical skills.
Here are some helpful tips to remember if you hope to do well on test day. Many multiple-choice questions will list answers that are accurate representations of historical events or trends but that don't directly respond to the question being asked.
Be wary of these answers on the test so you don't accidentally choose them over more relevant responses. In the multiple-choice question I gave above as an example, one incorrect choice was "The growth in the internal slave trade.
Don't let these types of answer choices confuse you; adhere to the particulars of the question and the evidence presented to you! Most of this AP exam is based on historical reference materials, meaning that you won't be able to answer questions correctly without reading carefully. Even if you know everything there is to know about US History, that knowledge will mostly just serve to contextualize the evidence presented on the test. The specific details found in the writings and images will ultimately reveal the best answer choice.
A clear thesis is the first thing on the agenda.
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