Sunday, March 10, 2019

How to Write a Killer Document Based Essay-DBQ


Here is a series of steps that will help you get maximum points on your document based questions (DBQ's) in the AP World History exam.  You will need to go over this article step by step and master each element, but if you actually invest the time and practice the pay off will be well worth it come the time of your exam.

Step 1: Use an Analytical Thesis (For all AP Essays)

An analytical thesis includes a description of why the central claim in your essay is correct.
The thesis must contain specific contextual information and the main arguments that you use in the essay to prove that it is true.

A Bad Thesis:

“Buddhism’s spread through China was very important to the development of Chinese culture.”
This thesis is weak.  It adds nothing to the essay and leaves the reader with more questions than answers:
1.)    What does ‘Buddhism’ mean here?  2.) What do we mean by ‘spread’? 3.) When did this occur and in which context? 4.) What were the effects of Buddhism? 5.)  What parts of the culture did it affect?  6.) How do we know this?
A good thesis should answer most if not all of these questions. 

A Proper Thesis:

“As Buddhism began to spread from India through China in the first century c.c., the influence of its religious principles in a society troubled – at least among lower classes – by warfare and want is demonstrated by the Confucianists’ negative reaction to it as well as the lasting political effects it left in its wake.”
This thesis answers all of the questions.  It reveals how the student will prove it to be correct.  It an outline of the political, social, and geographic context of Buddhism, along with the social and political effects that it had. 

In a Nutshell

There are three steps to a good thesis:
1.)    State your claim clearly
2.)    Define terms, context, and chronology of the events being discussed
3.)    Describe why your claim is true

A Document Based Question Thesis

1.)    Open using something like, “After reviewing these documents, it is clear that…”
2.)    Rephrase the question as an answer; include all key phrases
3.)    Address each part of the question with a statement and a document reference or an example (compare, contrast, and change over time as appropriate)
4.)    Make the transition to the body of the essay by citing the additional document: “To better understand how these documents relate to each other, a document about X would be useful…”

Things to Know:

You will be given 4-11 documents to read and use to support your thesis.
You will be given 10 minutes to read the documents before the essay portion of the exam
Write an essay that:

a)      Has a relevant thesis by at least SIX documents, try to use EIGHT

b)      Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible.  (Don’t just summarize each document!)

c)       Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the author’s point of view for at least FOUR documents, but FIVE or SIX is better.

d)      Identifies two types of additional documents useful for the question

e)      You should directly refer to historical information not mentioned in the documents but is relevant to the time period of the questions

f)       Finally in your conclusion summarize your thesis and make reference either to a different time period or another field of study.  The idea is to make broader connections in your conclusion to other topics of interest.


Basic Steps

1.)    Process the questions:

Reread the question several times.  Circle and underline key words  Draw a table or chart based on the question.  When you read the documents use the information you find to fill in your chart.

Answer these three questions now:

a)      Based on the question, what do you know the documents are about?
b)      What are you being asked to do?
c)      What could an extra document do in this question?

2.)    Read the documents:

Before the start of the essay you have ten minutes to start reading your documents.  (4-10 documents)
Note the author, the time period, the audience, and cultural background.
What is the main idea being presented?
Use your chart that you made to analyze your documents.
Work the documents.  Underline them and make notes on the documents about your own ideas and questions you may have while reading them. 
Write down similarities and differences that you observe between the documents, between different societies, or between different time periods. 
Write down anything that comes to mind while reading. 

3.)    Create your thesis:

Create a proper analytical thesis that includes the context, the documents, explanation of terms, and the reasons why your thesis is true.
Make sure to put key words from the question into your thesis.

4.)    Support your thesis using all of the documents:

Make sure you read the documents carefully and to make a thesis that works.  Use the documents and any other information you may know from your studies to argue your thesis.  Explain your arguments, refer to specific parts of the documents, give examples and use quotes.

5.)    Analyze the documents:

1.)    Identify when and where the document was written and the author who wrote it.
2.)    What was going on socially, politically, can culturally when the document was written?
3.)    How might that affect the author’s point of view?
4.)    How might the author’s gender, age, social/political status affect the author’s point of view?  How does content and toe of the document relate to the other documents?
5.)     What does this document say that the others don’t? 
6.)    What accounts for these differences?
7.)    Who was the intended audience? 
8.)    What was the author trying to express?

6.)    Group the documents in three different ways:

Find three different ways that you can organize and group the documents.  (i.e. by topic, by chronological order, by gender, religion, political affiliation, the list goes on here.

7.)    Identify and explain at least TWO additional types of documents:

One is the absolute minimum but two additional documents can help your score. 

1.)    What types of documents offer information that is not already present?
2.)    What points of view are missing that would make your argument stronger? (groups not represented like women, slaves, other political parties, other religions, nationalities, minorities, etc
3.)    Why is the additional document or point of view important?

If you can’t think of a specific document, invent one!!! 
Mention a type of document that you think should be included if you can’t think of a name.  Be a bit creative if you need to.

8.)    Synthesize your topic.  Write a brief conclusion restating your thesis and make reference to a different historical period that is relevant to the question, or to another field of study such as psychology, economics, etc.


Friday, March 1, 2019

How to Crack the Multiple Choice Section

From 2018 to present (Feb 2019) the mc section continues involve 55 questions to be completed in 55 minutes.  So will need to make confident quick and effective decisions on this section.  Aside from studying good topic summaries and practicing as many mock mc quizzes as possible, it will help you tremendously to follow a specific set of strategies while doing this part of the exam.

It will also be helpful to understand how the questions are structured: the multiple choice section will have sets of TWO to FIVE questions that are tied to either historical issues, primary sources, or secondary sources.  This means you will need to evaluate a document/source and then answer a series of questions related to it.

Now lets look at what really matters: good reliable strategies.

1.) Look at the Big Picture

Keep in mind that the questions are designed mainly to check your understanding of basic principles in world history.  This includes know who the main players were in a given place and time period, what they did, how did their actions affect the rest of the world, how the societies of the time changed .  To do this effectively you should always study while also thinking about the following themes below:


a) how did a specific people in a given time interact with their environment and why?

b) What new ideas, thoughts, and styles came into existence? and how did these ideas affect the people and technology?

c) What kinds of relationships existed between the societies in a given time period.  Who worked in cooperation? and who was dominating who?  How did leaders justify and/ or achieve their power?

d) How did the economic systems in each time period evolve?  What were they based on? i.e. agriculture, trade, labor, industrialization, consumers, imperial coercion etc.

e) Which people had power and which people were marginalized within a given culture?  Why?  Look at gender, racial, and ethnic situations in a given time period.

2.) Use Process of Elimination

Never focus on which answer might be right on multiple choice questions because there are almost always two options that both seem correct; however one will always be more correct than the other.  The best way to see the answer that is most correct is to eliminate the first two answers that are usually clearly wrong and then the third option that doesn't seem completely correct.  Never justify how an answer might be correct; instead, be mean and look at how all the possible answers could be wrong.  This way you will things more clearly and have a much higher chance of success.

3.) Use Common Sense

Many times an answer choice will contradict common sense.  Always eliminate those answers.

Here is an example:

31. Which explains the most important effect that agriculture had on early Neolithic societies?

a) The wide-scale domestication of plants and animals led to a transition from a transient hunter-gatherer lifestyle to more settled communities.

b) The immediate commercial success of wheat forced individuals in Mesopotamia to defend themselves against repeated attacks by the Chinese, who wanted to take control of the wheat trade.

c) The development of cotton cultivation led to its rise as the most important cash crop in the Near East.

d) Changes in agricultural practices led people to abandon their farms and return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Solution

Even without reading the text that goes with this question you can eliminate b immediately.  Even if you forgot about the Neolithic period you should remember that China never attacked Mesopotamia.  Now lets look at the other options.  Does anyone remember learning about Cotton being grown in the near east?  No. And definitely not in the Neolithic period so eliminate C.  Option D doesn't make any sense at all so you can eliminate that.



Additional Strategies:

1. Do NOT answer each question in order.

2. First only answer the questions that you know and are sure about

3. If you are stuck on a question after using everything else don't be afraid to guess: you have nothing to lose.

Flash Cards