<p>Help and discussion about the Advanced Placement class, United States History, known as APUSH.</p>
<p>I am an 8th grader, and I have qualified to take a “readiness exam” for AP US History to determine if I’m able to take the class. I have qualified in all other areas, so I will be taking this DBQ test in March to show if I’m able to take the class as a freshman. Are there any tips or information of any kind you can give to help me prepare for the DBQ test? Anything will help, thanks!</p>
<p>I self-studied it last year and got a 4. Is there anything you want to know?</p>
<p>You can do well on the DBQ even if you know nothing about what’s given since they give you all the documents, but it can really help you if you have/use outside information. Also, be sure to use a good amount of the documents.</p>
<p>I’m in APUSH this year.</p>
<p>Agreed. The key to DBQs is definitely pairing outside information with the provided sources. This is especially true if you have, for example, a map of population distribution in a given year for a source, and you can explain the reasoning behind the map, provided the information relates to and supports the prompt and your view.</p>
<p>Remember that you don’t have to use ALL the documents - just try to use a majority. If you don’t know anything about a source document, for heaven’s sake don’t use it! 
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<p>Best of luck! I took APUSH last year, and had an EXCELLENT teacher, who has graded the exams in the past.</p>
<p>My APUSH teacher tells us to consider political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and artistic developments during the time period of the documents when gathering outside info. Or PERSIA for short.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck! Like the posters above me said, just remember to use most, if not all, of the documents.</p>
<p>Okay great, thank you all for responding. These do help considerably, and I think I’ll just need to do a bit of research to see the formatting of the DBQ and a few smaller things. But thanks again for all your help, I’m sure all your advice will be a great help! </p>
<p>@elf4EVA lol wait same with my teacher. idk if the acronym’s widely-known or what, but hey, it can’t hurt* to ask: who’s your APUSH teacher?</p>
<p>And I won’t/can’t respond to the OP because I’m terribad at DBQs. Sorry.</p>
<p>I have conflicting feels about APUSH. I thought that it was a living nightmare that engulfed my entire life Sophomore year, but I also believed it to be one of the most rewarding classes I have ever taken.</p>
<p>@shinchang It’s probably pretty widely known. My APUSH teacher’s not exactly old (mid-late twenties?), so I doubt she has enough experience to have come up with that.</p>
<p>The most important thing about DBQs is using at least 75% of the sources given (to be safe) because they want to see that you understand most of the sources and can incorporate them into a cohesive essay. Very rarely they might give you a source that has nothing to do with the topic so watch out for those. Basically if the source doesn’t make sense to you, you don’t have to use it. </p>
<p>The only homework we have is terms for every unit. Those take forever, but they’re not hard. The only other thing you need to do is read the book to study, but not many people do that.</p>
<p>TBH the class isn’t too hard. Granted, I get anywhere between 80-100% on my tests, but that’s mainly just because I don’t study as much as I need to (cough cough 1~2 hours of multitasking <em>ahem</em> and studying). I fare pretty well if I spend around 3~6 hours/week on the class though, which I <em>ahem</em> rarely do.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help. Fortunately for me the topic that came up on the exam was a topic I had previously practiced, in fact the only DBQ I had practiced, so I knew the topic relatively well. From what I know my school uses the Out of Many text, which I’ve had to do summer reading in and have found it in no way entertaining. I’ve also heard that the American Pageant has amusing jokes, but I guess my luck extends only so far. Thanks all!</p>
<p>@elf4EVA That’s actually a helpful acronym, thanks for that! Since I knew the question I encountered so well, I really was too overwhelmed by the prospect of my first DBQ to really think about that, but I’ll remember that as I go through the course load this year. </p>