<p>In light of the recent thread about horrible Stats teachers, I thought now would be a good time to ask about my absolutely horrendous APUSH teacher. Basically all we do in class everyday is go over a powerpoint that he probably made about 10 years ago that briefly (only covers a few specific points) covers the section/chapter we are on at the moment. Now, I'm not complaining about the powerpoints b/c US History is not the most exciting subject and I can read/learn important info from the textbook on my own.... But I am super worried about the AP exam DBQs.</p>
<p>We have written one essay (an FRQ about the success of the colonies) the entire year that wasn't graded and he had us do it one night for homework. Didn't really give us any directions except for a "10 tips for writing FRQs." He hasn't even returned them yet and this was in early November. I'm pretty sure we are going to write one more before the AP exam (excuse me but WTF... is this normal?!)</p>
<p>I went to a highly competitive International school freshman year before I moved to my current school, and in my World History Class (not AP) we wrote DBQs at least once every other week so I do have some experience with them but not of AP quality.</p>
<p>My question is, what is the best way to practice for the DBQs? The best practice books? I am pretty annoyed with the teacher because he could care less about our scores on the exam and if I knew he wouldn't teach us anything, I could have just had a free period and self-studied for the exam at home.</p>
<p>@megans113 I’m in basically the same spot as you! We do DBQs but they are self-graded, and my teacher has never actually taught us how to write one. I’ve done some googling and found some DBQ explanations, but hopefully someone can answer your question!</p>
<p>@megans113 @ramenforlife Ah, the DBQ. I hate them, but when you think about it, they are easier than you think. </p>
<p>First the bad. It’s an essay and it just so happens to be a timed one, so work on your timed writing first to ensure you can get at least 4 paragraphs if not 5 written within the time constraints of the actual test. Also, we don’t know what time period and thing that the DBQ will ask, so know your history and major topics of each decade.</p>
<p>The good. The documents will always give you context of the topic being talked about. This will save you a little bit of memorizing. Work on analyzing some documents and write down the main point and what position it would support with a few DBQ sources. Furthermore, the documents do not and should not be directly quoted, so paraphrasing will do just fine because it shows your understanding of each source. For your thesis, you should be brief but detailed, if that makes any sense. Work on making really short conclusions and intros, usually no more than four sentences for the intro and no more than three for the conclusion. If you can get these shortened, but good, you will have a lot more time to work on the body, which is the more important part of the essay. Another thing you can work on, which is really the bulk of the course, is memorizing big concepts and events because the College Board loves to see that you know your outside info. This part is probably the easier part since we tend to remember the large concepts and events in history. </p>
<p>Ultimately, doing well on the DBQ depends on different types of practice: timing practice, analyzing practice, and just plain old practice writing an argument based on logic (AP Lang helps here). I would start by analyzing documents and writing DBQs from old AP tests then moving on to a book like Barron’s or Princeton Review if they have DBQs. Have peers and old history teachers grade it using the AP rubric (It would help to have someone familiar with AP scoring to do this). Lastly, don’t sweat it. I don’t think we will see our DBQ scores anyways, and a 9 or 8 is not necessarily required for a 5 on the exam. Worry more about multiple choice before this because this is the portion that can really save you from getting lower than a 3. </p>
<p>@megans113 such an intellectual post thanks for sharing </p>
<p>@megans113 you are an inspiration to humanity</p>