so when free responses - like the short answer questions on the APUSH exam or the FRQs on the AP bio exam- say to “describe ONE detail/effect/etc,” is it okay to write more than one if you’re not totally sure if one is correct, or if you think two are necessary to defend your point? i tend to do this on APUSH a lot - on my practice exam the other day they asked to describe “one geographical aspect of the middle colonies that led to their unique development prior to 1754” and i said both the cultivation of grains AND that they were situated near the appalachian mountains, leading to many conflicts with the natives. would they take off points for this?
If one of the points is wrong, they will take it off.
The reason they do this is because when they ask “describe one detail”, they don’t want a person writing several details and guessing at what the correct answer really is. So the “write as many points as possible and hope one is right” won’t work at all.
In order to receive the credit, you must have all the correct points if you have more than one point, which ends up basically wasting your time as you wrote extra for no real benefit.