<p>Hey, guys, I'm in AP European history this year, and I am new to the whole DBQ thing. My teacher is very tough, and she's one of those people who expects everyone to know what she expects/likes without telling anyone. So basically, we've already had our first DBQ. I thought I did well, but I got a B- on mine and she wrote "poorly organized essay...expecially your last page..." and on another page she wrote, "this was a ______ essay!" I don't know what that adjective is; I can't read her writing, but I'm assuming she meant to say it sucked. Anyways, I still don't really know what key factors make a good DBQ, and most of her markings on my paper were just different ways of her saying, "this sucks". I have another DBQ next Wednesday, and as of right now, I have a B+ in the class. I have a feeling I can make the A, but I need to work my butt off. I still have some chances, two tests, this dbq, and a midterm (20% of my overall grade) but this DBQ is IMPORTANT!!! I know I can do well on my two tests because I studied a lot and I'm going to study more. And I'm hoping I can get an A on the midterm (even though it is supposed to be the hardest test all year). But I ABSOLUTELY NEED AN A ON THIS DBQ!!! ARGH!!!!!!</p>
<p>Please help!! Any, ANY advice you guys can give will help! I'm desperate for an A in this class!! </p>
<p>THANK YOU!!!</p>
<p>do u want me to take a look at it?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I do not have it. My teacher asked for it back and it's probably locked away in her desk drawer or something :(</p>
<p>Even though I have APWH my teacher says it's important that you group your documents according to similarity. If 2 of your documents have a certain point of view group them together like for example if both of them come from a theology standpoint group them, or if two documents are written by a scholar group them and compare their perspectives based on the subject. When you organize your essay, make sure you state the facts in one paragraph, then give the explanations in the next. In my first DBQ, I tried to put too many things in a single paragraph. Lastly it's important to come up with a in depth thesis ( even if its like 3 sentences long) fully stating the answer b4 fully explaining it. Idk about yours but my teacher said that if i don't exactly know every fact, BS it as if I do ( we don't usually have time to prepare our essays in advance)</p>
<p>i've had prep from my local public elementary & middle schools on dbq's since the 5th grade so i'm pretty good at this stuff. :] if you want more credibility, i'll say i've gotten a 95 & 98 on my last dbq's and the teacher of my apush class has a doctorate. please pm me if you'd like to see my essays & docs.</p>
<p>i first formulate my argument after reading the given question. then i look at the docs and see which ones support my thesis. make sure to use at LEAST half of the given docs (if there are 9, use at least 5). make sure every body has at least 1 doc, use outside info in all of your paragraphs (like info you learn from class, which should be easy). don't go into specifics in your intro, just hint at topics you will be discussing, don't stress on the conclusion - your time to just state again what you've proven!</p>
<p>My method always gets me an 8 or a 9:
-take a very brief note on each document, like 4 words just so you can remember the subject matter
-group all your documents. Some questions will specify which groups and others will not. If no groups are specified a general rule of thumb is to break them down into political, economics, religious, military, and social. Then if it is change over time or something like that, then you would divide your groupings into early and late or something along those lines.
-read all your groupings, all groups that have 3 or more documents that support it should be used in the essay, groups with fewer should not be used. Shoot for at least three groups.
-write your introduction by essentially summarizing the background information in your own words
-write your thesis statement so that it formally addresses the groupings you will use for example: Although ________ was primarily a political event, it also had social, economic, and religious roots. (I always try to work in although or despite in my thesis because for some reason I get better grades when I do that)
-when you write your essay, don't focus too much on how beautiful the writing is, you just want a traditional formulaic essay you were taught to write in like fourth grade.
TIPS
-always include at least 3 sources of bias and explain how they could impact the accuracy of the document
-attempt to use every single document because you are supposed to use a majority so if you have twelve documents, you use seven, and you misinterpret one, you automatically cannot get higher than a 5 but if you use 11 out of 12 and you misinterpret 2 or 3, then you score would reflect that you used 8 or 9 (a majority)
-try to use a few documents in multiple groups</p>