AP EURO College Board Exam Tips

Exam Tips: European History

Teach the meanings of the important directive words that appear in a free-response question.

For students to write effective answers to free-response questions, they must understand clearly the meanings of words, such as the following, that tell them how to present the material:

Analyze. Determine their component parts; examine their nature and relationship. "Analyze the social and technological changes that took place in European warfare between 1789 and 1871."
Assess/Evaluate. Judge the value or character of something; appraise; evaluate the positive points and the negative ones; give an opinion regarding the value of; discuss the advantages and disadvantages of. "'Luther was both a revolutionary and a conservative.' Evaluate this statement with respect to Luther's responses to the political and social questions of his day."
Compare. Examine for the purpose of noting similarities and differences. "Compare the rise of power of fascism in Italy and Germany."
Contrast. Examine in order to show dissimilarities or points of difference. "Contrast the ways in which European skilled artisans of the mid-18th century and European factory workers of the late 19th century differed in their work behavior and in their attitudes toward work."
Describe. Give an account of; tell about; give a word picture of. "Describe the steps taken between 1832 and 1918 to extend the suffrage in England. What groups and what movements contributed to the extension of the vote?"
Discuss. Talk over; write about; consider or examine by argument or from various points of view; debate; present different sides of. "Discuss the extent to which 19th-century Romanticism was or was not a conservative cultural and intellectual movement."
Explain. Make clear or plain; make clear the causes or reasons for; make known in detail; tell the meaning of. "Explain how economic, political, and religious factors promoted explorations from about 1450 to about 1525."

One way to teach students how to approach the DBQ is to look at the most common errors in student responses, such as these:

simply paraphrasing or summarizing the documents
failure to answer the question that is being asked
failure to analyze documents or determine their significance
failure to demonstrate that independent thought has gone into the essay

Make sure that your students know how to do what is asked of them in the question. Instruct them to:

Read the directions and the question carefully.
Evaluate the points of view of the sources and authors.
Exercise critical judgment.

Tailor your tests to the AP format.
Remember that there are no questions on the AP Exam that ask students to state whether a "fact" is true or false. As a help in devising the format of your tests, you can obtain released AP Exams, which include the entire AP Exam, a multiple-choice answer key, the process and standards for scoring the free-response sections of the exam, and sample student essays. You can order the 1999 AP European History Released Exam online.

Use essay scoring standards (rubrics) similar to those used to score essays at the AP Reading.
The points you assign to a student's essay are easily defensible with a solid standard. Looking at an outline of your standard in grading an essay, a student can see instantly where an error was made or why a point was given.

Practice, practice, practice.
Practice and training in writing essay responses can be done on a regular basis, both as part of a homework assignment and as a classroom exercise. In class, working under the time pressure of a mock exam situation helps students learn to resist the temptation to write before thinking. It also trains them to organize their thoughts, to answer the question directly, and to use a logical, structured thought process.