<p>I looked over Princeton Review’s book and wow, DBQ and FRQ look so hard! How do you prepare for this?</p>
<p>The book gave me drills and stuffs but what did you guys do?</p>
<p>FRQs are just regular essay questions. They often ask you to analyze different factors in something. For example, Analyze the political, social, and economic reasons why blah blah blah in the 18th century. Therefore, you need to focus on the big picture when you are studying rather than minute details. The day before my AP Euro test, I could have told you a few big “things” about each “factor” in each century. For example, the social situation in the 19th century. I could tell you that in the early nineteenth century, industrialization caused much urbanization but workers did not benefit because cost of living rose along with wages. But in the latter half, industrialization brought a rise of the middle class, who became more literate and spent more time caring for the upbringing of their children. I would also observe that the phenomenon that occurred with the middle class was similar to that which happened with the nobility and bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century. Although you probably have no idea what I’m talking about seeing as though you just started, I hope you see the gist of what I mean.</p>
<p>So, what to do: When reading your textbook, most likely they will teach you by theme, such as a Renaissance chapter, then a Protestant Reformation chapter, then an Age of Discovery chapter. You must realize that these things happen AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME. In an essay question about the 15th-16th century, you can draw on any of these things to convey a point.</p>
<p>So keep your mind organized by time period and factor (SPRITE: social, political, intellectual, technological, economical) and you should do very well on the FRQs.</p>
<p>A DBQ is an extended FRQ where you “answer” the question using the info provided in the documents (and a bit of your own knowledge too). But you have to do all sorts of crap such as Point of View and document groupings. The best way to master these skills is PRACTICE. I suggest you do one DBQ without writing the essay. Read the documents, and analyze the POV in as many as you can, no time limit. Then try to see how you would organize the documents into at least three groups. Then formulate your thesis, and make an outline of your answer.</p>
<p>For example: Analyze English responses to “Blah situation” in the 17th century.</p>
<p>For this one, the easiest way to do this (and make your 3 groups) is to organize the “responses” into supporting, against, and neutral. </p>
<p>For example: Evaluate various views regarding European unity from 1946-1989. (from a couple years ago).</p>
<p>For this one, group by “wanting to unite”, “not wanting to unite” , “wanting to separate western/eastern europe” or something like that. If you see that the documents mainly come from france, germany, and england, then you could have a group about each of the countries. You get the idea. </p>
<p>Regarding point of view: this is not as hard as everyone thinks. It is awesome when you find an author you know, because then you can say: Clearly, Martin Luther wrote this piece in response to blah blah blah, OR Luther was most likely addressing Blah with this article. OR Since this observation comes from Von Blah, who was directly on the battlefield during the Thirty Years War, his depiction of Wallenstein as Blah is most likely accurate. </p>
<p>If you dont know who any authors are, use the other information provided to make something up. (Since the author is from France, his testimony that English people are generally stupid must be taken with a grain of salt. OR It is understandable that a Catholic priest would say this about the Jesuits…)</p>
<p>Think about that stuff, and just PRACTICE. You will get better. If you are sick of writing essays, make outlines. Good luck!</p>
<p>PS Dont forget about the multiple choice section either. I thougt this years was really easy, but who knows. For the best multiple choice questions, purchase the official released exams.</p>
<p>really, because i thought the essays and dbq were really not that bad…but then again, i did get a 5.</p>
<p>I took the APEuro test this year and I never did a DBQ before taking the test (although I did know all the nuances of it) and I got a 5.</p>
<p>It’s really not that hard, just find a good review book (I just used PR) and go over what you need to do to get full points on the essays.</p>
<p>If you have a good teacher he will do that already (I didn’t so I got the book).</p>