Guide to receiving a 9 on every DBQ

maxconf
Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:06:36 +0000

Hello everyone.

Since I am posting this guide under a pseudonym and have no credential-based statistics, my “credentials”-or ethos- are as followed:

Dartmouth Undergraduate

2280 SAT

5 on AP Euro/AP World Exam (taken in same year)

I am here to offer a guide for struggling European History or World History students who aim for a 5 on their AP exam. It is certainly possible to still earn a 5 without achieving a 9 on any of the essay portions, but we can all agree that earning a 9 can dramatically increase one’s chances for that desirable 5.

The DBQ essay can be very intimidating at first. However, the sooner you understand what the object of the DBQ is and what the authors/graders are looking for, it all comes down to how well you can comprehend the primary source documents.

This is how I define the DBQ (this type of mentality can also dramatically increase your score): An essay where you simply organize 10-12 documents into 3 categories (4 if you want, but it doesn’t substantially increase your score), analyze the author’s opinion/perspective, and ask yourself: “What does his or her title/position/job tell me about his perspective?”.

For some, the only concern is analyzing POV (point-of-view) for the documents. For others, it may be doing the whole essay itself, so I will write my own personal strategy for the entire process of writing a successful DBQ as well as analyze some of the 2011 AP Euro DBQ.

Step 1:
Read the Historical Background. It can really help give you a perspective into the time period and possible tips for POV’s. Here is an example from the 2011 Ap European History DBQ. *Note: I have not read through the DBQ, I am almost literally going through process as if I were doing the DBQ as I am writing this guide.

“Elizabeth I of England (reigned 1558-1603) was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Following the reigns of her half siblings, Edward VI and Mary I , Elizabeth I ascended to the throne at age twenty-five.”

We can get a lot of information from this 2-sentence excerpt.

General summary of the documents → Something about Elizabeth I of England who ascended to the throne at age 25. We can assume there will probably be conflicting documents about how people felt about her rise to power or what she was like as a ruler.

Time period (1558-1603) → Some historical background could help, but the documents will most likely clarify what was happening during this period.

Family → This is where outside information can help you. Including outside information about her family and possible influences on Elizabeth will always help you. Any outside information even somewhat related can help you.

Age she began ruling → 25 seems like a somewhat young age. So this is good information to keep in mind while reading through the perspectives of documents.

As you can tell, there are 4 big points you can gain simply from the background.

Step 2:
Read all the documents and categorize them into 3 -four if you deem necessary- categories. This part solely relies on your ability to comprehend what the author of the document is saying and his perspective. I can’t really help much in this step, but here is a simple list of things to watch out for:

Negative terms: “against, may not, utterly impossible” etc.

Sarcasm (My favorite to date I remember in a DBQ about imperialism: “philanthropy is great, but philanthropy at five-percent is even better.” Not quite sarcasm, but the author is saying that philanthropy is great, but also earning a 5% interest is even better. It’s an economic/humanitarian perspective.

Prolonged sentences and excessive adjectives. Try and cut down the sentence in your mind if you can. Sometimes documents are in such a hatred tone that they will take 15 words to describe how awful something/someone is and arrive at the point much later.

As for defining categories, generally you should just try and fill these ubiquitous templates since they work 99% of the time.

Political

Economical

Humanitarian (White Man’s Burden)

Imperialism

Nationalism

Religion

Society

Intellectual Development
These 8 categories will generally fit every DBQ the collegeboard can conjure up.

Step 3: (Least favorite amongst all)
Now let’s get into analyzing author perspectives. I remember my history teacher had a hard time trying to explain this, and when I tutored students in AP History, I did as well. This skill I call the “weeder”. It really distinguishes between students who can make connections, and those can cannot. POV, in my opinion, is simply the ability to make the connections. I find that using the template: " It makes sense that ______ (person) holds this position because he is ______" helps get the thoughts flowing.

Let’s analyze a document from the 2011 DBQ that we talked about earlier.

In document 2, Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York, is against the leadership of Elizabeth. Since Heath is an archbishop, he has most likely read the bible and interpreted the role of women as inferior compared to men. * Being the religions man Heath is, it makes sense for him to be against the leadership of a woman.

When talking about the bible, it is easy to blame the position of a person based on his/her interpretation of the bible since there is infinite number of the ways to interpret the bible.


I think the main problem for most students is that they over-think the POV. Some may question the validity of my example of POV, but it clearly works since I consistently received 8 - 9’s on my DBQ’s in class and on the AP Exam. POV is more straightforward and making the connections.

I do have one possible “trick” for how to do a lot better on the POV. Go to art museums and buy/listen to the art descriptions. There are constant POV analyses of art in these recordings and it could very well help you better understand how to analyze an author’s -or in this case painter’s- POV.

That is all I have to offer for the DBQ. Other than what I have said above, the only other way to get better is: practice, practice, practice. It may be hard/intimidating at first, but if you stick with it and work hard, it will pay off.

Good night, and good luck. (High-five to anyone who gets the reference.) :)