AP EXAM: Document-Based Questions

25% of your AP U.S. History Exam grade DBQs 1 Question 60 Minutes to answer it 25% of your AP U.S. History Exam grade As with the long essay, there’s flexibility with time. You’ll be given 15 minutes to plan both your DBQ and Long Essay answer (during this time you won’t be allowed to write) and then 120 minutes to write them. You can divide up the time however you choose, and write the DBQ before you write the essay, or the other way around.

DBQs The new APUSH DBQs have seven documents. If you want full credit for the DBQ, you must incorporate at least six in your essay. The new APUSH DBQs ask broader, more open-ended questions. They would not ask this question: The U.S. decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a diplomatic measure calculated to intimidate the Soviet Union in the post-WWII era rather than a strictly military measure designed to force Japan’s unconditional surrender. Evaluate this statement using the documents and your knowledge of the military and diplomatic history of the years 1939 through 1947. but instead something like this: Weigh the relative importance of military and diplomatic motives in the American decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

DBQs As a strategy for answering the new DBQ well... First, read the question carefully and restate it to yourself to make sure you understand it. Second, read and markup all seven documents to evaluate each document’s intended audience purpose historical context point of view and, as you do, begin thinking how you will use this document in constructing your thesis. Third, take a quick skim through the documents again, now that you’ve read them all, to see if you’ve changed your mind about how you’re going to use them in your argument.

DBQs Fourth, write your thesis. It should have all the qualities of a strong thesis – it should be (a) concise, (b) debatable, (c) able to be proven or disproven with evidence and (d) nuanced (which is another way of saying, it should acknowledge many points of view and give them a proper weight). Fifth, pick up your remaining three points. Think of what you’re going to use to get your Outside evidence point Contextualization point Synthesis point and remember, you can’t double up on these: You have to do three separate things to get all three points. Sixth, mentally or on paper, put your evidence in the order you’re going to use to tell your story well.

DBQs Seventh, write your essay. When deciding which element of analysis to include for each document you refer to (audience, purpose, context, POV), think, “Which one is most important to making my argument?” and choose that one.¹ 1. In the example we did in class on the military and diplomatic motives for dropping atomic bombs on Japan, the purpose or point of view might be most important for the Stimson memoir (justifying his wartime decisions, as the head of a military but not diplomatic department) but the context might be most important for Gen. Arnold’s recollections of Japan’s closeness to collapse (as chief of the Air Force, he was very close to events on the ground and probably knew what he was talking about).