1. You’re making it infinitely more complicated than it really is.
DBQ
You’re making it infinitely more complicated than it really is.

2. THE DBQ
THIS ESSAY DOES NOT MEASURE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY. This essay tests your HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS. Can you take evidence that is presented to you, form an opinion, and report on the reliability of the evidence? They don't want you to be a historian, they want you to be INDIANA JONES.

3. WAIT, REALLY?
Yes, really.
ALL of the information that you need to complete your essay is contained within the documents!
It is your job to organize, interpret, and analyze these documents
Writing a DBQ is a skill, and like all other skills, it can be learned

4. It’s actually quite easy.
How to nail a dbq

5. HOW TO CHEAT THE SYSTEM AND GET FIVE POINTS
If the DBQ stresses you out, just focus on these next couple of slides, and NAIL these points. Don’t worry about analysis. Just worry about this.

6. THE KEY: ORGANIZATION
If you have groups, and if you have a topic sentence for each paragraph, the essay will write itself.

7. HOW TO CHEAT THE SYSTEM AND GET FIVE OUT OF NINE POINTS SO EASILY
1ST: GROUP
2ND: THESIS STATEMENT
3RD: TALK ABOUT EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT
4TH: ADDRESS POINT OF VIEW IN 75% OF THE DOCUMENTS
5TH: ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT
That’s right. No analysis. Don’t stress yourself out about that. It might cause some disorganization. Let’s cheat the system and make this essay as easy to write as possible.

8. 1ST POINT: GROUPING
You're going to be staring down the barrel of 6-12 documents. These documents are meant to help you reach a conclusion based on the question asked. Read the question. Read through the documents in the 10 minute period provided. Butcher the test booklet. Start underlining key words, authors, dates: anything that might help you find other documents like this one. Your PRIME DIRECTIVE is to group. There will be multiple ways to group the documents. You are NOT expected to find them all. You only need to find two or three ways that the documents work together. Once you've found your groups, the rest of the essay writes itself. Your groups are your backbone. Mention them in the THESIS and then elaborate on why each document fits into the group (and therefore answers the question) in the body. MAKE VERY CLEAR TOPIC SENTENCES.

9. 1ST POINT: GROUPING
So, as you are reading through the documents, make a list of groups they can fall under. It can be PERSIAN categories or not. Up to you. Doc A: Hitler came out as a result of T of V Doc B: Territory lost by Germany after WWI Doc C: Hitler hates Versailles Treaty – ppl should be punished** bias! Doc D: Demilitarization by Germany Doc E: Germany surrounded by stronger nations **bias Doc F: German reparations and owed Doc G: T of V; Germany accepts full responsibility Doc H: German humiliation by the treaty My two most logical groups: T of V was way too harsh against Germany (Docs A, B, D, F, G) and Hitler rose to power because people wanted to look to a strong leader who would bring them out of the depths (C, E, H). See? I made up my groups. And it worked.

10. 2ND POINT: THESIS STATEMENT
Answer the freaking prompt. It DOES NOT have to be in the formula. In fact, sometimes it’s really hard to write a thesis for a DBQ prompt in the formula. Just respond to the prompt with a good answer.
So, based on my groupings, I could say:
The Treaty of Versailles was way too harsh against Germany through forcing Germany to accept full blame for the war, pay war reparations, and demilitarize. The Treaty weakened Germany severely and led to an economic recession. Looking for someone to bring them out of chaos and weakness, the German people put their trust in Hitler to be their leader, leading to WWII in the Late Modern Era.
(I restated the prompt in that last sentence. Do that.)

11. 3RD POINT: ADDRESS ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS
Literally just say “Doc A is this. Doc B is this. Doc C is this.” and go all the way down through all of the documents. Just prove to me that you know what the documents are. You can copy this straight from the notes you made about each doc during your grouping. Just make them sound a little less 3rd-grade.
Doc A shows how Hitler was able to rise to power directly as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Doc B shows how much territory Germany lost after WWI. Doc C is a quote from Mein Kampf, where Hitler blames the Treaty of Versailles for causing all of the problems in Germany. Etc etc.

12. 4TH POINT: POINT OF VIEW
Do you believe everything you hear? People lie to your face every single day. The documents are no different. The sources of the documents may have hidden agendas as to why they are telling you what they are telling you. The AP wants you to be able to recognize that not everything you read is 100% true. So, analyze the sources of the documents. The introduction to each document will be your #1 source of the author's point of view. Look at their occupation, name, title, job, rank, or whatever is listed there. There will be at least two or three documents with blatant bias based on their point of views. As you bring up the documents in your essay (and you have to use all of them), immediately list after each document if it is trustworthy. For example, "The Emperor of Rome (Document 1) thinks that Rome is the greatest city on the planet. However, the Emperor may be biased due to the fact that he is the ruler of Rome and would therefore not be the most trustworthy source on Rome, because he believes in Roman supremacy above all, which is super biased."

13. 4TH POINT: POINT OF VIEW
You can do this in a whole new paragraph. OR, you can do this after you address each document. Here’s what I mean:
Doc C is a quote from Mein Kampf, where Hitler blames the Treaty of Versailles for causing all of the problems in Germany. Doc C is biased because Mein Kampf was a giant book of propaganda that blamed the Jews and the Treaty of Versailles for what was happening in Germany. Hitler’s rhetoric in this book is going to be extreme and full of hatred in order to garner public support against a common enemy. Doc E is a political cartoon about Germany is surrounded by stronger nations. Doc E is biased because it was written by a German, and exaggerates the power of the other nations and the weakness of Germany, again in order to garner public hatred toward the other nations involved in the Treaty of Versailles. Etc

14. 5TH POINT: ADDITIONAL DOC
WHOSE VOICE IS NOT BEING HEARD? THIS IS THE EASIEST POINT OF THE AP TEST... At the end of your essay, look back through the documents and determine who is not there. What would help you shape your opinion on this topic? You are only getting 6-12 documents. If you had the opportunity to get two or three or four more documents to help you out, what would they be? and how would they be helpful? Here are a few generic answers that may help you out (WARNING: DO NOT USE THESE IF THEY ALREADY EXIST WITHIN THE DBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

15. 5TH POINT: ADDITIONAL DOC
TEMPLATE: TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM BLANK BC BLANK. TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM A WOMAN BECAUSE A FEMININE PERSPECTIVE WOULD AID IN THE ANALYSIS OF THIS TOPIC. TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM A MERCHANT BECAUSE A MERCHANT FROM A FOREIGN LAND WOULD BRING A DIFFERENT VIEW TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM A KING/EMPEROR BECAUSE THE LEADER OF ONE OF THESE LANDS WOULD ADD A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE. TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM A MAP/CHART/GRAPH ON THIS TOPIC BECAUSE A VISUALIZATION OF THE TOPIC AT HAND WOULD AID IN THE ANALYSIS. TO BETTER ANSWER THE PROMPT, IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HEAR FROM A RELIGIOUS TEXT BECAUSE (THE RELIGION OF THE AREA)'s PERSPECTIVE ON THIS ISSUE IS CRUCIAL.

16. DONE. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED.
Thesis statement
Grouping
Address all docs
Show point of view in a lot of docs
Additional source
Yes, it can even look like this:

17. The Treaty of Versailles was way too harsh against Germany through forcing Germany to accept full blame for the war, pay war reparations, and demilitarize. The Treaty weakened Germany severely and led to an economic recession. Looking for someone to bring them out of chaos and weakness, the German people put their trust in Hitler to be their leader, leading to WWII in the Late Modern Era. The Treaty of Versailles was way too harsh against Germany, as evidenced in docs A, B, D, F, and G. Doc A shows how Hitler was able to rise to power directly as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Doc B shows how much territory Germany lost after WWI. Doc D shows how Germany had to demilitarize after WWI as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Doc F shows how much money Germany has to pay in reparations after WWI. Doc G shows how the Allied powers forced Germany to accept total blame for starting the war. German citizens were angry and were experiencing an economic depression because of the Treaty. Because the Treaty of Versailles was so harsh against Germany, Germany looked to a leader who would lead them out of such failure. I would be able to better answer the prompt if I had a document from a male shop owner during the time to see if he felt the effects of Germany’s failing economy during this time, to see if normal people also hated the Treaty of Versailles.

18. Hitler rose to power because people wanted to look to a strong leader who would bring them out of the depths, as shown in docs C, E, and H. Doc C is a quote from Mein Kampf, where Hitler blames the Treaty of Versailles for causing all of the problems in Germany. Doc C is biased because Mein Kampf was a giant book of propaganda that blamed the Jews and the Treaty of Versailles for what was happening in Germany. Hitler’s rhetoric in this book is going to be extreme and full of hatred in order to garner public support against a common enemy. Doc E is a political cartoon about Germany is surrounded by stronger nations. Doc E is biased because it was written by a German, and exaggerates the power of the other nations and the weakness of Germany, again in order to garner public hatred toward the other nations involved in the Treaty of Versailles. Doc H shows how humiliated the German citizens were after the Treaty of Versailles, and further shows how Hitler restored pride and nationalism to his people, and how people looked to him to lead them out of the Interwar Years. This document was written in 1995, so it is probably more accurate than other documents about Hitler’s rise to power, because the author could use more sources to compile his evidence.

19. Donezo.
That right there will get you a MINIMUM of a 5 out of 9 points.

20. But wait, you want to analyze? You want those points too?
Really? After all I just said? Okay fine.
But wait, you want to analyze? You want those points too?

21. ANALZYING? WHAT IS THAT??
When you analyze each document, ALWAYS READDRESS THE PROMPT. If you do this for every document, you will receive the two points for “supports thesis with appropriate evidence from all documents.”

22. So really, after every single document you use, readdress the prompt.
This was a struggle for a lot of you on the last DBQ. This goes beyond saying Doc A is a picture of Hitler crawling out of the Treaty of Versailles.
Rather, “Doc A shows a picture of Hitler crawling out of the Treaty of Versailles, which shows that the Hitler party was able to gain strength because of the intense reparations put on Germany after the Treaty. Because the Treaty was so harsh, Hitler and the Nazi party were able to garner support and rise to power.”

23. THE ULTIMATE GOAL
After you have grouped and written your thesis, combine addressing docs, analyzing docs, and addressing POV and adding in an additional doc ALL TOGETHER. SO:
Doc E is a political cartoon about Germany is surrounded by stronger nations. This shows that Germany was humiliated and weakened after the Treaty, which fueled their anger, which led to WWII. Doc E is biased because it was written by a German, and exaggerates the power of the other nations and the weakness of Germany, again in order to garner public hatred toward the other nations involved in the Treaty of Versailles. It would be helpful to see a document from the perspective of a regular German citizen to see how average people felt about the effects of the Treaty, to see if they were also upset and felt humiliated.
And then do that for every.single.document.