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Format:
The Document Based question on the AP Exam consists of 1 essay format question. The questions come with stimulus sources that you use to provide evidence and back up a historically defensible claim responding to a prompt. You must also use at least 1 piece of evidence beyond the documents & from your own knowledge. This section is 25% of the exam and is 60 minutes in total, including a 15 minute reading section.
Step-by-Step: (Disclaimer: Your teachers may have different recommended processes for answering questions, this is just what works for me)
Step 1 - Read the prompt.
Step 2 - Spend 10-15 minutes quickly reading through the stimulus sources, and identify overarching themes. Make simple annotations like underlines & circles for this. Get used to making annotations without a highlighter!
Grouping together documents that share similar sentiments can help you structure your body paragraphs later!
Step 3 - Form a thesis that responds to the prompt FULLY. A good thesis should include a direct answer & establish of line of reasoning, with ~3 reasons/topics that you are using to back up your claim. Write this in your packet/stimulus source sheet. You can also attempt to set yourself up for the complexity point here through various ways (counterclaim, multiple cause & effect, connections across time periods/regions, etc.).
Step 4 - Start with writing 3-4 sentences of contextualization. Provide context on events and developments leading up to your topic. This section should contain specific information RELEVANT to your topic.
Step 5 - Write your thesis.
Step 6 - Write ~3 body paragraphs with the general structure of:
Topic Sentence about one of the reasons/topics you stated in your thesis
Evidence (Cite which document you used)
Elaborate on how evidence supports topic sentence ("This shows...", "This illustrates that..."). Include at least 2 ACAP by analyzing how the author's POV, context of stimulus, audience, or purpose of document, is relevant to your argument.
Don't forget to use evidence from beyond the documents somewhere in your body paragraphs!
Remember that you can absolutely have MULTIPLE pieces of evidence in each body paragraph as well!
Step 7 - Write a concluding sentence to wrap up your DBQ. You can restate your thesis here to get the thesis point if your earlier one did not get the point.
Complexity Point:
The Complexity Point is extremely hard to get, despite there being so many ways to get it. I would only recommend going for this point if you are already comfortable and confident in writing DBQs, as it requires time for you to flesh out your argument.
In my opinion, the easiest way to get the point is to use ACAP analysis 4+ times or to effectively use all 7 documents. This is because these have clearly defined requirements, while other methods such as explaining connections across periods and regions are more vaguely described in the rubric.
Including a counterclaim or limitation to your argument may also work. The documents sometimes include opposing views that you can use to introduce different perspectives into your DBQ.
Additional Tips:
I recommend using as many documents as you can regardless of if you are going for the complexity point by using all 7. In doing this, if one piece of evidence was not effectively used and does not count, you will still have "backups" that may save you from losing a point in evidence.
If you use context for ACAP, make sure that what you're writing wasn't already included in your contextualization in the beginning of your DBQ.
If you're unsure of exact dates or time periods, be more vague (ex. saying 19th century rather than 1820). It's better to be a little less specific than wrong, because this would make your argument not historically defensible.
Use historical thinking skills like Cause & Effect and Changes & Continuities to elaborate on your argument.
I'd recommend not taking the entire 15 minutes to read/annotate unless you need it to gather your thoughts and form an argument. I found that just starting to write helps me get my mind thinking about how to structure my argument.
Paraphrasing evidence instead of quoting saves time.
Memorize the rubric so you know how much you need to write and what you're missing.
If the prompt asks "To what extent...", then you have to clearly state HOW MUCH (greatly, slightly, significantly)!
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