AP History Essays
What kind of writing will you be asked to do on the AP history exams? Learn more about the expectations for the free response section below!
All three AP history exams have the same writing components and rubrics. The questions for each of the exams will naturally be different, but the rules for writing and the expectations for a good essay remain consistent across all of the exams. This consistency is great if you will end up taking more than one AP history course. It also means that advice that applies to one AP history exam will apply to the others, so you can cast a wide net as you look for study materials.
Read below to learn more about the kinds of questions that you can expect.
Essay Types and Relative Weight
There are three types of essays that you will encounter on the exam:
Short answer (3 questions in 40 minutes, accounting for 20% of the final score)
Document-Based Question, or DBQ (1 question in 60 minutes, accounting for 25% of the final score)
Long answer (1 question in 40 minutes, accounting for 15% of the final score)
As you can see, the written sections of the exam account for 60% of the final exam score, meaning that the essays are critically important to a test taker’s final score.
Let’s look at each of these questions individually.
Short Answer Questions
In the short answer section, you will need to answer 3 questions in 40 minutes. All of these questions are multi-part questions.
The three main questions follow a predictable pattern:
Question 1: This question will give you short excerpts from texts written by historians. You might see just one text or two texts that relate to each other. Question 1 will then pose a series of sub-questions. In these sub-questions, you will likely have to name a historical event that supports or challenges the argument(s) given above. You might also have to answer questions about what caused the developments mentioned in the historical analyses or say how the processes discussed in the passage changed later on in history.
Question 2: In this question, you will be given a primary source to respond to. It might be a written text or it might be an image. In either case, you will likely be asked questions about the context and argument of the primary source. You might be asked about the historical developments of the time. Or you might be asked how attitudes later changed.
Questions 3 and 4: You will be able to choose whether you want to answer question 3 or question 4. Question 3 will ask about very early history for the time period on the exam. Question 4 will ask about the later history. Neither of these questions will have a stimulus for you to respond to.
One thing that stands out immediately with the short answer questions is that your responses will need to be, well, short. If there are 3 questions and each question has 3 subsections, then you have only around 4 minutes to answer each of the subsections, which is enough time to write a handful of sentences. Therefore, it is important to prioritize writing down the most important information first and only writing down information that will lead to points. If the question asks for only one example, for instance, only give one example. You do not have to take up precious time giving more examples because you will not receive more points. You should also prioritize specifics, since they are more likely to lead to points than generalizations about the time period.
The DBQ
The second essay will be the document-based question, or DBQ. You will have one hour to work on the essay. For this essay, you will have a prompt that will ask you to assess a statement about history, perhaps about how things changed over time or perhaps about the particularities of a historical phenomenon. You will then be given 7 primary sources, with limited context about the author and publication. It is your task to use these sources to form an argument that responds to the prompt. Not all of the sources will fit together exactly—you will need to decide what to do with sources that might disagree with each other. Moreover, the sources won’t be in a workable order: you will have to reorganize and recategorize them to make points that support your argument.
For the DBQ, one of the most important aspects is setting a good argument. A good argument sets you up for success for the rest of the essay. It gives you a clear position, helps you sort out the useful information in the primary sources, and gives you a clear organization. It is also important to prioritize the clear reading and analysis of the given sources. Graders are looking to make sure that you understand what information can be gleaned from a primary source and what cannot be taken from a primary source. Finally, it is important to finish your essay by adding in some outside knowledge. What do you know beyond the information given in the question that would also support your argument about the past?
Long Answer Essay
The final part of the exam will be the long-answer essay. You will have 40 minutes to compose the essay. You will have 3 essay questions to pick from; you should choose whichever you think you can answer best.
Unlike the DBQ, you are given no information to help answer the long-answer essay. Therefore, you must rely entirely on your own knowledge.
In many ways, a successful essay in the long answer resembles a successful answer in the DBQ. You need to make sure that you have a sophisticated thesis statement, evidence that supports your claim, and a clear organization to your essay. Especially since there is no information given to you in the question, your own knowledge about specific historical events and developments is also crucial for success in this essay.
How to Practice
The best way to improve on your AP history essays is to write them! The College Board AP history websites all have previous essay questions that you can use to practice. They also have real student responses for these sample questions, along with the grades that these essays received and brief responses from the graders justifying the grades they awarded. You can compare what you wrote to what the graders said about the sample student essays. If you missed something that the graders were looking for, be sure to add it in during your next practice essay.
The Circa Project also has plenty of blog posts about how to make a history argument, how to analyze sources, and everything else you might need to break down the history essays into measurable tasks. Keep an eye out for updates that are most useful to you!
Finally, Circa works with AP students in courses to help them improve in all areas of the exam, including in history writing. If you would like some additional practice with our award-winning educators, then check out more on our website about how to apply to the Circa Project!
Learn More about AP History Writing
Circa offers courses to help prepare students of all levels for the AP history exams. We even have a course specifically for AP history writing!