How to Answer AP® World History SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs | Albert Resources (2024)

If you’re taking AP® World History, you probably already know just how important the free response section can be for making or breaking your AP® score. This post will help give you the best tips and tricks for answering AP® World History free response questions including but not limited to short-answer questions, document-based questions, and long essays.

We’ll go over things like must-know tips for how to write perfect score SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs, mistakes students often make on the AP® World exam, and how to use past AP® free response questions to start practicing for your upcoming exam.

Read on to get the scoop on everything you need to make the most of your AP® World History: Modern exam review.

5 Steps on How to Write Effective AP® World History: Modern Free Responses

Regardless of whether you’re answering a SAQ, DBQ, or LEQ, there are a few key steps when it comes to putting your best foot forward in your AP® World free response section.

1. Knowing what you’re being asked and answering that specific question.

All too often, students enter the AP® World History: Modern exam suffering from two key weaknesses in their exam prep: not understanding the rubric or not answering the question asked.

You need to know exactly how you earn your points. This way, you can write your response to directly address what you’re being asked.

Here is a link for AP® World History past released exams

These past exams include scoring guidelines PDFs which outline how points were distributed for each respective question.

Here’s a screenshot from the second question of the 2019 released exam:

Source: College Board

You can gather a lot from these scoring guidelines. In the example above, you can see that points are distributed based on the student’s ability to answer the prompt. One point was given for identification from data in a chart, another from identifying a similarity, and a final point for explaining how longer life expectations impacted society on a political, economic, or social level.

There are commonly used directive words to be wary of when reviewing past AP® World History free response questions. We’ll cover what some of those are later.

When it comes to the AP® World History DBQ, know where each of your points will come from. Most importantly, keep in mind how to use the documents to advance your argument and don’t just rehash what is already known from the documents provided. This means knowing for example that you’ll receive one point for successfully connecting documents to the prompt, knowing you have to argue with the documents to earn more points, or using at least six (if not seven) documents to support your thesis.

For now, just make sure you go over at least two years worth of released exam scoring guidelines so you understand how everything is weighted and distributed.

2. Flag every directive word or key phrase in the question prompt.

Now that you know how points are earned, you need to start to develop a habit for mentally confirming you’re getting all of the points possible in each question.

Let’s take a look at the first SAQ from the 2019 AP® World History exam:

Source: College Board

What you can tell here is that oftentimes for SAQs, you will be asked to identify in part A (and sometimes B, as is the case here), followed by explain in part B and/or C.

To properly identify, you must provide 1-2 sentences where you directly answer the question, within the proper time period.

When asked to explain, these responses often will be three sentences. One sentence to answer the question, and then two sentences to provide specific facts that support your answer. Teachers often refer to these questions as ones where you want to “show the why”.

Take note of what we highlighted above. We not only flag for ourselves what the key directive word is, but we also mark how many things we need to identify or explain and the time period being asked of us.

Students often make the mistake of bringing in historical examples that are outside the scope of the time period asked. If you do this, you will miss out on valuable AP® World History SAQ points.

Here’s how we might flag the DBQ from that same 2019 AP® World History free response section:

Source: College Board

When you’re flagging the key directives or phrases, the things to keep in mind are:

1. What’s the historical reasoning skill that is being asked of me?
   1. Typically when it comes to the DBQs or LEQs, you’ll be asked to compare, explore causes, discuss change or continuity over time.
2. What’s the time period?

To answer the first question, you must understand that AP® World History: Modern develops students to have these six historical thinking skills:

The four core historical reasoning skills from the College Board are:

Source: College Board

3. Plan out your response BEFORE you start writing.

Taking just a few minutes to map out your response to each AP® World History free response question can make a big difference in the cohesion of your responses.

Too often, students jump right into answering questions and as a result either simply regurgitate what was already given to them, or fail to answer the question they’re being asked directly.

To serve as a “compass”, always remember:

1. What’s the historical reasoning skill being asked of me?
2. What’s the time period? What do I know about this time period?

Then, when it comes to specifics to the DBQ, ask yourself questions such as:

1. What type of DBQ is this? Is it asking me a social, political, or economic question?
2. How can the documents I’ve been provided be grouped together?
3. What is the sourcing of the document?
4. What’s my thesis? Can it be agreed with or disagreed with and have I put everything into historical context?
5. Have I planned to use at least six documents?
6. Is my intended outside evidence specific and relevant to the question and time period?
7. Have I planned how I’ll introduce complexity? (We’ll give you tips on this final point later)

For the AP® World LEQ, be sure to ask:

1. Do I have a defensible thesis? Is there a clear line of reasoning?
2. Is it clear how I’ll place things into historical context?
3. Do I have specific evidence that is relevant to the question and time period?
4. Have I planned how I’ll introduce complexity?

The College Board uses the free response section to test your ability to connect the dots between historical time periods and to be able to fluidly navigate historical time periods with accuracy.

This means planning is essential. Really think hard on what the question is asking you and if you’re giving a direct answer to that question.

AP® Readers often express frustration with not being able to give students points because students simply got distracted by a catch phrase from the text, or wrote about something not relevant to the question of the prompt.

4. Double check you’ve made explicit references to connections in your writing.

One of the common pitfalls of student responses for AP® World History: Modern FRQs is not using documents or evidence to advance an argument.

It isn’t enough in your response to simply demonstrate you understand what the document is. You have to also show how that document serves as evidence to support your thesis.

In the past, Chief Readers of the exam have expressed that students often understand historical content, but aren’t able to present the evidence in a way that will earn points for the response.

The easiest way to check yourself here is to remember the word “therefore”. Make your argument, describe your evidence from what’s provided (or what you know), and then say “therefore” followed by the argument you are trying to make.

In other AP® subjects, teachers tell their students that this is the equivalent of “showing the why” or “closing the loop”.

Closing the loop in AP® World History can be made into more of a habit using words like “because” or “therefore” to help bridge two concepts together and solve for the “why” this matters.

5. Practice, practice, and then practice some more

When you really think about what are the keys to AP® free response success, it boils down to mastering the rubrics and crafting responses to fit those rubrics.

It’s not uncommon for students to walk into the exam and to have never seen an AP® World History: Modern SAQ, DBQ, or LEQ rubric. Don’t be that student.

The College Board provides a plethora of past released exams to help you navigate the preparation process, so use them!

Try one of the past released exams and then have a friend grade your responses with the scoring guidelines. See how you might have done without any deliberate practice. Then, review your mistakes, log them in a study journal, and keep working through the other prior years.

After a while, you’ll develop your own internal checklist of questions for yourself such as:

1. Do I have a thesis? Does it include evidence and a clear line of reasoning?
2. Have I explained what happened before this time period to earn the contextualization point?
3. Is the evidence I’ve used supporting my thesis? Have I included bridge words like “therefore” or “because” to demonstrate this alignment? Have I used at least six of the documents?
4. Have I discussed sourcing? Is it clear who the documents were written for and how that might impact the author’s point of view?
5. Is there an attempt at earning the complexity point and evidence to support my complexity?

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37 AP® World History and Politics FRQ Tips to Scoring a 4 or 5

Alright! Now that we’ve reviewed a 5-step process for writing grade ‘A’ worthy AP® World History: Modern free responses, we can review some test taking tips and strategies to keep in mind.

We recommend you read through a few of these every time you start and end your AP® World FRQ practice. Then, in the days leading up to your exam, read the entire list so they stay fresh in your mind.

11 AP® World History SAQ Tips and Test Taking Strategies

1. Be smart about how you review your textbook for your FRQs. There is so much content that it can often be more practical to look over your outlines and notes from when you were in class, or to find online teacher notes that are free to build notes on top of.
2. Prioritize chronology and periodization over dates. You should have a strong sense of the overall timelines but not have to rely on specific dates to position your responses. Students often force specific dates to memory without more broadly understanding what happened during that time period.
3. Focus on understanding how the AP® World History themes intersect with one another. This directly relates to the ability to discuss and explain continuity and change over time.
4. To tackle SAQs, remember the ACE acronym:
   1. Answer the question.
   2. Cite your supporting evidence.
   3. Explain how your evidence proves your point.
5. Familiarize yourself with the common categories of analysis: economic, demographic, political, cultural, and social developments are commonly assessed not just in the SAQ, but in all the AP® World FRQs.
6. Readers have often mentioned that students struggle with periodization. As a result, they make mistakes mentioning things that are outside the scope of the time period given.
7. Student struggles with periodization are often exacerbated when the test asks you about two different time periods. Be prepared for this scenario — it happened as recently as 2019 and led to many students writing outside the specified time period.
8. Be wary of what the College Board calls “catch phrases” in the text. These are popular terms like “checks and balances” or “serial murderers”. These phrases have led students to write about topics not relevant to the question in the past such as the death penalty, school shootings, or the criminal justice system.
9. Practice your ability to link secondary sources to course content. This is a skill that students often struggle with and the premise of doing well on a number of the SAQs.
10. Focus much of your prep time on the E in ACE. Students often are not effective at earning the point for explaining because they simply restate a fact and fail to show how that fact supports comparison, causation, or continuity and change over time.
11. To help you score points in demonstrating your historical reasoning skills, use words like whereas, in contrast to, or likewise when drawing comparisons.

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22 AP® World History DBQ Tips and Test Taking Strategies

1. Before you start planning out your DBQ, double check the time period. 20th century means anything that happened between 1901 and 2000, 18th century means anything between 1701 and 1800, etc. You’d be surprised that students sometimes write about the wrong time period just due to test day stress.
2. For the AP® World History DBQ, understand that you’ll only earn a point for your thesis if there is a historically defensible thesis that establishes a line of reasoning. In other words, you cannot just restate or reword the prompt.
3. The easiest way to write an effective thesis is to remember the formula: Although X, A & B, therefore Y.
   1. X is your counterargument or counterpoint
   2. ABC are your strongest supporting points for your argument.
   3. And Y is your argument.
4. If you don’t like the above formula, another common way to form a thesis is to remember to include the word “because” — the claims you make after you state “because” will be your argument.
5. Gut check your thesis by asking yourself, “Is this something someone can or cannot agree to? If so, then it’s a good enough thesis because it needs to be defended.
6. Some AP® World History teachers recommend placing context in your opening paragraph. This way you don’t forget about it later.
7. When looking at the AP® World History documents, remember the acronym HAPP to help you tackle what you need for describing the documents and sourcing them. It stands for:
   1. Historical Context
   2. Audience
   3. Purpose
   4. Point of View
8. Remember that you only get one point to describe how at least three documents from the documents provided relate to the prompt. Don’t spend your entire DBQ simply describing documents.
9. The other points when it comes to the evidence section of the DBQ come from arguing with the documents. In other words, remember to use the documents as evidence to support your thesis.
10. If you use six documents to support the argument of your thesis, you can earn the second point for the evidence section. If you’re unsure about how you interpreted one document, try to use all seven to give yourself a backup. Past Chief Readers of the exams have even given this tip as a good tip for responding to DBQs.
11. The easiest way to earn the point for describing the documents and then applying the documents to support your thesis is to remember the word therefore.
    1. XYZ, therefore ABC
    2. XYZ is the description of the document
    3. ABC is the implication and support of how what you described relates to your thesis.
12. To earn the final point for evidence, the contextualization point, you need to bring in at least one piece of specific historical evidence from what you know that is relevant to the prompt and your thesis. The last part is very important.
13. An easy way to earn your contextualization point is to explain what happened immediately before the time period being tested.
14. Build the habit of grouping your documents. Being able to do so allows you to show that you are demonstrating higher order thinking. Past responses that have not scored as highly often have sequential explanations of each document. For example:
    1. In document 1, XYZ
    2. In document 2, XYZ
    3. Etc.
15. Refer to the authors of the documents and not just the document numbers — this can serve as a helpful reminder to remember the HAPP acronym.
16. Make sure your DBQ supporting paragraphs have topic sentences. Doing so helps build a cohesive argument instead of just jumping your reader from one document or one group of documents to the next.
17. To earn the sourcing point in analysis and reasoning, ask yourself, “Who was this document written for? What’s their intent or what might this document have accomplished? Why did the writer say what he said in the way he said it?” Then, link what you’ve considered to your thesis.
18. You must demonstrate sourcing for at least three documents to earn the point. Try to do more than the minimum of three.
19. Do not ask for additional documents. This is an outdated tip that AP® World History teachers have continued sharing with students over the years that no longer is applicable. As recently as 2018, 15-20% of essays requested more documents when this hasn’t been part of the rubric.
20. The complexity point in analysis is one of the hardest to earn. To do it, the easiest way is to do the opposite of the historical reasoning skill you’ve been asked of. For example:
    1. If you’re writing about change over time, discuss continuity of time.
       1. The College Board rubric describes this as “explaining relevant and insightful connections within and across periods”
    2. If you’re writing about a comparison, talk about the contrast.
       1. The College Board describes this as “explaining both similarity and difference”
    3. If you’re writing about causation, discuss the effects.
    4. If you want another way to earn this point, you can earn it by applying your argument to another time period and drawing a connection. If you do this, keep in mind you must apply your entire argument to another time period.
21. When aiming to score your complexity point, remember it needs to be integrated into your argument and not just a brief phrase or reference. Always explain why you’re including something in your response.
22. A series of possible stems to signal to your grader you are attempting complexity is to say use one of the following phrases: another time, another view, or another way.

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4 AP® World History LEQ Tips and Test Taking Strategies

1. Understand and be comfortable with all forms of the LEQ: causation, comparison, or change and continuity over time questions.
2. Just like with the DBQ, understand where your six points come from for the AP® World LEQ.
   1. One point comes from having a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning (see above tips for how to make sure this is covered).
   2. One point is awarded for contextualization. The easiest way to do this is to start with specificity on what was happening two to five decades before the time period you’re writing about. Be specific as you do not earn points for just citing a phrase or reference.
   3. Two points are given for evidence. One is earned for just naming two pieces of evidence that are relevant to the prompt. The second is given when you use those pieces of evidence to support your argument in response to the prompt.
   4. Finally, two points are given for analysis and reasoning. One point is given for doing what is asked in the prompt (i.e. comparing, evaluating causation, exploring change and continuity over time). The second point is earned by having complexity in your response. See the above tip #31 from the DBQ section for the easiest ways to earn this point.
3. When practicing your LEQs, try writing your response. Then, give yourself a dedicated time to reference your class notes and resources and add in specific facts that could have helped support your LEQ. This will help you gain confidence in being specific in your supporting evidence.
4. If you’re often forgetting to bring in contextualization, try going through the last five years of LEQs and just answering how you would have tried to earn the contextualization point.

Wrapping Things Up: How to Write AP® World History and Politics FRQs

We’ve reviewed so much in this AP® World History study guide. At this point, you should feel pretty confident when it comes to answering either your short answer questions, document-based questions, or long-essay questions.

As we wrap up, here are a few things to remember:

1. Good AP® World History free response scores are only achieved when you know how you’re being assessed. Understand the point breakdowns for the SAQ, DBQ, and LEQs.
2. Form a mental checklist for yourself for each type of AP® World FRQ — for example, for SAQs, remember ACE: answer the question, cite your evidence, and explain how your evidence proves your point.
3. Always take note of what time period is being asked of you. Students miss so many points by simply writing about something outside of the time period asked.
4. Be specific in your responses. It is not enough to simply describe what’s going on in documents for example. You need to use the documents to support your thesis. Close the loop or “show the why” to your reader.
5. Focus the bulk of your time on commonly tested AP® World History time periods. See the curriculum and exam description for the period breakdowns. Units 3-6 are typically weighted more than other time periods (12-15% respectively).
6. Make sure your thesis includes a clear line of reasoning. Remember the model: Although X, ABC, therefore Y.
7. Don’t forget about contextualization, sourcing, and complexity. Students miss these points frequently.
   1. Put an attempt at contextualization in your introduction and then another when wrapping up your evidence to support your thesis. Explain what happened immediately before the time period being tested.
   2. Make sure to source at least three documents in your DBQ. Address HAPP (historical context, audience, purpose and point of view).
   3. The easiest way to earn complexity is to do the opposite historical reasoning skill of what’s being asked of you. See tip #31 for how to do this.

We hope you’ve taken away a lot from this AP® World review guide.

If you’re looking for more free response questions or multiple choice questions, check out our website! Albert has tons of original standards-aligned practice questions for you with detailed explanations to help you learn by doing and score that 4 or 5.

If you found this post helpful, you may also like our AP® World History tips here or our AP® World History score calculator here.

We also have an AP® World History review guide here.