Additional Resources

What is your learning style?

The link below is part of the International Baccalaureate, (IB), Theory of Knowledge course. It helps students to become independent learners. One develops questions about evidence, and further develops their questioning as a result.

TOK presentation

The AP examination

A summary of the examination from AP College Board

A practice APWH examination with answers

Document Based Questions (DBQ)

The objective with this question is to organise, analyse and interpret the information put before you. One does not need to have studied history to be able to answer this question but it certainly helps.

Spending ten minutes or so organising and analysing before writing may help. What are the demands of the question? Which words are key? Underlining words these will help you remain focused and prevent you from straying from the question. Furthermore, it is advisable to underline words in the documents. Scanning each document in turn will allow you to recognise the key parts. Making brief notes in the margins sometimes helps, together with arrows linking content and arguments together, (this linking can be similarities, differences or both).

Remember to include the point of view or interpretation of the author of the document. How does this affect accuracy for example? Does the type of document affect the value one would put on it? What was the purpose of the document? To persuade, inform, educate, manipulate etc?

Documents can also be grouped together. This allows you to compare them and develop patterns, similarities and differences. Try not to explain any more than three groups however, as it may take too much time. If a group is identified, what other type of document would add to its’ value as an argument? Try to add one document for each group.

Historical knowledge, which despite being referred to briefly here, can really improve you arguments. However, it is important to remember that the documents and sources must be referred to. Students can sometimes forget under pressure to use them as much as required.

Useful advice for answering a DBQ, from Coronado High School.

The grading for your piece is as follows;

Document Based Questions – scoring guidelines

Compare and Contrast (CC)

How to Write a Compare Contrast Thesis

CC rubric

It is important to make sure your analysis links to the rubric. By ensuring this, it is less subjective. Examiners will identify immediately which sections of your essay correspond to the requirements of the rubric. Therefore, several key points to make include,

– when identifying similarities and differences, where appropriate one should include, ‘the reason why these are similar/ different is because’. At least 3 reasons are advisable.

– the rubric asks for global context to be included. Therefore, ‘with regards to the global context…’ One could add another important civilization which links to the two you are analysing. One could also link this to a reason for similarities and differences, which would certainly help achieve full marks.

Change and Continuity Over Time (CCOT)

Change and Continuity Over Time

Rubric

These questions ask you to identify changes in large geographical areas over a long period of time. The questions are broad so you do not need to know everything about the area. They deal with change that has occurred in an area such as technology, trade, culture, migrations, the role of women or religious influence. Therefore, develop a thesis statement straight away and support it with evidence. One could analyse the different aspects of change in the essay to make sure everything is covered. For example, use the mnemonic, ‘SPRITE’, to include Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual, Technological and Economic aspects. Military change can be incorporated in Political and Technological.

However, an example could be:

Analyze the cultural and political changes and continuities in ONE of the following civilizations during the 1750-1914 time period.

France

Russia

Japan

Culture is not included in the mnemonic but the aspects listed should cover it. One should make sure you use the word ‘culture’ and ‘political’ throughout the piece.

Multiple Choice

This section will ultimately decide your final AP score as it is worth 70 points. Reading and practising are required to ensure you are successful. Often, there is more than one likely answer for a question. Therefore, one should prioritise which is the more likely. The link below is from Cengage, (there are links to their resources throughout this blog), and allows you to practise multiple choice questions for each chapter of the textbook.

From Cengage

The Geography of the World

Students learn the different areas and countries of the world throughout the year. However, it is advisable to know the geographical areas and most of the important historical countries at the beginning of the course. This is especially true for the visual learners. Below are a few games to play to further your own historical knowledge.

Online Game 1

Online Game 2

Online Game 3

South Asia

China

A timeline of the Chinese Dynasties

Summary of World History

World History Course Syllabus

World History course expectations

This page contains resources which overlap units or introduce arguments which span centuries. This will be a useful page for revision.

What does the following clip tell you about the world since 1000 AD?

The clip below is more specific. It is a short animated video of the Middle East.

And the following about religion?

Do you agree with the following about the largest empires in history?

The clip below are the 20 largest in history. Do these clips agree? Importantly, do you recognise the backing tune?

10 Greatest Empires

Ever wanted to find out which were the longest wars in history? Anything surprising? When is a war officially over?

The following clip gives you a list of 10 lost cities. The only problem being that they are no longer lost. Should the clip be called ‘lost and found’?