How to answer Short Answer Questions for AP

How to answer Short Answer Questions for AP World History

Warm up • For the next five minutes, explain what the difference between a short answer question and an essay is. • Upon completion, list all information that you remember about Chinese history.

Read SAQ Guide • Highlight or underline most important pieces of information, write questions about areas where you would like explanation. • Be prepared to share your marks.

Short Answer Question (SAQ) Importance • SAQ’s are worth 20% of the Exam Score • SAQ’s can be taken from any historical event or process after 1200 CE • 3 Questions • 40 Minutes to Answer

Why include SAQ’s? • The Short Answer Questions are broad in their scope, and there are numerous different ways to answer them and earn full points. • Therefore, these questions allow you to use the specific knowledge that you learn from this course and to include this evidence along with historical thinking skills to create an effective response.

Scoring • Use Complete Sentences. • Each answer is either Valid or Invalid. • This means that using the proper reasoning and making your best effort on a response could be enough to earn you points. • 1 point for each part, score can be 0 -3 points.

7 Writing Tips • Read question carefully, brainstorm relevant information and evidence that would answer the question. • Answer in complete sentences. • Address each part of the question individually.

Writing Tips • Writing does not require a thesis statement. • Give enough information to answer the question, but do not write an essay. • Normally, about 2 of the 4 questions will include some form of stimulus to analyze: drawing, painting, chart, graph • Be sure to look over this source carefully, and read the source information. There are usually hints that can help you answer the question.

Format of the Short Answer Questions • Each of the questions will be divided up into parts. • Each part is graded separately. • I recommend that you answer each part individually and separately, labelling them a, b, or c in your response.

ACE Method • Answer using three sentence format: 1. Answer the question Clearly. 2. Cite a specific piece of evidence to support your answer. 3. Expand on your answer by providing further analysis or historical context.

Final areas of Advice • Answer question directly. • Only answer what the question asks you for. • Remember, each task is graded separately. • If you do not know the answer to one part, answer the ones that you do know, then use context clues to give your best effort on the ones that you don’t.