FRQ 1 – Synthesis

This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students are asked to composed an argument on a topic after being given 6-7 short pieces of evidence on the stated topic
• 18.3% of Exam Score
• Spend about 40 min
• Scored on a 6 point rubric
  • Presents thesis (1)
  • Provides evidence and commentary (4)
  • Demonstrates sophistication (1)

💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know

• If allowed, have a watch on you to pace yourself! Divide up time for both planning/drafting, as well as finalizing!
• When practicing writing essays and use the thesaurus for words that can better describe what you really want to portray! Using the thesaurus and looking for synonyms of any words you want to use can help you gain more words to add to your growing vocabulary!
• Try not to “ramble” instead give a detailed view of the topics/themes!
• When arguing, always have strong topics to persuade and convey your point of view, using weak arguments won’t create a strong ground to build yourself up on.
• It’s always okay to write about a personal experience (commentary, support) in the scenario that you run out of time or have nothing else to pull from.
• Before the exam, review the overall structure and AP rubric for the synthesis essay.
• Review the ways to integrate sources and analyze them.
• Read a lot of current news and study new words. This will contribute to a higher-level writing style and vocabulary because you can better emulate the persuasive style you are reading.
• Always go back to your thesis. Your topic sentences should come from your line of reasoning and support your claim. It’s good to check with yourself and make sure what you’re writing always has this purpose.
• Look up past prompts and only use them ONCE.
• Yes, to a degree the essay is a test of your writing skills, but it’s arguably more of a test of your critical thinking skills. Put yourself in an unfamiliar situation, present yourself with sources you’ve never seen before, and try to get comfortable skimming the sources, “bucketing,” (this term will be explained later) and getting your outline done in 10-15 mins. Your thesis will be the last thing you write in this brainstorming session, get your ideas straight first so you already know what you have to write
  • You don’t even have to write the whole essay while doing these practices, just practice the planning and bucketing!!
• Once you pick up the pen, do. not. stop. writing!!!! (cross out stuff if you really have to, but the point with brainstorming is that you already should know what to write, no self doubting in this house).

🕐 Before you Write

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start writing?

• Remember that you have a full 15 minutes to read and plan!!!!!
  • Try to read all the documents if you can.
  • When annotating, add summarizing notes at the bottom and underline sentences you might want to quote in your essay.
  • Look at how many documents support, how many oppose, how many are 50/50.
    • This can give you clarity on which position to take.
• Decide whether you should/want to oppose, support, or qualify.
  • Qualifying will not give you more points or count towards sophistication, but opposing or supporting and adding a counter argument paragraph can count towards sophistication.
  • Don’t always automatically pick the side you agree with; sometimes the documents can be compiled into a compelling argument that goes against your opinion.
• From there, create a thesis integrating your claim, subclaims/evidence, and any counters.
• Sorting documents by their stance can make it easier to identify your own. It's advisable to pick the argument that has the most evidence to support it.
• Another way to think about organizing your sources is “bucket[ing]” the sources, the sources they give you will have overarching themes and you WILL be able to sort them into three “buckets.” These three buckets with similar themes will end up framing your (ideally) three body paragraphs and usually are support - support - counter/another perspective.
• Think about your potential thesis and stance while you’re reading the sources- don’t wait until the last 2 minutes to start combining things. Brainstorm while you read, and remember to trust your gut and your abilities!

🤓 Make the Most of Your Sources

• BALANCE IS KEY. Do not heavily rely on one source!!
• Don’t be afraid to use sources that address opposing viewpoints- you want variety.
• Paraphrase and use aligning sources to corroborate each other. Doing shows that you have a deep understanding of your evidence.
• Don’t ever summarize sources!! Make sure that each source you use and each source you quote has a role in your paragraph. You don’t want quotes just hanging around in your paragraphs with no explanation or analysis.
  • Find a quote in every source!! Try to have 1-3 sentences (more is NOT always better, being concise is more important) per one quote, that way you link to a source and then explain how it connects to the theme of your paragraph.
• Read through all the sources first. Make notes on the side of what the main idea is and make note of two or three interesting, citable features so you don’t waste time going back through it later.

💡 Tips for Earning Each Point

Thesis/Claim

• You can score 1 point for having this in your essay!
• Make sure to establish a position and if appropriate, address any nuances.
  • Although……, it does not negate the fact that……, so……..
  • Don’t worry if you feel like your thesis isn’t “stylish enough,” it’s one or two sentences and frames the rest of your essay (where you’ll show your style) which is why it is OKAY TO HAVE A FORMULA
  • Do not spend your time thinking about how to write a thesis
• It’s usually pretty easy to earn the Thesis point, but your thesis should always somewhat outline what you’re going to talk about in the rest of your essay to earn all the points.
• Come into the exam with a “formula” for writing the thesis. It saves you so much time if you know how to do it! Remember to include a line of reasoning within your thesis, which will then guide what your body paragraphs are about. It’s crucial that everything comes back to what you wrote in your thesis.

Evidence and Commentary

• You can score up to 4 points for having this in your essay!
• The synthesis question provides you different sources from which you should provide evidence from. For each source you refer back to, remember to provide commentary that ALWAYS goes back to the thesis. One way you can do this is after writing a piece of commentary, ask yourself, “does this clearly connect back to and support what my thesis says?” Keep yourself on track with this. Don’t summarize the evidence, but explain how it supports your claim. The AP readers know the content- they want to see how you apply it!
  • ex. the overall sources are about wind power and one of the sources is a picture of a windmill farm
  • NOOOO: “The picture shows that lots of windmills are in one place in a valley.”
  • YES: think about what your point is and explain how the picture shows that (environmental disruptions, noise complaints)
    • ex. Source (a) shows a large windmill farm in a desert. While this farm isn’t disruptive to humans, the noise generated from this farm is disruptive to the wildlife that lives in the desert and the birds and insects that may travel through the area.
• Remember, there are a lot of ways you can go from one source!
• Put your sources into conversation with one another. Sometimes the sources agree, sometimes they disagree, and the readers will appreciate you understanding how they arrange themselves in the larger conversation around the topic. It is great to mention that “Source A argues that…, while Source C counters that same idea by saying…”
• Try your best to “Always always, be specific!” - Quote from an English teacher! This means to just dive in deeper and give more meaning to the topics you have! Give more detail and really bring out the messages, themes, and/or information!
• Embed your quotes into your essay. Embedding quotes is essentially taking the parts from a source/quote that you want to use and working into a sentence. One way you can do this is by adding the embed before citing the source or adding some context to it. After embedding the quote, you can follow it by adding your commentary to it. Not only does this make writing a little bit faster, it can also show that you know how to use the source to your advantage.
• Additionally, you can look up how to embed quotes in your essay online!
• Don’t know what to say? Remember C.H.O.R.E.S
  • C - current events
  • H - history/art
  • O - our experiences
  • R - reading
  • E - entertainment
  • S - sports/science

Complexity/Sophistication

• You can score up to 1 point for having this in your essay!
• Have a counterargument that shows you know the limitations of the argument & that their concerns are valid, but then affirm why you still hold your position.
• Once you’ve established that you can see both sides with a valid point, you can prove why your point of view should still be right. This shows that you can see multiple opinions, see concerns, and still rule out one without being rude or inconsiderate.
  • Do not try to say “the counter-argument” is wrong”
  • Try to add a concession before the counterargument if you have the time. Only do this after you’ve written your other paragraphs and have clear evidence for the “other side” that you could agree with. If you do this, make sure that you also have a clear way to poke holes in that argument before giving more evidence that your side is the most correct.
• A lot of students believe using big words or writing longer paragraphs earns them the extra point this is NOT TRUE. Be concise and convincing, if you are confident in your expanded vocabulary use itttt!
• Commentary is where your original ideas shine the most in your essay, so do not shy away.
• Think about the nuances of the argument that you can potentially talk about. Remember to not focus on complexity- it’s better for you to aim for the full commentary and evidence points. Build sophistication into your overall argument! And remember to always write in your voice- don’t try to write super fancy if that’s not how it is for you naturally.
• If you have time, write a sophisticated intro! It's okay to talk about a personal experience, or even embellish a story. This will set a tone and make the reader familiar with your perspective, and strengthen your voice!