Document Based Question

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 will be presented with seven documents that give various perspectives on a historical development or process and asked to develop an argument based on these documents and their own knowledge.
• 25% of Exam Score
• Recommended Time: 1 Hour (Includes a 15-minute reading period)
• Scored on 7 Point Rubric:
  • Thesis/Claim (1)
  • Contextualization (1)
  • Evidence from 6 documents (2)
  • Evidence beyond documents (1)
  • Analyze 3 documents (1)
  • Complexity (1)

💭 General Advice

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

• You will technically have the DBQ and LEQ at the same time with 1 Hour and 40 Minutes total. However, the DBQ is worth more than the LEQ, so make sure to give yourself enough time to write your DBQ.
• A lot of students stress out over a DBQ because it has so many documents and seems so complex! To help mitigate this, try to think of this way the documents are helpful tools. You don't need to remember content, it's all right there for you! Don't stress over the outside evidence because it will come to you as you are using the documents and interacting with historical content.
• A good DBQ isn't necessarily going to be a good essay. Knowing that, try to make your DBQ as easy to grade as possible for the reader.
  • First, Source your documents in the thesis statement (ex: ...and resulted in a growth in capitalism (3, 4, 5), horrible working conditions (1, 2)... etc.).
  • Do the same in your topic sentence of each body paragraph, and then, of course, source them when you refer to them the passage. Overall, you should source each document a total of 3 times.
  • Secondly, include each source analysis "keyword" in your essay (ex: ...the POV of this document is.../the intended audience of this document is.../the historical context of this document is.../the purpose of this document is... ).
  • Lastly, include the "keyword" of anything else you need to include in your essay (ex: "some outside historical evidence/knowledge that supports this is...").
• Make it clear to the reader/grader that you know what you are talking about and make it easy for them to check off every item from the rubric. This also helps you know if you completed everything you needed to get full points.
• Do a little extra in the essay as insurance. For example, instead of doing only 1 outside history evidence, do 2 or 3 in case you get one of them wrong. Do extra source analysis in case one of them isn't good enough, etc.
• Read the question, then read the documents, reread the question, and then formulate the points you touch upon in your essay be based on the document's main point to make it easier for you to write about them!
  • It is essentially the "What?" and "Why?". Using a document's general idea to make your point not only helps organize your essay but makes it faster while writing it as well because most of the documents are linked in some way (same time period, about the same event, or an event that impacted another). So they will all often have a similar "What" and "Why," or any of the other big W's (who, what, when, where, why).
• Take a deep breath! Take your time reading through the documents and making the connections between each of them. You know more than you think!

🕛 Before You Write the DBQ

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

• Before you even look at the documents, you have to annotate the prompt! Make sure you know what it is asking, like is it an extent question? What’s the topic or the time period?
• Circle or underline certain different parts of the prompt just to make sure you understand.
• Skill of the prompt (what are they asking you to do with the topic?) This may be direct or vague - are they asking you to compare or contrast? Are they asking for a change or continuity? Are they asking for a cause or effect?
• READ THE PROMPT FIRST!!! You spend a lot of time reading through all of the documents and you NEED to know what you're looking for right from the start.
• Categorize the documents as you read. Based on the question, sort the documents based on their relevancy to your position or in any other way you see fit.
• When grouping/categorizing your documents ask yourself this question: Do those documents share the same value as the first document? If not, put them into a separate category and if they do put them in the same category as the first document! This will be the gateway into making your thesis with contrasting examples.
• Or if you’re a visual person, similar to the advice above, make a chart with two columns: one that is for the argument presented in the prompt and one that is against. It can be as simple as a check and and X. Organize the sources into which side they demonstrate best, then use the side that has more sources for your thesis and associated evidence, while the other side can be used in your counterclaim.
• While you're reading them, jot down ideas next to them. If you notice that Document 1 focuses on one perspective while Document 2 and 3 focus on another perspective, WRITE IT DOWN!!!
• Other things that you can note down is the purpose, perspective, biases, and context.
• Adding onto the above, being able to condense and re-express the documents is crucial to support whatever claim or main topic your essay will be about.
• When you are reading the documents, your eyes should ALWAYS go to the SOURCE FIRST!!! The source is so important. Many times the author, title, and especially the time period can tell you so much about the document BEFORE you even start reading.
• Take a few deep breaths and look at the documents. Make sure to comprehend the question first and then branch off on what possible controls can be used. If you have no idea what to do, gather evidence from the docs immediately and go from there.
• When reading look for key words in each document. Anything that sticks out to you can be underlined, such as who the document is addressed to, if it’s stated.

💡 Tips for Each DBQ Rubric Point

Thesis/Claim

• You can score up to 1 point for having this in your DBQ!
• After reading the question, take 30 seconds to think about how you plan to respond to the prompt.
• Before starting writing your introduction, write your claim off to the side so that you know what to write leading up to it.
• While coming up with thesis, keep in mind: “What is it about and how can I put it into 3 points?”
  • If time constraint is an issue for you, you can reduce it to 2 points as long as you make them strong. This is the foundation for the rest of your paper, so the thesis should be very clear on what it's about.
• Pick something defensible. You should be making your thesis after a strong understanding of what each of the documents says. Create a thesis that can be supported by at least 3 of the documents and don't be afraid to really flesh it out with the 'why' of your claim.
• Basic WHAP DBQ Thesis Formula
  • “Within TIME PERIOD OF DBQ, three significant SKILL AND TOPIC OF PROMPT were the ARGUMENT/BP #1, ARGUMENT/BP #2 and ARGUMENT/BP #3.

Contextualization

• You can score up to 1 point for having this in your DBQ!
• Before even looking at the documents, you need to brainstorm your contextualization! Nothing from the docs counts as context so it’s best to do it before, based on what the prompt is asking. Try to make a flow chart of at least 3 events that led up to the topic of the prompt and your context will already be done!
• If you get stuck/start blanking out about the time period, work backwards! First pick a year and then start jotting down key historical events/figures of that time. From there, you will be able to remember a lot of important topics that are relevant to the contextualization. Make sure that it is complete but do not spend too much time on it or going too far back. 2 sentences is plenty for contextualization.
• One thing: if you use information in your contextualization, you are no longer allowed to reuse it for outside evidence.
• Go 50-100 years back from the time of the prompt, but make sure that the information is relevant and does not go back further than a century.
• If you have been doing vocab lists throughout the year try and use some of those words (around 3-4) in this section. Think about the era of the DBQ and what major shifts had occurred or are in the process of occurring during that time period. This means that for this point periodization is an important skill to have for each unit. However, if you are extremely lost on the DBQ there are ways to try and earn the contextualization point by picking up on cultural norms or political tensions from the sources.
• When coming up with contextualization, you need to really think about telling a story. What major events led to the event/topic that is the focus of my essay?
• One way to think about it was like an upside-down pyramid where your most broad evidence goes at the top and your most specific evidence goes at the bottom, right before your thesis. Ideally, one should have about 3-4 good pieces of information in contextualization. 4 is recommended in case something is not correct. It's the same reason why you'd want to do extra HIPPs just in case you mess up.
• Another way to think of this is if it was a 'on last weeks episode' recap. So what happened to cause this or what were some developments that contributed to this topic? Or it’s similar to a lawsuit, there are a series of events that lead to the trial. There are always a set of factors or events that create the path to a certain development, which is easily applicable to the content in AP World.
• Context should never be more than two sentences. Pay attention to the time period given in the prompt and make a general statement describing what was going on before or during this time period. Don’t be too general and instead focus on information relevant to the prompt. For example, if the prompt asks about the Ottomans in the 1800s, you can contextualize by mentioning the Ottomans in the 1700s and how they had changed by the 1800s.
• As far as organization, contextualization can fit nicely after your thesis and before evidence since it offers background information. To write a more complex essay it is critical that your context matches the theme within the argument you are making.

Evidence from the Documents

• You can score up to 2 points for having this in your DBQ!
• Briefly review the documents prior to starting the essay and label which specific documents will support your thesis.
• Make note of the date!! If you misattribute a document to an incorrect time period, you will lose a lot of points.
• First, summarize the doc to show your understanding – what’s happening in the doc?
  • Remember to condense each document into a 1-2 sentence commentary in your own words, which will make drawing from each document much easier.
• Then you need to connect it to your argument. You can accomplish by saying “This shows or this illustrates” and then how it connect a to your argument. This is a format that you can use “Document X explains blah blah blah. This shows that blah blah blah”.

Evidence from Beyond the Documents

• You can score up to 1 point for having this in your DBQ!
• Study and learn as much general knowledge as you can about Women’s’ Suffrage, WWI and WWII and big, HUGE events and timeframes like those because when it comes to their evidence, it will be a lot easier to connect it to topics like this in order to get points.
• There's not much to this other than knowing each of your units really well. If you have a solid foundation of the entire curriculum, this will not be particularly difficult. It is always worth the time to work backward and write down the key events/figures from a given period and then use that to support your claim.
• Cram sheets helps a lot for this because if you’re on a time crunch, knowing basic knowledge can help a lot on DBQ’s. With the help of a mentor (teacher), remember key units that are mentioned in the exam a lot like the Industrial Revolution or Pre-Modern Era. If you have more time in your hands, take a practice DBQ from the previous years found in college board and try to think of outside evidence on the spur of the moment to train yourself.
• If you know quite literally anything about the topic, just shove it in. The only requirement is that it must be relative to the prompt! Don't know what's going on with women in Cuba? Then say what's going on with women in America! It's much better than nothing. The good thing about AP World is that your range of usable information is much broader than in AP Euro or APUSH.

Document Analysis

• You can score up to 2 points for having this in your DBQ!
• Two Parts to analyzing POV:
  • FRAME OF REFERENCE This is influenced by a person's gender, occupation, class, education, religion, personal interests, and other aspects of their being.
  • HISTORICAL SITUATION This is made up of society's influences on a person. It can be societal values, economic pressures, political conditions, or other things which influence society. Examples: gas prices, war, theocratic government, revolution, etc.
• Having some kind of paper aside can help you the most on my exam. Write what your claim is, your 2/3 points, and the document you’d like to use. Then list 1-7 for each document provided on this aside and write POV, Purpose, Context, and Intended audience per document. This makes it clear on how to set up your essay and when to use what document.
• This is one of the easier portions of the DBQ. For many documents, the purpose and context are directly given to you. Otherwise, you can start by looking at the occupation of the author of a written doc along with their affiliations and analyze the tone/diction to see if the author has a motive or goal. Through that, you can do an analysis of bias and potential inaccuracies of the documents.
  • Remember, you don't need these specific analysis points for every single document. Usually, you unconsciously think through things like POV, purpose, context, and intended audience while reading. If one factor jumps out at you while reading, WRITE IT DOWN! It shouldn't be a stretch to make these analysis points work, most of the time they just make sense to include while paraphrasing evidence or when providing explanation.

Complexity

• You can score up to 1 point for having this in your DBQ!
• Set up your complexity from the very beginning by incorporating a counter-argument into your thesis.
  • The idea is to put it in the form of "While [counter argument], it was ultimately [main argument]".
  • For example, "While the Mongols played a large role in spreading the bubonic plague, it was ultimately trade routes such as the Silk Roads that were the main cause of the Black Death". Then, you can easily add a paragraph at the end discussing your counterargument, which counts as considering multiple perspectives!
• The easiest ways to get complexity is by introducing counterarguments and weaving together multiple pieces of evidence to create a narrative. The documents are intentionally supposed to contain views from many points, and by comparing the documents and doing sourcing to assess their validity, you have a very good shot of earning the complexity point.
• Adding onto the point above, if you have enough time, try to write a counterargument against your thesis that you then disprove. You can do this by bringing up the counterargument and then saying "while this and this may be true, my point is better due to this and this." If the rest of your DBQ is solid, then you have a very good shot of getting the complexity point with this format.