Get a PERFECT SCORE on the SAQ (APUSH, AP World, & AP Euro)

In order to score all the points on a short answer question or an SAQ,

you really only need to do two things,

understand what they're asking you to write about

and write it using a three-part formula.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. Except for a lot of students in AP world, AP Euro, and APUSH,

the SAQ is emphatically not easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

It's more like why is this seemingly simple thing

causing my armpits to sweat and my bowels to

squeal and causing no small amount of existential dread

and the questioning of all my life choices.

Lemon squeeze. But look, it doesn't have to be that hard.

You just need someone to explain it up real nice for you.

And hey, that's what I'm here for. So, if you're ready to get that brain

cows milked. Well, let's get to it.

Well,

make sure you stay to the end because I need to tell you how my previous advice for

SAQs has completely changed because of what happened at

this year's scoring at the national exam. First

let's just swoop in and figure out what we're dealing with here.

A short answer question for APUSH, AP World, or AP Euro.

And by the way, they're all scored the same,

so everything I'm about to say here applies to them all.

A short answer question can be classified into two species.

The first as a stimulus,

which will be a document to read or an image to

interpret, and that will be followed by three prompts labeled "ABC."

Now the second species has no stimulus and only three prompts. For each prompt,

you either earn one point or zero points,

and there's nothing in between. Every once in a while,

they'll sneak in a prompt worth two points,

but that's only when they're asking you to do two things. Now on your AP exam in May,

they're going to give you four of these SAQs and you have to answer three of them.

Your answers do not need to be essays.

They just need to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 to 3 complete sentences.

And I'll tell you exactly what I recommend in a moment.

All right, first step, understand the stimulus and the prompt.

So, the first thing you need to do to answer

an SAQ is to understand the stimulus and the prompt.

And I would highly recommend that you mark up these prompts because say it with me,

"When you're under pressure, you are dumber than you think."

Now, where should you begin?

Well,

where you're going to be tempted to begin is by reading or looking at the stimulus.

If that's your temptation, I want you to open your hand,

wet it down, and smack yourself in the face.

That is not where you start, you start by reading the prompts they give you,

and here's why. You've only got limited time to write your answers.

And if you start by trying to analyze the stimulus,

you're wasting time because you don't even know what you're looking for.

So, start by reading the three prompts,

marking them up, and then you can move to the

stimulus after you know what to look for in it.

Now, what should you be marking in those prompts?

Well, three things, number one, the category or categories,

they're asking you to write about.

Number two, the time period they want you to write about.

And number three, the historical thinking skill that needs to frame your answer.

So, for example, here's the first SAQ from the 2022 AP World exam.

First, mark the category. I want you to talk about

an economic development here and a political development here.

That's really important because if your answer doesn't fall in those categories,

then no points for you.

Second, you mark the time period. If your answer

doesn't fall within those years,

no matter how brilliant the answer is no points for you.

And third, mark the historical thinking skill.

And in this case,

you can see here "led to" and that's a causation question. That means whatever

evidence you use in your short answer question has got to show causation.

So, now that you understand the prompts you can move to the stimulus if it has one.

So, look at it and mark it up with what you need to answer the prompts,

and now let's move on to how to answer that.

Now everyone has their favorite acronym for answering SAQS.

But for my money, the best one is TEAT: topic sentence, explanation

of evidence, and analysis.

And let me explain. Your topic sentence

is a single declarative sentence that essentially restates

the important parts of the prompt and names

a piece of evidence and that's important.

Not because it earns you a point, but because it ensures that you stay on topic,

which does earn you the point.

So, consider this prompt from the 2022 AP Euro Exam.

Describe one significant cultural or intellectual change

during the renaissance.

My topic sentence would go like this: One significant intellectual

change during the renaissance was the emphasis on humanism.

So look, I restated the important parts of the prompt to keep me on task,

and I named the evidence that she shows the change.

The second part then is to explain my evidence,

and really that just means to define it. So, mine would go something like this.

"Humanism described the renaissance belief in the unlimited

potential of human beings as ends in themselves."

Now, if you did those two things,

you're probably feeling pretty good about yourself,

but you need to go one step further and then analyze that evidence.

And that means you need to show how your evidence proves your topics in it.

Now, look carefully,

I'm talking about an intellectual change during the renaissance and

I've said that it's humanism and then I've defined it.

So, I've named the change,

but I haven't shown how the change occurred and that is essential.

Now my third sentence will go like this. Prior to the Renaissance

the prevailing view of human potential was limited by

the widespread belief of the doctrine of original sin,

but because of the innovative work of Petrarch and other humanists,

a new confidence and human potential began to emerge during the Renaissance."

And those three sentences will get you a point.

You may be objecting right now saying that's way too much to talk about highly like

can it be any simpler than that?

If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said "yes," it can be simpler.

But today, my answer is "no."

And let me explain.

You may have noticed that you have

basically three task verbs consistently showing up.

You have identify,

describe, and explain. What I have always taught is that for an identify prompt,

all you had to do was write a topic sentence and that's it.

So, for this prompt,

I would have told you to write one economic

development that led to the situation on the map was

the forced free trade agreements between Britain and China

following the Opium War. Just identified the economic development, done.

But I am no longer advising that

and here's why. Not even though the college board themselves told

us what identify means in their own course and exam description,

and that answer that I just gave meets that bar at the National Reading for AP World

this year.

The people who scored these did not give

the point unless you also explained the evidence,

and that is madness. Now, as far as I know that only happened at the AP world reading.

But if it can happen there, it might happen in the other subjects as well.

So, my advice is to "T" every answer that way you'll never be tricked

by the AP overlords who don't even abide by their own standards.

All right.

Well, if you need more help with AP history writing,

then click right here and grab my AP Essay Cram Course.

And I've got way more writing videos right here.

They're gonna help you with all the other essays as well.

So, I'll catch you on the flip-flop. Heimler out.