What's up guys?
In this video, we're going to go over five steps to writing effective AP US Government
and Politics free response questions.
By the end of it, you'll have a five-step strategy that you can start applying in your
AP exam prep starting today.
If you liked this video, be sure to also check out our channel for our follow on video in
which we're going to go over 25 FRQ tips to writing effective free responses for AP US
GoPo to help you score four five.
Without further ado, let's get started.
The first tip that we have for you is to make sure that you understand and commit to learning
how points are distributed on the AP US Government rubrics.
What does this mean?
It means that you go through all the past rubrics and scoring guidelines and see how
points are allocated in each of the SAQs as well as the argumentative essay.
As you'll see on the screen here.
You can see that in this example, there are three points possible in the short answer
question 2019 where each part has one point allocation, there's also certain direction
have words that are super important to understand, but we'll go more into that in the next step.
For now, just understand that you need to look through the past two or three years worth
of FRQs so that you can better understand how points break down on the exam.
Let's move on to step number two.
The second step is to make sure that you circle and underline any important word in the question
prompt.
This is not like AP biology in which oftentimes the College Board will bold the key words
for you in AP GoPo, you will usually have to do this yourself.
But don't worry, it's super easy.
There are some commonly used phrases that the College Board loves to ask, for example,
they love to use, describe, explain and identify.
So here you can see on the screen that we've gone ahead and highlighted the words describe,
and explain in this particular question, to help us understand exactly what we're going
to be tested on.
When you're being asked to describe something you need to tell them about what they're asking.
Right?
So this doesn't mean you have to explain the why.
All you need to do is talk about the topic and the characteristics of that topic that's
being asked, when you're being asked to explain something.
This is where you're going to want to show the why you're going to want to be able to
give three to five sentences on this topic, in most cases in order to earn the full point.
And finally, when you're asked to identify something, you'd need to be able to indicate
that you know what the topic is related to.
There is no need for an explanation or an elaboration of you might need to do when you're
asked to describe or explain something.
One of the best test taking tips that we can tell you is to leave a tick mark or a star
next to each key word as you answer the question.
This will make sure that you are actually covering the entire question from start to
finish.
You'd be surprised usually when it comes to test day, there's some test stress involved
and sometimes students will forget to start answering the exact question that's being
asked to them.
If you're not asked one of these three most commonly used directive words you may be asked
some of these other directive words such as define, compare, develop an argument and draw
conclusion.
If you're being asked to define something, it's very similar to identifying something,
all you need to do is show what the topics about.
If you're being asked to compare something, you're going to want to make sure that you're
providing a description of the similarities and or differences of the topics that are
presented.
If you're being asked to develop an argument, this is where you're gonna want to state a
claim and support it with evidence.
And then finally, if you're asked to draw a conclusion, it means that you have to write
an accurate statement from what has been presented.
Alright, we've gone over two tips.
Let's head into tip number three.
Before we do so, if you found this video helpful so far, be sure to like and subscribe to our
channel because like I mentioned earlier, we'll have a follow on video in which we'll
go over 25 tips to writing effective AP GoPo FRQs.
Now let's head into step number three.
Our third tip is to make sure that you're planning out your response before you start
writing it.
The College Board cites this as a commonly made mistake from students in which they start
crafting a response and at the end of their response, they essentially have a jumbled
up response that doesn't directly answer the question.
So make sure that you are actually properly planning out your response because if you
recall, the free response section is intended by the College Board to demonstrate that you
can pull in and connect the dots of what you've learned in class to what's being asked of
you.
So this is something in which it requires proper planning.
Make sure that you've thought about how you're going to answer each of the why questions
that you've been asked about and think deeply about what the question is actually asking
you.
Sometimes students start answering the question without addressing the question that is actually
being asked of them.
The fourth tip that we have for you is to remember that AP GoPo is not like other subjects.
It is not like AP English language.
And what that means is that when it comes to writing your SAQs or your short answer
questions, you do not need to know include things such as an introduction, a thesis or
a conclusion on these respective questions, you just need to be able to answer the exact
questions that are being asked of you.
And then when it comes to the argumentative essay, it also means that you don't necessarily
need to use a cookie cutter five paragraph essay.
The College Board actually tells you exactly how you can score points.
You earn points by providing things such as a defensible claim that response to the prompt
and establishes a clear line of reasoning.
You also earn points when you support a claim with a certain number of accurate and relevant
evidence.
One of them is typically going to be a foundational document while another one can be any other
foundational document that you learned in class.
You'll also earn points by using reasoning to explain why your evidence supports your
claim or your thesis.
And finally, you'll earn points five responding to an opposing or alternative perspective.
They commonly cite this as a refutation, a concession or a rebuttal.
So what this means is that If you cover all these points, you can actually earn a perfect
score on your argumentative essay.
When it comes to preparing for your argumentative essay, the easiest ways to do so is to make
sure that you fully review the foundational documents that are crucial in the course.
There are nine of them as you can see on your screen.
We will also include in the video description, a helpful 15-minute video that an AP GoPro
teacher made that goes over these documents more in depth.
The next thing that's really important to review are the 15 very important Supreme Court
cases.
There is a great 11-minute video by Adam Norris that goes over these cases more in depth that
you'll also want to check out in the video description.
Typically, when it comes to the final component of the argumentative essay in terms of providing
an alternative perspective, we like using rebuttals more so than concessions or reputations.
The reason why is because students sometimes struggle with positioning these and if you
do one of them, it's potentially possible that it will weaken your argument or it'll
feel like gets a little bit weaker in that argument just because of the way that you
positioned it was a little improper.
So stick to rebuttals when it comes to the final point because we think that it's generally
more intuitive for students.
The last thing to remember when it comes to this tip is to remember that you need to be
closing the loop.
That means that you are showing the why to your reader by using words such as because
or therefore.
What that allows them to do is see that you're able to connect the dots between the evidence
that you're presenting and how it ties to your thesis or your claim.
Our last tip is to remember to practice, practice and practice some more.
There are two points when it comes to really writing effective AP GoPo FRQs.
The first point is knowing exactly how points are broken down.
And the second point is knowing exactly how you are going to write in your respective
style to match that rubric.
Sometimes students know how they're going to get points, but they don't know how to
craft their responses to be effective at earning that point.
So make sure you are able to do both parts of that, in the process of writing your FRQs.
The easiest suggestion that we can give you is to review the last two to three years worth
of previously released exams, so you can better understand exactly what sort of questions
were asked how points were broken down, where students have misconceptions, and then target
your practice.
That way, when you're doing this, you're going to start building an intuition in terms of
how you can track your responses.
And you are going to build up that confidence so that when it comes to test day, you know
what to expect from the test maker.
Three additional resources for you to check out when it comes to AP GoPo.
The first one that we've just mentioned is the previously released exams from the College
Board.
Here you're going to find the questions themselves, the scoring guidelines, the Chief Reader reports
and a ton of sample student responses so that you can see what students do well and what
students don't do well on typically.
The second resource is our free AP US Government review guide on our blog.
Here you're going to find key questions that you can ask yourself as you're finalizing
your review to make sure that you feel confident on test day.
Our third resources Albert's AP US Government course.
This provides hundreds of practice questions as well as free response questions so that
you can learn by doing with detailed explanations and work through your mistakes online.
Lastly, if you found this video helpful, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe
because in our next video, we're going to go over 25 AP US GoPro tips that you won't
want to miss.
That's it for this time, though.
I'll see you next time.