KRISTI NEUROTH: Welcome.
I'm Kristi Neuroth.
I teach AP human geography at Ravenwood High School
in Brentwood, Tennessee.
And I'm here today to show you how to tackle
an FRQ with no stimulus.
Let's get started.
When you're jumping in with me today,
I highly recommend downloading a copy of the question which
you can access right here so that you can work along with me
as I go through each question.
When you tackle an FRQ with no stimulus,
there are a few things I want you to keep in mind.
First, make sure to read the stem carefully.
Know exactly what the question is asking before you dive in.
Next, make note of any key vocabulary
you see in the question.
Make sure that you hone in on that
and maybe jot down a note to yourself
about what that vocab word means,
so you can come back to it in your answer.
Next, take time to annotate the question.
I will illustrate that today on my own screen
to give you an example of what kind of words or terms
you'll want to annotate.
You could do this by drawing a line under the word,
starring an important vocabulary term
or even circling a concept you want
to make sure you don't miss.
Next, be specific in your answer.
I'll give you a few illustrations
today of how to do that.
That is a surefire way to show that you
know what you're talking about.
And finally, pay close attention to the verbs.
That will tell you how much you should aim to write
and what kind of answer you need to provide.
Let's dive in.
Here's the first question, and I'm
going to take time today to read the stem because I
want to point out a couple of important things.
So our stem here says, dairy farming
is a type of intensive agriculture.
Now on that first line, I notice that it's focusing me
in on the concept of dairy farming
and it's even given me the specific kind
of farming that dairy is which is intensive agriculture.
So notice, College Board has given me
some information in the stem and I don't want to miss that.
Then it says, in recent decades, dairy farming and the ways
in which dairy products are made have changed significantly.
So a theme here is change over time.
Now I take time to really dissect the stem here with you,
because what I notice is that sometimes students skip
the stem altogether and they don't realize
there's important information that
can be embedded in the stem.
You may get a definition or it may put this scenario
into a certain context.
Make sure to pay close attention to that especially on an FRQ
with no stimuli.
So let's dive right into part A of this question.
Part A says define intensive agriculture.
So the first thing I notice is that my verb here is define.
I want to pay close attention to that
because it's going to hint to me how much I need to write
and how much time I need to spend on part A.
Why, I feel lucky because define is rather quick.
It really only requires one, maybe, two complete sentences.
So for every question or every part of the question,
I will include some sample answers.
If you ever like to pause the video
to take more time to look over the answers,
feel free to do that but I will move on rather quickly so
pause at any point.
I've got two samples here of potential answers.
Now if I were to write this out as a full answer,
I would be sure to start with something
like intensive agriculture is to make sure that my statement is
a complete sentence.
And you'll notice, I've highlighted here for you
some specific information that I could include in my answer.
I've got some examples.
Examples are always a great way to back up
your answer to show that you really
know what you're talking about.
If I've defined in a complete sentence
and I've been as specific as I can,
then I can give myself a checkmark there.
I'm done with part A and ready to move on to part
B. Part B says, describe the change
over time in the numbers and sizes of dairy run farms.
As I'm annotating this part of the question,
I'm going to pay close attention to that verb describe.
Now, describe requires a bit more effort and attention.
I am not going to simply write one sentence.
A description generally requires,
at minimum, about two sentences somewhere
upwards of five sentences.
Now, on the AP test, they aren't going
to be counting your sentences, but what
you need to think about is how much
do you need to write to prove that you know what you're
talking about while also at the same time,
not spending too much time on one question.
So for this, it's a describe and I'm
describing change over time.
Now I've already got that in my mind,
because I paid close attention to the stem
and I know that change is an important theme
for this question.
Now, I'll be describing the change in time in the numbers
and the sizes of family run dairy farms.
Now notice here, it wants me to address two things.
So in my answer, it may be ideal to have one sentence addressing
the number of farms and another addressing the size.
Now again, it's not just any kind of dairy farm.
It is family run farms, and I've annotated
that to make sure that in my answer,
I address family run dairy farms specifically.
I've included here a possible answer.
Now notice, this is not three to five sentences complete.
I haven't written a full answer here for you.
So if I were going to write this,
I would have more detail in my answer.
But I've highlighted a couple of specific things
that you could address in describing
this particular question for part B.
If I've done all of that and I feel
confident I've addressed both numbers and sizes of dairy
farms, I'm ready to move on to part C. Part C says, explain.
So here's my next verb--
explain.
This is going to require about three to five sentences,
and I am going to have to address a how or why--
in this case, it's how--
and I'm going to remember that oftentimes
a good answer to an explain is going to include a because.
So explain how economies of scale--
there are some key vocab there--
are used to maximize profitability in dairy farming?
So I've got two key concepts I'm working with here.
Economies of scale and maximizing profitability.
There are a lot of answers you could include here,
but some things you could focus on
might be mechanization, transportation,
computerized production processes.
There's a lot you could use to describe why economies
or how economies of scale can maximize profitability.
Remember again, using key specific information,
like I've highlighted here in green,
is a great way to show you know what you're talking about.
If I've done that in roughly three to five sentences,
and I've addressed each part of C, I can check that off,
and I'm ready to move on to part D.
Part D states, explain--
there we go explaining again--
a recent trend in the location of dairy farms
with respect to consumer locations?
So again, we're talking about changes and trends.
And this change focuses on the location of dairy farms
and consumer locations.
So I need to make sure that all of those pieces
are in my answer to ensure that I get the point here.
I've included some examples here of what you might talk about.
I've got three bullets here discussing
transportation methods, preservation and storage,
and even changes in the price of land or cost of production.
So you can take some time to pause here and think about,
did your answer, when you were practicing,
match up with any of the possibilities you see here?
Are you on the right track?
If you've explained, in roughly three to five sentences,
addressing location, specifically
with regards to consumer locations,
you've done what you need to do, and you're done with part D.
Let's move on to E. Explain one way--
notice that says one here--
one way in which a complex commodity
chain connects large scale dairies to consumers?
This is a complex question, and I
want you to focus specifically where it says one.
A mistake that students often make
is that they try to give a big long list of answers.
In your answer, you want to focus on one concept
and make sure that you explain that in detail.
Here's an example that I have of something
you could work with to build off of for that excellent answer
to an explain.
If you've done that, you can check that off and move on
to part F. Now f says, once again, explain--
and they've highlighted here--
one way in which small scale dairy
farms can specialize to compete with large scale dairies?
So now we're looking at small scale dairies and large scale
dairies.
This is very similar to part E so you
want to make sure that you're focusing on one explanation
and being as detailed as you can with that one explanation.
My sample answer is located here below.
Again, notice that I'm using some for example,
farm to table, eat local movement.
I'm being as specific as I can in my answer
to show that I know what I'm talking about.
Now that we're done with part F, we're
ready to move on to the final part of our question, part G.
Explain an environmental sustainability problem--
so we're focusing on problems here--
that results from the production of dairy on large scale farms.
Again, I'm taking time to annotate the question
to make sure that I really know what I'm going to address.
And in this case, I'm.
Focusing on environmental sustainability problems
on large scale farms there are a lot
of answers you can include for this one
so I've just included one sample here focusing specifically
on animal waste and how it can lead to water contamination.
Take a look here and see if your answer looks anything like this
and think about how you would turn your answer into a really
solid three to five sentence paragraph addressing
each thing that's highlighted right here in the stem.
If you've done that, you have finished part G
and you've made it to your way, to the end of the question.
To wrap up today, I have three final thoughts
to leave you with.
First, remember, success comes when you take time
to understand the question.
Don't feel so rushed that you just jump right into part A
without taking time to really focus
on the stem of the question.
Next, you show your depth of knowledge
when you are specific.
Take your time to give examples and use specific AP
human vocabulary in your answer.
Finally, remember, you've got this.
You're taking extra time out of your day
to prepare for the AP test so you have an edge.
You are ready for this test and you are going
to knock it out of the park.
Thank you for joining me today.
Be sure to stay tuned for additional videos on how
to tackle more FRQ's with no stimulus and FRQ's that
have both one and two stimuli.
We look forward to having you join us again later.