What is changing this year for this test, because of the coronavirus pandemic . Guest there is quite a bit that is changing this year. Probably the biggest change is that it is a shorter test. This test will only be about 45minutes long. It is going to be an online test for students. In addition, it is just one documentbased essay question with five documents. And finally, it is an exam that take at home from their computers. So in this era of Distance Learning, colleges have modified the test while keeping the same skills students need to be successful. And finally, this test is an opennote test. The College Board is not going to try to prohibit students from using the notes, so students may refer to the notes as they take the exam. Guest and i think it is really exciting the changes they have made. They have kept the documentbased questions. The dbq in a lot of ways is the crown jewel of the test. It allows you to show off your writing skills, your ability to make arguments, to interpret documents and bring in all the good information you have learned this year. It is important also to remember that this year is a modified time period that will be covered, concentrating on period three, which starts in 17th 70 1754, and ending in period seven, which ends in 1945. Jesse we will open up our phone lines for Highschool Students only. We want High School Students students to call in with questions about u. S. History for our distinguished teachers. So if you have questions about the test, or if you want to attempt one of our practice questions on air this morning, we want to hear from you as well. So High School Students only. We are going to open up regional phone lines. That means if you are a highschool student in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at 2027488000. If you are a highschool student in the mountain and pacific time zones and you have a question about the test, about u. S. History, or a question about how you should answer this question, we want to hear from you at 2027488001. Once again, eastern and central time zone, 2027488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. Now, gentlemen, i was looking at some of the questions. And the first question that is,diately popped to mind since this is an essay test, how much are you expected to write . Guest that is a great question, jesse. The amount you are expected to write is enough to answer the question. There is no number of words required. You should expect to write an essay that is multiparagraph and has a clear argument and the argument is probably going to be proven through a number of paragraphs. You should plan on having an introduction, and if you have time for it, a conclusion. Guest thats right. All essays are graded on a rubric. So students need to make sure they are familiar with the that they are writing in a way that they can accomplish the various tasks and demonstrate that they have the skills being asked of them on the ap advance history exam. But nobody is counting words or pages, nobody is counting characters. Jesse you said this test will be taken by students at home. Tell me can you take this at any , time at home, or is there only at certain time periods let the test will be open to students at home . Will everyone be taking it at the same time or at different times . Guest goahead, matt. Guest this test will be taken by everyone across the world at the same exact time. It is going to be given on friday, may 15 at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, 11 00 a. M. Pacific time, and whatever local time people are. So for folks in the u. S. , it will not be bad. For folks overseas, they could be testing at odd hours. The College Board is doing this to ensure the test can be as secure as possible. Guest thats right. And as i understand it, there is a number of ways students can record their answer. They can write it in a word file or some sort of text file, and turn it in as a file that they upload. And take andwrite it picture of their responses and upload those with a phone, or they can even, i believe, right into a text box College Board will provide. They can type it right into a text box that College Board will provide. Jesse how long will students have to write this essay and get it submitted . Guest students will click on their exam ticket, it will open up their exam. The College Board strongly recommends students log in 30 minutes prior to the exam, because there will be some security screens and questions they have to verify their identity. When the exam begins, students will see the full question. So they will see the direction, they will see the five primary source documents that go with the question, and then there will also be the submission window that students can use to either cut and paste, as jason was mentioning, or they can attach their document to that. Jesse well, we have some students waiting on the line to talk to you gentlemen, or perhaps to ask some questions. We start with julia from new we start with julia, from montclair, new jersey. Good morning. Julia, are you there . We seem to have lost julia. Lets move to sarah calling from bay city, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest hi, sarah. Caller hi. Jesse sarah, do you want to try one of our sample questions and see how you would write your essay . Caller i have a question. How long is the exam this year, and what is the format for it . Guest sarah, it is 45 minutes you will have to write. And it is just one dbq that you thatoing to answer, and dbq is going to have five documents. Guest thats right. So this exam is basically a shorter, more condensed version of the traditional ap exam. Its the same skills, its everything you would have learned in your class, but you are only going to have one dbq to show what you know on the exam. Jesse a question for both of you gentlemen. Are only High School Seniors taking the ap test this year, or can juniors take it as well . Who is taking the test . Guest actually. Guest goahead. [laughter] jesse lets start with you, jason. Tost teachers, we love talk. [laughter] anyone who has signed up for a test in high school. It is usually High School Seniors who take the test. But juniors can take it, and i assume this will can also have sophomores who have signed up. I dont believe there is a designated age as long as students are in high school. Usually, it is juniors who take this exam. Guest that is correct. My classes are all junior classes. Most high schools i know test juniors. Jesse now, here is a question for you. Are either one of you suggesting that any of your students wait until next year to take it, or are you saying, go ahead and do this . Lets start with you, matthew. Guest absolutely not. I dont recommend waiting, because there is a lot of content student need to remember and that is a long time to go, because of those students will not be enrolled in ap u. S. History next year, so i definitely recommend students take the exam this year. As i said, it is the same skills as on the regular exam, it is just shorter and in an online format. Guest thats right, matt. I agree. If youve prepared for it, if youve spent all this time in your classes, reading your textbooks, practicing your essays, learning the information over the course of the academic year, the real reward is to take the test. And the College Board made a choice in choosing the dbq as the feature they will keep in this unusual year, because it allows you to show off all the skills your knowledge, your , ability to make arguments, your ability to interpret documents. Going to allow you to show off all the work you have done. Host lets talk to another student, thelma, calling from cambridge, massachusetts. Guest good morning, thelma. Jesse thelma, are you there . Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is, what is meant by the revolution of reconstruction . And what are the points to get the extra complexity point on the essay, if we are asked about radical reconstruction or the revolution of reconstruction . Jesse lets start with jason. Guest i will start with the first part of the question and i will go to matt for the complexity point, because he has a lot of good stuff to say about it. The revolution of reconstruction is in reference primarily to the primarily to the amendments that come after the civil war, the 13th, 14th, and 15 amendments. The 13th amendment abolishing slavery in the United States. 14th amendment, establishing civil rights that will be protected by the federal government against state powers, specifically those in the former confederacy that are oppressing africanamerican populations in the south. And the 15th amendment that grants Voting Rights to africanamericans, ideally throughout the United States. However, it is important to keep in mind that there is a lot going on on the ground during reconstruction after the civil war, between 18651877. And a lot of what is going on on the ground especially in the , south during that period is running contrary to the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. So it is important to keep in mind that the socalled revolution of reconstruction has a very mixed legacy. By the end of that time frame, africanamericans, former slaves in the south, former enslaved africanamericans in the south are finding it very difficult to acquire their own land. Many of them are in sharecropping contracts that reduce them to a situation where they are permanently in debt to landholders many of whom are , former slaveholders themselves. And also, especially by the end of reconstruction and even into the 1880s, Voting Rights are being curtailed in the south for africanamericans through terrorism, organizations like the ku klux klan, and also through local legislation like grandfather clauses and literacy tests that prevent africanamericans from fulfilling those rights that they helped acquire in fighting the civil war on the side of the union, and that the Republican Congress sought to instill in place in the constitution in that 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. Guest jason is right. If you remember even a fraction of what he just said, you are going to earn the complexity point. Complexity is College Boards attempt to award a more sophisticated essay. If you look at the rubric, the complexity point is given for qualifying or modifying an argument. Now, there are some tips we can give you to maximize your chances at earning the complexity point. In the textbook jason and i wrote called fabric of the nation, we outlined a threestep strategy called gem. Because you want to write a gem of an essay. The acronym stands for generate nuance. You want to use more sophisticated language like jason used in talking about not just the successes, but also talking about the limitations of reconstruction. How it applied differently to different groups, what did and did not work. The second part of the strategy is to explain both sides of the reasoning skill. College board frames their essay questions around one of three reasoning skills causation, comparison, or continuity and change over time. All three of those reasoning skills actually have two sides to them. Causation is cause and effect. Comparison is similarity and difference. Is continuity and change obviously, continuity and change. One of the tips on the complexity point is to make sure that if the prompt only calls for one side. For example, if it said, evaluate the extent of change in terms of reconstruction, you would also want to talk about some of the continuities. Some of the things that dont change. The third part of the strategy, the m, is to make connections across time. So for example you could connect , reconstruction and the unfulfilled legacy of the 15th amendment to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and your concluding paragraph is often times a great place to do that. Readers are looking for evidence that you have done this. So if you take a multipronged approach, where are where you are making several attempts to earn the complexity point, you will greatly increase your chance of getting that point on the rubric. Jesse what is the grading scale on this test . When you get your results, what can you tell from the score that is on the test . Guest ok. The grading scale is similar but a little bit different than it has been in years past. Traditionally, the rubric has been a sevenpoint rubric for the documentbased as a question. This year, because that is the only part of the exam, College Board has extended that to 10rubric points. All the skills and tasks, however, are still the same. College board will take your essay score and they will , translate that into an overall a peace corps. So what colleges will see will n essay score on a scale of one to five. Generally, colleges will accept a score of three and above. Strict, andore there are some that accept scores of two and above. Usually on an ap exam, a slim majority will earn a three and above in any given year to make them eligible for college credit. Jesse lets go back to another student who is waiting to calm in. Lets talk to miles calling from fayetteville, North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest good morning, miles. Jesse miles, do you have a question, or do you want to try one of the questions we have prepared here . Caller i have a question that is more about the testing. Jesse go ahead, then. Caller so i was just wondering, of all the people taking the test at the same time, there shouldnt be a chance that the server or website should go down, is there . Guest [laughter] boy, miles, i hope not. Guest there is no chance, miles. Caller ok. Guest but make sure if you have siblings or family members that are heavy streamers or gamers and your internet is a little , more limited, you will want to ask them to pause what they are doing, so that youve got the bandwidth to be able to upload when you are done writing your essay. Guest miles, are you still on the line . Jesse i think he has already dropped off. Now i want to look at one of the documents that may show up in some form, maybe not on this test, or maybe showed up before. Tell us what the student is supposed to do once they see this. So here is something a student could see, as an example for one of these tests. This is in North Carolina contract from 1882 that says, to everyone applying to rent land upon shares the following , conditions must be agreed to. Croppers part of the cotton, to be made by me when and where i choose to sell, and after deducting all that they owe me, and all the sums that i may be responsible for on their accounts, to pay them their half of the net proceeds. Now matthew, tell us what you should do after you read that document. Guest this is a great document, very much to the kind of document students may see on the ap u. S. History exam. So there are several tasks students should complete when they see a document like this. The first task is to ask themselves, what is this document about . Sometimes the title will tell you. In this case, it is a sharecroppers contract. So ask themselves, what do they remember about sharecropping, where does that fit in the historical timeline, and most importantly, how does it relate to the exam . There is one point on the rubric for using two of the five documents in a simple, descriptive manner, essentially being able to summarize that. So even if the student is somewhat limited, most students can read and summarize. That is the first task students want to do. But ideally, students want to connect that document to an argument. So depending on what the question is, students want to use the document to move their essay forward, to support whatever point or points they are making. And then finally, students also want to complete the task of sourcing. There are up to two points possible on the ap exam for the dbq for sourcing a document. Sourcing is College Boards way of asking students to think like an apprentice historian. Can they examine and analyze the document in one of four ways, by looking at and discussing the documents historical situation . In other words, the context around the document, by identifying the intended audience. What was the document for . And how does it help us understand the document, by looking at the authors purpose . What is the goal . What is the author trying to accomplish in this document . Or, by looking at the point of view being expressed in the document. Guest thats right. There are a few strategies to approaching these documents, that i think are important. I imagine you have talked about this in class with your teacher. But jesse, one more time, could you read the first line after the word source in the document . Host after the word source . Guest it should say source, or what is the title of it they put there . Jesse North Carolina contract, 1882. Guest sometimes when we have a document in front of us, and it is written in the language that is over 100 years old and we start reading it, it gets very intimidating. The language it is written is not the way we normally speak today. It is talking about something that happened a long time ago. So it is often important not to go looking for the answers in the document at first. It is often important to look at the source line that jesse just read. Notice here, you have got the word contract, and you have the date 1882. This provides you some clues as to what the document is likely going to be about. So you probably remember a few key dates from the class. You dont remember all of the this you have heard entitled there, and that is ok. But some of the key dates, for example, the years of the civil war. The question about the revolution of the reconstruction 18651877. Mind, you have 1865 in you know this is a postcivil war document. And with that in mind, you can begin to recall some of the important pieces of information and the broad context of the time period in the generation after the civil war. And if you look at the word contract, it may trigger in your mind the sharecropping contracts that you recall from class and that i talked about briefly at the beginning of today, where former enslaved africanamericans who were newly freed found it very difficult to acquire land, primarily because, except for a very short period after the civil war, many of the governments in the former confederacy are controlled by those who want to prevent formerly enslaved africanamericans from acquiring property and civil rights. And many former africanamerican slaves found themselves in these sharecropping contracts, where they were forced to rent land and pay for the rent with a portion of their crops, which send them into a cycle of debt and made it impossible for them to ever acquire land, and often even leave the places where they were currently working the land. So in the first line, you can begin to have a sense of what this document might be talking about. And then when you begin to read the document, you can begin to think, who is actually talking in this document . Could it be a formerly enslaved African American . Could it be a white landholder . And there is a portion in there where the writer or speaker is talking about what is owed to me. This should clue you in that this is probably a white landholder who is creating a contract for formerly enslaved africanamericans. And that contract is probably not going to be in those peoples benefit. This begins to bring in all the information to help you get those extra points on the dbq the point of view of the speaker, the context in which it is being written, all that good historical apprenticeship that you have been trained over the last year, to begin to make this document work for a argument. Jesse lets go back to the phone lines and talk to another student. This will be julia, who is calling from montclair, new jersey. Good morning. Caller hi. I know theres a lot of information and time periods covered on the test. Any online resources, and what specifically should be focused on when studying . Jesse we will let you take that one, matthew. Guest sure. It is a great question, julia. As jason mentioned, College Board narrowed the focus of the test a little bit this year. It will be somewhere between 1754, the beginning of the french and indian war, and 1945, which is the end of world war ii. There are a lot of resources online to help ap students, both from the College Board and other resources, both commercial and that teachers have put out there as well. But let me give a plug to ap teachers around the country. Because rather than simply going out and buying a review book or finding additional resources, i think that many ap students already have everything they need from what they have done in the course of during the year. Guest thats right. Guest so i would encourage you to continue using some of those resources, some of those lecture notes, the homework, or the outlines that youve done in your class, and then strategically supplement them with resources that you find online that are helpful. One resource in particular i want to call out is the concept outline from the College Board. If your teacher hasnt shared this with you, you can find this at the College Boards website, simply google concept outline ap u. S. History. It will come up. Four. 337, ods three through seven, that is about 15 pages of content that the College Board says, here are the essential concepts. These are the enduring understandings, the big picture ideas sprinkled with a few specific terms and events we believe you need to know. So a good strategy is to go through the concept outline and make sure that you understand the concepts. Make sure that you can explain those concepts, make sure you can provide a couple of examples for each of those. And really make sure there are not any terms or any Vocabulary Words in those 15 pages that are unfamiliar to you, because if they are, you have time between now and the exam to familiarize yourself with that. That is, in my opinion, the ultimate study guide for ap u. S. History exam. Guest and the great thing about the concept outline is that it section,udes in each broken down by subsections, very clear tasks that and as a question could ask you to do. To analyze things, to describe things, to explain things, so that not only is it just information for you to try to memorize, which is never a great way to study for this test because you have to do so much , analysis and argumentation, but to have a series of tasks that it asks you to think about. So when one of those sub questions asks you to describe or explain or evaluate, you can even just take out a sheet of particularake that question, and just test yourself on how much you remember from that particular section. And then after you have done that, you can go back to the concept outline and see some of the information they have there to support that question. Jesse lets talk about time management. I teach a graduatelevel writing class, and one of the things i always insist before i get an essay from anybody is an outline. Do you suggest that the students taking the ap test spend time writing an outline of their essay, or do you suggest they get right into it . How long should they study the photo or study the contract, or the paragraph, before getting into the writing portion . Matthew, we will start with you with that one again. Matthew absolutely. Time is of the essence on this years ap exam. Students have less time than they have ever had before, 45 minutes to read, think, outline, and most importantly write this essay. And then about a fiveminute submission window. College board has actually said you have 50 minutes total. Not a second more than that. As much as i would love for students to fully outline, there is not time for that. Maybe a brief, quick outline. Jot down your main points, plug in your documents, plug in outside information, but then you have to go, because, as jason said you want a multiparagraph, maybe three, four, five paragraph essay, and you need time to submit the essay to College Board all within 50 minutes. So time is of the essence. Students need to move quickly. It is only the written essay that will be graded, not the outline. Guest i used to instruct my students to read the dbq question first and maybe take a minute or two to think about how they would answer the question if it were just an essay question without documents. Now i am interested in matts opinion on this, if he would support this as well. I found sometimes my students would read the question. They would not really think about what the question is asking or how they could answer it, and then they would immediately go to the documents to try to find the answer. And oftentimes in that panic, confusements would more them other than guide them. I actually think that the answer to a question will already be in your head before you go to the documents. So i would encourage you, instead of doing extensive outline as matt suggested, very difficult to do in the amount of time you will have, just take a minute or two to think about the question itself and to think about how you would answer it without the documents. And i think you will find that many of the documents will fit into an argument youve already generated just by looking at the question at first. Matt, what do you think about that idea . Matthew absolutely, that is the same advice i give my students. Because the fear is that if you just jump into the documents without any thought whatsoever, you will forget some of the outside information that you know, and you are liable to write an essay about the documents. Remember, the essay needs to be about the essay prompt. There is an old joke that goes around with ap teachers that it should stand for answer their prompt. It is more than just summarizing and writing about the documents. So jason is right. That is excellent advice. Do a little bit of a quick brainstorm. Think about how you might organize your argument. Develop two or three categories and use those categories. If they have not given you the categories, remember the prompts are based on the reasoning skill. If it is a causation essay, ask yourself what are two or three causes or two or three effects, if it is that side, and make sure it is the same as continuity and change versus similarity and difference. Jesse Something Else jesses question brings to mind is that, after you have looked at the question and thought about some possible answers, maybe even generated the beginning of an argument, maybe jotted down a word or two to help you remember it, when you then go to the documents, keep in mind when you are looking at them, they will help trigger outside information that you will want to bring in on your own. So for example, if we look at the first document we talked about today, the sharecropping contract from 1882, once you thought about the source line where you see the word contract, you see 1882, you start thinking about that time period. Then you have gone into the document itself and looked it over you have read it and , concluded, this is a white landholder who has created a document for formerly enslaved africanamericans, you then begin to realize some of the information you already know that is not in the document itself. You may want to jot that down next to the document. You may want to write down the sharecropping, which is not in the document itself. I think could qualify as an example of outside information, especially if you briefly explain that system have part of your document. If the word reconstruction is not in the question or in the document, to bring in reconstruction, or the 13th, 14th, or 15th amendments, all of these are outside information that you will recall by taking a look at the documents themselves. So instead of putting together a complex outline before you begin to write, do that Quick Response to the question that you think might be appropriate. And then when you go to the documents, jot down next to those documents some of the outside information that comes to mind looking at the source line and then reading the document itself. Matthew and if i can just piggyback and extend that even further, what jason is talking about, writing that information to the documents, on the rubric, there are two points that students can earn for outside information. That is two out of 10. That is 20 . But there is another category on the rubric as well, the sourcing category. And in the sourcing category, one of the ways students can get credit is by explaining the historical situation or the context of a document. Sometimes students wonder, how can we do that . That sounds hard. It is actually one of the easier skills i think in the sourcing category. The way students can do that is exactly how jason explained, it is connecting the documents to a specific piece of outside information in that time period that explains what is happening in the document. So, outside information, if students are generating it or even if they are looking at their notes and reminding themselves of it a little bit, that can help to increase their score on this years dbq. Host another student jump in here. This is going to be arun, calling from minnesota. Arun, good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Said, we have a maximum time limit of 50 minutes. I recently took a timed dbq and realized i am going over the limit. What would your advice be if i am like, have 10 or 15 minutes left, and i cant remember a concept or dont know what to write down . What do i do . Jesse go right ahead areas that right ahead. Guest that is a great question. A lot of students, including some of my students are struggling, because this year, even though they have reduced the number of documents, they also reduced the amount of time. It is not easy to write a full dbq in simply 45 minutes. I would be stressed and feeling strained. My answer to you is to look at the rubric. Look at yourself and what you have accomplished. When i say look at the rubric, the rubric tells you how the essay is going to be graded. So one of the strategies you can do is ask yourself, how many points am i on track for, and what can i let go of . For example, there are five documents on this years exam, but in theory, you can earn nine of the 10 points but only talking about two documents if you do them well and meet all the other criteria. So one strategy might be that you shorten the number of documents you talk about. Maybe you only discuss three documents more indepth instead of trying to cover all five. Strategy, ifother you struggle with the sourcing component, but you feel like you know how to integrate these documents well into your essay, then you can do that. You could go for all of the documents but then let go of the sourcing. So you are going to have to kind of look at what you have done and what you are able to accomplish, and then make some strategic choices as the test is going, which is why it is so important to practice this ahead of time. Guest and to that point, arun, about running out of time, this year in particular, there will be a great temptation because it is open notes, to go to the internet to try to find something you cant remember, to go to your notes and flip through them and find that one date that you know is in there somewhere, to go through the index of your textbook. I want to stress, just because it is open note, dont get pulled into trying to find a particular fact or a name or an argument that you know might be somewhere in the sources that you have. That will eat up more time that could be better spent on using the strategies that matt just mentioned, sticking to what you know and what you remember, using the documents that you can apply to the fullest. Dont be tempted by the fact that it is open note, because it is also a very limited amount of time. And you can spend five or 10 minutes trying to research one small thing and then you will find, even if you find that thing you will have used time that you couldve spent making a broader argument, finishing the paragraph, establishing the context or interpreting a few more documents. Jesse lets go to another student. This is going to be tom, calling from buffalo, new york. Good morning. Guest good morning, tom. Caller good morning. Guest hey, tom. Caller my question is, what would you say the most challenging aspect of this format of the exam is compared to the previous format . Jesse take that one, matthew. Matthew sure. I will take that one. I think the answer will depend a little bit on each student. For a lot of students, it will be the fact that it is timed, and also the fact that it is online. My students have been practicing handwritten timed writes throughout the year. Then all of a sudden with the move to Distance Learning and the new exam this year, it is an online format. So again i think that it is critical for students to practice. Practice their typing. Practice submitting the essay. And of course, practice the actual writing of the essay as well. Fortunately, College Board has actually opened up an exam demo. If you google ap exam demo 2020, it will i think it is the first , fit that will come right up. It is also linked directly on the College Board website. I strongly encourage all students to practice the online process. Because while we while many of us might feel that it is easy, if you havent submitted an online exam before, you dont want may 15 to be the first time you do that without the familiarity of having already worked through the College Board system. M, i would to just turn it around, too. You know, this year there is a certain advantage to this format, because in years previous, by the time students get to the dbq, they have already taken the multiplechoice section and answered the short answer questions. They have spent a lot of energy to do that then they have to do the dbq. You are coming to the dbq fresh. One thing to keep in mind, the good thing about this years format is that the dbq is challenging every year. It requires you to use all the skills you have acquired over the course of the year. Now you will be able to hit the ground running because you will be able to come to the dbq fresh. Jesse now let me ask this question so we are all on the same page. We will look at an image here that could be one of those source documents. It is an image called the first vote. It is an image from harpers weekly 1867, a black and white drawing of an elderly africanamerican man casting a ballot. What would be the possible dbq . What would be the question that this document would be relating to for our students . Jason . Lets start with you. Jason thanks jesse, that is a , great document. Again, notice how important the source line is here. Both the title, where it is published, and when it is published. But if we are going to talk about a possible question, i think it is important to keep in mind that in the last three years, 2017, 2018, 2019, the dbq questions have started with evaluate. With the word evaluate. At least the last three years, i believe that is correct. So when a dbq asks you to evaluate something, it is asking you to judge it. You are usually going to be asked to judge something to the extent it is or isnt. So this is just one document, so that there would be four more. But a question could be something like, evaluate the extent to which the political and Economic Reforms of reconstruction ultimately help those they sought to assist, or something along those lines. And then a student looking at this document could note that it was in 1867, so we are two years after the end of the civil war, we are really at the beginning of the reconstruction period. And at the very beginning of that period, there was widespread voting available to formerly enslaved africanamericans. And here is harpers magazine, which students wouldnt necessarily have to know this, but this is a northern magazine published out of boston. That here is in northern is this northern magazine showing or at least proclaiming that there is progress on the part of civil rights for African Americans. But of course students are also going to keep in mind that if the question is an evaluate question, evaluate the extent to which there was progress, as i mentioned at the beginning, this is going to end up being a very mixed legacy. So that within 10 years of the publication of this cartoon celebrating an africanamerican man voting for the first time, in fact, many africanamericans are going to find those rights curtailed. Jason yeah. And i would simply add that the College Board is in the habit of framing their questions around the historical reasoning skills. Causation, cause and effect, comparison, which is similarity and difference, and continuity and change, which is continuity and change. So students can ask themselves, what does this document say about the effects of reconstruction perhaps on the lives of African Americans or the political system in the south . Or how does this document illustrate one of the kinds of changes that is taking place . Or how is this similar or different to the experiences that africanamericans faced before reconstruction and the civil war or in a different time period . Host next question is megan, calling from winchester, virginia. Megan good morning. , caller good morning. Guest good morning. Guest morning, megan. Caller i have a few questions, but i can pick one if that is all you can take. But my first question is, how is making connections across time periods for the complexity point different from contextualization . Guest [laughing] that is a good question, megan. The way i tried to explain that to my students is, contextualization is connecting to a broader process or topic. Oftentimes i encourage students to do that at the beginning of their essay to connect it to something immediately prior at the beginning of the time period, although it can be done at the end of the essay to connect forward or even in the middle of the essay. The way i distinguish contextualization from making connections is contextualization means it is either within or it is a budding, it is next to the time period. Making connections, you are making a jump, maybe 20, 50, 100 years. I would not go much further than that. So it is not directed connected to the time period. That is one way to keep it straight. Guest so a good example of that, with what we have been talking about with reconstruction, is that contextualization might take into account the situation for African Americans in the United States prior to immediately , prior to the civil war, maybe in the 1850s or the 1840s. And a complexity point might be at the end of the essay, to look forward to well after reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, as an attempt to redress many of the problems that came out of reconstruction in that failed revolution. Jesse lets go to will, who is calling from buffalo, new york. Will, do you have a question for our distinguished teachers here . Caller yeah. This is pretty much like the question you just answered, but i was just wondering what the importance is of comparing across eras. Well, as we were just explaining, the importance of comparing across eras is to give the reader another opportunity to reward you for complexity. It is one of the ways that College Board has defined for readers to assess whether or not an essay is more sophisticated, if it is more historically complex. Cheap in mind keep in mind you dont need to do that because, one, you dont have to earn the complexity point. Most years, over 90 of students do not earn the complexity point. It is the hardest point on the ap dbq to earn. Some teachers refer to it as about unicorn point. There are other ways such as generating, reasoning skill that you can on the complexity point. It can be kind of part of a coherent strategy to maximize your chances of success. But again, if you are running short of time, that might be something that doesnt make it into your essay. Jesse go ahead. Guest the most important thing on your dbq is to generate an argument and to prove that argument by analyzing the documents, where you can bring in outside information and you understand the ways in which they support your argument, and following through with your argument through multiple paragraphs. The complexity point is very important, but it is not essential. What is essential is that you have your argument clear, that you bring to bear evidence to prove that argument, and that evidence the a combination of the documents provided. As many of those that you can use. And outside information that you remember from class, from your reading. Much of that outside information can be triggered by the document s itself. Jesse here is another question a student has texted and or send to us on twitter. Since the test is open notes, what do you believe are the key things to have printed out and sitting in front of us for the test . I dont want to have too many things in front of me, but i want to have the most important things at easy access. Guest that is a great question, because it is very easy to become overwhelmed during the test. So i would recommend that you have a set of study guides, whether they are the concept outline, that perhaps you have annotated. Whether they are lecture notes, whether they are some homework outlines. It is going to look different for every student, but it is important that whatever it is, it is organized, and it is something that you are familiar and comfortable with. You dont just want to print something off the internet for the very first time and look at it during the exam. And keep in mind that the purpose of the notes, at least what should be the purpose of the notes for students, is that it is there to refresh your memory. There is not time, as jason said, to do any research. Now is the time, if you still need to learn something new, to go ahead and learn it. During the ap exam, it is all about reminding yourself of what you already know. So those notes can be used as a quick cheat sheet to peek and refresh your memory, like, oh, thats right. I remember this person and this event and that law so i can intelligently incorporate them into my essay and show off everything that i know. Jesse we have about eight minutes left. Lets see if we can get our last couple of students who have been waiting patiently on the line to get their question in. From go to kylie calling North Carolina. What is your question . Caller hi. I actually just got my answer question my question answered on twitter. But i have another question. How many of the 10 points of this year do we need to get a 5 on the exam, and what points do you recommend we focus on the most . Guest that is a great question, kylie. The truth is we dont know for sure. College board doesnt know for sure, because they will not make that decision until after everybody has taken the exam and they have read thousands of exams, and they have done they , have gone through a process called norming, and looked at the statistics across various years. We can take some educated guesses. You need a majority of the points to make sure you pass. Since you asked specifically about a i feel 100 confident five, that to get a 10 out of 10, you get a 5. I feel confident that if you get nine, you are going to get a 5 as well. We dont know. In theory it is a good rule of thumb might be to just go by categories. One and two. Three, four. Five, six. Seven, eight. Nine, ten. It is a rough estimate but that is basically as good as we can do right now. Jesse lets see if we can get one more student in. Emilys calling from orlando, florida. Caller good morning, everyone. My question is, i know that it is crunch time and everybody will be studying. Do you have any tips on what we should be studying or things we should be looking over . Jesse jason, take that one. Jason i think a way to start is to just take five time periods, periods three through seven that are in the concept outline, and just create on a piece of paper, list those dates. So that you have got the whole period that you will be tested on divided by those five time periods. And then use that list, with spaces in between each of those time periods, to jot down some of the key trends that you were that time period. For example, if you are looking at the big one at the end, 18901945, some things that will immediately come to mind for example might be the progressive era, the First World War and the second world war, the 1920s. And once you have begun to write down some of these larger themes within each one of those time periods, some of the facts should begin to come back to you. So you will have that outline. Again, it will not be very detailed, but as matt said, it n the midst of the test, it will help you remind you of what you already know. That sheet can serve as a roadmap for the whole period you are being tested on, and you will make that roadmap as you are doing your final preparations for the test, and organizing it according to those five time periods that you are going to be evaluated on. Jesse here is a question from a student earlier. This question comes in from adrian, who is a student at north shore senior high in houston, texas. Adrian wants to know, what made the kansasnebraska act a key part in the civil war . Guest how much time do we have left . [laughter] jesse about five minutes. So. Kansas nebraska act is important for a lot of reasons. First it is really at the end of a long process, since the u. S. Mexico war from 18461848, that reopened the debate about the extension of slavery. The kansasnebraska act opened up the territory from the missouri compromise of 1820 that was closed to slavery, and made possible the extension of the institution of slavery into the west north of the 3630 line or the southern border of missouri. It effectively started the violence in the kansas territory in 1856, where you remember john brown, of course, and the border ruffians from missouri are fighting it out in the kansas territory over whether kansas will become a slave state or not. This ultimately leads to violence on the senate floor, when senator Charles Sumner is caned on the floor of the senate in 1856, may of 1856. And past that, it just accelerates towards the first secession of a state in december of 1860, South Carolina. So the kansasnebraska act is significant because it is effectively the trigger for the violence that spirals into the secession of the first state in 1860 after the election of Abraham Lincoln later that year. Matt, would you like to add to that . Matthew there is a lot there. I would add that the kansasnebraska act also accelerated the demise of the whig party and led to the rise of the Republican Party which was a regional party. The Republican Party was not represented in the south. It is the election of Abraham Lincoln without any southern electoral votes that then prompts South Carolina and eventually 10 other states to secede from the union. Jesse here is a couple of technical questions from students. They want to know your advice on this. The first one comes from sydney from Pius X Catholic school in nebraska. Sydney wants to know how you correctly cite a document. And one who notes, will the question be the same for everyone on the test . Well, in terms jesse lets start with jason and then go to matthew. Jason to the question, there is first no official way in which you have to cite your documents. A recommended that i recommended that my students cite at the end of a sentence in a parentheses. It says doc a, doc b. Matt, how do you have your students cite their documents . Matthew that is exactly the same thing i have my students do. Oftentimes the citation is as much for the students to keep track of the documents they want to cover, because the readers will have read hundreds of these dbqs, and he or she will have those documents memorized quite possibly by the time they get to your essay. Jesse one more question, does everybody get the same question . Guest we dont know. College board will probably not answer that. If you asked them, they will be they will say all of the questions will be equivalent. My guess is on past history, most students will see the same question, but they usually run several versions of the exam every year. Jesse perfect. That is right. Jesse we would like to thank Matthew Ellington and jason stacy, who are the coauthors of fabric of a nation a brief history with skills and sources, for the ap® course. We would like to thank both of you for being with us today and help us prep for the ap u. S. History exam. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Guest thank you, jesse. Good luck, everyone, and have a good test. Guest yeah, thanks, jesse. You guys have got this. You can do this students. ,announcer 1 American History tv is on social media. Follow us cspanhistory. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 2 on lectures in history, sam lebovic teaches a class about the early cold war periods of the 1930s and 1950s ae said fascism and consensus formed in the u. S. Around centrist political views to the point where the Political Parties were barely stick with civil. On the economic front he believed in mixed rule, meeting broad