Approaching the AP Test: Essays

Here has been my thought process everytime I look at my planner for the past 6 days: “Oh gosh, I still haven’t done that practice test. Jeez, only twenty-something days. How many days is it again? Oh, yeah, 23.”

That somewhat nonsensical string of thoughts is, I’m afraid, what will be my life for the next 23 (23!) days. Because in about 23 days, more specifically 22 days, 13 hours, and 43 minutes, I am going to be taking my AP US History test. I’m not freaking out, because I know I’m going to be prepared, if I ever crack down and do a couple practice tests. However, I know some of my classmates are already talking about getting 3 hours of sleep in the nights preceding the test. I’d rather be awake then know every candidate from every election since 1780.

In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be spotlighting a few of the parts of the test, and prep in general. The first is going to be the essays. For AP US, at least, there is 2 FRQs and a DBQ. For those of you who aren’t intimately familiar with the inner workings of AP classes, an FRQ is a free response question. It is an essay that you are expected to write in 35 minutes. It doesn’t have any supporting information, just a prompt. A DBQ is another essay, with a writing time of 45 minutes . However, this one has 6-8 documents included that you should use to strengthen your paper. Here are some sample prompts.

Anybody good at writing quick essays? If you’ve taken an AP class, were you good at the essays? Any other comments?