ap world history essay rubric

ap world history essay rubric

An In-Depth Analysis of AP World History Essay Rubric

1. Introduction to AP World History Essay Rubric

This document is designed to support teachers who are utilizing the 2007 AP World History document-based question and long essay question rubrics. The essays are out of seven points and six points, respectively. Below are samples of generic rubrics containing the criteria used in the scoring process. The revised rubric is an abbreviated form of the present-day Long Essay Rubric. Both are right below this introduction. Understand, this is not the rubric that will be on the national exam in May but is based on the six-point essay rubric that acts as the basis for the scoring of both the Document-Based and Long Essays. In the revised Long Essay Generic Rubric, the 3/3 and 4/2 are still acceptable score calculations and may be used to adjust initial scores. However, they are significantly altered. These two “middle ground values” in turn create a curve as the scale increases in point value from middle ground to high score value.

Section 1: Introduction to AP World History Essay Rubric

2. Key Components of the Rubric

Indirect credit is desirable, and if a specific example is given, include the importance of it as it relates back to the argument. Besides just adding, connecting is necessary as well, attributing what must be there according to the argument. Throughout the essay, a pattern must be maintained, which can be concerned with one point or theory. Framers that constantly switch are not written well and attribute to the loss of direct credit. Goals must be met and must be part of the essay rather than ideas that weren’t really there. One thing does not inherently prove the other. When a couple of sentences could support another theory, it is possible. Only a good essay will get basic credit and may still be spotty. To fix an essay, more details may be added, and merely attempting to do so will result in a loss of evidence.

The essay is clearly organized. An introduction and conclusion are included. In the body paragraphs, a good format is to have a topic sentence, fact, explain, fact, explain format. Stay organized so as to make sure you do not prove more than one thing in each paragraph, and also be sure to contain everything within the paragraph. After writing the body paragraphs, be sure to reword in the conclusion. This will assure that the argument was proved and not just presented. Keep in mind, any evidence that is included must show up in the commentary as well. Post-thesis – all AWA will be perfect whether the thesis is good or bad. Contains a good thesis, sparingly stated whether correct or incorrect. A good thesis will be followed by a correct or incorrect, with the appropriate clause whether correct or incorrect. Advice that is given may be specific, vague, broad, or completely general.

The thesis is not just stating a claim or task. You must specifically address what you have been asked to. In some cases, it may involve two or more parts. Also, don’t just give the causes or solution, explain how and why. The thesis must be inclusive rather than a list, and a limited number of outside facts is permitted, and should be a balance between general and specific in the surrounding commentary. Explain why these topics/ideas are important to the question and to world history. Also, include counterarguments or an alternate view on the subject within the comments.

3. Understanding the Scoring Criteria

Lower-level papers present a thesis that is a general response to the question, with either some attempt to discuss several issues in a general way or some detailed discussion of one of the issues. They have difficulty in selecting and using major pieces of evidence not overpowering the essay. They exhibit more general errors, more general inaccuracies, fewer groupings of documents, explanations, linkages, connections, and examples, and less comprehensive treatment. They use a larger proportion of the documents and a larger number of outright errors.

Middle-level papers establish a relevant thesis addressing most of the question. They demonstrate some understanding of the complexity of the question but may devote too much attention to the key issues or fail to consider some areas of complexity. They present evidence suitable for addressing the question by including at least a majority of the documents in describing a relationship.

The scoring criteria divide the responses into three categories: upper-level responses, middle-level responses, and lower-level responses. Upper-level papers demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the complexity of the question by doing any one of the following. These papers treat the question seriously by considering several of its complexities or phenomena rather than defining a simple or obvious problem. They include a sophisticated and well-articulated thesis whose terms are clearly considered in formulating the major topic of the paper. They deal with a limited number of documents or specific pieces of evidence rather than simply talking about broad types. They also demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among documents by explicitly naming the author of the document and discussing briefly its point of view and recognizing the date of the document in addressing its audience. Also, they discuss several documents individually and specifically in relationship to the major topic rather than generalizing or discussing unrelated issues.

4. Strategies for Excelling in AP World History Essays

Begin the essay with an initial response that guides what your essay ultimately is. Essentially, the first paragraph should be a thesis statement that invites the reader to delve deeper into what your essay is about before explaining the purpose of the essay. While students are certainly allowed to modify or refine their original goals and views of significance during their essay to account for new information they will encounter and use, failing to make explicit the point of an essay can cause the student to produce off-topic responses that do not answer the essay’s ultimatum. Briefly, the rest of the essay should elaborate and support the evidence demonstrating your main point, and the conclusion may restate or refine (not entirely rewrite) the thesis. Documents should also be used as opportunities to demonstrate other skills circumscribed by the rubric, such as grouping or attribution.

To score well on AP World History essays, be strategic in responding to the rubrics. Students should note the plurality of the word: There are several rubrics, each guiding different aspects of a response. Strive to perfect your response to the Historical Thinking Skills students will apply to writing an essay. Focus on the essay, not on all of the other components of the single rubric covering. The grade a student receives on an essay listed in the syllabus will not be higher by also considering the Level of Development, the Amount of Substantive Information, and the Targeted Historical Thinking Skills. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for essays. Avoid parts of the rubrics you should not be responding to and pay equal attention to all parts of the rubric you should emphasize.

5. Conclusion and Final Tips

In order to score maximum points, write the essay with clear theses and contextualization. To write better, use specific detail and bring in some genuine human emotion. Be sure that you answer the entire prompt throughout the essay at all times. Also, you should include a sentence in the introduction, and the conclusion should fit the essay without simply rephrasing it. Don’t miss the key evidence and be clear. Try to write this essay as if the reader has never seen the different items you are attempting to compare and contrast before. The reader should get a clear picture in his or her mind of the point you are making about a historical situation which was not dubious. Finally, be sure to know the organization of your essay and appropriate essay format. There are different rubrics you should understand and be conscious of their presence.

Final Tips

The main focus of AP World History rubric is placed on the following: the historical thinking skills and compare and contrast as well as the theses, context, and point of view/language skills. A successful compare and contrast thesis will take into account contextualization and complexity. Therefore, in order to score the most extra points, be sure to recognize the most important points in the essay in the contextualization. Also, the flows of students’ ideas are critically assessed in AP World History by the clarity. As you can see, the increased in the number of the significant factual information points is therefore important when writing in order to include more information in your essay. Finally, to score higher in the essay, you need to prove your responses with consistent historical evidence. You can earn the total out of the nine points of the AP World History if you write an essay with a minimum of an introduction, conclusion and body. Good luck in taking the exam!

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