Kim from Khan Academy here with a quick guide to

the 2020 AP U.S. History exam.

I'm gonna go over the details about the new exam format

and how the scoring system has changed.

Okay, here's what you need to know.

First, the exam is taking place on Friday, May 15th, 2020.

The time depends on where you live.

So, you'll get all the information you need on when and how

to sign in from the College Board

if you've registered for the exam.

The overall scoring system for the exam hasn't changed.

You'll still receive a score between one and five,

and it's still up to colleges to decide

how many credits they'll award you based on that score.

The College Board says they're confident

that most colleges will accept this year's AP scores

just as they would for any other year.

You'll have 45 minutes to take the exam

plus five minutes for uploading at the end of that period.

You can type the exam if you've got access to a computer,

or you can write it out longhand on paper

and take pictures of your essay

if you wanna upload it through your smartphone.

If you need help accessing technology so you can take

and submit the exam,

reach out to the College Board as soon as you can.

I'll put a link to the forum in the description.

So now let's talk about the format of the exam.

It's a little different.

The whole exam is just going to be

one document-based question, DBQ.

So there won't be any multiple choice

or short answer questions or a long essay.

The good news is that

this year there will be fewer documents

than your standard DBQ.

Five documents instead of seven.

And one of those will be something

other than a text-based source.

So, a political cartoon, a photograph,

map, something like that.

And, the exam will also cover fewer periods of U.S. history.

Just Periods 3 through 7.

So that goes from 1754,

or the start of the Seven Years' War,

through 1945, the end of World War II.

The exam is going to be open book.

So you can have any books or notes you want with you.

But you can't copy and paste from sources

or collaborate with other students.

So, don't text your friends the minute you get the prompt.

The College Board has said they're gonna crack down

very hard on cheating,

and they'll use plagiarism software

to detect similar essays.

All right, now let's talk about how this DBQ will be scored.

It's a little different from previous DBQs,

since there are fewer documents and less time overall.

You'll be able to earn up to 10 points instead of seven.

So let's go through the points you can earn one by one.

First, there are the thesis and contextualization points.

These are the same as they have been in past exams.

You get one point for including

a historically defensible claim

that gives a line of reasoning in either

the introduction or the conclusion.

This means you've gotta answer the question prompt

with an argument that's factual,

and you need to say why you think it's true.

Contextualization gives a broader sense of

what was happening in the time period

in a way that's relevant to your thesis.

So, if the question is about

industrialization in the Gilded Age,

you wanna explain the context of

the expansion of factory work and urbanization,

not something about the impact of

the Dawes Act on indigenous people in the West.

Just because something's happening at the same time

doesn't mean that it's relevant context for

the argument you're making.

Okay, now let's talk about the evidence points.

This is the area where there are

the most differences from the usual DBQ scoring.

Here's how you can earn the points.

You get one point for describing

the content of two of the five documents accurately.

That means not just quoting from them,

but showing your understanding of

what's happening in the document.

And you can earn another point for using those two documents

to support your argument,

tying them back directly to your thesis.

And you can earn another point by going above and beyond

by accurately describing four documents

and using those to support your argument too.

Then there's evidence beyond the documents.

You can earn up to two more points by bringing in one

or two more pieces of evidence to support your thesis,

drawing on your own knowledge of the material.

Now, it's not just mentioning some other piece of evidence,

you have to show that you know what you're talking about

when you use it.

So you can't just say, "Another example of reform was

"the Temperance Movement."

You need to say something like,

"The Temperance Movement was another reform movement

"that encouraged Americans to make a voluntary change

"for the better by abstaining from alcohol."

The analysis and reasoning points

are also slightly different this year.

So, instead of requiring you to provide a source analysis

for three of the seven documents,

the College Board is being considerably more lenient,

and awarding one point for explaining

the relevance of the point of view, purpose, situation

or audience of one of the provided documents.

And another point for doing so for a second document.

Remember that your source analysis needs to go deeper

than just a surface mention.

Don't just say,

"The Emancipation Proclamation was written in

"the context of the Civil War."

But something like,

"Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation after

"the U.S. Army won the Battle of Antietam,

"hoping that the victory and the new commitment

"to ending slavery would prevent European powers

"from allying with the Confederacy."

So make sure that you explain

why the extra information you provide about the source

connects back up to your thesis.

The last point is for demonstrating

a complex understanding of the topic.

This is the same as in the old rubric.

So you get a point for corroborating, qualifying

or modifying your argument.

In other words, you show that you understand

that history isn't neat and tidy.

There are exceptions, ways that historical actors

or movements fell short of their goals or ideals,

or other sides to consider

when making a statement about the past.

Now, I know all of this has a lot to take in.

I'm gonna provide a link to the new rubric in

the description so you can check it out for yourself.

But in essence, it's just a shorter form of the DBQ.

So don't sweat the details.

You've got this.