AP World History:
Essay Skills Packet
What Types of Essays Will Appear on My Exam?
The AP World History Exam is broken into two parts: the multiple choice (worth 50% of your
grade), and essays (collectively worth 50% of your grade). You will be expected to write three
different essays on your exam. We will practice writing them in class, first as a (take-home)
process paper. After this, we will dedicate half of your unit exam grade to one of these types of
essays to see how well you can do in a timed setting.
The three essays that you will be asked to write are:
1. The Compare and Contrast (C/C) Essay: This essay is pretty straightforward. Based
on your prompt, identify similarities and differences between two
societies/cultures/intellectual movements/etc. Be sure to address what is asked for in the
prompt!
• Helpful Class Activities: PERSIAN Charts, Venn Diagrams
2. The Document-Based Question (DBQ) Essay: You will be given a prompt and a
collection of documents specifically chosen to help you answer the prompt. The
expectation of this essay is that you will have little- to no idea about the real answer.
Rather, the readers want to see how well you can analyze the documents as a historian
and develop a plausible answer, using the documents as evidence. Think of it as a
puzzle! And, use the Themes of AP World History as your guide!
• Helpful Class Activities: Persian Charts, SOAPStone, POV
3. The Change over Time (COT) Essay: This will be the last of the three essays that we
tackle as a class. Basically, you will be exploring how things change over time. To do
this, you will need to establish how things were at the beginning of the time period,
establish how things were at the end of the time period, and show how different elements
of the society or concept changed and/or stayed the same during the same time period.
It’s kind of like a Compare and Contrast essay, but you’re looking at one concept over a
period of time.
What Expectations Exist for My Essay