AP African American Studies Exam Tips

Get to Know the Questions

The free-response section of the AP African American Studies Exam includes one Individual Student Project exam day validation question, three short-answer questions, and one document-based question that you’ll answer in the Bluebook testing app.

Individual Student Project: Exam Day Validation Question

This question will present you with the opportunity to respond in writing to one of the project oral defense questions. You’ll be asked to provide analysis, reflection, comparison, or evaluation of at least one of the sources you used for your course project.

Short-Answer Questions

In the short-answer section, you’ll respond to all parts of the questions in the provided field in Bluebook. Some questions include texts, images, graphs, or maps.

This section includes:

• 1 short-answer question based on a text source
• 1 short-answer question based on a visual source
• 1 short-answer question focused on a broad course theme

You’ll be asked to:

• Analyze the provided sources
• Analyze the developments, processes, and themes and put those developments and processes in context
• Make connections between those developments and processes

Each question will include either three or four question parts and will assess your mastery of course content and skills.

Document-Based Question

The 45-minute recommended time for this question includes time for reading and analyzing the documents.

• You’ll be presented with 5 documents, each of which will offer a different perspective on a historical development or process related to African American Studies.
• You’ll be asked to develop and support an argument based on these 5 documents in combination with other evidence from your own knowledge.
• The document-based question will be focused on a topic related to the required content of the AP African American Studies course.

Look for Task Verbs

Pay close attention to the task verbs used in the free-response questions. Each one directs you to complete a specific type of response.

The following task verbs are commonly used in the AP African American Studies free-response questions and Individual Student Project exam day validation question:

• Cite: Provide information about a source, such as source type, title, date, and/or author. For the document-based question, citation of source letter is sufficient.
• Compare: Provide a description or explanation of similarities and/or differences.
• Describe: Provide the relevant characteristics of a specified topic.
• Develop an argument: Formulate a claim and support it with evidence.
• Draw a conclusion: Use available information to formulate an accurate statement that demonstrates understanding based on evidence.
• Evaluate: Judge or determine the significance or importance of information or the quality or accuracy of a claim.
• Explain: Provide information about how or why something occurs, using evidence and/or reasoning. “Explain how” typically requires analyzing the relationship, process, pattern, position, situation, or outcome, whereas “explain why” typically requires analysis of motivations or reasons for the relationship, process, pattern, position, situation, or outcome.
• Support an argument: Provide specific examples and explain how they support a claim.
• Synthesize: Combine different perspectives from sources to develop or support a coherent position.

Plan Before You Start Writing

Answering free-response questions takes training and practice. Instead of writing immediately, which can create a string of disconnected thoughts, try to approach the questions methodically and plan your answers before responding.  

1. Carefully analyze the question, thinking through what is being asked, and identify the elements you’ll need to address in the response. Each AP Exam asks different types of questions.
2. Next, based on your knowledge of the course content and/or source materials, consider what evidence you can incorporate into your response. Think about how your evidence is related to content you learned during the year and then decide how it fits into your analysis.
3. Clearly explain how the evidence you use supports the claim or topic you’re referencing and how it connects to the knowledge you gained from the course. A clear explanation helps the reader better understand what you mean.
4. Begin writing only after you have thought through the evidence you plan to use and determined what your argument will be. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to answer the question clearly.

Practice Before Exam Day

You may wish to work specifically on the free-response questions available in AP Classroom or you can find free-response questions, scoring guides, and scored sample responses from past AP African American Studies Exams on AP Central.