Multiple Choice Questions

This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students are asked to analyze provided sources and historical developments represented in sources. Questions are usually grouped into 3 or 4 per source. Sources include primary and secondary texts as well as visual sources such as maps or cartoons
• 40% of Exam Score
• 55 questions
• 55 min, or 1 min per question

💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know

• If you are struggling with answering, try to review and complete as many questions that you are able to first. Key details and information may be revealed in other questions to help with those that you may have struggled with.
• Technically, it’s true that you have roughly 1 minute per question; but, as a general rule of thumb, it typically does not take a full minute per question, so don’t stress! Besides, this time doesn’t account for reading and analyzing, or question difficulty as it pertains to your knowledge.
• Have a plan for approaching the questions and try out different methods before the exam to find which one works for you. It’s okay to skip questions if you’re feeling stuck and then come back to it to maximize the time that you have
• When studying, focus less on the facts and specific dates (though they are still important to know in order to best contextualize information) and more on the themes, changes, significant people, and the cause and effect of events.
• If you struggle with time management and are stuck on a question, look at the amount of time left and (as long as you have plenty of time left for the remaining questions) tell yourself to have just filled in a bubble within a certain amount of time. Do not let one difficult question ruin all of the rest of them.
• If you know the content well, of the four MCQs, two of them can usually be eliminated instantly. Between the last two options, one will be a distractor (which makes logical sense, but may be set in a different time period or have a different context) and the other will be the right answer. When deciding between the distractor and the correct answer, make sure that the answer is set in the right time and logically answers the question (based on the context).

🫧 Before You Bubble

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start answering?

• Always take a deep breath before starting any section, especially multiple choice!
• For the real tips - read the questions, then analyze the source, and if needed/possible with the time allotted and the source type, find three key points.
  • Going about it this way means that you’re looking for a meaning, as opposed to reading the source, and then flipping through the packet multiple times for the questions.
• Make sure to always take the time to understand the source - remember, that minute-per-question is not always doable!
• Address the questions that feel the easiest first: this guarantees that most questions you know are answered as quickly as possible, saving time for those you might need to think about more.
• If it is a stimulus based question with a source, read the author and date written first. This will give you a feel of when it was written and by who. This way, your brain already starts connecting the date or author with the information you studied which will be helpful in reading the sources.
• Reading the question first can also be helpful; that way you know what you're looking for when you start reading the source
• If you prefer reading the source before the question (which may help to better understand what the source is saying when there is no question in the back of your mind confusing you), underline or circle important information. If you do this right, answering the questions will be a lot easier because you already have the relevant parts of the source pointed out to you.

📑 Understanding the Sources

• Look for key elements before analyzing the source - This includes significant dates and the year it was made, the author or artist, and possibly the source of the organization it came from.
  • When referring to the date, remember the time period it was in and refer to the cultural ideas at the time, like the Northern Renaissance or the Enlightenment. The art and cultural movements are especially influential to determining the beliefs at the time.
  • Remember the significant figures that contributed. As for the creator, determine the associated perspective that they held given the time period.
• For artworks, notice the art style that it follows to determine the artistic movement it is related to, and what the focus of the image draws attention to.
• If an image or quoted question is confusing to you, focus solely on the question and evaluate if it can be answered without referring to the given source.
• While you read the source, underline key words or phrases that will help you answer the question. A lot of questions ask about the author's view of an event or edict, so I would recommend writing short notes on the side of the main idea of the passage and how it relates to the author. That way, before even seeing the question, you may have an answer.
• Keep in mind when reading the source all of the information already given about it (such as the time period and specific dates and the author including what their intention in writing the source likely is) and try to get the most out of the source that you can. Nothing written in it should surprise you but only support information that you already know about the part of history being discussed.
• If you are running short on time, you can answer some MCQs without reading the source. Complete these before skimming the text for the text-dependent analysis MCQs.

❓ Choosing the Best Answer

• Given what you do know about the source (dates, author, location, etc.), find the basic details. The basics are easy to understand, even if the source itself has a deeper meaning.
  • For example, if given a political cartoon, the real meaning might be much more nuanced. However, the question and source description are often key players and discovering the message: if the artist is French and the time period lines up with the French Revolution, then it’s safe to assume that’s what the cartoon is about and go from there!
• Sometimes, its ok to guess - especially when crunched for time!
• Always better to have all the questions answered, as opposed to leaving bubbles blank! College Board doesn’t take off points for wrong answers, so it’s better to be safe than sorry and bubble in what is best aligned with your knowledge.
• Always use elimination when picking an answer. If an answer does not seem correct to you, eliminate it. If you are still unsure, try thinking about the broader context of the time period that the source was written about and recall what you learned in class about the topic. Maybe you mentioned a societal reaction to an event that you couldn’t quite glean from the passage but makes sense in the context that it would be the correct answer.
• If you are left with two answers that both feel right, try to find which one has more accuracy in information and how well it actually answers the question.