DBQ rubric shift has AP students celebrating potential score boost
One of the most challenging portions of AP History exams is the Document Based Question (DBQ) as the amount of writing, documents, and analytical requirements can certainly be overwhelming to finish within an hour. Fortunately, starting this year, the College Board has made a change on the rubric that will make AP student life just a bit easier.
In previous years, the DBQ required students to use six out of the seven provided documents in order to gain the point in that category. Now, students need to only use four of the seven to receive that point. Additionally, in the past, students needed to explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience for at least three documents, but the newly modified version states that it’s only necessary for two documents to acquire the point. Finally, the new DBQ rubric makes attaining the complexity point a lot easier by including specific ways a student can go about it, which previously was more difficult because of the broad nature of the description.
AP US History teacher Andrew Britton has seen time be a factor for past students.
“Students have struggled getting everything done, therefore they don’t do as well on the DBQ,” he said.
Britton was hesitant at first, but after using the newly modified rubric for an in-class DBQ, he’s had a change in thought.
“After reading the DBQ’s, I do think that requiring you to do a little bit less instead of rushing and trying to fit everything in results in better quality work,” he said.
Though this change happened fairly suddenly, Britton had been an AP reader for the exams and, therefore, has trust in the College Board and their decisions.
“The College Board never takes those decisions lightly, and I’m sure they were basing it off statistics,” he said.
Overall, Britton seems to have a positive outlook on this new change, and thinks that students will benefit from it. On the other hand, AP European History teacher Daniel Lewis has a different view.
Lewis claims that he doesn’t necessarily prefer the old or new rubric, but he does not agree with changes the College Board has made.
“When they went from six down to four [documents], and three down to two [analysis], I viewed that as a lessening in what is being asked of the students in order to get a higher score,” he said.
Lewis believes that this modification is just a way of making things much easier, and also undermines the value of the higher scores.
“It makes sense in my mind that if you’re going to reduce the requirements on the rubric, it’s going to be easier to get a good DBQ score, so it’ll be easier to get a five,” he said. “I think that waters down a five.”
Though he dislikes the rubric, Lewis has used it to grade his students first in-class DBQ this year. He claims he has yet to see a difference in grades.
“Because it is their first time writing their DBQ, students always struggle no matter what,” he said.
Though teachers have mixed feelings about this change, students are more optimistic and pleased with this modification.
Junior Lucy Whitcomb took AP European History last year and is currently taking AP US History. Whitcomb claims the DBQ from last year’s exam went somewhat well, but she did have some difficulty.
“I always struggled to use all the documents in the amount of time that we have,” she said.
With the new rubric, Whitcomb finds it very beneficial and much easier to earn certain points.
“There’s more ways now to get the complexity point, which I think is really nice because that point was always confusing in the past,” she said. “Now, there’s a really wide variety of ways to get it.”
Whitcomb mentions that the new rubric sets her at ease.
“I also like that now you don’t have to use as many documents to get the evidence point,” she said. “That takes away from that rushing-feeling.”
by Haniya Mecci
Published January 29, 2024
Oshkosh West Index volume 120 issue IV