in order to score all the points on a short answer question or an SAQ you really only need to do two things understand what they're asking you to write about and write it using a three-part formula easy peasy lemon squeezy except for a lot of students in AP World AP Euro and a push the SAQ is emphatically not easy peasy lemon squeezy it's more like why is this seemingly Simple Thing causing my armpits to sweat and my bowels to squeal and causing no small amount of existential dread and the questioning of all my life choices lemon squeeze but look it doesn't have to be that hard you just need someone to explain it up real nice for you and hey that's what I'm here for so if you're ready to get them bring house milked well let's get to it well make sure you stay to the end because I need to tell you how my previous advice for saqs has completely changed because of what happened at this year's scoring at the national exam first let's just swoop in and figure out what we're dealing with here a short answer question for APUSH AP World or AP Euro and by the way they're all scored the same so everything I'm about to say here applies to them all a short answer question can be classified into two species the first has a stimulus which will be a document to read or an image to interpret that will be followed by three prompts labeled ABC now the second species has no stimulus and only three problems for each prompt you either earn one point or zero points and there's nothing in between every once in a while they'll sneak in a prompt worth two points but that's only when they're asking you to do two things now on your AP exam in May they're going to give you four of these saqs and you have to answer three of them your answers do not need to be essays they just need to be somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three complete sentences and I'll tell you exactly what I recommend in a moment all right first step understand the stimulus and the problem so the first thing you need to do to answer an essay you is to understand the stimulus and the problem I would highly recommend that you mark up these prompts because say it with me when you're under pressure you are dumber than you think now where should you begin well where you're going to be tempted to begin is by reading or looking at the stimulus that's your Temptation I want you to open your hand wet it down and smack yourself in the face that is not where you start you start by reading the prompts they give you and here's why you've only got limited time to write your answers and if you start by trying to analyze the stimulus you're wasting time because you don't even know what you're looking for so start by reading the three prompts marking them up and then you can move to the stimulus after you know what to look for in it now what should you be marking in those prompts well three things number one the category or categories you're asking you to write about number two the time period they want you to write about and number three the historical thinking skill that needs to frame your answer so for example here's the first SAQ from the 2022 AP World exam first Mark the category they want you to talk about an economic development here and a political development here that's really important because if your answer doesn't fall in those categories then no points for you second you mark the time period if your answer doesn't fall within those years no matter how brilliant the answer is no points for you and third Mark the historical thinking skill and in this case you can see here lead 2 and that's a causation question that means whatever evidence you use in your short answer question has got to show causation okay so now that you understand the prompts you can move to the stimulus if it has so look at it and Mark it up with what you need to answer the prompts and now let's move on to how to answer that how everyone has their favorite acronym for answering saqs but for my money the best one is t-e-a-t topic sentence explanation of evidence and Analysis and let me explain your topic sentence is a single declarative sentence that essentially restates the important parts of the prompt and names a piece of evidence and that's important not because it earns you a point but because it ensures that you stay on topic which does earn you the point so consider this prompt from the 2022 AP Euro exam describe one significant cultural or intellectual change during the Renaissance my topic sentence would go like this one significant intellectual change during the Renaissance was the emphasis on humanism so look I restated the important parts of the prompt to keep me on task and I named the evidence that shows the change the second part then is to explain my evidence and really that just means to Define so mine would go something like this humanism described the Renaissance belief in the unlimited potential of human beings as ends in themselves now if you did those two things you're probably feeling pretty good about yourself but you need to go one step further and then Analyze That evidence and that means you need to show how your evidence proves your topic sentence now look carefully I'm talking about an intellectual change during the Renaissance and I've said that it's humanism and then I've defined so I've named the change but I haven't shown how the change occurred and that is essential so my third sentence will go like this prior to the Renaissance the prevailing view of human potential was limited by the widespread belief of the doctrine of original sin but because of the Innovative work of petrock and other humanists a new confidence and human potential began to emerge during the Renaissance those three sentences will get you a point you may be objecting right now saying that's way too much to talk about highly like can it be any simpler than that if you would ask me a year ago I would have said yes it can be simpler but today my answer is no and let me explain you may have noticed that you have basically three task verbs consistently showing up you have identified describe and explain what I've always taught is that for an identity fi prompt all you had to do was write a topic sentence and that's it so for this prompt I would have told you to write one economic development that led to the situation on the map was the force free trade agreements between Britain and China following the Opium War just identified the economic development done but I am no longer advising that and here's why now even though the College Board themselves told us what identify means in their own course and exam description and that answer that I just gave meets that bar at the national reading for AP World this year the people who scored these did not give the point unless you also explained the evidence and that is madness now as far as I know that only happened at the AP World reading but if it can happen there it might happen in the other subject as well so my advice is to T every answer that way you'll never be tricked by the AP overlords who don't even abide by their own standard all right well if you need more help with AP History writing then click right here and grab my apsa Cram Course and I've got way more writing videos right here that are going to help you with all the other essays as well so I'll catch you on the flip-flop I'm around