In American

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

exams, a document-based question (DBQ), also known as data-based question, is an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

or series of short-answer questions that is constructed by students using one's own

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

combined with support from several provided sources. Usually, it is employed on timed

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

In the United States

The document based question was first used for the 1973 AP United States History Exam published by the

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...

, created as a joint effort between Development Committee members Reverend Giles Hayes and Stephen Klein. Both were unhappy with student performance on free-response essays, and often found that students were "groping for half-remembered information" and "parroted factual information with little historical analysis or argument" when they wrote their essays. The goal of the Document Based Question was for students to be "less concerned with the recall of previously learned information" and more engaged in deeper historical inquiry. Hayes, in particular, hoped students would "become junior historians and play the role of historians for that hour" as they engaged in the DBQ. A typical DBQ is a packet of several original sources (anywhere from three to sixteen), labeled by letters (beginning with "Document A" or "Source A") or numbers. Usually all but one or two source(s) are textual, with the other source(s) being graphic (usually a

political cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

, or

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

if primary and a chart or graph if secondary). In most cases, the sources are selected to provide different perspectives or views on the events or movements being analyzed. On the

(AP) exams, only

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

s are provided; on the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

(IB) exams, both primary and

secondary source In Scholarly method, scholarship, a secondary sourcePrimary, secondary and tertiary ...

s are provided. AP exams also require students to construct and defend a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

based on one prompt, while IB exams focus on a series of questions, with at least one asking students to assess the "value and limitations" of a source, usually "with reference to the documents' origin or purpose." The documents contained in the document-based questions are rarely familiar texts (for example, the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...

and

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

are not likely to be on a U.S. history test), though the documents' authors may be major historical figures. The documents vary in length and format. On some tests students are not permitted to begin responding to the question or questions in the essay packet until after a mandatory reading time ("planning period"), usually around 10 to 15 minutes. During this time, students read the passage and, if desired, make notes or markings. After this period, students are permitted to respond, usually for around 45 minutes to an hour.

References

{{reflist

External links

The DBQ Project
Examinations