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.

💭 General Advice

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

• Review vocabulary and key terms
• Do practice problems
• Take breaks!
• Never miss a day of studying, even if it’s for 10 minutes. Always refresh your mind!!
• Take a weekend every month to review past topics so you don’t forget!
• Watch YouTube videos, read guides, every time you use a new source you will get new info!
• Fiveable guides + watching AP daily videos = BEST COMBO!!!

---

🤔 FRQ #1 – Conceptual Analysis

📌 Overview

• Students are asked to define political processes or systems and compare them
• 11% of Exam Score:
• Spend about 10 min
• Scored on a 4 point rubric
  • Defines concept (1)
  • Describes the concept (1)
  • Explains a concept (1)
  • Compares a concept (1)

💡 Tips for Earning Each Point

Define Concept

• State or reword the concept in your own words.
• If the concept has a significance, mention it!
• Make it short, don’t add extra words to sound “smart”, extra words make chances of mistakes higher!
• Don’t spend too much time on this one, if you don’t know it, skip it. If you end up remembering the definition, come back to it.

Explain/ Compare Concepts

• You can score up to 3 points for having this!
• Use helping words such as “whereas”, “while”, or “by contrast” to make a comparison.
• Describe the concept in detail for an explanation.
• Try to compare authoritarian/democratic regimes because they are often the easiest to compare.
• For the explanation use more than one sentence but still be short! Write enough to get the points but don’t waste time.
• For explanations don’t use a country specific example because it takes time and isn’t needed.

---

🤓 FRQ #2 – Quantitative Analysis

📌 Overview

• Students are asked to describe and interpret visual data, make predictions, and relate data to course concepts
• 13% of Exam Score:
• Spend about 20 min
• Scored on a 5 point rubric
  • Identifies detail from a graph (1)
  • Describes pattern (1)
  • Describes concept (1)
  • Draws conclusion (1)
  • One area will have 2 questions and will be given a rubric value of 2 pts

💡 Tips for Earning Each Point

• Write complete sentences.
• Answer each part adequately.
• Use specific data in graph to prove point.
• Make comparisons and connections!!!! The readers want to see that you can draw conclusions and make connections between the course content and the graph / visual data they provide
  • Identify and then explain.

Identify Visual Detail

• Read all the tiny numbers and labels on a graph.
• Look at the date on the graph and relate it back to any possible events during the time.
  • Contextualizing the information will help you understand the graph and will help you be able to describe the data later.
• Automatically identify country(ies), regime, and concept.

Describe Pattern

• Notice trends, spikes, and unusual behavior on a graph.
• Combine these elements to form a pattern.
• Start by referring to the years on a graph and what happened.
• State a conclusion on a pattern and visions for the future.
• Use specific points.
• Don’t talk about what this led to or any concepts, just what the graph shows.
• Your answer should be able to be understood by any non-COGO student because it’s only based on graph.

Describe Concept

• Relate the data to a course concept by describing both.
  • Make sure to draw a connection between the two. Don’t just describe the data and concept individually– connect them and describe how one relates to another.
• Show how they are similar or are correlated with each other.
  • Use specific vocab from the course to be able to accurately describe the concept.
• Hints to find concepts:
  • Country
  • If the graph is talking about a specific group (like NGO or people)
  • The units (money for GDP or other economic concepts)
  • Key words (like if it talks about a legislative body, system, or political party).

Draw a Conclusion

• At the end of your analysis, reveal your findings.
• State your conclusion and the evidence that supports it.
• Close off with strength and confidence.
• What does this mean? So what? How is the concept important?
• This is a good time to use a country specific example that strongly relates to the graph.
• Make a specific conclusion that is taken from your examples and the data. Make sure that the conclusion is related to the information you presented.