#multiple choice question tips

so the ap euro exam is in less than a week, right? i don’t know about all of you, but i find the multiple choice one of the hardest sections on the test. i’ve gathered a bunch of tips on how to tackle those mcqs here, which i’ll do in a step-by-step list. hope it helps some of you out there. let’s go euro!

first of all, take a few deep breaths and make sure your mind’s in the right space to answer the questions. just taking a few seconds to calm yourself down won’t impact your time that much, and it will help you be super focused and ready.

read the source of the stimulus and note down anything that comes to mind. for example, if the source is otto von bismarck, you might write “german unification”, or if the source date is 1789, you might write “french revolution”. don’t worry if you don’t recognise the source, but if you can get yourself thinking about the right period of history, it will help focus your reading.

read the whole stimulus, underlining important words or phrases as you go along. if it’s a cartoon or artwork, label people / events you recognise.

when you’re finished reading, summarise the document or illustration in three to five words. this will help you focus on the important message of the document and act as a quick reminder if you go back and check your work. when answering the questions, refer to these words rather than the stimulus itself. the questions won’t ask about specific details in the stimulus, they’ll ask about the main ideas, which you will have identified by summarising the stimulus.

move on to the questions. make sure you read the whole question and the whole of each option. you don’t want to miss any important details!

start eliminating the options you know for sure are wrong. most of the time there’s one option that’s out of the date range for the document, so you can eliminate that one. for example, if the treaty of westphalia is a stimulus but one of the multiple choice options talks about nationalism, you can easily cross it out.

follow your gut when answering, and don’t change your answers unless you didn’t read the question properly. remember all those times you got the right answer but changed it at the last minute and you ended up kicking yourself? yeah. stick with your first choice.

move through the questions at your own pace. don’t try to rush or stick to some sort of time schedule. even if you can’t get to every question, it’s much better to answer some questions right than lots of questions wrong because you were rushing.

if you don’t get to all the questions, bubble in random answers. wrong answers don’t count against your grade and you have a one in four chance of getting it right!

just breathe. you got this!