Credit to Naomi VanDyne

After many years of having no changes made to the rubric for the AP History classes, College Board has decided to alter the scoring rubric for the DBQ section of these AP tests. The complexity point used to have to be separate from other point earning sections, however, after the change, it can be included within any part of the essay. This helps to clarify how the otherwise unpredictable point can be achieved.

“I think anything that’s going to allow for a student’s work to receive the points that it’s probably due, is always beneficial,” AP World History teacher Kimberly Coil said.

Only two changes have been made to the AP World curriculum in the past 14 years. This is done by the College Board in order to try to keep the grading system stable over the course of many years of classes.

“At least they clarified what exactly you should be doing,” senior Riya Sidabattula, a former AP World student, said. “But also it’s going to be tougher for people to get a higher score just because more people are going to get it. So the curve is going to be a lot lower.”

Not many changes are made to the scoring rubrics of AP classes. The rubrics are designed to attempt to last for a long time, however, that doesn’t mean that they are perfect. Making proper changes to help modernize the rubrics is very important and something that should not be neglected going forward.

“So, the formula works,” Coil said. “We get kids to come along and get the gist of how to write them. I think if too many changes are made, it becomes too confusing on the teaching side of it.”