The free-response section of the CompGov exam makes up 50% of your exam score. So, yeah, that means it's a good idea to do well on the FRQ section if you want to score well. Which, like, why wouldn't you? 🤔
Keep reading to learn how to ace the FRQ section!
FRQ Section Structure
You might be wondering what the FRQ section looks like, especially because every AP exam is slightly different. 🤮
The FRQ section of the CompGov exam has 4 questions, and each one of them is a different style of question.
Section II (Free Response) lasts 90 minutes total. Recommended timing: Question 1 Conceptual Analysis—10 minutes; Question 2 Quantitative Analysis—20 minutes; Question 3 Comparative Analysis—20 minutes; Question 4 Argument Essay—40 minutes.
The four FRQs are not all worth the same number of points: Question 1 is worth 4 points, while Questions 2, 3, and 4 are each worth 5 points. Approximate exam weights are Q1 11%, Q2 12.5%, Q3 12.5%, and Q4 14%.
Each FRQ targets a different skill: Q1 Concept Application, Q2 Data Analysis, Q3 Country Comparison, and Q4 Argumentation.
Here are the types of questions:
- 1 conceptual analysis question: In this question, you'll define or describe a political concept and explain and/or compare political systems, institutions, processes, policies, or behaviors.
- 1 quantitative analysis question: In this question, you'll analyze a table, graph, map, or infographic by describing the data, identifying a pattern, trend, similarity, or difference, applying a relevant course concept, drawing a conclusion, and explaining how the data illustrates political phenomena.
- 1 comparative analysis question: You'll compare political concepts, institutions, processes, policies, or behaviors across two course countries and explain implications of similarities or differences.
- 1 argument essay: you will write a political science argument supported with specific evidence from the course. You'll need to develop a defensible claim using evidence from one or more course countries and explain reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim. The best way to prepare is to study released AP Comparative Government argument essay prompts, scoring guidelines, and sample responses on AP Central.
Each question may have a few different parts. Use the most recent released AP Comparative Government FRQs first, because older exams may use different formats or task types than the current exam. Older prompts can still be useful for content review, but they are less reliable for practicing current FRQ structure and timing.
Look at High-Scoring Examples
A good way to score well on the FRQ section is to know what the exam graders want from you.
What makes a good FRQ response? What will get you/lose you a point? 🤔 You can figure all of that out by looking at past student responses. Doing this will help you learn how pretty much game the system.
CollegeBoard actually releases the scoring guidelines for past FRQs, student samples, and how they scored, and the average scores for each FRQ. You can find all of that here.
Practice!
If you've played a sport 🏄🏽♀️ or ever had any kind of hobby, you know that you may not have all the skills to do well at first, but you get better at it with practice. FRQs work pretty much the same way: you need to practice writing them to get good at writing them.
The good thing is that you can access past exam FRQs until 1999. That said, you should start practicing with the most recent prompts because they'll be the most similar to what will show up on your test. Older prompts can still help you review content, but they may not match the current FRQ structure and timing as closely.
Writing Games
I'll admit that practicing FRQs isn't my first choice of a fun activity to do. So, here are a couple of writing games you can do to make practicing slightly less boring.
Popsicle Stick Essays
Get a bunch of popsicle sticks or slips of paper and put a bunch of different political concepts/institutions, important vocab words, and the required countries. Make sure that you separate these things by color (ex. make the countries blue, the vocab words purple...) so you can tell them apart.
Draw a country, an important vocab term, and a concept out of the jar. Then, write about them. Explain how that term exists in the country you drew and what it means.
🚨 This exercise will help you know what gaps you have in your CompGov knowledge and allow you to practice writing about the concepts you're learning.
Snowball FRQs
Have a few friends or classmates make up their CompGov FRQ prompts. This will work better if they're also taking the class or have taken it in the past (because they'll hopefully know what they're talking about 😂).
Try this one when there isn't a pandemic happening.
Then, ball up your piece of paper and throw your snowball across the room (or at a friend 😉). Everyone should pick up a snowball for themselves and reply to the prompt they picked up.
If you want, you can have another mini snowball fight and have different people grade the responses. Make sure everyone writes their name on their response, so they can feedback on what they wrote.
Past Prompts
If you decide that you don't want to practice only the most recent FRQs and you run out of prompts to practice with, you can change up how they're structured.
Just choose a prompt, and draw a different country out of a hat 🎩. Then, respond to the prompt as if it's about the country you drew.
Just remember: use the most recent released AP Comparative Government FRQs first, because older exams may use different formats or task types than the current exam. Older prompts can still be useful for content review, but they are less reliable for practicing current FRQ structure and timing.
Closing Thoughts
Half of your CompGov score consists of the FRQs you write, so knowing how to do well in this section will help you ace the exam. Connecting the course content to the short answers you have to write may be a bit difficult at first, but you'll get the hang of it with some practice.