FRQ Bootcamp

Tips for preparing to write the FRQ:

  • Memorize five terms from each of the ESP(N) categories. Choose general terms that can be applied to many different countries in as many units as possible.
  • As soon as you get your FRQ, read it and underline the verbs and the ESP(N) terminology.
  • Example: Identify and explain an effect of this trend on economic development in the developing world.
  • Five economic terms:
  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Infrastructure
  • Primary Industry
  • Secondary Industry
  • Traditional Economy
  • If there is a visual on the FRQ, study it and describe it
  • Refer back to the visual in your writing
  • Before writing a single word on the FRQ, make notes about what the question is asking you on your paper

Writing the FRQ:

  • Do what the verbs tell you to do
  • Define subsistence agriculture.
  • Subsistence agriculture is the ability to produce enough crops to feed your family, but will generally not be enough for an agricultural surplus.
  • Describe the practice of shifting cultivation.
  • Shifting cultivation is an agricultural practice that takes place in densely wooded areas that receive a high quantity of precipitation, yet have a low population density (e.g., a rainforest). The practice of shifting cultivation involves three steps. First, the land must be cleared by using a slash and burn practice where trees are cut down and the stumps are burned. Second, the land is farmed using the ashes from the stumps as fertilizer. Finally, once the land has lost its fertility, the farmers shift to a new piece of adjoining land and begin the process once more.
  • Explain one reason why shifting cultivation was sustainable in the past.
  • In the past, there were fewer people and there was a great quantity of uninhabited land. Shifting cultivation was sustainable because the physiological density was much lower than it is today. With the world currently at over seven billion, many people have conflicting interests over the land that was once available for shifting cultivation.
  • Explain two reasons why shifting cultivation is expected to diminish in the twenty-first century.
  • One reason why shifting cultivation is expected to diminish in the twenty-first century is that is not sustainable any more. Farmers find that commercial agriculture is far more profitable than subsistence agriculture, and they will find that by producing plantation crops or clearing their land for cattle grazing, they can make a profit and provide more for their families. The second reason has to do with the governments in the countries that have shifting cultivation farmers. The governments can pass policies reducing deforestation or carbon emissions that come with burning the stumps of cleared trees, and governments (like Brazil’s) is opposed to the practice of shifting cultivation.
  • Skip lines between parts of your FRQ so that you can go back and add to your writing
  • Each part of the FRQ should have at least 2-3 complete sentences
  • When you finish writing, go back and add additional facts or examples

Study for FRQs

Go to where you can see every released FRQ that has ever been on the AP exam. The scoring guidelines and sample answers are there.