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GLOBAL HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY II

Past Regents Exams Practice Guide

Recommended Practice Sequence

Overview

In addition to the original Practice Exam #1, Maria should take past Regents exams to develop her familiarity with the actual exam format and question style. Past Regents exams are publicly available at JMAP.org, a free educational resource that has been the canonical source for past New York State Regents exams for decades.

Where to find past exams: JMAP.org maintains the complete archive of past Regents exams in Global History and Geography. The exams are organized by date. Maria can find the relevant exams at: https://www.jmap.org/JMAP_REGENTS_EXAMS.htm under "Global History and Geography II." Each exam includes the question booklet, the answer booklet, and the official rating guide that scoring teachers use.

Note that the format of the Global History and Geography II Regents has evolved. The current format (stimulus-based MC, CRQ sets, Enduring Issues essay) was introduced in 2019. Exams from June 2019 onward use this format and are the most valuable for current preparation.

Recommended Practice Sequence

Maria should plan to take three to four past Regents exams between now and the June exam. The recommended sequence below progresses from older to more recent exams. The June 2024 exam is the most recent and should be saved for last as the closest simulation of what she will face.

Practice Schedule (suggested 4-week build-up)

Important note on the 2020-2021 period

The Regents exams were canceled in June 2020 and June 2021 due to COVID. June 2022 was the first administration of the Global History and Geography II Regents after the pandemic resumption. Maria does not need to look for 2020 or 2021 exams; they do not exist.

How to Take Each Past Exam

Maria should follow the same practice protocol for each past exam:

1. Block out three hours of uninterrupted time, ideally in the morning when the actual Regents is administered.

2. Print the question booklet (or work from a screen with no other tabs open).

3. Use paper for essays and a separate sheet for multiple choice answers.

4. Time herself: 60 minutes for MC, 30 minutes for both CRQ sets, 45 minutes for each essay.

5. No notes, no textbook, no internet during the exam itself.

6. After completing the exam, score using the official rating guide.

7. For each question missed, identify which unit it came from and review that unit's material.

8. Note any recurring patterns: certain unit weaknesses, time pressure issues, essay format struggles.

Topic Frequency in Recent Exams

Reviewing recent Regents exams shows clear patterns in what is most heavily tested. Maria should be especially fluent in these topics:

Most heavily tested topics

• WWI causes (MAIN): Appears on almost every exam in some form
• Treaty of Versailles consequences: Especially the war guilt clause and how it contributed to WWII
• Russian Revolution and Lenin: Particularly the slogan "Peace, Land, and Bread"
• Rise of totalitarianism: Comparison of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini is very common
• Holocaust: Appears on nearly every exam, often as a stimulus-based question or in essay material
• Cold War (containment, Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift): Reliable testable material
• Cuban Missile Crisis: Frequently tested as the canonical Cold War flashpoint
• Gandhi: Salt March and nonviolent resistance are nearly universal exam topics
• Partition of India: 1947, India and Pakistan, mass migration
• Apartheid and Mandela: South Africa's transformation appears reliably
• Iranian Revolution: The Shah's modernization and Khomeini's establishment of the Islamic Republic
• Genocide cases: Armenian, Rwandan, and Bosnian alongside the Holocaust appear frequently

Common Enduring Issues essay topics

Recent Enduring Issues essays have most often centered on:

• Power and abuse of power
• Conflict
• Human rights violations / Desire for human rights
• Impact of technology
• Inequality
• Nationalism

Less commonly tested but possible: cultural diffusion, environmental impact, migration, scarcity, interconnectedness.

Maria should prepare three or four enduring issues she feels most confident discussing, with two or three strong supporting cases from across the course for each. On exam day, she identifies which issue best matches the documents and writes from her prepared material.

Common Question Types and Strategies

Stimulus-based multiple choice

Most Part I questions present a stimulus (passage, image, chart, or map) and ask Maria to interpret it. The questions usually fall into one of three patterns:

1. Identification: "This passage describes which historical event?" Maria identifies the event from contextual cues.
2. Cause or consequence: "Which of the following best explains why X happened?" or "What was a consequence of X?"
3. Comparison: "How does X compare to Y?" Maria identifies the relevant similarity or difference.

Multiple choice strategies

• Read the question before the stimulus. Then she knows what to look for.
• Identify the stimulus's most distinctive feature first (a date, a name, a phrase like "Peace, Land, Bread").
• Eliminate clearly wrong answers before choosing among plausible ones.
• Watch for absolute words (always, never, only) which usually signal wrong answers.
• If two answers seem possible, pick the one that more specifically addresses the question.

Constructed Response Questions (CRQ)

CRQ sets present two documents and three questions. The first two questions typically ask Maria to identify or describe specific information from each document. The third question asks her to synthesize the documents and apply broader knowledge.

CRQ strategies

• For the first two questions, Maria should write 2-3 sentences each. Identify what the document says specifically.
• For the third question, write 4-6 sentences. Reference both documents and add specific knowledge from the course.
• Use complete sentences. Avoid bullet points or fragments.
• Specifically cite each document when using its evidence: "As Document 1 shows..."
• Include specific names, dates, and terms from the course to demonstrate outside knowledge.

Enduring Issues Essay

The Enduring Issues essay is worth 10 points. It is graded on a holistic rubric. Strong essays do the following:

1. Open with a clear thesis that identifies the enduring issue and previews the supporting cases.
2. Explain why the issue is enduring (shows up in multiple time periods, places, or situations).
3. Develop two or three body paragraphs, each focused on one historical case.
4. Reference at least three of the documents specifically.
5. Include outside knowledge: specific people, events, dates, and terms not in the documents.
6. Close by reinforcing the thesis and noting how the issue continues to matter.

Enduring Issues essay strategies

• Quickly read the documents and ask: which enduring issue is most clearly supported by the most documents?
• Choose the issue Maria has prepared cases for; do not choose one she finds harder to argue.
• Plan in 5 minutes: outline thesis, three cases, and which documents support which case.
• Write the essay in about 40 minutes.
• Save 5 minutes to check for missed documents or weak transitions.

Civic Literacy Essay

The Civic Literacy essay is also worth 10 points. It typically asks Maria to identify a civic concept or process and discuss historical examples that illustrate it. The prompt usually allows several possible directions; Maria should choose the cases she knows best.

Civic Literacy essay strategies

• Read the prompt twice. Identify the specific civic concept being asked about.
• Choose three historical examples from different time periods or regions.
• For each example, address what specifically illustrates the civic concept.
• Close by reinforcing what the examples collectively show about the civic concept.

Final-Week Preparation

In the week before the exam, Maria should:

1. Take the June 2024 Regents as her final practice run.
2. Review the Need-to-Know checklists for any units where she still feels uncertain.
3. Re-read the Themes and Takeaways sections of the units she has lost most points on.
4. Review the list of major figures and dates one more time.
5. Get a good night's sleep before the exam.

Day-of-exam strategy

On exam day:

• Eat a substantial breakfast. The exam is three hours and mental stamina matters.
• Bring multiple pens and pencils.
• Read all instructions carefully before beginning each part.
• If a multiple choice question stumps her, mark her best guess, circle the question number, and move on. Come back at the end.
• Watch the clock. Do not spend more than 90 seconds on any single MC question on the first pass.
• Save the last 5 minutes for review of MC answers.
• For essays, plan before writing. A focused 4-paragraph essay scores higher than a rambling 6-paragraph one.

Realistic Expectations

The passing score on the New York State Regents in Global History and Geography II is 65. Mastery is typically considered a score of 85 or higher. Many strong students score in the 90s.

Maria has built unusually thorough preparation through her unit-by-unit study. Students at Stuyvesant typically do well on the Regents because of the school's overall academic environment. Maria's debate background, her work on extemporaneous speech, and her strong reading skills are direct advantages for this exam, particularly on the CRQ and essay sections.

If she has completed the unit study guides, taken three or four practice exams, and reviewed her weak areas, she is in excellent shape. The single most important thing she can do now is take the practice exams under realistic conditions and use what she learns to focus her remaining review time.

Good luck.