Part III questions are those which require you to use your learned knowledge and understanding to draw a conclusion of your own about some historical event, interpretation, or development; then to present your conclusion in a clear and convincing manner. A good answer to a Part III question will have its thesis clearly stated, well explained, clearly related to the question, and well supported with appropriate historical and historiographical detail. It will be clearly written and free of significant errors of reasoning, grammar, organization, fact, etc. Overall, a good Part III answer will reveal your knowledge and understanding of the course material.

Part II questions require that you demonstrate specific knowledge and organize, collate, or manipulate it in some fashion in order to make it yield information which it might not yield if left to sit unorganized. Part II questions usually require more explicit detail than Part III questions. Except in the way you organize it, a Part II question will not ask for your conclusion, but will focus instead on your mastery of relevant detail, both in terms of your being able to present it and in terms of your being able to organize it. A good answer to a Part II question will have a definite structure. A question which asks you to compare two things, for example, is not answered optimally simply by listing characteristics of the two things; but by showing those characteristics AND showing how they resemble or differ from each other. A question which asks you to trace some development is best answered by presenting a pattern of development and giving specific examples of the major characteristics and the major turning points. Part II questions may also ask you to describe, attack, or defend some person or idea. Again, the mastery of relevant detail is the important thing here.

Part I (identification) questions should be answered in just a few sentences. They are not intended to elicit short essays. A good identification answer describes who or what the subject was, and why and how it was significant. The length of any particular identification question will be determined by the question itself, as well as by your own conceptualization and writing practices.

Always, remember that the best way to do well on the test is to know the material rather than trying to anticipate just what's going to be on the test. And remember always to try SOMETHING. The only way you get a zero is if you don=t answer a question at all.