The thesis statement, which condenses the essay's main argument into one sentence, serves as a guide, or target, for the writer. Writers rely on strong, specific thesis statements to create well-crafted essays. AP exam scorers look for essays that fully respond to the prompt and clearly take a side, so develop an effective thesis statement for your essay before you begin writing.

Instructions
●Read the essay prompt carefully at least once, making sure that you understand every part of the assignment.

●Reword the prompt in the form of a question. Some AP essay prompts are questions, but the ones that are not imply questions. Figure out what the prompt is really asking. If a prompt asks you to "argue for or against single-gender classrooms," for example, reword it to say, "Do single-gender classrooms help or harm education?"

●Answer the question definitively in one complete sentence to make your thesis statement. Instead of writing that single-gender classrooms are good or bad, for example, write, "Single gender classrooms make it easier for students to learn."

●Ask questions to test your thesis statement: Is the thesis statement debatable? Is the thesis provable or does it reach too far? If you write, "Single gender classrooms separate the male from the female students," for example, you do not have a debatable thesis statement; if you write, "Single gender classrooms will cure every educational problem in the U.S.," you do not have a provable thesis statement.

Tips & Warnings
●The College Board publishes sample AP Exam essay questions on its website (see Resources section). Work through several sample prompts to practice writing a strong thesis statement.

●A good thesis statement is specific and unified, or about only one thing. A thesis statement that contains too much information makes it look like you aren't taking a strong stand on the issue.

●A perfect essay that doesn't respond to the prompt will not get a top score.