This comes directly from the College Board by way of Wikipedia. (Sounds a little like Newspeak.) Remind me tomorrow: In 2007 a new type of essay prompt, the "synthesis" essay, was introduced to the exam. This question asks students to support an argument using provided documents. It requires that students address three out of six provided sources. At least one of the provided sources must be an example of visual rhetoric, such as a political cartoon or a statistical chart.

The introduction of the synthesis question resulted in a slight change in the test's format to include a 15-minute reading period at the beginning of the free response portion of the test, during which students may read the prompts and examine the documents. They may not use this time to write.

Here's more (12th grade only): The College Board's suggested curriculum for the course places a strong emphasis on the development of proficient reading and writing skills (duh!). In particular, thorough, efficient reading and contextual understanding of difficult historical material, and the ability to spontaneously write an organized and developed essay that demonstrates a strong stylistic and expressive command over the English language.

With that in mind, my 12th grade Brothers, study your Timekeeper assignments!