New York Regents Global History and Geography II: complete guide to the Framework exam, the three parts, the Enduring Issues Essay, and the modern era from 1750 to the present

The New York Regents Global History and Geography II examination is the Grade 10 world history test administered by the New York State Education Department (NYSED). It is the Framework-based replacement for the older Global History and Geography Regents, and it covers only the modern era, roughly c. 1750 to the present. This page is the index: it explains how the exam moved from a thematic-essay-and-DBQ format to a fully document-based design, the three parts, the Enduring Issues Essay, the Social Studies Practices, and how to study each unit. The content is organized into six modules that follow the Framework Key Ideas 10.1 to 10.10.

From the old Global exam to the Framework exam

For many years the high school world history Regents in New York covered two years of content (Global I and Global II together) and ended in a single exam with about fifty multiple-choice questions, a thematic essay, and a Document-Based Question (DBQ) essay. New York then adopted the K-12 Social Studies Framework and split the assessment. The current Regents Examination in Global History and Geography II is built on the Framework and tests only the Grade 10 sequence, the modern world from about 1750.

The biggest change is that the exam is now fully document-based and skills-driven. Every part, including the multiple-choice section, is tied to sources. The exam still rewards knowing the history, but it asks you to use that history: to read a source for its point of view, to explain cause and effect, to identify a turning point, to compare situations, and to build an argument about an enduring issue.

Exam format

The Regents Examination in Global History and Geography II is a single session of about three hours with three parts.

• Part I: Stimulus-based multiple choice. 28 questions, each tied to a document, map, chart, graph, political cartoon, photograph, or short text. There are no stand-alone recall items; every question asks you to read or interpret a source. Part I is worth about 54 percent of the exam.
• Part II: Constructed Response Questions (CRQs). Two CRQ sets, each built on two documents with a short series of scaffolded questions. One set is always a Cause-and-Effect set; the other is either a Turning Point set or a Similarity and Difference set. Part II is worth about 17 percent.
• Part III: the Enduring Issues Essay. One extended essay based on a set of five documents spanning different time periods. You identify and define an enduring issue and argue that it is significant and has endured. Part III is worth about 29 percent.

The raw score from all three parts is converted to the reported 0 to 100 scale, and 65 is the passing score. Level 3 (the passing band) begins at 65; Level 5 (mastery) begins at 85.

The CRQ sets, scaffolded step by step

Each CRQ set gives you two short documents and a fixed sequence of questions. The pattern is stable across exams, with only the event, region, and documents swapped out:

• Question 1: historical or geographic context. Using Document 1, explain the historical circumstances that led to the development in the document, or explain its geographic context.
• Question 2: sourcing. Identify one purpose, intended audience, or point of view of Document 1, and how it shapes the source.
• Question 3a: identify. Using a document, identify one cause, one effect, one turning point, or one similarity or difference, depending on the set type.
• Question 3b: explain. Using the documents and your own knowledge, explain the relationship: how the cause led to the effect, how the turning point changed history, or how the two situations are alike or different.

This structure maps directly onto the Social Studies Practices: gathering and using evidence (A), chronological reasoning and causation (B), and comparison and contextualization (C).

The Enduring Issues Essay

Part III is the highest-value single task on the exam.

An enduring issue is a challenge or problem that a society has faced and debated across time, and that many societies have tried to address with varying degrees of success. It is not a single event. Common enduring issues include the struggle for power, conflict, inequality, human rights and their violation, the impact of new ideas and beliefs, interconnectedness and the spread of ideas and goods, innovation and technology, scarcity, and the impact of humans on the environment.

The task gives you five documents drawn from different periods. At least one connects to the earlier Key Ideas (10.1 to 10.6, c. 1750 to 1914) and at least two to the later ones (10.7 to 10.10, the twentieth century to today), and at least one is a visual source. You must:

1. Identify an enduring issue raised in at least three documents, based on an accurate reading of them.
2. Define the issue using evidence from at least three documents.
3. Argue that the issue is significant and has endured, by showing how it has affected people or been affected by people and how it has continued or changed over time.
4. Add relevant outside information from your own knowledge.

The essay is scored 0 to 5 on a holistic rubric. A top (5) response clearly identifies and defines an enduring issue from at least three documents and develops a thoughtful, in-depth argument about its significance and its continuity or change over time, supported by document evidence and accurate outside information.

The six Social Studies Practices

1. A. Gathering, Interpreting, and Using Evidence, including recognizing point of view, bias, and reliability.
2. B. Chronological Reasoning and Causation, including cause and effect, continuity and change, and turning points.
3. C. Comparison and Contextualization, including similarities, differences, and historical context.
4. D. Geographic Reasoning, using maps and the relationship between people, places, and environments.
5. E. Economics and Economic Systems, including scarcity, trade, and how economic systems work and change.
6. F. Civic Participation, including rights, responsibilities, and how people influence public policy.

How to study Global History and Geography II

1. Learn the content, then learn to use it. Master the modern history, but practice applying it: every part of the exam hands you a source and asks you to do something with it.
2. Drill the document skills. Get fast at reading a source line for author, date, and purpose, at spotting point of view, and at turning a document into evidence for a claim.
3. Think in causes, turning points, and comparisons. The CRQs and many multiple-choice items are built on these. For any event, be able to state causes, effects, and why it mattered.
4. Master the enduring issues. Know the common enduring issues and be able to trace each one (power, conflict, inequality, human rights, the impact of ideas, technology) across more than one era. This is what the essay rewards.
5. Practice the Enduring Issues Essay structure. Identify and define the issue in the introduction, then write body paragraphs that prove significance and show change over time, using documents and outside knowledge.

The modules, topic by topic

Each topic has a Framework-level answer page with worked exam questions and cross-links, plus a deep-dive guide and a quiz. Browse the set at /ny-regents/world-history/syllabus.

Module 1: Revolutions and the Enlightenment (10.1 to 10.2)

the world in 1750, the Enlightenment, the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American and Haitian Revolutions, reading stimulus documents.

Module 2: Industrialization and imperialism (10.3 to 10.4)

the Industrial Revolution, the social and economic effects of industrialization, responses and reforms in the industrial age, imperialism in Africa and Asia, responses to imperialism, the Constructed Response Question.

Module 3: Nationalism and World War I (10.5 to 10.6)

nationalism and unification, the causes of World War I, the course and consequences of World War I, the Russian Revolution, cause and effect and turning points.

Module 4: The interwar years and World War II (10.7 to 10.8)

the Great Depression, the rise of totalitarianism, the causes of World War II, World War II and the Holocaust, genocide and human rights.

Module 5: The Cold War and decolonization (10.9)

the origins of the Cold War, Cold War conflicts, decolonization in Asia and the Chinese Revolution, decolonization in Africa and the Middle East, the end of the Cold War.

Module 6: Globalization and contemporary issues (10.10)

globalization and economic interdependence, technology and the modern world, human rights as a global issue, contemporary global challenges, modernization and the non-aligned world, the Enduring Issues Essay.

For the official guidance

NYSED publishes the Global History and Geography II assessment page, the Information Booklet for scoring (with the CRQ patterns and the Enduring Issues Essay rubric), the K-12 Social Studies Framework, sample sets, and released exams with rating guides. Always study from the current NYSED materials, because the CRQ patterns and the Enduring Issues Essay are specific to this exam.