Quote Originally Posted by TinCow View Post
What was "legendary" about it?
Every single year, AP US History students were hoping that their DBQ would be on the Vietnam War. It was a relatively easy subject, not to mention fresh in everybody's minds since it was taught near the end of the year. In addition, since it was more recent, it resonated more with our generation as opposed to stuff in, say, the Gilded Age. We were all raised on stories from our parents telling us how things were in the 1960s and 70s. It was the Holy Grail of essay questions, the one thing that would be a certainty in an exam that promised nothing save for heartache. The year I took the test (May 2007) we were sure that we would get the question. It was just a feeling, combined with the fact that the test was due to make a DBQ from a more recent period anyway. So the supreme moment comes, we open up the test books... and find a question about farming in the mid-1800s staring back at us.

One year later, I'm taking the AP European History exam and talking to a friend of mine that just finished up taking the US History one. I asked him what the DBQ was. He told me Vietnam. I asked for confirmation, my comprehension of the situation taking some time to become fully clear. He provided the confirmation that I requested. I paused for a second and then broke down, weeping on the floor in front of everyone, my emotions finally overcoming me for all to see. The test proctor thought I was having a nervous breakdown, asking me what was wrong. I told him. The other people in that exam that had taken last year's exam with me opened their mouths as one. I tearfully provided confirmation, and they all broke down along with me. It was a spectacle to behold, over a dozen men and women on the cusp of adulthood, reduced to childlike states of emotion all because they had missed a test question by one year. The administration was so moved they gave us the next day off to recover and compose ourselves.

And that's why the question was legendary. An entire generation year of children denied their dreams just because we were off by one year.