NY Regents Global History & Geography II 2026: Enduring Issues Essay, CRQs, and How to Pass

NY Regents Global History II 2026: The Part III Essay Decides Your Score

Most students who fail the Regents Examination in Global History and Geography II do not fail because they forgot a date. They fail because they treated the Part III Enduring Issues Essay as a normal history essay. It is not. It is a documents-based argument about a single recurring issue across time, and it follows a published NYSED rubric that rewards a very specific structure. Learn that structure and the multiple-choice section becomes the easier half of the test.

This exam covers global history and geography since roughly 1750 and is normally taken at the end of Grade 10. It has three parts: 28 stimulus-based multiple-choice questions, two short-answer Constructed-Response Question (CRQ) sets, and one Enduring Issues Essay built from five documents. You have 3 hours. A scale score of 65 passes on the 0-100 NYSED scale. This article gives you the essay framework, document-analysis tactics, and a review plan that beats generic Regents pages.

free NY Regents Global History II practice questionsPractice questions with detailed explanations

Exam Snapshot: What the Global II Regents Actually Asks

Every Part I and Part II question is tied to a stimulus: a brief reading passage, a map, a chart, a photograph, a treaty excerpt, or a political cartoon. There is no pure-recall vocabulary section. The skill being measured is reading a source and reasoning about causation, comparison, context, and point of view.

Part I: Treat Every Question as a Reading Question

The 28 multiple-choice questions come in small sets attached to a document or image. Because the answer is usually anchored in the stimulus, the most common error is choosing a true-sounding option that the document does not actually support.

A reliable routine:

1. Read the source line and the date first. Knowing a cartoon is from 1914 or a quotation is from a decolonization-era leader frames everything.
2. Identify what the document is doing: arguing, describing, protesting, justifying, or celebrating.
3. Read the question stem for the verb: which cause, which effect, which point of view, which time period.
4. Eliminate options that are historically false, then eliminate options that are true but unsupported by this specific document.
5. Choose the option the document itself justifies.

Content that shows up heavily in Part I includes the Enlightenment and Atlantic revolutions, the Industrial Revolution and its social effects, nineteenth-century imperialism, World War I and World War II, the Cold War, and decolonization and globalization. Knowing these eras well lets you read each stimulus faster.

Part II: The CRQ Sets Are a Skills Test, Not an Essay

The Constructed-Response Questions present paired documents and ask short, targeted questions. You are typically asked to do three things across the sets: identify and explain a historical context for an event or idea, identify and explain a relationship such as cause and effect or similarity and difference between two developments, and analyze the source of a document by explaining its purpose, audience, point of view, or bias.

CRQ answers should be one to a few sentences, not paragraphs. The graders want a precise move:

• For context, name the broader historical circumstance and connect it to the document. Example: "The cartoon reflects the context of European imperialism in Africa following the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which divided the continent among European powers."
• For cause and effect, state the cause, state the effect, and connect them with evidence from the documents.
• For source analysis, explain why the author created the document and how that purpose or point of view shapes its reliability.

Write directly to the document. A common trap is giving outside information when the question asks you to use the source in front of you.

Part III: The Enduring Issues Essay, Step by Step

This is the part that separates passing from failing scores. An enduring issue is a challenge or problem that many societies have faced over a long period and that different people have tried to address with limited or changing success. Examples the exam treats as enduring issues include conflict, the desire for power, inequality, human rights, the impact of trade and exchange, the impact of technology, the role of belief systems, and the tension between tradition and modernization.

The task gives you five documents. You must do four things, and the NYSED rubric rewards each one:

1. Identify and define one enduring issue raised by at least three of the documents. Do not just name it; explain what it is in a sentence.
2. Argue that it is significant to people and societies, using specific evidence.
3. Show that it has endured by tracing it across more than one time period or region using the documents.
4. Use outside information beyond the documents to deepen the argument.

A structure that maps cleanly onto the rubric:

• Introduction: name and define your enduring issue, and state that it is significant and has endured. ("Conflict over religious and political power is an enduring issue, meaning a problem societies have struggled with across centuries.")
• Body 1: the issue in one period or place, using two documents plus outside facts.
• Body 2: the same issue in a different period or place, using two more documents plus outside facts, showing both continuity and change.
• Conclusion: restate why the issue has endured and why it matters.

Choose the enduring issue the documents support best, not the one you personally know most about. If three or four documents clearly point to "impact of technology" but you only have outside knowledge of "human rights," pick the one the documents prove. The rubric requires you to connect documents to the issue.

How the Three Parts Convert to a Score

The final scale score is not a simple percentage. NYSED assigns raw credits to each part, weights them, and converts the combined raw total to a 0-100 scale score using the official conversion chart for that administration. The Enduring Issues Essay is scored on a 0-5 rubric and carries real weight in the conversion, which is why a strong essay can rescue a shaky multiple-choice performance, and a missing or off-task essay can sink an otherwise solid one.

The practical takeaways: never leave the Part III essay blank, and never write an essay that ignores the documents. A blank or off-task essay removes a large block of the points the conversion chart uses to reach 65.

A Four-Week Review Plan

If the exam is a month away, work backward from the essay.

If you have more time, stretch Week 3 into two weeks and add one full released exam under timed conditions each week. If the exam is days away, prioritize the essay framework and a fast Part I source-reading drill over memorizing new content.

Common 2026 Traps

Trap 1: writing a story instead of an argument. The essay is not "tell me about World War I." It is "prove this enduring issue endured, using these documents."

Trap 2: naming an enduring issue but never defining it. The rubric expects a clear definition sentence before you argue.

Trap 3: using fewer than three documents. A historically accurate interpretation of at least three documents is part of the task; relying on one or two caps your score.

Trap 4: forgetting outside information. The strongest essays connect the documents to specific events, leaders, or developments not printed on the page.

Trap 5: answering CRQs with outside info when the question wants the source. Read whether the prompt asks for context, relationship, or source analysis, then stay on that task.

Trap 6: choosing a true but unsupported multiple-choice answer. If the document does not back the option, it is wrong even when it sounds correct.

Trap 7: treating the scale score as a raw percent. A 65 is a scaled passing score set by the conversion chart, not 65% of raw points.

Official Sources to Keep Open

Use the official NYSED Global History and Geography II page for the educator guide, sample questions, and rating guides. Use the Educator Guide to the Regents Examination in Global History and Geography II for the official format and rubrics, and the Information Booklet for Scoring for how Parts I, II, and III convert to a scale score. Always confirm your exact exam date and report time with your school.

free NY Regents Global History II practice questionsPractice questions with detailed explanations