History Department prepares students for revised Regents exam coming this June

By Leah Lati

Contributing Writer

The New York State Education Department will administer a modified version of the U.S. History Regents exam in June.

“The new Regents is structured in a way that requires more insightful thinking, and the skill set requires the application of knowledge rather than the spit back of knowledge,” said Ms. Kaplowitz. A new version of the exam was created to test specific skills. The old exams were very content-driven rather than skill driven, and this test is a combination of both. The revised version of the Regents exam is meant to test students on their comprehension skills, not only their knowledge of history. “The Regents want to see, can students deal with sources. Students are consumers of sources.

They go online, look at social media or any media in general, and they must be a discerning consumer of sources, which is what the Regents is getting at,” said Mr. Engel.

Fundamentally, the biggest difference between past Regents exams and the new exam is that all the multiple-choice questions are stimulus-based. Past Regents exams had 50 multiple-choice questions that could be on any random topic, with mostly spit-back questions and a few stimulus-based questions. This new exam has 35 multiple-choice questions that are all related to a stimulus, whether it be a political cartoon, document, or excerpt of a speech. Students are required to read that document, comprehend it, and under- stand how it answers the numerous questions that follow it. Mr. Rothbort, chair of the social studies department, said that the reason for this change is for students to think like historians and analyze documents like historians.

Junior Norma Chazanoff explained that sometimes documents can be helpful by giving a hint to what the question is really asking, but exclaimed, “if you don’t understand the document, you’re out of luck!” continued from page 1 should a student express interest in using the recording studio for a specific activity, the school would provide assistance and possibly even let them use Flatbush platforms to air it.

Students involved in the school arts programs have expressed much excitement regarding the new developments. “The environment is warm during open-studio hours. I think it provides a great opportunity for students to explore their musical sides,” said junior Rivkah Lahav. Junior Ezra Rosenfeld is also grateful for the easy access to such equipment, as he can now improve his piano skills. “I hope that the new studio will take the school’s already thriving music program to the next level, and I’m excited to see it become a part of the Flatbush experience,” said senior and Lunch ’N Listen commissioner Ronnie Hidary.

As for the future opportunities that have become available due to the new studio, Rabbi Galpert said that the school can now open other possible musical electives for next year, such as music technology and music theory.