A few days ago in class, my class had to write an argumentative essay which is the essay that is based off of your knowledge. My friend made up all of his sources. He made up a fake book, a fake cartoon and a fake poem. He even made fake names for the authors, and the cartoonists. He made it seem realistic. My teacher graded it, and she believed that the sources were legit. He even scored an 8/9 on it. My question is that if someone does this on the real ap exam, do you think that person will get caught, or will the graders not care to check the validity of the sources. If he does get caught, what do you think will happen?
If this person you speak of made up a personal story, then I don’t see how the essay graders could prove that he lied; however, you said that he made up several fake titles. Technically, I guess the reader could catch this person, but due to the sheer volume of essays that the readers have to grade, I think you friend would get by without any trouble, especially if he made it convincing. Plus, I do not think that they have access to electronic devices while they are scoring. This is not to say that what he did was the right thing either.
@HugeOverachiever keep in mind that these graders are reading and analyzing essays in 1 to 1.5min. They are not going to have time to check the validity of one’s sources and I’m sure they could care less as long as said source substantiates the student’s argument well enough. I remember on the AP Lang exam last year, for the argumentative essay on polite speech (I think that’s what it was on) I made up a tv show to back up my thesis. I received a 5, so I do not believe that they research your sources : )
OK thank you so much for the replies. I really appreciate it
I’ve seen people actually encourage this as a test-taking strategy. Seems a bit unfair to me, since making something up is quite a bit easier than performing actual analysis, but what can you do?
I would say it really depends on the reader themselves. I read something similar to this where the reader read an essay for AP Lit that described a student’s favorite book, and it ended up being completely made up. It seems fairly risky to do, so I wouldn’t recommend it come the real test!
I’ve heard from graders that they look for this and often ask their table-mates. If you’re caught making stuff up on an AP, you’ll be hosed on that essay’s score, for sure.