<p>I'm noticing that it's almost impossible to get an A for English Honors in my class. We have a lot of essays that are usually 30-50 points with a 100 points once or twice and if you spend the entire day working on it, the best you can get is a B-(not kidding, you'll be lucky to get an A-). That's what really drags your grade down. It was so easy getting an A in middle school because the teacher gave you full credits just for doing the essay and never graded it. But in high school, they grade you on the content. I find that in middle school, you practically don't learn anything about writing besides grammar, thesis sentence, transitions, ect. Now that they actually grade the essays hard and haven't really taught us how to get an A essay (I follow all the structures, rules, and the printouts my teacher give me but still get a B-) I don't understand how they expect us to get As. Has anybody else experienced the same problem and do people have to take afterschool just for an A? Almost everybody in my class has a B except a few A- that are bound to go down after we get our essay back.</p>
<p>No, I haven’t. The first couple of years all that mattered in our essays was a sentence quota (8 sentences per paragraph). Now it all seems like teacher preferences. For example, one teacher was sexist, and she would grade copied essays differently depending on the gender of the student.</p>
<p>Nope. I had an English 2 teacher who was notorious for being hard, but I got an A easily.</p>
<p>The most trouble ive had in english is clashing with the teacher. It’s never the content that gets me, but personality conflicts, grading policies i dont like, arguments etc.</p>
<p>im a straight A std in english
honors at my school isnt hard because u dont only have essays</p>
<p>We have other things besides essays but even with that, most people get only a B+. I guess my class is just hard and I’m a straight A student.</p>
<p>My class is supposedly super hard, and according to my college freshmen brother, I’m a bad writer, but I’ve gotten a 93 and a 91 on my essays and I have a 96 in the class, I’m a freshman in honors english, and our class is supposed to be a little harder than APEL (1st year)</p>
<p>English honors is a joke. Last year, I had the teacher who was supposed to be “deathly” hard. Got a 92 and a 101 respectively.</p>
<p>It depends on the essay topics. My rule of thumb is that if you find yourself summarizing literature rather than analyzing it, your English teacher will likely be displeased. It really depends on how and what you are writing.</p>
<p>I’m prone to doing better in subjects that deal with the humanities, so it isn’t particularly difficult for me. </p>
<p>However, most of my friends’ strengths are in mathematics and I know they struggle. Especially when it comes to analyzing literature and interpreting.</p>
<p>Regular English=Complete joke, because teachers have to make sure everyone passes so they can get diplomas.
Honors English=Can be easy or hard depending on if you get the *************** teacher.</p>
<p>English is a B.S class. Your grade on papers depends on what your teacher’s preferences are.</p>
<p>Well, my teacher - (taught AP for 6 years, given 3 9’s on papers before)
While the other AP English teacher at my school… (gives ~3-5 9’s every single paper)</p>
<p>It could be so much easier, but at least I get an A-.</p>
<p>No, I’ve never found it hard. In the 10 marking periods since I started honors English (Honors American Lit, AP Lit, AP Lang) I’ve gotten all As, and A+s on the midterms/finals. But, you’re still a new English student. What you have to realize is that what you did in middle school is NOT real English, and even high school English isn’t true, hardcore English. You have to achieve more than what your teacher asks for in terms of “rules” and “handouts.” You have to use effective structure (sentence and paragraph structure, and paragraph organization), diction, clarity of ideas, and depth of ideas. Have controversial thesis statements (for instance, one essay was asking me to evaluate the ethics of this character’s decision…instead I wrote about how she never had a choice, so it was pointless to debate the ethics), and have meaningful conclusions (although, technically, your thesis IS your conclusion).</p>
<p>Basically, yes, your essay is graded on the content now, but it’s also how you present your content.</p>
<p>The whole English program at my school is difficult and crazy [but in a good way]. I mean, I do pretty well, but we have to write a fackload.</p>
<p>What Francaisalamatt said, except that you don’t necessarily have to make controversial theses; they just have to be original or meaningful to the interpretation of the work. Theses should also be strong instead of wishy-washy or vague. You don’t want to repeat the question; if the question asks “How does X’s interaction with Y reflect a broader theme A?”, don’t just put “X’s interaction with Y shows the author’s usage of A.”</p>
<p>Well, I do make them to the best of my ability but the main reason why I’m MAD is because throughout my entire years in English in middle school and my first year of high school, teachers never teach you anything except grammar and the basic format of something. They never told me HOW you should improve sentence fluency or make the ideas stronger. Like, I never heard from any of my teachers that you should try to vary sentence length. During my entire time in English class for middle school and high school, we basically just did grammar, and learned about the structures of an essay. Then, we were given a topic and had to write about it. Two days after we turned it in, we get it back with no markings on it whatsoever and an A+. In fact, my eighth and seventh grade English was a joke. We spent most of the time just watching movies or making up poems which the teacher didn’t even check. Now that I’m in high school and now that they expect us to have strong ideas, more sentence fluency, better organization, etc., how would they expect us to get an A when we clearly have not been taught how?</p>
<p>Yeah, I feel like my B this year is inevitable. Even if I try extremely hard…I always seem to fall short. LA seems to be a tough subject to teach too. Ughhh…</p>
<p>I don’t have trouble, though I suppose it’s because I loved to read. I showed my friend a blog I had in like 6th grade, and she was shocked that I actually spoke in correct grammar, probably better than I do now on the internetz. I like humanities more than math/science. </p>
<p>Since the beginning of middle school (except 8th grade), my favorite teacher has been my lit teacher, which may be why it’s one of my best subjects. I’m doing better in AP Lang (95?!?) than in Ceramics this year :p</p>
<p>By controversial, I didn’t mean contrary or something that’ll stir ***** up. I just meant something that can be contested, and that’ll intrigue your audience.</p>