<p>@ r0kAng3l - I think APUSH is just a class that helps with essays overall. We took a mock AP Eng Lang test before the AP exam and the free response was about television being too sensational or fake or something like that and its effect on society. I pulled my entire essay from APUSH (with the exception of one personal example which I fully regretted afterward). My teacher, who is not one to give out nines(she actually told one of the brightest kids in class he most likely could not get a 9 just because getting a 9 needed something extra), gave the essay a 9 because it was very thorough. I also used APUSH knowledge for my SAT essay and got an 11… unfortunately I ran out of room for my last example so it was underdeveloped. I need to go thank my history teacher.</p>
<p>A word of caution for future AP Eng Lang test takers - just because it is widely hailed that MC was remarkably easy this year, don’t expect that next year. I really like the MC portion, so the ease of the test was actually kind of disappointing. But prepare for harder MC questions because, well, what are the chances of getting two straight years of the some of the easiest MC questions ever? And for those who want to self study, familiarize yourself with the format of the essays. Open response is just like the SAT essay (except a bit more difficult). Rhetorical analysis though - that’s a whole 'nother story. And I get the impression AP Lang essays require style, or at least more so than APUSH did. That’s what it takes to get an 8 or 9. I think content matters a lot, but style takes you that extra mile.</p>
<p>MC: I wouldn’t say that the questions were easy so much as that the passages were well chosen. They were more straightforward than I remember from practice tests, and I actually enjoyed reading them (especially the first one - there’s this one quote that grabbed me, “[memorizing writing] will keep you company on the day you have no books to read”).</p>
<p>Essays: First one was so-so for me, though somehow I managed to provide arguments that most of the sources didn’t even touch on, throwing in the majority of my sources in one paragraph. Second was simple. Third was awesome, and I think the best prompt they’ve had in years. I went with a non-conventional path (I disagreed with the argument and cited some of my favorite serious novels), and I’m glad I did because it seemed like everyone (at least on CC) used the same examples on that one.</p>
<p>My weakness in English is pre-20th century prose or fiction (anything not poetry) with long sentences (literature that is vague in meaning and full of era-based colloquialisms), and there was only one passage like that (Benjamin Banneker’s 18th century letter, which was actually very direct).</p>
<p>To those self-studying: I feel as if I could’ve gotten a 3 or 4 without even studying or taking the class (I would’ve run out of time on the essays); however, I’d look up vocabulary terms and read the essay prompts extremely closely. My teacher helped me by giving us especially-timed essays with the most random prompts ever to prepare us for any test curveballs (I believe the year before, one of the essays was about space travel), and taking APUSH concurrently helps with the synthesis essay.</p>
<p>I agree with those who claim that AP English Language is not like SAT English at all (in fact, I’d say almost the opposite), and it definitely should not be studied the same way.</p>
<p>I took the Lang exam and got a 5, which surprised me because I felt that I kinda choked on the argumentative essay. The exam was not that hard, but I have to give props to my great teacher that thoroughly prepared us for the exam. The MC seemed far easier than expected. The topics for the synthesis and argumentative essays were easy. For me, the analysis was the hardest and was by far my weakest essay. Overall, the key is to practice. Use apcentral as a guide. Write many essays. Have an excellent English student and/or teacher critique the writings. Then critique it yourself. Study what you did wrong and what you did right. Examine what worked for you and what worked for others. The analysis essay is usually the Achilles heel for most, but learning how to write incredible synthesis and open argument essays can compensate for failure in the remaining essay. Read a couple of key books that you can usually relate to anything they’ll give you and know your history. Those two things were very applicable for the synthesis and open argument essays.</p>
<p>I was expecting to be completely unprepared for the exam. My teacher was teaching it for the first time and we did almost no direct exam prep, just weird essay assignments. But surprisingly, after taking the test, I felt most confident for a 5 on that one, which I got.</p>
<p>Somehow I managed to get a 4 on the AP exam without any preparation from my teacher. Regardless I’m rejoicing that I won’t have to stay up to write essays at 3 am any longer (: (well … not for long there is AP Lit next year -_-)</p>
<p>I was praying for a 4, thinking I got a 3. Got a 5!</p>
<p>I thought the test was pretty easy myself. The reviews I did were harder. I’m pretty freaking pumped to shove this in the face of my APELAC teacher. He gave me low Bs/high Cs all year long and he gave every student a conference recommending if we should take the test or save our money. He told me I shouldn’t take it if I wanted credit. HA.</p>
<p>My class wasn’t a very good preparation- I had a first year AP teacher and we wrote a total of six practice essays over the course of the entire year. I had gotten a 5 on the one practice exam we took and I felt similarly confident about the real exam. On the practice I had only gotten one MC question wrong and I’m a strong essay writer so I don’t think I got below a 7 on any of the essays.</p>
<p>MC was very easy, my synthesis essay was so-so, the other two essays were good. I’ll be interested to hear what other people in my class get because my teacher wasn’t amazing.</p>
<p>I thought I did better but I got a 3. The MC wasn’t difficult and I thought my essays were fine especially my synthesis. Oh well, Most people at my school score 3 or lower anyways b/c the teacher does not prepare us enough for the exam.</p>