<p>Since I am taking AP English Language and Comp. next school year, I was wondering how hard it is to receive a score of an 8 or a 9 on one of the three essays.</p>
<p>depends on how well you write. I consistently got 5-6s (a few 7s) in class, but ended up getting a 4 on the exam. Plus, our teacher told us afterwords that she purposely graded our essays harder than the ap readers. I think the highest anyone got was an 8 all year, and I know there were more than a few 5s on the AP exam.</p>
<p>So I’d say its pretty hard, especially on the first few ones you write. So don’t get disappointed if you get some 5s early on. Just make sure you look over the essays you get back, see what you did wrong, and correct your mistakes and you will be fine.</p>
<p>You don’t need an 8 or 9 on the essays to do well on the exam. Anything 5 or above, you’ll pass. 7’s you’ll get at least a 4.</p>
<p>(maybe i should be more specific with my problem) Since i scored a 6 for each of the three synthesis essays I did in an AP English skills class, is there any advices for me to improve so that I can receive an 8 or 9? I do really want a 5 on the exam.</p>
<p>@jerrry: Prep books cover that how to write essays, and although I can’t vouch for all them, I glanced at a 5 Steps to a 5 Book at Barnes and Noble the other day and the current edition seems to discuss the synthesis essays. Or if you just want help with essays and not the multiple choice, you should get the 5 Steps book for how to write AP English Essays: </p>
<p><a href=“http://search.barnesandnoble.com/5-Steps-to-a-5/Barbara-Murphy/e/9780071411103/?itm=2”>http://search.barnesandnoble.com/5-Steps-to-a-5/Barbara-Murphy/e/9780071411103/?itm=2</a></p>
<p>I’m certainly going to get that and work on it closer to the exam date this year, because nothing scares me on an AP exam than being graded on something so subjective. If you really do want that 5, make sure that across the board, the readers agree your essays are 8s or 9s.</p>
<p>Though if you reeeally do want that 5, it couldn’t hurt to get the full AP English Language prep book rather than the essay book, because improving your multiple choice skills will save you some trouble on the essays. But don’t worry, you’ll do fine in any case. People seemed to get nervous about AP’s because they seem to be so “high stakes”, but in reality you can miss a lot of questions and still get a 5. Good Luck!</p>
<p>No one really knows how hard it is to get an 8 or 9. We don’t get to see the scores we get on each essay, so it is hard to determine. I always used to get 6s on my essays in class, and I got a 5 on the AP test. Teachers try to grade it like the AP, but they can’t because they don’t really know how they do it. I mean, each essay comes with guidelines on grading, but it all depends on the reader. If you can write well, you will get a high score.</p>
<p>Well, they try to make it fair by having each essay read twice, but I don’t think there would be much difference in between two grades - i mean its very unlikely that one would give it a 5 and the other a 9</p>
<p>My teacher told us that for the average writer, the ceiling on the essays is a 7. To receive an 8 or 9, you must strike a chord with the reader, by impressing them with either the sophistication of your prose or the depth of your analysis.</p>
<p>@Salve!: A lot of people know how hard it is to get a 9, lol. In fact my school’s AP English teacher as well as our dean (an old AP English Veteran) go to the AP conference every year to help grade essays.</p>
<p>@Stimulus: True, I’m not sure what the guidelines are for grading the English essays, but with the WHist there are (according to my history teacher) a lot of scenarios where graders quibble over whether a student met the basic core points. If you miss one of the first 6, so you aren’t able to achieve the 3 expanded core points, so that can be the difference between a 5 and a 9. Maybe that is the same case for English? I dunno for sure.</p>
<p>@noreally: That’s probably true. As many points as you can miss and still get a 5, its not likely that theyll give you max scores on all of your essays as easily as you can with the History APs.</p>
<p>Michaelwiggins, yes, a person can get a general idea on how hard it is to get a 9, but it changes from year to year. If the quality of essays is lower one year, then a 9 will be easier, but if the essays are really good one year it will be harder. It is up to the graders (which the teachers can get a basic idea, but not an absolute). I went through an AP English Language class, so I know very well that it is hard to get a 9. Also, I got a 5 on the test. So apparently I did something right.</p>