<p>How did/are you guys prepar(e)/ing and what kinds of things did/are you guys do/ing in your classes? </p>
<p>My class hasn't really done anything because we had a sub for a 1.5-2 months at the beginning of the school year and then we had a new teacher but she was promoted within 2 months. Now, we just have a sub and we do nothing.</p>
<p>we didn't do anything in our class, literally...all we did was talk about stuff that had nothing to do with the test, it was awesome...the exam is really easy</p>
<p>We don't do anything in our class either - we talk about Spam and Ultima Thule. I mean we do some stuff (our teacher has been giving us 20 literary term definitions every 2 weeks and we have quizzes on them and stuff) and we did a lot of literary genre studying as well, plus some good poetry stuff (we did most of that stuff last year in Honors 11 English). But my teacher is really REALLY weird so it kind of dampers things. I get solid Bs and I'm a math/science guy - I'm hoping for a 5 but probably more realistically a 4.</p>
<p>What books have you guys read this year?? We have read:</p>
<p>The Sibyl, The Stranger, Oedipus Rex (not really a "book"), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (summer assignment), One Hundred Years of Solitude, and we have Waiting for Godot (again, not a "book") and Beloved coming up.</p>
<p>Also, how many of you are doing an intensive study on comedy?? We have done that the past two weeks because the AP people put a comic passage on the test a few years back and everyone did awful so we've been doing a ton of that stuff. Good luck with your classes!</p>
<p>Aren't those books usually read for AP Literature, crypto? (Not that it really matters so much.)</p>
<p>We write a lot of in-class essays -- some are AP prompts and some are for books that we've read -- and now that the second semester has started I think we're going to do a lot more objective tests. My teacher's kind of crazy, though, so I'm not sure if there's stuff we should be doing but aren't. I will probably need to go over literary terms and whatnot on my own.</p>
<p>And the books and plays we've read so far are: The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Tea & Sympathy, Ethan Frome, Huck Finn, All My Sons, The Sound and the Fury, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and The Great Gatsby.</p>
<p>we haven't really prepared besides doing a few practice problems and two practice essays. but i guess our regular essays emphasize the diction, tone, etc that the ap exam does.</p>
<p>we've read: the great gatsby, the things they carried, east of eden, the awakening, their eyes were watching god, thoreau, emerson, whitman, dickinson, patrick henry, franklin, paine, winthrop, and bradford. i think we're starting on the invisible man soon.</p>
<p>there isnt a whole lot you can do to prepare other than to read, that being said.. MEMORIZE the essay format that they want for the first essay diction tone style.....
I did and I got a 5, the ap review books for english are bs</p>
<p>Dang, you guys read a LOT more than my class. We've only read The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, but we did a lot of very in-depth questions on each.</p>
<p>We do a lot of practice MC sections in class and the teacher makes us go back and write out explanations for every one we miss. (I feel like this contributed a lot to my high verbal SAT score.) We usually do at least one practice essay in class a week, but after spring break we will be doing one essay a night for homework. She grades them really hard, too :-(</p>
<p>At the beginning of the year we did a lot of grammar work and vocabulary. Right now we're doing a unit on fallacies--ad hominem, faulty cause, either-or, circular reasoning, etc--and learning the finer points on how to write persuasively.</p>
<p>I think the best way to prepare for the AP exam is the same way people prepare for the SAT: take tons of practice tests and work on the things you consistently get wrong.</p>
<p>We have only really read Fahrenheit 451. We read excerpts from the Canterbury Tales and a few other things but we spent the rest of the time writing our senior term papers. We are required to take the AP English test, so that should be interesting.</p>
<p>wow I'm not in ap english lang but my english classes (past and present) have, are or will be reading most of these books. Of course my school doesn't offer this class, only literature.</p>
<p>our class is really easy too. weve read macbeth, ishmael, murder in the cathedral, and 5 books over the summer. i hope i do ok on the test, ill probably buy a review book.</p>
<p>the exam is really easy. basically all you have to know if the common literary devices and know how to identify them in a passage and how it helps the author effectively uses the rhetorical devices to say something to the reader</p>
<p>We've been drilled hardcore in english grammar (Strunk and White's Elements of Style are our bibles...) and literary devices. We've read Lord Chesterfield's Upon Affectation, Return of the Native, Frankenstein, The Stranger, Dubliners, Gulliver's Travels, MANY short essays from Swift, Orwell, and more (The Macmillan Reader), many sonnets from Shakespeare and other contemporaries, The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Sir Gawain, many more. Our essays are graded such that anything above a 90 is a godsend, and extremely rare.</p>
<p>Last year we read The Great Gatsby, Death of a Salesman, Walden, The Scarlet Letter, Grapes of Wrath, and many more.</p>
<p>My teacher doesn't focus directly on the AP test. I think, in all, we've done about 20 AP questions. But from the extent to which he pushes us and the expectations he places on us, I have quite a bit of confidence that our class will receive all 4's and 5's.</p>
<p>you are worrying too much, the ap english exam like most other ap exams is about timing and bsing well, that is it!!! btw, I am a national scholar</p>
<p>seriously, you could probably get a 5 on the test without taking the class...all you need is your basic high school Enligsh education and writing skills</p>
<p>My daughter wants to try to take the exam on her own - class size is severly limited and she didn't get in - any one have some suggestions for the best study guide to prepare when you don't have the advantage of the AP class. She will be taking a very rigorous honors course. However, when she talked to the teacher about preparing on her own, she was told that those who don't take the course do not have a very good track record.</p>
<p>From the reviews I've read online, and the books I own and intend to use for preparation, 5 Steps to a 5 and CliffsAP seem to be the best choice.</p>
<p>Those preparation books can only go so far---they can certianly make you familiar with the multiple choice and the terminology that is on the test, but as for the actual writing, I'd have your daughter buy William Strunk and E.B. White's The Elements of Style and make it her new bible. It is a fantastic little book which is invaluable to any writer, established or aspiring.</p>
<p>i checked the CB site, and only 7% of ap english lang test takers got 5's last year; it's graded on a bell-curve. so even if it is easy, you've got to think it was much easier than everyone else thought it was..</p>
<p>I would definately not worry about this test, in fact i think its easier than the new sat readings</p>
<p>7% is misleading.</p>
<p>you have to realize that the AP English Exam is one of the most popular exams taken so the group of students is not as self-selective. Many of you guys are serious about the test and in your preparation so therefore, your chances for a 5 are much better than 7%, because coming into the test, you are already better prepared than a vast majority of students who are not as self-selective. The same thing is true for AP US History. You have many students who are simply forced to take the exam, and have not prepared seriously, so the curve is misleading.</p>
<p>The opposite is true for AP Calc BC, where 44% of the students get 5's, not because the test is easy, but because the field is self-selective.</p>