<p>Hi fellow CCers,</p>
<p>I'm currently a junior who is taking the AP English Lang and Comp exam. I'm aiming for a 5 :D, but I think that my writing skills are not as great for a 5. Usually for MC, I consistently score at the 50 range out of 55. But when my teacher and peers grade my essays anonymously I score in the 5.5-7 range. How can I improve my writing? I think most of that time I just focus on responding to the prompt and coming up with supports. This strategy worked for me on the SAT (I got a 12 on the essay), but I don't think its working as well on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Does the AP weight style of prose (like how nice/mature you write) more than how you well answer/support the prompt? Is that what I should focus on? Reading sample essays and trying to write more eloquently?</p>
<p>Ur good enough for a 5, i did so poorly on both mc and writing portions,but i still got a 5 dont worry</p>
<p>Oh and they always say content is more important than style</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!
Bump for other feedback</p>
<p>I thought the MC was out of 53!</p>
<p>Style is definitely important as well as how you can back up your arguments; try looking up new vocab words and sentence structures to boost your score. being able to name rhetorical devices in the rhetorical analysis frq would help you improve your grade as well.</p>
<p>Consistently I score 8-9 on my essays!</p>
<p>I’ve consistently scored 7-9 (more 8 and 9s than 7s) since I started doing this:use current examples rather than literary and historical ones. At least for me, when I use a topic that is fresh and with which I am familiar, I am better able to support my examples and it just makes more sense and flows better. Also, an example that few other people will use will make your essay stand out and improve your score,just make sure that the reason it’s not being used isn’t because it’s off topic or bad. Another thing is for AP essays more so than SAT essays, your paragraphs should build off of each other and connect because it makes your essay much stronger and gives your essay a more mature writing style.</p>
<p>@Cindy11052
Idk how many mc there actually are, but I think that the numbers vary year to year. Though I also took my practice test from actual exams and also the barron’s ones, so the numbers may be off. I just saw the number 55 from another CCer’s post and used to gauge where I stood percentage wise. But yeah that great advice!! I’ll go over the rhetorical devices.
@mikee2014,
That’s great advice, but I just have one question.Would you say that I should use outside examples for the persuasive/argumentative essay? I’m not quite familiar, but based on what my English teacher said all supports should come only from the text… Is that not true?</p>
<p>Holy crap… how do you do so well on the mc.</p>
<p>I’m sure your teacher is much more qualified to answer that, I’m just speaking from my own experience and what has worked for me through trial and error (as well as what my own teacher has told me).</p>
<p>For an analysis I would say yes, you should focus primarily on the text you are given. However, an exception is sometimes an essay is not 100% argument or 100% analysis. For example, you could be given a text (not just a simple quote or idea) and the directions would be “Analyze X’s argument and then assess its effectiveness given his audience and purpose” (these are usually much harder because you are both analyzing and arguing for/against a certain point that is made in the text). If it is something like that, then I would say using outside evidence could strengthen your essay in going for/against the author’s argument, if that makes sense. Still, for an analysis of any kind, a majority of the time should be spent analyzing the text and making sure the graders know that you know what the author was going for, so what your teacher has told you is right.</p>
<p>For a pure argument, I would say outside examples are pretty much required to score above a 4 or a 5 since you usually aren’t given a text to cite. Another thing for arguments is to make sure to qualify your stance by making it clear that you are not 100% on one side or the other. You will never be given a topic that is one-sided, so pick any of the dozens of possible points the other side could make and state it, but then say that “While X is true, my side is better because A, B, C” (except find a better way to word it than i just did lol). An even stronger tactic is to find a piece of evidence that you believe would be widely used on the other side, but you know that it has a weakness and you know how to refute it.</p>
<p>@HarasNN
My strategy for the multiple choice has always been to mark up the passage with all the line references from the mc questions before I even begin to look the actual passage. because this way when I start reading I know which sections of the text to focus on and analyze more in depthly. When answering questions, honestly the easiest thing is to pick the answer that sounds most like what was quoted in the passage. </p>
<p>This obviously won’t work for all the questions like the tone and mood questions but it will give you a good foundation for many others, and the more you practice the mcs the better you’ll get. So AP questions are definitely harder than Sat questions since they require analysis, but at the core they really aren’t that different because collegeboard is making both tests, so in a sense they can’t have questions that really truly only based in analysis, because they would get sued. So moral of the story look for the answer that restates what is said in the passsge</p>
<p>@Mikee2014
Thanks so much for the awesome and thorough feedback! 
It was sooooo helpful! Really I don’t think I can convey my thanks to you!!!</p>
<p>@yukihime29 Thanks for the tips on the MC. I’m at the 45 range and hopefully underlining shall boost my score!</p>
<p>@yukihime29 No problem I’m glad my advice was helpful :)</p>