<p>Each of my essays were about a page and a half. That's partly because my essays tend to be on the shorter side anyway, and also I haven't had much practice writing those type of essays (I didn't take the AP Lit class). I took one practice test before the real thing, and got a 5 on one essay and a 6 on the second two, so I'm hoping for at least a 6 on all of these, a 7 would be great (all of my practice ones were really short, less than a page each).</p>
<p>On the third essay, I took it to mean country as in rural, though talking to my friends after the test it was certainly interpreted in many different ways. I wrote on Of Mice and Men, that was the easiest essay of them all for me.</p>
<p>I'm hoping for a 4 on the test, which is what I need to get college credit. At first I didn't think it was possible, but I got a 4 on my practice (multiple choice saved me), so hopefully I'll get that on the real thing.</p>
<p>All of my essays were three pages long. I don't know what to expect, really, as the supposed "official" interp of the Hawk poem was about existentialism. Totally missed that. Oh well. I get absolutely no credit for any score so it's no big loss.</p>
<p>This is true; the existentialist theme of the Hawk poem wasn't realized by pretty much anybody, but if you delve into a basic theme analysis regarding the superficial hawk relation and use lots of examples and terminology, you can still score high. Besides, the existentialist theme of the Hawk poem was so unclear, trying to analyze the poem on that characteristic is burdensome, given the complexity of the text.</p>
<p>with regards to the country question, is there always this much controversy as to the meaning of an open prompt? undoubtedly, there were many people who interpreted the entire MEANING of the prompt differently, but is this normal?!?.... if not, then...how will this affect grading / outcomes?</p>
<p>All of my essays were a page and a half, and I've had lots of practice. I just rarely go over. However, I've seen quite a few examples of 7-9 essays that are as short as mine. Quality over quantity people. They only get 3 minutes to read your essay after all.</p>
<p>Ughh...I think I TOTALLY misinterpretted that Hawk passage. I thought that his whole argument was the appreciation of nature. He mentions how magestic the hawk is even amongst the stunning surroundings. The bat is wise. Then he says something about history going down the drain. Thus, without nature we would not exist like we do today. DAMNIT!</p>
<p>My Evening Hawk interpretation was certainly not existentialism. I hope they get something out of my arguments. </p>
<p>My longest essay was on the evening hawk at 2.25 pages. The other two were 1.75 - 2.0 pages. That may still come out to be shorter than you think because my cursive takes lots of horizontal space. It's always been a problem of mine to write short essays because I carefully choose my words before writing them. The quality of the content tends to be good but I hope they don't find the essays lacking.</p>
<p>Yeah I completely mininterpreted the hawk one as well. I thought he was just talking about his sense of awe at the regal nature of the hawk and how the hawk can dominate the nightime because man is stuch in the safety of his home. And I interpreted all of the references to time as how the hawk has been around long before the age of man. Like the hieroglyphics were a reference to ancient Egypt and the god that had the head of a hawk (Horus I think it was). I took everything literally but I did back it all up with quotes so hopefully it should get at least a 6.</p>
<p>chipset: Word economy is a wonderful thing to have. I'm insanely jealous of you because I for one have a tendency to be extremely long-winded. I doubt the length has much to do with the score with the exception of very poorly written papers. If you covered everything, it should be fine...My AP US Govt teacher told us once that she read an essay that was a mere 8 sentences long for the FR on the AP test and gave it a 9. She was unsure and passed it around the table, but the Table Leader confirmed it. Like pilebay said, quality over quantity. Plus, that's so much easier on your hands as well...</p>
<p>For the hawk essay, I said the mood, which was developed through imagery, was menacing/intimidating/dark in the beginning and then shifted to quiet/death-like/decaying in the second half. For the meaning, I said Warren used unique spacing to emphasize the single-line: "The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error," to highlight the corruption of the "unforgiven" world which is being punished by the "unforgiving" hawk. In short, I said it was a doomsday poem.</p>
<p>So, as you can see, I was completely BSing..but I did use support! I'll be happy with a five on that one.</p>
<p>I don't think I've seen this interpretation, but here's what I got out of the hawk essay, saying the narrator was trying to get the reader to look at the hawk with admiration and feel inferior compared to that creature, something we as humans don't do because we think we are always mentally superior and that's all that counts in our minds.</p>
<p>-The first stanza began with dark imagery and cacophony, signaling despair and some hopelessness, but the last line simply said "The hawk comes." That showed that the hawk is a superior animal, because it overcame what we saw as despairing. It also perservered through the trials of the scenery. The fact that the last line was so simple exemplified the simplicity and easiness at which the hawk traversed the scene
-There was "time" words put in throughout the poem, signaling the everlasting and perservering nature of the hawk. The fact that the author capitalized "Time" indicated it was a separate entity, that the hawk ended up overcoming in the stages of evolution.
-There was one stanza that the narrator was exclaiming from first-person "Look! look! blah blah hawk blah blah..." which upped the tempo of the passage with the use of exclamation points and leaving the second "look" and the first word of the next sentence uncapitalized. This helped to further the climax of the poem, as this is the point at which the hawk reached its peak in the sky. The narrator here is standing below the hawk, just as the entire human race should be looking up at the hawk, giving the reader a sense of admiration for a creature so great to the point where they should feel physically inferior.
-There was a tone shift in the last stanza which I talked about, but I really don't remember what I said now...</p>
<p>Of course that isn't my actual essay lol it was four pages long, but am I on track here or was I completely off? I saw other people freaking out about their interpretation and mine is seeming really similar right now...</p>
<p>so, anyone get a chance to take a look at the exact wording of the open question?...(taken verbatim below...)</p>
<p>"Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot."</p>
<p>after reading this over, i can see a case for both interpretations of country. (rural vs. nation)...</p>
<p>i can see that they intended for the meaning of the prompt to be the countrySIDE / rural rather than country as in nation, but i do believe that it is much too ambiguous and can easily by interpreted (with validity) in favor of country meaning nation.</p>
<p>to me, it seems that the "For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or primitivism and ignorance. " part which many people are saying is the deciding factor for the rural definition can also be taken as meaning a nation. countries can exhibit similar such values through cultural traditions, societal concepts, and even time-specific rationale...(which is what i wrote about)</p>
<p>eh, to sum it all up, i hope they're nice to all of us who wrote about a NATION!! :(</p>
<p>I don't know. All I know is that the official interpretation is about existentialism, a la the "gull on an invisible wire" in the Sound in the Fury. That the hawk defies time and history. </p>
<p>But this is a funny thought: If it's truly existentialist, that is the poem itself represents its theme, then we should be able to interpret it as we will, and it should be ambigious enough (which it was) to encourage multiple interpretations without any real "truth" and make our own meaning out of the poem. So....we should all get 9s. :) lol. That should've been my essay. It is vague and therefore existentialist...</p>
<p>Yea, my teacher told my class as long as you are in the ballpark with tone and mood and that kind of stuff, graders aren't really going to care since you only had 40 minutes to fully interpret a confusing poem. I think the important part is that you used a whole bunch of quotes and analyzed their impact and yada yada. How can the College Board expect everyone to know what existentialism is? I completely forgot that even existed, as I had World History last year, and most people had it two years ago. I just hope I get a 7 or an 8 because I wrote A LOT, used plenty of quotes, and analyzed my butt off in that essay, the basic key components.</p>