AP Languae

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>Did anybody else not do essay #2? My AP English teacher never even spoke of this kind of essay. Then again, when I think about my AP English class last semester, we didn't really cover all of those wacky terms like polysyndeton. We read a lot, discussed a lot, and wrote a lot (general essays). I just did my synthesis essay, skipped #2, and wrote, what I thought, was an amazing #3 essay. </p>

<p>What kind of score am I looking at if I skipped an essay, assuming that I got about 55% on MC and did pretty well on the two essay I did do?</p>

202

<p>yeah my number 3 was super simple. but at that point i was like screw this and i wrote "my hand hurts" and i crossed it out.</p>

<p>number two was my favorite essay (lol at number two.)</p>

<p>the synthesis was a lot better than i thought.</p>

<p>overall i think i got a 3. id probably crap my pants if i got anything higher and cry if i got anything lower.</p>

203

<p>I took down all the stuff on this thread and will post it next year for all the test takers next year.</p>

204

<p>EVERYTHING was easier than what I expected. </p>

<p>but first passage in MC totally threw me off. that passage was IMPOSSIBLE for me.. i read it then quickly went on to the next passage and at the end came back to it.
i skipped like 5 or 6 i think..</p>

<p>essay portion was GOOD.. except for essay #2 because my teacher didn't go over "rhetorical strategy" and such. i just wrote about syntax and diction and figurative language and what not. bleh.. oh well. </p>

<p>oh btw, if I didn't incorporate much "outside info" for essay #3 would it hurt me badly? i didn't know how to put in current events with that... =/</p>

205

<p>The MC (with the exception of the 1st passage) was really easy. The FRQ section was easy too, but it was so straightforward that it was hard to get in a new angle.</p>

206

<p>oh btw, is anyone as happy as i am that there was NO ROMAN NUMERAL QUESTIONS?</p>

<p>you know, the ones with "which of the following... blahblahblah"
I. blahblah
II. blahblah blah
III. blllllaaaahhhhhh</p>

<p>and then you have to pick whichever one/ones are correct?</p>

<p>omg i hate those. SO happy they werent on there!!!</p>

207

<p>Sligh_Anarchist.... skipping an essay....uh oh.</p>

<p>How to find your score:
150 points total possible. 55% essay + 45% MC (82.5 + 67.5)
essays are out of 9</p>

<h1>answered - (#wrong x .25) = MC raw score</h1>

<p>MC raw score x 1.2272 = MC composite score</p>

<p>essay1 + essay2 + essay3 = essay raw score
essay raw score x 3.05567 = essay composite score</p>

<p>MC composite score + essay composite score = total points</p>

<p>5: 150-104
4: 103-92
3: 91-76</p>

<p>*scoring provided by Cliffs. approximate curve ranges.</p>

<p>MC: i read the first passage. freaked out. reread it about 4 times. then sped through all the questions. i thought it was ridiculously straightforward compared to other tests. i would be surprised if i missed more than 5-10. </p>

<p>Essay 1: 4.5 pages. it wasn't too hard. there was a lot to talk about, but i couldn't think of any other "outside information" really....which is scary. did anyone else have a difficult time with outside info? also.....the instructions said something along the lines of "your argument should be central" in italics....does this mean we should have weighed the pros and cons instead of picking one solid side and supporting it aggressively?</p>

<p>Essay 2: 3.5 pages. i though the passage was amazingly straight forward. i just did diction and syntax but provided many many examples of syntax. did anyone else think the message was too easy to figure out? i almost feel like i got it wrong because the message/purpose of the passage was basically in the instructions of this essay. and i just assumed what the tone would be from what i thought the message was.</p>

<p>Essay 3: 3 pages. it was much, much, much more specific then i expected. my teacher had given us extremly specific ones throughout the year but this was sooo random. i, nor my teacher, would have ever guessed it was this topic. i really though it would be something more international or elections related.... thus, i had a difficult time providing too many SPECIFIC current events. i think i only did one in fact.... bad? </p>

<p>overall: i thought the test was much more straightforward than i expected. does this mean the curve wil be harsher? i already recieved an A last semester so i didn't need a particular score but my english teacher was honestly the best i had ever had and i really wanted to get a 5 to imperss her. my essays also didn't have many rhetorical devices of their own since i was just frantically trying to get my point across...is this bad? i'm just worried the curve will be terrible i guess.</p>

208

<p>Thanks for posting Cliff's guidelines for scoring. I actually purchased the Cliff Eng Language book about four weeks ago, but only opened three times and did some MC. After doing it, I said to myself, "There is really no way I can study for this thing - guess I am winging it." According to Cliff's I got 82 points, a 3. I may have been a little generous to my self, though. We will see. I won't be surprised, however, to see a 2 come July. Whatever.</p>

<p>(My SAT CR is 650, my Writing is 650, and my essay was 11/12; that pretty much is indicative of a 3, but we will see of course.)</p>

209

<p>I think CB is moving away from the roman numeral questions. There was ONE on the AP lit test this year and none on the lang.</p>

210

<p>I was so happy after the multiple choice because it was so easy. Then I got to synthesis and wrote away my five. I guess no one else thought it was as awful as I did, but I just couldn't come up with an argument. We're supposed to get rid of pennies because they're inconvenient? That's it? Why wasn't there a document that looked at it from an economic point of view? I have no idea if inflation would be significant, but why all the crap about it reminding us of Lincoln and such? It doesn't matter! THE ISSUE WAS ECONOMIC!</p>

211

<p>"time is money"..</p>

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<p>Yeah, my teacher said there was a rumor going around that there would be no roman numeral qs, and apparently the rumor was correct.</p>

213

<p>
[quote]
Why wasn't there a document that looked at it from an economic point of view? I have no idea if inflation would be significant, but why all the crap about it reminding us of Lincoln and such? It doesn't matter! THE ISSUE WAS ECONOMIC!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>interpretate/skew to make up and support your points!!!!!!</p>

214

<p>I feel kinda weird. I couldn't see the clock for time so I ran out of time for M.C. Like I missed the last 9 questions of the test bc my proctor thought it would be cool to give us zero time prompts except for "Put your pencils down". Made the mistake of looking at the kid next to me's test to gauge where he was at. When I saw he was 10 questions or so behind me I figured, I'm in good shape. Guess he's really screwed.</p>

<p>Essays were okay. I feel like my argument in the 3rd essay was pretty strong. I basically took the idea of schools needing sponsorship in inner-cities to eliminate crime and drug usage. I pulled in the Broken Windows theory from social psychology and made the case that high schools without economic stability can't maintain the school environment adequately thus promoting issues. With the help of company sponsorship this can be alleviated.</p>

215

<p>Wooooaaah I don't think you should be talking about the specific questions- it's not allowed. Just edit and refer to Essay 1, 2, 3 as everyone who's taken it will know what you're talking about.</p>

<p>About the clock issue, why didn't anyone bring a watch? My testing place didn't have a clock so everyone around me afterward was complaining that they didn't finish.</p>

<p>People are ALWAYS told in review books, instructions given by testing centers, and their teachers to bring a watch and they don't. It strikes me as very funny that a bunch of these really smart high school kids can't follow simple directions.</p>

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<p>I really don't care, elizlan</p>

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<p>no one could've guessed the synthesis essay. when I opened the green booklet and saw the prompt, i was like ***?! of all the things in the world, they picked THAT?!</p>

<p>first mc passage was hard and so was the last.</p>

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<p>rade88: your third essay raped my third essay. and i thought i had done decent with the little opportunity for outside information (unless you happened to be an expert in this topic) they gave us. apparently...there was a lot i could have said haha.</p>

219

<p>Oh, and I don't have a watch. I typically use a cellphone for time-telling purposes. And since that was collected prior to the test I couldn't use it. I wasn't going to buy a watch for an exam, that just seems ridiculous. I figured my proctor could at least say 10 minutes left. Luckily, someone spoke up and we were prompted during the essay portion.</p>

<p>It's not simple directions that I chose to disregard.</p>

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<p>On the first essay, I did try to mold the documents to my argument, but it seemed like all the articles said the same thing. The calculation about "time spent getting pennies = money for consumer" just didn't make sense to me. You could apply that to brushing your teeth and say that it's costing America billions a year. Everyone's working the same hours and earning the same salaries regardless (not to mention that no one would pay me fifteen dollars/hour for my time); you aren't going to come across more capital. "Time is money" is only a metaphor. Maybe pennies cost more to make than they're worth and thus should be eliminated, but I wasn't given that information. I guess I'll just hope the grader takes mercy upon my soul and the other two essays can make up for it, though my third wasn't brilliant either. </p>

<p>I have to give my proctor props for telling the time. She always gave us a ten minute warning, though I was done ten minutes early on the M.C. anyway. I did hear stories from AP Chem about being shorted five minutes on multiple choice, though. I guess that's one reason to wear a watch--the catch the proctor when he or she is wrong.</p>