I’m taking AP Literature and Composition this year and I have found that I have a hard time writing timed essays. When I am practicing writing essays in my class (which lasts 50 min) I find myself only barely finishing my third paragraph of my essays as I find it hard to think about what I am going to write next as I am actually writing it, I will only be given 40 minutes on the actual AP exam, how do people do it? Any advice?
I do them in class for 40 mins. Basically, we do 7 minutes of planning and 33 minutes of writing. I draft the thesis and then the point for each of my paragraphs in that time. For the AP test, you don’t necessarily need 5 paragraphs. For the poem and prose, there’s a good possibility you can write a pretty good essay in 4 iIf timing is really an issue. I’d save the 5 paragraphs for the essay on the book.