AP U.S. Essay Section

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>Well, see the thing is that I'm extremely worried about the essay section of the exam. I figure the DBQ won't be too bad because the given information kind of helps you along...but the other 2 essays seem extremely broad and hard to prepare for. </p>

<p>(Also take into account that my teacher has hardly prepared us for the essay portion of the exam. We have only written two essays the entire year, the first being a practice-type essay at the beginning of the year that wan't even modeled after the AP Exam, and the second being a DBQ on Imperialism that we just wrote about a month ago. And we even kind of cheated the DBQ because she gave us the topic like a week in advance and let us use our notes when writing the essay in class. Also, I have no idea how I even did on the essays because she doesn't seem to grade them.)</p>

<p>I've downloaded several free-response sections from previous years and have tried writing the essays, but I have no idea what to write about on the 2 essays after the DBQ. Like I said they seem extremely open ended. Any tips on preparing for the essays?</p>

<p>Also, what percentage of the multiple choice do you have to get right to pass the exam? And what score do you have to get on the essays?</p>

2

<p>It's kind of hard to prepare for the essays - my suggestion is to just practice, practice, practice. It may seem kind of boring, but it really works. Also, just make sure you have a wide breadth of knowledge on pretty basic topics (it doesn't have to be deep info) because they really don't ask for nit-picky details on the essays. Also, it really helps to brush up on your writing skills, after all, the better you can write, thh smarter you sound. One more thing, make sure to do well on the M.C. because graders often compare your essay scores to your MC scores to see if they match up, and if they don't (meaning your essay is a lot lower than your MC), they often regrade it. Nice, huh?</p>

3

<p>Thanks, but to pass the exam, what should I score on the multiple choice and essay sections? I have heard that you can get a 3 as long as you get about 48 of the 80 (60%) multiple choice questions correct and do fairly decent on the essay portion. But what is considered to be a "fairly decent" score on the essays?</p>