DESPERATELY seeking AP Lang help!

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>So, I was all ready to take the AP Language test tomorrow, when my cousin, who took the test and got a 5, pretty much told me to do the exact opposite on the essays that my teacher has been teaching me all year long. This is what her teacher told her to do, but my teacher has taught differently. So I'm prepared to do things the way my teacher taught me, but its his first year teaching the course (and he isn't exactly the best teacher.) I just don't know who to listen to. Hopefully people who have taken the test, or just anyone who is going to take the test, can help me out. Here are my questions:</p>

<p>Should I start an essay with a quote or a story (or just anything interesting I can think of fast enough) or just dive right into the technical stuff?</p>

<p>On the synthesis essay should I use ALL the sources, or does the number not matter as long as I use the minimum of three? </p>

<p>Also on the synthesis essay, should I go into the bias and point of view of the sources, or just write the facts that support my thesis? </p>

<p>*for people who took the AP Euro exam, should I approach the synthesis essay just like the Euro DBQ?</p>

<p>Should I use creative ideas in my essay so that mine will be remembered, or just stick to a technical template so I get the job done?</p>

<p>Sorry its so late, but I just got freaked out because my cousin told me this literally 20 minutes ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11</p>

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<p>Don’t have to use every single document, just use however many they tell you. Be creative. You need some sort of a hook to pull your reader in.</p>

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<p>Your intro can be anything you want it to be. Just make sure that grabs the reader’s attention and clearly states your position on the prompt. </p>

<p>On the synthesis essay, you don’t have to use more than 3 sources. Effectively using more sources than 3 may make your writing abilities look more advanced, but I don’t think it will make or break anything. The synthesis is different from a history DBQ in that you don’t have to use the majority of the sources and outside information, though nice, is not absolutely crucial.</p>

<p>Use creative ideas if you’re quite confident in your writing abilities (by confident, I mean that you know that you can write competently and you’re looking for additions to push you up to 8 or 9 range). Otherwise, just use what you can to get the job done.</p>

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<p>for the synthesis they want to see you integrate sources. Using source A in paragraph 1, source B in paragraph 2, source C in paragraph 3 is not what they are looking for. They are looking for combining the sources (synthesizing, if you will) in an effective manner. For this reason, while not necessary, I personally recommend 2 sources per paragraph</p>