<p>I'm taking that next year and am wondering what book I should buy for this summer and what I should do to start preparing for the exam?</p>
<p>Are you taking the course?</p>
<p>christalena, citybirds said that he/she's taking it next year. </p>
<p>At our school, AP English Language is one of the toughest courses available. This is because the teachers continuously bombard you with in-class essays and multiple choice questions, as well as articles to read/annotate for homework. At one point in time, I thought most of the homework was busy work to improve our grades, not really learning anything. But I realized that we can cite evidence from the articles we get from homework, so that's good.</p>
<p>It's a good class. My teacher recommended "5 steps to a 5," and I heard Princeton Review's good.</p>
<p>It depends on your teacher, ours was lax and increased with difficulty at the very end. Then second semester he went nuts and had one or more essay every week, luckily I was only first semester.</p>
<p>The test itself you can review yourself because it really isn't anything new aside from a few new terms to familiarize with and prompts to respond to.</p>
<p>Similar to tubaman93's school, AP Lang is one of the hardest classes available at our school. It's labeled alot harder and challenging than AP Literature. My teacher was certainly very challenging. Although you try hard at times, it was easy to see really bad grades here and there when you could have gotten 100 on the other assignment. So it was very unpredictable.. </p>
<p>Although it may have been one of my hardest classes, I definately do not regret taking the course. I learned alot and I highly recommend it. Just know that you have to be willing to work hard. Good Luck!</p>
<p>At our school AP Eng Lang is also 11th British Literature, which makes it no less challenging, but we focus on English literature from Beowulf to Modern times, and also focus on nonfiction and rhetorical analysis. It starts out mostly with Brit lit. with little AP talk, and then slowly transforms from British stuff to AP. After Pride and Prejudice in February, we devoted our time to reading essays and spotting rhetorical strategies, in class writing, and mc. </p>
<p>What can you do over the summer? I hear Cliffs in good, but I decided not to waste the money on a review book since all the prep I needed was in class. Read your summer reading books in you have them. Try reading some nonfiction- essays, plays, etc. We read "A Room of One's Own" over the summer- also try Peguin's "25 Great Essays" for a general overview (that's what we used to look for rhetorical strategies). You could also find out what rhetorical analysis is, since I didn't know coming into the course. Relax! The exam is not that hard, and if you have a good class, you should need little to no outside prep specifically for the exam.</p>
<p>i loved the class. like ap lit better though. just go with the flow the first semester of the class, then buy a review book and start studying.</p>
<p>thanks guys for the info.. really helps</p>
<p>I think I'm either gonna get 5 steps to a 5 or Barrons' and maybe Princeton or Cliffnotes... yeah I narrowed it down lol</p>
<p>"christalena, citybirds said that he/she's taking it next year."</p>
<p>ph derr, my bad. </p>
<p>I wouldnt waste money on a review book at all. I didn't even know they had review books for the english exams, and I got a 5 on it. </p>
<p>And rather than buying a review book, go buy novels! The summer before my Lang class (two summers ago), we had required reading, which was Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men, and My Antonia (or Catcher in the Rye).
Or read Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, or something like that. </p>
<p>You'll probably read one of these novels during class, so why not get a headstart?</p>
<p>It's fun! You get to write lots of essays, and your writing quality improves significantly. </p>
<p>Great class discussions, too. In truth, I probably learned more about feminism/government/economics/nature than I did about the English language. Our textbook was A World of Ideas...awesome resource.</p>
<p>Definitely LOVED this class (amazing teacher) - predicting a 5. I didn't do any prep outside of class, but that would depend on the teacher. I agree with christalena, read novels! They will help if you take AP Lit the year after, and are enjoyable. For summer reading we read Cannery Row and A Separate Peace, in class novels were Moby Dick, As I Lay Dying, and one other (can't remember). Personal suggestions: This Side of Paradise (Fitzgerald), Walden (Thoreau), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald); read The Sound and The Fury (Faulkner) if you want a challenge and experience in stream-of-consciousnes POV - personally, I'm not a Faulkner fan, but it will strengthen you as a reader and help you on the Lang test because of the difficulty of analysis.</p>
<p>Aside from that, try to analyze whatever you read for rhetorical strategies, structure, mode, and devices. As it becomes second-nature, it will become easier to do it quickly on tests, and will make the exam a breeze.</p>
<p>The CLASS can be anywhere from easy to impossible; ask students at your own school who have taken it, preferably with the same teacher you have.</p>
<p>The EXAM is rather difficult as AP exams go.</p>