<p>Right now I have the Princeton Review prep book, the Cliffs Prep book, and a bunch of MC prep. My plan is to go through the Princeton Review content-learning section which basically reviews all the literary terms and vocab we have to know for the test and then go do practice tests in Clfifs and do a bunch of multiple choice. Then use essay-writing books my teacher gave me and learn how to write good essays and go over old sample prompts to practice my essay skills. I have literally DONE NOTHING THIS YEAR! My class is sort of a joke and I'm only a sophmore so I've never taken any AP's or even the SATs so I'm screweeed! Please help anyone who has taken the test before and gotten 5s or 4s what did u use to study and what is you're recommended method to pass this test?! And anyone who used the Princeton Review to study- did the content-learning section help in the end??</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you, I’m a sophomore taking it and it will be my first AP. I’m taking Euro as well, but I’m much more nervous for this because I don’t even know what to review in order to do well.</p>
<p>honestly. it’s english. at this point, you either know it your you don’t.
good luck.</p>
<p>Both my kids took 9 ap’s and never studied a bit. My son is taking 5 ap’s in the next two weeks. You either know it or You don’t. They both got 4 or better except spanish.</p>
<p>practice writing all three essay styles, and have make sure your vocab is good, especially with identifying rhetoric for the first essay and make sure to have good examples for the argument and synthesis essay. MC just keep practicing. The time limit is tough, as are the except questions and the roman numeral questions (for me at least).</p>
<p>Try looking up released FRQ responses and look at what the people who got high scores did.</p>
<p>Honestly? I got a 5 last year, and I didn’t study at all. The only practice I got was in class, which just included a couple multiple choice questions every month and writing each type of essay once. And I happened to do terrible at both types of practice, but that might just be because my teacher was extremely tough. The multiple choice on the exam is very simple. In fact, it’s pretty much exactly like the CR section on the SAT. Just read (or skim, depending on how you like to tackle these sorts of tests) the passages and answer the questions. The questions are pretty straightforward and are mostly about content. I know you’re advised to study a bunch of rhetorical terms, but the only ones they use on the exam are the simple ones that you should already know. Concerning the essays, I really don’t think you can study for them. At this point, you can either write or you can’t. I feel as if writing is intuitive, with skills that you pick up from reading broadly and analyzing rhetorical techniques. You should’ve learned how to write well throughout the course of the class, and if you didn’t, you really can’t pick it up in a week. If you really have done absolutely nothing this year, what I would advise you to do is learn the simple/most commonly used terms and maybe skim the others, and take at least one practice test to get the feel of the exam. Like I said, analyzing text and writing is mostly intuitive, and it’s not like you can study formulas or processes. If you’re a good writer, you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>I would make sure you are familiar with the literary terms and techniques (ex. rhetoric, litotes, hyperboles, etc); they will definitely appear on both the MC and Free Response.</p>
<p>I am not in an AP English course at my school so I have been studying from the Princeton Review book. There is a chapter on rhetorical fallacies (ex- dogmatism, red herring, and slippery slope). Do we need to be able to identify these for the test? Also- people posted about identifying rhetoric- what do you mean by that?</p>
<p>I’m doing it myself but late - AP let me sign up yesterday</p>
<p>Do we need to read any specific novels/stories to use in the essays? We’ve only read short stories or excerpts in my class this year and any outside reading I’ve done is pretty limited.</p>
<p>We had a small chapter on rhetorical fallacies early in the year in our class, but they aren’t tested on the AP test. They are mostly important so you don’t end up begging the question or using a strawman on the argument essay.</p>
<p>45% of the score is basically the same critical reading you see everywhere, i.e SAT/ACT.
The essays are tricky though - look at past examples is the best advice.</p>
<p>Any advice on what kind of outside sources to use in the argumentative essay?</p>
<p>Know your terms and devices such as parallelism, chiasums, syntax etc and be able to recognize them. Pretty much all you can do. Either you know it or you don’t.</p>
<p>@premed: Definitely literary references, things you’ve read either in class or independently. Those are probably the most valuable, though personal experience may be something to use as well? I’m not sure, maybe others have some good advice.</p>
<p>no, but for the argument essay we need to be able to think of examples that would support your thesis. Should I use books for this? or current events? history? personal anecdotes from my life?</p>
<p>I don’t see why any of that wouldn’t make for good support.</p>
<p>For the argument essay you can use current events, historical examples, hypotheticals, examples from literature, anecdotes, etc…anything that will support your thesis.</p>
<p>ok, I might review some classics that i’ve read that could be helpful. Most likely the Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.</p>