<p>I'm really scared about this class in particular. This year i was only in normal english, and next year i'm jumping to the AP class. For those of you who know about this course, how difficult was the class and the exam? Also, how big of a time commitment was necessary?</p>
<p>The class was really easy because the teacher was new.The important things we did in class were the format of the essay's and learned a couple tips on improving arguments. Also we did a few practice test and did a bunch of wrong answer analysis. Honestly I really did not consider this class an AP class but I know mine was different from most others. Even though we barely did anything in the class the teacher still ended up with a decent pass rate, like 65% or so (decent for my school). I ended up with a 4 on this test and I feel that this test is more the type of thing that is "if you know it you know it, if you don't you don't", however I know some will disagree with this, but this is just based on my personal experiences.</p>
<p>Okay, well myh teacher sucked. He gave extremely hard tests and confusing essays, but gave a huge amount of extra credit. Therefore, the class wasn't that bad. The AP exam was much better than I expected. I got a 4 and I'm not at all an english person.</p>
<p>i thought the exam was easier than the SAT CR section.</p>
<p>questions are much more straightforward, and i think only a few on the MC actually asked about literary terms...i left most of the literary term questions blank and still got a 5.</p>
<p>i doubt you'll have much trouble with it...</p>
<p>Ive heard the class varies, but i think the actual test gives you a pretty decent curve. I did horrible in the multiple choice section and i didnt even get to finish and i still got a 4. The essays were pretty easy as well.</p>
<p>Thanks alot everyone. How time consuming was the class though? I know it varies, but what would you guys say on average?</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about the exam itself. I self-studied (but didn't actually open my review book until I was sitting outside the room, 15 minutes before we went in for the test), but I thought it wasn't bad at all (I got a 5). Granted, I'm an english person, so that probably accounts for part of it. </p>
<p>I had a lot of friends who took the actual class, and at our school we have 3 different teachers teaching AP Eng. Language. On average, they all give a lot of work (reading, analyzing, essays, etc.), but I think that as long as the student doesn't fall behind in work, the class isn't bad at all.</p>
<p>But don't worry -- on one of the essays, the exam had us analyze an essay, and I hadn't even heard of some of the components they were asking for. As long as you don't let yourself get too nervous if you are unsure of something on the test, you should be perfectly fine.</p>
<p>Relative to my other AP classes, English was definitely the most time-consuming for me. I never used SparkNotes for books (I actually read them) and I spent a lot of time on the essays we had for homework (I once spent 5 hours writing an essay, and they are definitely not supposed to take that long to write). Then again, English is not my subject and I wanted to do well on the exam, so I put the most effort into that class. I was the only person in my school to get a 5 on the 2008 exam, so my efforts payed off. For my class, there were ways to get an A even if you didn't work very hard on the assignments, so if your class is anything like mine, the amount of time it takes is mostly dependent on whether or not you push yourself and go "above and beyond" with every assignment--which is what you'll want to do if you want a 4 or 5 on the exam. As for the exam itself, I thought it was easy, but I was well-prepared for it. It really depends on what kind of school you go to and what your teacher is like, but that was my particular experience.</p>
<p>Mine rarely gave any homework. On average, less than half an hour of homework per week. Yeah, that bad.</p>
<p>Granted, I had a lousy teacher who didn't prepare us sufficiently for the exam; we wrote maybe 6 essays the whole year. Most of the time in class we spent on "class discussions" that steer cleared of the topic we were suppose to be discussing.</p>
<p>Well, at least I passed.</p>
<p>In AP English Language, we didn't read any books. All we read were essays, that generally weren't longer than 5-10 pages, although one was 14 pages (Letters from a Birmingham Jail by MLK). We took three types of tests/quizzes all year, AP Passage Quizzes (Reading Comprehension on Short Passages), Terms Quizzes on stuff like literary vocabulary and logical fallacies, and quizzes on the essays we usually read for homework. The first and third types of quizzes were generally very hard, and I only averaged B/B- on them. The terms quizzes were very easy. You do a lot writing in that class, and a lot of it during class. I was definitely better at writing essays than quizzes, and I averaged 7/8s out of 9 (A-s) on them. Written homework counted as very smaller portion of our grade, so you need to perform on the essays/quizzes to get an A. Generally, the class isn't a lot of work aside from daily readings of essays/ answering questions on them and writing an essay or two a month. You can't really study for anything in that class, so if you're pressed for time, I guess thats a good thing (my teacher literally asked us why we needed to study for the ap exam). You just need to perform on the quizzes/timed essays by staying focused because you're always pressed for time (quizzes were usually 27 questions based on various passages in 30 minutes while timed essays were an AP Prompt in 40 minutes) and the material is extremely figurative and intricate. If you stink at English, I would advise you not to take this class, because you will find it extremely esoteric.</p>
<p>I took AP Eng. Lang. last year:
It was basically a study hall.
We had almost no homework in that class.
We had to write like 2 essays in the entire year.
We had to read several books, but no one bothered to read them.
All class works were graded on a curve that's at least 20 pts (because no one ever do them).
I spent the whole year writing labs for Chemistry in English.
My teacher was a coach who spent more time in class talking about his life experiences than teaching.
We watched movies such as Disney's Lion King (I am not kidding).
I didn't even know we had to write three essays until the day of the exam. </p>
<p>It turned out that I and everyone I know passed the exam. And I am not good at reading/writing. So my conclusion: English Language is not hard.</p>
<p>^like the kid above me my class was rediculously easy. It was my ******** class where i did a lot of my math and Euro hw in. I almost never did any work in the class and mostly did it the period before. I didnt try at all and i got a 95 in the class and the lowest avg in the class was a 92. Also, i hate english and im not an english person at all</p>
<p>Nah, our Lang class was comprised about writing essays at least two times a week, and then another one for the weekend. Probably why I got a low grade in the class, cause I'm not the best homework-doer.</p>
<p>However, it was wonderful. We learned so much that year about everything from the inner spirituality of Siddartha to corporations and their evil impact on the world (ended up being useful on the test, actually).</p>
<p>After the test, we had two weeks of Rock Band. <3</p>
<p>i think whether or not the class is hard depends on your teacher and curriculum. Our school is notorious for having a ridiculously hard APEL class --- we had to write a 20 something humongeous paper critizing literature and numerous other boring essays. We had an in class essay at least one every two weeks, and sometimes we did nothing BUT in class essays. The grading was also brutal. However, I felt that really prepared me for the AP exam, as we were so familiar with the kinds of prompts given. The m/c wasn't that bad, but then again i like old style English (if you're bad at that kind of stuff, be familiar with Jane Austen, Dickens, or writers around that time period, that really helps with all the terms and stuff). I ended up with a 5. Just remember to organize your thoughts clearly and logically --- always cite things!
then again, you can blow off the class and still get a 5. This kid barely got a C (he was lazy) and ended up with a 5. it happens.</p>
<p>after taking the apeng exam, the SAT critical reading section became a WHOLE lot easier for me.</p>
<p>for my class i never took it that seriously. my teacher always postponed the due dates for almost all of our assignments/tests so we never got much done. he also graded a lot harder than the actual exam so i never paid attention to the grades he gave my essays, but then a lot of people got a 3 on the exam, including me. its okay though because at least we passed :)</p>
<p>The exam was very easy for me. I did not have any sort of class, took one practice MC test, and got a 5. Then again, I got an 800 on SAT writing so judge your own writing abilities against that.</p>
<p>The actual APLang class was easy, if you kept up on the reading. But I noticed that it was difficult for a lot of people to develop writing skills if they already didn't have them. But I thought the test was really easy compared to some of the practice exams and exercises.</p>
<p>It's not a lot of work at all, however, I received a 3, but I think that's probably because analyzing works and writing in a timed environment is not exactly my thing, even thought I came for honors English. But anyway, at least 4 people in my class (we only had like 12) received 5s.</p>
<p>English is my favorite subject. The teacher did not prep us much, if at all, and 75% of the students got 4s. 100% passed with 3 or higher, and some guys got 5s. It all depends on how well you answer critical questions in a timed environment, the difficulty of the essay questions (in the sense that it is easy for you to formulate a thesis), and the skills you have when it comes to writing. I got a 4, and I prepped alongside him as well as with a Barron's book and a 5 Steps to a 5 book, as well as an REA book a friend gave to me.</p>
<p>So there you have it.</p>