<p>What about for someone who does not have a very good vocabulary/is a slow reader?</p>
<p>@ErenYeager:</p>
<p>You don’t really need that much of a good vocabulary for the test. I got a 5 and I pretty much just made a small list of “hot” words for the test which are commonly used. </p>
<p>I would like to recommend using both Barron’s as well as 5STA5…gives two different perspectives. Combine them and you have a kicka$$ strategy.</p>
<p>I’m ready for this. Two years of sitting in honors english sleeping has prepared me for this moment. I’m exhilarated. </p>
<p>I’m kinda late to the game but I’ll throw in my opinion: </p>
<p>This test is quite easy. If you can read and write essays you’ll do fine. You only need to grasp the rudiments of “language and composition” to succeed. </p>
<p>Read books that interest you, and read them deeply; it’ll bolster your analytic skills and vocabulary without seeming painful (and will also help with speed). No need to bludgeon out books that you hate for the sake of “preparation.” Keep in mind though that the test does focus almost exclusively on “why is the author doing this”/“what is the purpose” type questions- so you should try to engage with the text from the perspective of a fellow writer. </p>
<p>Aside from that, look up a list of literary devices before the test and make sure you’re comfortable with them. Learn the more obscure ones; they often come up in the exam. You might want to do a practice essay or two from the college board website to help you get ready (they have a collection of all the prompts from recent years). If you can get someone to grade it for you and/or give you feedback, even better.</p>
<p>And that’s about it! It is really not a challenging exam. Case in point: I did not prepare for the exam AT ALL- didn’t take an AP lang course, didn’t read any special books for it, didn’t write a single preparatory essay, didn’t even get through the full description of the class on the college board website 
And I managed to get a 5. </p>
<p>If you find stuff like expository writing and tonal analysis truly difficult, you might want to work with your english teacher directly rather than go straight to AP lang prep books (remember, they tend to be more “review” geared and offer a relatively brief overview of each topic). Doesn’t have to be a designated AP lang teacher- any english teacher or tutor will do. </p>
<p>Good luck 
</p>
<p>I’m excited to take this class, our AP teacher has a reputation for being a tough, but good, teacher. To prepare, I guess studying for the CR section of the SAT counts, with vocab memorization and all.</p>
<p>It seems like a lot of students at my school already want to drop this course.</p>
<p>Grapes of Wrath is staring to grow on me.</p>
<p>Is anyone else on this thread assigned “Where Men Win Glory”? It seems like we’re the only ones with this book… </p>
<p>I ended up with a 4 on the exam (though this IS my first year of AP courses ever) and was still decently satisfied.</p>
<p>There’s this weird imbalance with the test where you can bomb a solid half of the multiple choice questions (or maybe even 3/4 of them, at this point) and nail every essay and still come out with a high score. </p>
<p>Coming from someone who tended to do awful on the multiple choice portions for some reason, you’ll want to prioritize essay writing ability above all else. </p>
<p>I’m taking the course this coming year, and my teacher just assigned 3 books that we’re supposed to read over the summer, as they’ll be the focus of the class in the coming year. The books were: “An American Childhood”, “The Wordy Shipmates”, and “The Shallows”. All are fabulous, and really different. We were also told just to read as much as possible over the summer, because the essays tell you to use “specific evidence” that they don’t necessarily provide you with. Like, in the Synthesis Essay, you should structure your essay around your own information, and use the documents supplementarily. The specific evidence should either come from current events or history, and having a knowledge of both would be preferable. I got a subscription to “The New Yorker” for over the summer, which is both improving my reading level and giving me lots of current events. But really, I’m just reading. You never know what kind of information that you might need. For example, my English 10 teacher had us write a synthesis essay from a previous exam, and it was on how museums collect their artifacts. The previous summer, I had actually read a book on that exact topic, so I was way ahead of everybody else. I’m also watching both “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show”, and analyzing them in terms of the points that they’re making and how they’re making them.
My teacher for English 10 is also my teacher for AP Lang, so he gave us tons of information about the class last year.</p>
<p>@rosebud30 Well I finally have an excuse to watch Colbert and Jon Stewart besides the fact that they’re funny :)</p>
<p>I just finished Grapes of Wrath. It ended up being a really good book and I take back what I said about it being boring. But the ending…I’m just a little speechless. I was hoping for a more action worthy and exciting ending but that was just…idek.</p>
<p>I can start on the writing portion of my summer assignment now but I still have one more book to read. Thankfully, it’s a lot shorter. </p>
<p>Am I the only one who wasn’t assigned any summer work? At my school, the only class that assigns summer work is AP bio.</p>
<p>@sweetcupcake12 You aren’t alone! I have never had summer work for AP courses. :P</p>
<p>@sweetcupcake12 and @tremndose ahh you guys are lucky, i still have an entire book to read and annotate in what, 7 days? Let’s say 6 because I don’t feel like doing it today</p>
<p>@Zeppelin7 I can’t imagine assigning and entire book to read over the summer! Is your school semester rotating or something?</p>
<p>@zeppelin7 I feel like I would be more prepared to pass an AP course if I had summer work. lol</p>
<p>@sweetcupcake12 well I have two, already finsihed the first one, planning on starting the second one today. And no, majority of my classes including this class is a yearround course</p>
<p>@tremndose Yeah it definitely helps me remove some rust from not reading in a while </p>
<p>I want to try and promise myself that during this school year, if I decide to procrastinate on anything, it won’t be an English essay. Or maybe any essay at all. I really want to make an effort to improve my writing. </p>