<p>Cliche is fine, though. I see dozens of kids a year get 5s writing about Gatsby. But Poisonwood is terrific!</p>
<p>I’m noticing that the essays and writing styles for AP Lit are substantially different than AP Lang’s methods. That’s to be expected, but this could definitely take some getting used to. </p>
<p>@PhazonFire
The style for AP lit and lang can be very similar in a general sense.
The way I find works best for me is according to this template.</p>
<p>Intro: don’t worry about a great hook or spicy way to introduce the topic. Give a direct and unapologetic answer to the question posed and discuss the answer thoroughly for three or four sentences without giving any evidence. It may take a learning curve to be able to explain your position/interpretation without using evidence. Basically just make your introduction your answer to the posed question.</p>
<p>Body: This is all about proving you’re right. First you take some evidence from the reading or novel and basically just parrot back what is being said/revealed. Then, you analyze it by saying something about it that can’t be taken from the literal words of the sentence, basically just take it a step farther. Here’s where you can really just screw around and just manipulate things to prove your thesis. You can say that a woman spending all day in the garden is telling of her desperation for affection from a man or her independence from society. You can take almost anything in any direction you want. Do this three times per paragraph and then directly say “This evidence demonstrates why my thesis is correct” at the end of every paragraph. Obviously clean it up a bit but by doing this you never have to be scared about whether or not you’re tying things back to the thesis. It’s kind of like what I said earlier about answering the question. You don’t want to write fancily and vague and end up not doing these basic things. Do them in a sophisticated manner but make it direct to the point that even a fifth grader couldn’t miss them.</p>
<p>Conclusion: This one doesn’t matter as much. You’ve already answered the question and provided evidence so you could get an easy six without a conclusion. But we’re aiming for nines on here. You can do whatever you want in this paragraph from saying “From the evidence it seems logical that (insert thesis)” to just recapping your evidence. However, in the last two sentences you have to go for the “big one”. You basically have to assert a huge claim or state a major consequence of your thesis. These two sentences take people from 7 to 9 but this is probably the single hardest part about the essay.</p>
<p>P.S. Length is also very important. It’s not about how many pages you take up but more about the amount of words and sentences. Here’s another template:
Intro - 4 sentences
1st - 6-8 sentences
2nd - 6-8 sentences
3rd - 6-8 sentences
conc - 4 sentences
This is about 30 sentences and should easily take up about 2.5 to 3 pages. The more ideas you can get down the more likely you are to get a higher score.</p>
<p>P.S.S. there are some universal symbols that will make analysis very easy, a few are:
person in rain - baptism/redemption
darkness - fear/unknown
earth/dirt - spirituality/comfort</p>
<p>P.S.S.S. If you ever see a character acting differently in a certain situation than you would, you better ride that to the bank because that is where you can get a lot of interpretation. For example, if a man doesn’t cry during a sad scene you can say it’s because he had to stay strong for others.</p>
<p>Do you guys recommend sparknotes as an alternative to reading the book?</p>
<p>
Do you want to game the system, or do you want to learn?</p>
<p>Does that mean that it won’t hurt me if I use sparknotes?</p>
<p>I recommend that you don’t use sparknotes as an alternative for reading the book. It never hurts to read over spark notes in addition to reading the book, but I wouldn’t use sparknotes to completely avoid the book.</p>
<p>It probably will hurt you in the long run if you use Sparknotes without the book. When I was in Honors English sophomore year I was able to just use Sparknotes and pass the multiple choice tests without reading the book, but it didn’t help me much when it came to writing essays. The next year in AP Lang and Comp I realized that it was more beneficial to use it to help me understand what I had read/was about to read/was reading, not as a substitute for reading the book. When I read Crime and Punishment for my summer assignment this year, I read through each chapter’s Sparknotes first and then read the chapter in the book and it help a lot when the school year began.</p>
<p>I only used Sparknotes when I needed clarification for something. It definitely helped me before in English last year, but I still had to read the actual story/book if I wanted to do well on the reading quizzes. </p>
<p>Use Sparknotes (or similar) <em>in addition to</em> reading the book. Reading is good; it will make you less stupid.</p>
<p>So I won’t be in this class until the end of January, which has me already worrying about the AP Exam. I made a 4 on the Lang exam, but I really want to get a 5 on this one. Does anyone have any prep book suggestions, specifically considering that my class hasn’t even started yet?</p>
Hey everyone! I’ll hopefully be taking the AP exam this May. However, I need to get a 5 or else the credit won’t count for the university I plan to attend. Currently, my essays are fine (I’m confident I can score at least a 6 or 7 on each essay). My downfall is the multiple choice currently. Under classroom conditions, I’m pretty good at English because I can take my time to analyze everything. Under testing settings, however, reading/English is my weakest subject by far (I got a 27 on reading on my ACT, compared to higher 30’s for my other scores).
Any tips with the multiple choice? Also, any good ways to find practice? Would PR be a good review book to get in order to improve my multiple choice abilities? Thanks so much!
Hey @rkepp12, the only way to really get great at multiple choice is to practice at it so that you can familiarize yourself with the test patterns of the ETS/CollegeBoard.
Here are some resources to get you started:
- A teacher's comprehensive guide to tackling the test: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/advancedacademics/resources/ap_review_downloads/literature&comp-shipe.pdf
- A directory of AP Lit practice questions: http://www.appracticeexams.com/ap-english-literature
- Guide to approaching AP English Lit Multiple Choice: http://www.learnerator.com/blog/tackling-ap-english-literature-multiple-choice-questions-guide/
Good luck!
To add to @rkepp12
Multiple choice is also very much my pitfall as well. Essays for me are 7s to 9s in class. So in class, we do about 15 question quizzes that are taken from past AP exams. And what I’ve noticed is odd. Take a passage that cites line numbers or asks about specific parts…13 or 14 out of 15. Take a passage that asks about general things like organization and point of view(smug, disapproving, that kind of thing) 8 or 9 out of 15. Also, to me, modern passages have a greater tendency in my mind to have questions with multiple answers while the oldies, I can trace a definitive reason for why I missed a question. Any thoughts?
So to prepare…
I plan on making a map of
A Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet, Moby Dick, Madame Bovary, Jane Eyre, All the Pretty Horses, and if I have time, All Their Eyes Were Watching God
We never learned any specific “AP Lit” vocab…is that a problem? I know words like halcyon and onus but maybe not meter types (apart from iambic) or metonymy. I don’t want to just memorize random words but if I have to, I will (just tell me which ones you guys did!)
And the elusive multiple choice. What is one to do to prepare?
@rkepp12 sorry if I hijacked your question…that was not my intention. I just “vehemently” agree with what you had to say.
Also, my teacher discourages PR book for AP lit.
Lol how do you do well on the Lit MC???
Yeah, does anyone have any mc tips?
Is the Barron’s MC easier or harder than the actual exam?? I’ve done well on other practice MC - the ones I’ve done in class and the ones in the Princeton Review book, I’ve done well on - but I took two Barron’s practice tests today and did not do as well as hoped 
Is Princeton Review or Barron’s more accurate?
I have two practice essays to write tomorrow, and I’m reviewing works for the third FRQ (Invisible Man, A Thousand Splendid Suns, A Raisin in the Sun, Things Fall Apart, and Frankenstein are the ones I’m reviewing) but ahhh the MC is what I’m most concerned about at this point.
There’s already a thread for AP Lit. Why did you make a new one???
@evan241 I’m still not sure what books I should prepare for the third. I feel like I should prep Invisible Man, but is everyone doing that?
It does not matter if everyone uses the same source for Q3; if you write a good essay and answer the question, you’ll get the points.