<p>Well I have to admit I have no knowledge of the AP exams. IB English (or whatever language A you have) is pure writing. I know AP lit had MC, I assumed it was about the books? I really don't have any idea about AP Lang though. </p>
<p>But I know a lot of people that tried to prepare and are good writers who write clearly, and they didn't fare so well. I do think it's a little unnatural either way. If I had the chance on a lot of the SAT questions, I would reword them completely. Often the answer choice is not the best way to write something. I'm just saying I think that people do get overwhelmed even if in theory they have the ability to do it - I'm not trying to say I don't think they shouldn't be able to ace this, if they do well in an advanced english class, I'm just trying to understand why that isn't happening, because it seemed that for a lot of people I know, it wasn't happening.</p>
<p>Perhaps that's just because as a whole there wasn't the practice with CB type MC tests you might get in an AP class (though I'm sure it varies greatly anyway). I guess I would have to know what percentage of the test takers are in college prep english although I'm not sure that data exists. a 780 or so usually is the 99 percentile in writing, I think. That's generally what about 2 questions wrong and a 10+ essay would be? (I'm guessing here a little, I don't know the exact curves. And of course a 12 essay and 3 wrong might work too). If more than 1% of the test takers are in college prep english then something is off about the idea that being prepared for AP english should correlate to success on the writing SAT. Now that may mean english isn't being taught well, or it may mean that the writing SAT isn't the best way to measure writing. </p>
<p>I would go with a combination of both but obviously I don't really have the data to make my point so it's a little worthless ;)</p>