<p>I am not strong at english at all. It is my worse subject. I am thinking of just taking honors throughout the year and then self studying (Princeton review) for a week before the test? Would this be good? I want nation ap scholar.</p>
<p>English has by far the most subjective grading. Ask others to gauge the difficulty of the respective course. At my school AP English was considered one of the toughest courses, but in surrounding schools, it was considered a joke course. So don’t assume AP English is going to be difficult. I know in some cases the Honors course is more difficult than the AP (because of the massive difference from teacher to teacher).</p>
<p>Because the AP tests critical thinking skills (like Critical reading section on the SAT) it’s tough to teach/learn. I know people in my school who took the AP test without taking the course and got 5s…it’s a testament to the fact that you don’t really learn anything. The path you choose should depend on the difficulty of the teachers who teach the course. In all likelihood, taking Honors instead of AP is not going to make an ounce of difference, because colleges also realize the subjectiveness of the course.</p>
<p>Im kind of confused? Why would i care what the ap teacher is like if im just going to take the ap test. Also, there are only 6 ap english 11 students in my school, and i go to a pretty good school. Should i take the ap test? Isnt it same for all schools? (I havnt taken an ap test yet)</p>
<p>Oh, I thought part of your debate was whether or not to take AP English (which I’m suggesting you certainly shouldn’t rule out depending in the teacher). You can take the AP test if you want and still get a 5 without taking the course, but there isn’t much value in terms of receiving college credit because a lot of schools don’t accept english credit. But you should check for the schools you want to apply to. The point of taking the AP class is to show rigor, if you’re just taking the AP test without the class, you won’t really be showing that.</p>
<p>Well im trying the get the national ap scholar award. Is it worth the $60 for it?</p>
<p>I’m taking English 12 Honors and taking the AP Lit exam. I want to be an English major, so I’m using the exam for placement. However, I have also heard of people who have claimed that self-studying and taking AP exams really boosted their college app by showing their self-motivation. So if you think you can do it, go for it! It can’t hurt.</p>
<p>But that being said, I would recommend studying for the exam for waaaay longer than a week. English is by far my best subject, but I’m going to start studying for it in January. AP Lang and AP Lit are supposedly really hard to do well on. Only 7.4% of students receive a 5 on AP Lit, and around 20% receive a 4. On AP Lang, 10.5% received a 5 and 19% received a 4. The AP English exams are some of the lowest “5” scoring AP exams. Considering that the majority of people taking the test have probably taken the actual class, that means that we self-studiers really need to work hard to do well! :D</p>
<p>Also, I hear that for the essay questions you should be familiar with a lot of classic novels. (This is for AP Lit, I’m not sure about AP Lang.)</p>
<p>All in all, I would HIGHLY recommend to start studying for the test at the beginning of the second semester. I’ve heard that it’s really hard to cram for AP English, and that’s from people who have taken the class.</p>
<p>Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I have heard stories about people cramming 2 days before the test, not doing one essay, and skipping 10 questions and they still got a 5.</p>
<p>@ankurpatel360
lol, we have all heard stories of people like this. I’m sure some people can do this, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. In order to get a score of 5 on the AP Lit., that those people you told me about would have had to have gotten 100% on everything attempted…including the 45 multiple questions they answered and 100% on both essays! :O</p>
<p>You should really ask yourself if you want to cram like that. Considering that English is your worst subject and that the test has a very low percentage of people who score a “5,” are you really willing to pay the $60 when you barely studied for the test? The choice is ultimately up to you, but personally I would strongly recommend studying at least a couple months in advance. This is especially true if you are aiming for the National AP Scholar award (I did not notice this in my previous post); to get this you need to earn an average score of 4 on all AP exams taken (minimum 8). Therefore, a low score on AP English could really hurt you.</p>
<p>In my own experience, the kind of grade you get on the AP English Exam or AP Language Exam is based on your reading and writing skills moreso than who your teacher is or whether you take the class or not. Last year, I took the AP English Exam without actually taking the class and scored a 4, which was higher than probably 90% of the people from my school who actually took the class. All I did was do some practice multiple choice, a few practice timed writings, and touched up on some poetry terms and literary tropes. </p>
<p>Honestly, if you’re a pretty good reader, the multiple choice isn’t that difficult at all. And if your a good writer, I’d imagine the writing section isnt difficult either. I’m a good reader and the multiple choice was pretty easy and a decent writer and I found the essays to be doable (overall the essays probably cost me a 5). If you’re confident in your reading and writing skills, taking honors english should probably be good enough preparation. However, since you say English is your worst subject, I would recommend studying more than a week beforehand (maybe 1-2 months) because it’s not easy to quickly improve reading, comprehension, and writing skills.</p>