<p>While I am not completely dissatisfied with my AP score, I feel that it was affected by a few glitches that I was cheated out of by not being made aware of in ANY AP prep book that I have used to prepare (Kaplan, Princeton and Barons).
The least frustrating (frustrating, nonetheless!) was the fact that the passages repeated on every single page of questions so we wouldnt have to flip back and forth. This was extremely startling because every single AP practice I have ever done was either a stapled packet with each passage filling one or two pages, followed by the questions on the next page, or in an AP practice book with the passage filling two pages and the questions on the next pages. It took me a good thirty seconds or soand you know how valuable those thirty seconds areto realize that tiny text at the bottom of the passage, This passage has been re-printed on this page for your ease of completion. It would have been so freaking great to have that tiny piece of information known before hand. I know thats not a big deal to most people; they probably would have instantly recognized and assumed that it was for their comfort and ease. I didnt. I thought human beings abide by more by habit than logic.
Now this complaint could be just plain whiney, but Im gonna say it: that little darned box that commanded you to write the number prompt to which your essay corresponded with. That wasnt so bad, I admit, but it did get pretty annoying having to remember to scribble a number at the top of the page while in mid-thought.
We save the worst for last: the fact that the multiple choice bubbles extended beyond the 54 or 58 questions that were on the AP English Language and Composition exam. In every single practice I had done, there were no more than 60 questions in the multiple choice section. So why the heck would the answer sheet extend beyond to some crazy number, if I recall correctly, over 75? I havent taken any AP exam prior to this, so yes, you could bash me on my stupidity in not realizing that our answer document for the multiple choice section extended beyond 58 because it was a template for other exams which may have more than 58 questions. Still, the number of multiple choice answers on our answer document was overwhelmingly huge, resulting in me rushing all my answers and finishing twenty minutes ahead of time. I didnt have the privilege of asking my proctor simply because she said we couldnt ask questions other than misprints or things like that. I went over my answers and, as a guilty convict of second-guessing myself, changed nearly half of them. A lot of this is me personally and the way I tick, but a lot of it should have been told ahead of time to assist those who are prone to chronic freak-outs. </p>
<p>I made a 3.</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a LOT of test anxiety. I completely understand being nervous for an AP test, particularly your first-- I panicked the first time when I couldn’t rip open the plastic covering the booklet-- but yours go beyond the standard nerves. When you get to college, don’t even think about expecting every professor to give you the test format in advance. Wait until you have a test counting for 60% of your grade with unclear instructions on where to even write your name. I know it sucks when things take you by surprise, but it’s something you really need to learn to get used to.</p>
<p>I can’t tell if this is serious or trolling. You got a 3 man. Deal with it. At least you passed the exam.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’re implying that you changed a lot of wrong answers to right answers to bring your grade up to a 3, or changed a lot of right answers to wrong ones to bring it down (I assume the second though). Looking past that, most tests with bubbles have more numbered slots than the test has questions- SAT, APs, or even scantrons in classes, but it’s understandable that in the heat of the moment you weren’t thinking of that. When you’re looking back, I don’t think you can claim what you saw was not habitual when so many examples from other tests contradict that.</p>
<p>Sorry, that doesn’t help you, but you didn’t organize your writing around a question, but rather a story, so it leaves everyone room to answer as they will. Anyways, you learned a lesson for the rest of your schooling career and you can retake the exam if you think your abilities are above a 3 and the test caused you to fail.</p>
<p>I’m always on the look-out for those tests where the directions tell you to go to the last question or do a few then skip to the end, and where the last question says that you are done or tells you to bubble a certain way as to not let others find out. In the same spirit, being familiar with a test once it’s given out through observing is a wise choice or habit to make. Anyways, you can always turn pages to find how many questions there are, and it would be good to do so for any test so you can gauge your time : ).</p>
<p>None of your complaints seem very valid in my opinion. If you are freaking out about the score and this is your way to vent, then I won’t try to stop you, but your complaints seem rather petty. I got a 3 on Calc(5 Bio, 5 Lang). It was due to nothing other than a lack of mastery of the subject. Not because my pencil wasn’t properly sharpened, or because it took me a couple extra milliseconds to open up the FRQ packet. A 3 really isn’t that bad.</p>
<p>I’ll be blunt here; deal with it kid. Nobody is going to hold your hand for the rest of your life. So what if the test was a little different on the day of your exam than the practice exams? You need to learn how to deal with these types of situations (I also didn’t know about collegeboard reprinting the passages, but it was pretty obvious when I read the reprinted passage again).</p>
<p>Your other complaint regarding the number of questions is just absurd. First, you do realize this is an AP exam and AP english is just one of many exams? By sheer intuition, the test makers will almost always give more room for answers…</p>
<p>And, I doubt that the above contributed to your 3. Rather, it was lack of preparation.</p>
<p>Dude the number of questions can change. Some years they even have 52, instead of 55 like this year’s. And prep books are to supplement your practice of the subject, not teach you the subject. Also, prep books don’t guarantee your money back if you don’t do well. You suffered from a lack of preparation. You either know the English language or you don’t. So let go of mommy’s hand b/c its time to encounter the vicissitudes of the world, however they may come.</p>