The exam is so tough, how do you guys manage all the essays? I really want a 5 in English even though it is not my best subject. Tips?
I made a 5 this year on the Lang and Comp exam, so I have some expertise in the subject. One important question is “Do you have a teacher, or are you just taking the exam?” If you have a teacher, your method of getting a 5 will be a lot different than if you do not.
I’d say to get a 5, you need to practice, practice, practice! First, if you don’t know what rhetorical strategies are, I would look them up, memorize them, and be ready to identify them in a text. If you don’t know rhetorical strategies, you’re gonna have a hard time (I recommend, but do not know how well the list on prep scholar is http://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-language-and-composition-terms Generally prep scholar is pretty trustworthy, so this is a good list to know.
Now that you have the basics of rhetoric in your brain, here are some section specific tips
MULTIPLE CHOICE: I won’t lie…English is my worst subject too. I personally have an incredibly difficult time with the multiple choice. So how did I do it? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ To be honest, I feel that I got 30 or 35 out of 55 correct on my actual exam. Had I practiced more, and gotten more familiar, I would’ve probably done a bit better on the MC…but a 5 nonetheless. My best recommendation is to ask your teacher for some released MC content from past exams. There’s some multiple choice in the course description, but honestly, it was a lot easier than my real exam. I missed about 7ish on this MC, so I wouldn’t put all your faith in it. If your teacher doesn’t have any legitimate released material, you can always look some up, or direct message me and I could hook you up. Here’s some I just found online: BE SURE YOU TIME YOURSELF WHEN YOU TAKE THESE
Now two key issues will come up: pacing and knowledge.
I had lots of trouble with pacing. I usually had 5 minutes left and entire passage…not good. So take your 1 hour they give you, subtract 5 minutes for bubbling in and you now have 55 minutes. For four passages, thats about 13 minutes and 45 seconds. Force yourself to move to the next passage after about 13 minutes, so you’ll have an additional 3 minutes to answer any questions you couldn’t figure out.
With knowledge, you might miss a question simply because you didn’t know the answer or weren’t able to identify the correct answer. For every question you missed, and every question you were unsure of, write why you missed it/or what you were unsure about and how you will get it right next time. It takes some time, but if you truly want a 5, you’ll do it. Note any specific type of question you’re missing. For example, theres about 3-4 questions on every test about footnotes and citations. If you don’t know how to cite things, look up a tutorial. It’s an easy 4 points.
Doing multiple choice, and getting a feel for the test will keep you from being in shock on test day and messing up badly.
FREE RESPONSE: This was clearly my better section. Because I had excellent essays, I was able to make up for a poor multiple choice section. It may seem daunting–2 hours and 15 minutes to write 3 essays!!! That’s how I felt too, but after practicing, I knew that I would have plenty of time.
The first step is to understand each different free response prompt
Synthesis: Using documents as evidence in your argument
Rhetorical Analysis: Using elements of rhetoric as evidence in your argument
Argument: Using outside knowledge as evidence in your argument
Look online at 2017’s free response questions, you’ll see these three essays, how they’re written, and some sample essays. Really understand these, especially if your teacher isn’t good at explaining.
The second step is to pick an order. My personal order was annotate the documents for the synthesis, write rhetorical analysis, write synthesis, write argument. So how do you pick your order? Personally, because I wanted a 5, I planned on writing all three completely anyway, so I did what essay would take me longest first. So with this mindset, I knew rhetorical analysis was the hardest and it took me the longest, so I’d spend about 55 minutes writing this one. Now I have 1:05 left. I’d write my synthesis, the next easiest, and spend 35-40 minutes on this one, leaving me with usually 0:30 left. Argument was the easiest for me, and I could crank out a decent essay in the least amount of time for this one. My order will probably be different than yours. Do individual essays, and decide for yourself.
Generally try to spend 40 minutes on each essay, but if one essay takes you longer, and you can shave off some time on another, go for it.
To do your best on the free response (remember its 55% of your total grade) do lots of practice. Over my winter break, I did an entire essay set (you can find these by looking online for AP English Free Response) and asked my English teacher to grade it. If you do an essay set over the break when no one else does, you get more personalized advice on your essays. In addition to this, we took a mock exam, so I had, yet again, more practice. Also we wrote about 1 out of class essay every week, skipping every other month, so we got practice that way. Like with multiple choice, time yourself for the best practice.
You might wanna start small. Maybe time yourself for 40 minutes and do just one essay, like we did out of class every week, or add the extra 15 minutes of reading the documents if you want to do a synthesis. Once you’re able to complete each essay, you’ll probably wanna set aside a sitting and do 3 at once. Trust me, with practice, the daunting task of writing three essays is no big deal. You don’t have to overload however. I probably did more writing than necessary for a 5. I should’ve spent that time doing multiple choice.
Here’s some specific advice for each essay
SYNTHESIS: I like to read the docs first before doing any essays, even if I don’t do synthesis first, so my mind can kind of let my ideas simmer. After annotating the question, I read each doc and I underline maybe 3-5 key phrases, and then I write a little blurb at the top of the document. Once I finish, I try to see which documents will work best in a cohesive essay, and then I pick which 3 (don’t do less than 3 and not get credit, but don’t go overboard and do 6, b/c you won’t get any bonus points…it’ll probably just hurt your essay.) I identify which 3, and come up with a central idea and outline with which three I use, and move to whatever essay I’m gonna write first.
My essays typically follow this structure:
- Intro- why is this issue important. Transition into thesis at the end of paragraph
- Body 1- I have a topic sentence, I incorporate Doc 1 ( I don’t use actual quotes, just the ideas expressed, and i cite it.) Transition and incorporate doc 2
- Body 2- Topic sentence. Generally I try to expand or extend my idea into something broader. Incorporate Doc 3
- Closing paragraph- I try to write a paragraph just to tie my ideas together. Only about 2-3 sentences long…don’t wanna waste time
RHET ANALYSIS: I annotate the passage, specifically looking for rhetorical devices (see why these are important to know!) and I get a feel for the general idea behind the passage. Then I look over the devices I’ve found, and I try to find at least two examples of each device. The examples I find MUST have something to do with the question, or author’s purpose for writing. Alliteration is a rhetorical device, but it’s a stretch to say that this stylistic choice has any real purpose in a speech or letter.
Structure:
- Intro- Why was this written, define purpose, etc, anything relevant to note. Transition into thesis. Try to extend argument beyond what is being said.
- Body 1- Strategy 1, identify it (I do quote these as evidence) and explain how it contributes to argument. Ex: diction- the author includes x diction (use a strong adjective) to highlight blah blah blah.
- Body 2- Strategy 2, same as body one. I typically don’t do 3 body paragraphs, bc I do a really in-depth analysis in each of my 2 bodies.
- Conclusion- nothing too long
ARGUMENT: I try to come up with evidence from from the same field. Ex: if I choose to write an essay using example history in one paragraph, I won’t switch to literature in the middle of the essay, and end with politics. Keep one topic to support a cohesive argument. And make them somewhat connected to each other. Don’t do US slavery and then great depression. For example in my actual essay, I did US government in encouraging military affairs, and in the first body, I discussed propaganda for WWI recruiting, and in the second body, I did the US exploiting 9/11 to support war on terrorism. The more related, the better. Be sure to connect evidence back to a central argument
Structure:
- Intro- sometimes I like to begin with an abstract idea not necessarily related to my evidence to start. One essay, I began with “In mathematics, when two positives are multiplied, the resulting number is still positive; however, when a positive is multiplied by a negative, the answer is negative, no matter the magnitude of either respective number.” The prompt was something about how its dangerous to be right when people in power are in the wrong. Just be sure you connect the abstract idea back to the prompt. End with a thesis
- Body 1- Evidence 1. Be sure to focus on explaining the evidence’s relevance to the topic
- Body 2- Evidence 2. Same as 1…except try to extend out to a broader idea if possible.
- Conclusion.
Sorry for my long spill, I hope this is helpful.
If you want, be sure to message me, and I’ll show you my essays that I wrote for the 2017 AP exam (our teacher gets our essays back, so I can send you these if you want them). Any other questions, feel free to ask!
@CTMorris1999 Thank you so much for the idea and help! It was really helpful. Thank you for your essay structure! I was really struggling on my essays!