<p>My AP Lang teacher keeps giving us practice tests out of Kaplan that are SO unrealistic. She gave us a full 55 question exam, and each passage we had to read exceeded one page! I ordered the 2006 lang exam and some passages are as short as a paragraph. She keeps giving us dumb analysis essays that are very unrealistic and grades them weird. I wrote a very good essay with small grammer/vocabulary mistakes and that is the reason i got a 5/9. She also told me I had "too many examples." I didn't even know you could have too many. Please help, what do you guys think. Do any of you think Kaplan is realistic for AP Lang?</p>
<p>yeah, a lot of AP teachers are like that… just go with it, and do some studying outside of school.</p>
<p>You’ll now get a 5 on the exam :)</p>
<p>LOL ansar, why?</p>
<p>Let’s contrast the scoring differences between a 5 and a 6:</p>
<p>“Essays earning a score of 5 develop a position on {context}. They support the position by synthesizing at least three sources, but their arguments and their use of sources are somewhat limited, inconsistent, or uneven. The argument is generally clear, and the sources generally support the student’s position, but the links between the sources and the argument may be strained. The writing may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but it usually conveys the student’s ideas adequately.”</p>
<p>“Essays earning a score of 6 adequately develop a position on {context}. They synthesize at least three of the soucres. The writer’s argument is generally convincing, and the writer generally uses the sources to support a position… The language may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but generally the prose is clear.”</p>
<p>[NOTE: Bolded text was provided as such in the scoring guidelines. Underlined text was provided by the author of this post for emphasis.]</p>
<p>It seems to me that a 6 more strongly uses the sources to support the position, rather than letting the sources more passively support the position in general. It also appears that the difference between the two scores is that a 6 needs to create a convincing argument, rather than just a clear argument.</p>
<p>From what you’ve described, “too many examples” could take away from the flow of an argument, and make it appear as if you’re reaching too far to make the examples fit the argument, rather than to argue effectively and using the examples where they happen to fit naturally to strengthen your argument.</p>
<p>Also, if the prose is less than clear (I’m not sure if the two errors in the topic line are any indication of the usual writing standard), that may automatically situate you as a candidate for a 5.</p>
<p>Lastly, it appears from the standards that earning grades of 8’s and 9’s are rather difficult to attain, and if lots of folks in the class were earning such grades, it might be a potential set-up for failure. Frankly, I think it would be better to hear areas for potential improvement prior to the exam.</p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>
<p>No TheMathProf, I’m not talking about the synthesis essay (where you get prompts to work with), I’m talking about the rhetorical analysis one. I used many examples and had support for them adequately. She wrote on my paper 5/6 but decided to give me the 5. I really don’t think a 7/8 is VERY hard to obtain if you know what you’re doing and understand the passage to some extent. My teacher gave out a few 7’s and one 8 which i thought my paper was better then. My main concern though is her unrealistic practice exams which i know are dooming people for the exam. Even though our school has had roughly a 50% pass rate last year, only four people got a 4 and zero people got a five. The last five and only five we’ve had was two years ago. I don’t want to be in the norm of 3’s, I really want a five on this exam, any other tips?</p>
<p>I would get a PR book and look through it if you want something more realistic. Also simply use the 2006 language and the sample essays online to gauge your response versus others. This should give you a better understanding and help you perform at a much higher level.</p>
<p>At least you get essays and tests. Our AP Lang teacher has assigned 4 essays the whole year!</p>
<p>You might want to work on your use of the apostrophe. I say that because you misused it in the title of your post.</p>
<p>^lol I didn’t even really read the title that carefully, good catch.</p>
<p>How does this relate to the topic? (above 2)</p>