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AP Lang
AP Lang
Hello! It's Minnow, and today I will be helping you with AP Lang. I made a 5 in this course and hope to provide you with as much of my insight as possible. In this guide, I will focus less on the material of the course, but rather on tips to approach each section and sources to study for the exam.
AP Lang is an advanced English course that is usually taken after English 2, English 3, or AP English Literature. The exam is heavily focused on how you approach the writing prompts and how you can comprehend an author's usage of language and writing to convey their message.
First, let's break down what the exam is going to be like:
OVERVIEW:
OVERVIEW:
The test is broken into 2 parts: Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) and Free Response Questions (FRQ)
The MCQ is one hour long, and you will have 45 questions. (~45% of your exam score)
The FRQ is two hours and fifteen minutes long with 3 essays: Synthesis, Rhetorical Analysis, and Argumentative (~55% of your exam score)
SCORING:
SCORING:
Achieving a high score allows you to use the course towards college credits. Thus, it is helpful if we try to aim for a 3 or higher.
For a 5: 79/100
For a 4: 69/100
For a 3: 59/100
https://www.albert.io/blog/ap-english-language-score-calculator/
This calculator adds up your MCQ points and FRQ points for a total which is then reflective of what score you will receive.
Multiple Choice (MCQ)
Multiple Choice (MCQ)
The MCQ has 5 passages in this section. In any practice exam you take, you will notice that many of the questions are formatted in a similar way. This is important to our approach to the MCQs, with what we currently know, while taking in our time limitations.
We are given approximately 12 minutes for each section, which isn't much time. Thus, we must use strategies:
Minnow's Strategies!
Minnow's Strategies!
READ THE TITLE!
Every passage will have some information at the top that gives you a rough idea of what the topic will be about. This can help cut time and focus on the author's opinions on said topic.
ANNOTATE!
You do not want to read the passage over and over again when you flip from reading to a question. Jot down the main ideas of each paragraph so you have an easy reference.
READ CAREFULLY!
Ideally, you want to only have to read the passage once. Even if it feels like you are wasting time by reading slowly through the passage, you are actually saving time instead. By having a clear understanding and notes, you will not have to reread the passage constantly.
SELECTIVE PROCESS!
You are not punished for getting a question wrong; you can only gain points. Therefore, if you are stuck on a hard question, stick with a lucky letter of the day and move on to an easier question. All questions are weighed evenly, so you might as well maximize your score by answering all the easy ones (vocab questions, main topic, etc.) and coming back to the hard ones or making an educated guess. Additionally, staying stuck on a question may waste crucial time or slow your "momentum" of answering the test problems.
VOCABULARY
VOCABULARY
Another helpful tool that my teacher introduced to us was Quizlet AP Lang vocabulary. You are not allowed a dictionary on the test so it's important that you build your vocab (I actually suck at vocab :(). Sometimes, you just won't have the time to use context clues to try to understand the word, so any more knowledge here will help. You can easily search for these on Google or consult your teacher if she has any sources too!
PRACTICE TIMING/STRATEGY
PRACTICE TIMING/STRATEGY
The timing limitation is super stressful. To help practice for this, I would first take the test without a timer and see how high I could score if I had infinite time to address each question. I would then take this total time and score and record it. Until I was answering around 75% of the test correctly, I would then cut the time by 30 minutes. I would then do this over and over until I was in the time limit of the exam.
On days where I just could not address a full exam, I'd just do this strategy but with each section. There is no point in burning out your head every day by taking an hour test every day. During the exam, the adrenaline will actually force you to make quicker decisions, so it is unlikely you will burn out in the time frame.
It is ESSENTIAL that we take slow steps to build up for the exam. Learning and gaining the capability to ignore the timer will help you reduce freezing and panicking during the exam!
OPINION!
I think it is genuinely okay to mess up here more than the FRQs. Every FRQ point is worth approximately 3-4 times more than a correct MCQ point. Thus, it's important that we heavily focus on our writing skills (FRQs) because that is the actual main part of the test.
FRQ(s) BREAKDOWN
FRQ(s) BREAKDOWN
This is going to be the majority of your exam! There are 3 FRQs: Synthesis, Rhetorical Analysis, and Argumentative. I will be providing the basics of these 3, some resources I used, tips and strategies, and examples!!
RUBRIC
RUBRIC
First, we should examine how we can score points in the FRQ section. Here is the rubric from Collegeboard to best understand the scoring system.
(Please take a look before continuing through the guide!)
I will break down each FRQ into a 1 - 4 - 1 scoring system, and the maximum amount of achievable points per FRQ is 7.
The first "1" represents your Thesis and Claim. It is very simple and you should not miss this point by any means.
The "4" is the maximum amount of points you can get through sufficient Evidence and Commentary. The way Evidence is graded varies for the different types of FRQs.
The last "1" is the sophistication point, which is very difficult to obtain, but it is doable. This is achieved through a higher level of understanding of the argument, outside relatable information and support, and/or eloquent language and writing. These can not just be referenced, but woven through your argument. The reason for such difficulty is that a lot of these categories are subjective in their grading.
Make sure to familiarize yourself with the rubric, as it will become important as you approach your FRQs!
ESSAY FORMAT
ESSAY FORMAT
I'm going to provide the basics of an AP essay format because you should have some prior experience from other English courses or should be introduced to this from the teachers.
Introduction
Thesis + Contextualization
Body Paragraph 1 + 2
Signpost
Quote 1/Evidence
Commentary
Quote 2/Evidence
Commentary
Conclusion/Restate
Extra
Conclusion
Outside Evidence
Counterargument
Writing Strategies
Writing Strategies
This is a small sub-section, but it's important that you understand what works for you. I like to go with the thesis first and then write parts of my sophistication paragraph to grasp the way the essay should start and end. Some weaknesses to this are that I rush the body paragraphs and may lose points on my commentary and evidence usage.
At the beginning, I recommend looking at essay templates. As you practice writing more, you can expand to more creative approaches to your arguments!!
THE THREE TYPES
THE THREE TYPES
Rhetorical Analysis
In this section, they will provide you with a passage, and you will identify what rhetorical choices the writer uses to mold her argument.
To achieve the first mark, make sure to really understand the rhetorical choices that the author/writer makes. The most common and easiest to write about are the usage of questions, hypotheticals, situations, and dictation, and their appeals to a reader's ethos, pathos, or logos.
An example thesis template would be:
Through (AUTHOR/WRITER)'s passage of (date/year) (Title), the author develops his/her message regarding (what the passage is about) and why it's important through her rhetorical usage of (blank) and (blank) to appeal to the reader's (ethos, pathos, or logos).
This is a basic frame, but you can split this into two sentences or provide one to two more sentences to provide context about the argument that the writer is trying to make.
To achieve the next 4, really dive into why these choices are important and how they relate to the author's argument. An important tip is to pull quotes from the passage and really break it down and relate it to the argument. In the paper, you should have approximately 4 quotes, so make sure to underline some that appeal to the rhetorics in the passage.
The best way to obtain the sophistication point in this section is through outside evidence or addressing the passage's complexities. For me personally, I draw upon the outside evidence by including it as a sentence statement in my intro and then a separate paragraph after my body paragraphs, or similarly with a counterargument/new perspective on what these rhetorical actions achieve.
TIPS:
Look at the author!! You may know other writings related to them or the historical significance of the paper. An easy way to pull outside info is by knowing historical events and relating them to the paper!
It's okay to skim!! If you are in a time crunch, really try to search for two things: the rhetorical elements and the author's stance. You can then piece these together to write a response rather than trying to annotate the full passage.
The following is a student-written practice response used for instructional purposes by Minnow. It demonstrates one approach to rhetorical analysis and is not an official College Board example. I can not provide the prompt, but at least a piece of writing practice.
AP Lang RA EX TEO.pdfArgumentative
In this FRQ section, they will provide you with a prompt in which you have to argue for a side of your choice. You will use the readings from class and experiences to defend your thesis and argument. By far, this is the hardest section to get full marks in, because you cannot call upon "outside" evidence as a sophistication point. However, it is doable!!
NOTES
NOTES
DON'T WORRY ABOUT GRAMMAR AND SPELLING MUCH! Collegeboard knows that this test is a high-paced writing test, so they'd rather you focus on the argument of the paper rather than the perfect execution. Having perfect grammar and complex sentences can assist in getting a sophistication point, but there are plenty of other ways to achieve this while saving time.
PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! I think my teacher made me write 4 essays a week. Just being forced to work in a time crunch and cough up an essay helped me find what I needed to keep and cut in a paper. Getting good feedback and making mistakes is crucial for growth, so don't be worried if you mess up one essay assignment!
MORE COMING SOON!!
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