Monday, August 20, 2012

1987 AP English Exam: Wrap Up

Predictably, the most trouble I had with the multiple choice section was the readability of the later passages.  Many took some time to interpret; probably more time than would have been possible on the actual AP exam.  The only specific questions I found difficult were regarding styles of poetry, which I have almost no knowledge of.  Besides that, a combination of common sense of and educated guesses served me decently well.

The most difficult part with the essays was how similar to the prompts were.  I had to make an effort to avoid ideas spilling over between the two that would muddle my writing.  For the second essay, Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22, and Nineteen Eighty Four were the only books I was familiar with.  I decided on Nineteen Eighty Four mostly because it's my favorite of the three (there are actually quite a few quotes from it in this blog's background) and I thought it had a variety of elements I could easily write about.  My conclusions were weak on both essays, as I couldn't find a way to effectively restate my ideas without seeming redundant.

For the essays, I attempted to keep to a time limit (hence the four paragraphs) but still ended up going over the recommended 35 minutes by 10-15 minutes.

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