AP Exam Essay Practice #5

Both "When I Have Fears" by John Keats and "Mezzo Cammin" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow deal with the theme of life's potential.  At first glance, they are extremely similar.  Both seemingly mourn the loss of dreams.  However, careful inspection reveals that the poetic techniques used by both poets points to two distinct messages.  Broadly speaking, the core of these differences is in perspective.  Keats writes of the future, while Longfellow writes of the past.  This relatively small difference cascades into many more

AP Exam Practice Essay #4

Given that The Road by Cormac Mccarthy takes place in a barren wasteland, it is remarkable how richly developed the characters are.  However, this is at the heart of the novel's theme, as McCarthy explores what it takes to cling to humanity in an inhumane world.  With so few characters to work with, he needs to make them count.  He does this by making the two only main characters -- the nameless man and his son -- foils that play off each other and in the process enhance their development.

AP Exam Essay Practice #3

When describing what would initially appear to simply e a windy street, Ann Petry goes to great lengths to craft a vibrant setting in the opening of her novel, The Street.  Despite the introduction of Lutie Johnson taking place only after several paragraphs of exposition, this sequence is instrumental in establishing her relationship to the world around her.  This methodical set up is accomplished through masterful work of both vivid imagery and extended personification.

AP Exam Essay Practice #2

Here's my essay for today (meaning April 30, so yesterday?), in all its flawed glory.  I cleaned up little mistakes as I found them, but I likely created even more with typos.  Admittedly, I was really sleepy today so the essay is a lot less focused than I would have liked.  Regardless, I would appreciate feedback!

AP Exam Essay Practice #1

Part bildungsroman and part allegory, The Poisonwood Bible follows the radical changes a vicious environment inflicts upon young Leah Price.  While the characters are certainly strong and well-developed, the alien jungle the Prices find themselves in is ultimately what drives the plot and theme of disillusionment.  The influence of this powerful setting is seen best through Leah Price.  Her evolution is cleanly broken down into a phase of sheltered idealism and one of bitter cynicism.

Prose and Open Essays

Once again, I'll be imposing a loose time limit on myself, for the sake of both exam practice and my sanity.  I'm aiming for forty minutes, but I'll spend as long as I need to finish the essay.  Pre-writes are on a separate piece of paper.  I'll post them if anyone really wants to see them, but they're mostly incoherent scribbles.  The passage and prompts can be found on the main course blog.

At Least Two Essays

Since time restraints have typically been the most difficult part of AP essays for me, I'm limiting myself to forty minutes per essay.  Otherwise, I'm liable to keep writing for far longer than is possible on the actual exam.  Besides that, I'm honestly not too keen on spending my entire weekend practicing essays.

Pre-writes are included in the forty minutes, although I will be doing them on a separate piece of paper to facilitate my rather haphazard pre-writing method.

Responses to Lit Circles

100th post!  Well, actually this is post 101, but I still have Pride and Prejudice notes that I haven't published.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. D

2. B

3. A

4. D

5. A

6. C

Jane Eyre Questions

The following answers are in response to this document.  In the spirit of AP test prep, I did my best to move through the passages and questions quickly and didn't look for an answer key.

AP Resources

College Board AP Central

Why not just go straight to the source?  The College Board actually has quite a few informative resources ranging from scoring guides to tips and practice.

Funnel Brain

Here's a bunch of user made flashcards.  Given that they are not "official" the quality may vary.  However, there is a decent selection to choose from -- just make sure to do a little fact checking.

AP Pass

This is a calculator to figure out your AP score.  It's a pretty neat way to visualize how exam scoring is done.

Bench Prep

This blog is orientated for long term preparation, so it may be a bit late at this point.  Regardless, there are a few useful things that can be gleaned from it still.

AP Study Notes

This website has a massive collection of examples and study topics.  It's hard to do better than this if you're going for the classic "study 'til you drop" method.

Brave New World Essay Draft 1

Loneliness is among the most potent of human conditions.  From it stems sadness, bitterness, and all manner of melancholy temperaments.  However, it can also bring enlightenment.  This is the case of John, "the Savage", from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  As an outsider in every culture he encounters, John has a unique perspective of the world he lives in.  This position allows for a brutally honest assessment of societies' customs.  It is only though the eyes of an exile that the world's madness is fully revealed.

writingas5pectatorsport

 I found a bunch of these on Christa Weston's blog (good job getting so many people to write!).  Take a look at her blog if you've got a shortage of essays.

Conor McNamara
Conor has an extremely..."intense" writing style.  From the occasionally coarse language to the scathingly caustic pop-culture references, it's pretty easy to pick out Conor's writing from a group.  With that in mind, I would advise keeping the audience in mind.  Practicing a little more moderation would probably be wise for something like the AP exam (I have no idea if he typically does).  That said, Conor's violent style is also one of his strengths -- the essay certainly has character.  It would be a shame to lose that to an AP grading rubric.

Hayden Robel
I'll be honest, I couldn't really read all of the essay.  By that I mean I could really only see the pre-write structure.  Regardless, the structure looks fine for the restricted amount of time it was done in.  It's certainly more elaborate than my "two word phrases and arrows" strategy.  Also, it seems like Hayden got a lot of writing done in such a short amount of time.  I personally find the time constraints to be the hardest part of essay exams, so being a quick thinker is certainly beneficial.

Alex Lane (blog)
Call of the Wild was an unexpected but extremely appropriate choice for the prompt.  I like the ideas that Alex got down onto paper, and there's plenty of depth in the novel he chose to support a full length essay.  The pre-write leaves a bit to be desired, but it's not like mine was any more extensive.

Bernardo Gonzalez (blog)
I can see pretty clearly where Bernardo was going with his ideas, but unfortunately the essay never really got started.  I'm guessing this can be attributed mostly to the pre-write taking too long.  In that case, simply keeping an eye on the clock would do wonders.  It seems like Bernardo had all the right ideas, but just didn't have enough time to get them onto paper.

William Boerger (blog)
Given the time limit, Will got a lot of content down on the paper, both in terms of pre-writing and the essay itself.  The introduction sets up a clear stance, and I like where the essay was headed.  There were a few nit-picky grammar errors, but I'm pretty sure everybody makes those with so little time to write.

"Sphinx Says Write"

Actually, when I was essay ambushed (by Kris and Justin), they didn't even say "Sphinx Says Write."  I did it anyway.  Because of the time restraint, I essentially just rehashed my A Tale of Two Cities essay.  Also, I wrote this before finding out we would be reading Brave New World in class.  Happy coincidence, I guess.  I left all my bizarre grammatical errors in for your enjoyment.

I was filmed writing this, but Kris and Justin haven't gotten around to editing it or doing commentary.  I'll make sure to post a link once they do.

Edit (4/18/13):  So, they never got around to it.  Oh well.

Prompt:

(1971) The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to discover.  However, in other works the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually.  Choose two works and show how the significance of their respective titles is developed through the author's use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.

Pre-write:

Para 1 --> Brave New World --> Sarcastic, ironic/satirical look at future

Para 2 --> A Tale of Two Cities --> duality themes, etc.

Essay:

Sometimes, despite what is always taught, people judge books by their cover.  Before the reader knows anything of a story, there is an initial impression given by the title.  Often the title provides a surprisingly in depth look at the novel's theme.  Both A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have titles applicable in this way.

A huge theme of A Tale of Two Cities is duality -- the concept of disparate pairings existing alongside of each other, and through their contrast, elevate each others.  In its most fundamental form, this theme can be boiled down into the title.  There are two cities, each one contains a different type of people.  Similarly, there are foils strewn throughout the novel that expand on this (Darnay and Carton, for example).

In the dystopian classic Brave New World, the title has a completely opposite m

Poetry Analysis

1.  "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

This particular poem was striking both in terms of visuals and theme.  The poet accomplishes a complex mixture of morose humor and tragic mourning in remarkably few words.  At the poem's end, the reader appropriately feels left hanging due to the lack of an end-of-line "we".  In just two words, the poet abruptly switches the entire tone of the poem.  Going back and re-reading in the context of the end is surprisingly morbid.

AP Prep Post 1: Siddhartha

1.  In the novel, Siddhartha encounters several people who aid him in one way or another toward achieving enlightenment.  Can you discuss at least one important person on Siddhartha's journey who aids in his self-discovery?
(Source -- Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Braasch)

I don't have the answer to this one, despite having read the novel before.  Obviously, it requires some more knowledge of the characters.  I decided to include it anyway because it provides an interesting foil to our in class discussion.  The moment of Siddhartha's awakening is accompanied by the realization that he is completely alone.  Analyzing the people that used to be part of his life and why they are no longer there is a potentially enlightening (pun entirely intended) discussion.

The following questions are taken from here.  They're (AP) student made, and there's a ton of them.

Notes: 2011 AP Essay Rubric

In General

• quality of writing is as important as content
• good quality can be bumped up a score
• poor quality cannot receive higher than a 3
• Keep in mind both literary devices used by the author, as well as the complexity of characters and their relationships
• a good essay includes both of these, as well as provides specific support

Scoring Breakdown

• 9-8: persuasive analysis, variety of interpretations, references insight on both literary devices and character relationships
• specific examples with clear writing; a 9 should be especially persuasive
• 7-6: reasonable analysis with an understanding of both literary devices and character relationships, but lacking the precision and clarity of 8-9
• 5: plausible analysis, but superficial; lacking specific support or has mild misinterpretations of the poem
• 4-3: inadequate analysis due to lack of support, ignorance of character complexity, poor control over language, or significant misreading
• 2-1: lacking analysis; the student made an attempt at responding to the prompt, but the essay had no support or contained serious mechanical errors; incoherent or extremely brief
• 0: No analysis, only reference to the task
• --: Left blank or completely off topic

Peer Feedback #1

The 1987 AP Exam essays I wrote can be found here and here.

Feedback from anybody is much appreciated, just leave a comment on this post.  Don't pull your punches either, criticism is what leads to improvement!  Thanks.

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.

1987 AP English Exam: Essay Question 2

1987 AP English Exam:
http://drprestonsrhsenglitcomp12.blogspot.com/2012/03/1987-ap-exam.html

Like all great novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell has an important message wrapped in its plot.  It simultaneously espoused independence and warned against the dangers of authority.  The novel proposed a (then futuristic) world in which a government sought to create the perfect society through absolute control.  While the idea is appropriately other-worldly, Orwell saw its applicability to the society he lived in.  As technology progressed, the government would have increasingly greater options to exert authority.  Where should the line be drawn?  How much should freedom be restricted in the name of societal perfection?  These are the questions Orwell challenged his readers to think about, with the ultimate goal of inspiring free thought in a society that seemed to be increasingly subservient.  He communicates these ideas by personifying his speculations in the setting as well as focusing on a single character.

1987 AP English Exam: Essay Question 1

1987 AP English Exam:
http://drprestonsrhsenglitcomp12.blogspot.com/2012/03/1987-ap-exam.html

Every year that goes by seems faster and more efficient, with even menial tasks being carried out with mechanical precision.  According to George Eliot, this efficiency is the death of leisure.  By comparing society of her time with what she calls "old Leisure", she attempts to articulate her reasons for thinking that innovation is not necessarily to be sought.  On one hand, she presents an idyllic time of life before the rush of modernity, on the other is a stark appraisal of the world around her.