dreamlittle

There's no AP English at my school. I like to write, wrote about Gatsby, got a five.

It can be done.

ekim227

Well i got a 5 but I really didn't think I did that well on the essays. (particularly the first one) I think I did really well on the multiple choice (english MC is my thing). I took the SAT II in Lit and it was basically the same thing as that. I hate having to analyze poetry so for the first essay I basically B/Sed my little heart out. The second one I mostly focused on POV. I don't remember exactly what I said, something about how the writer used POV to make the reader feel the isolation the exchange student felt. Then for the open-ended I used Macbeth/MacDuff. That was really easy. I mean come on, their names are dramatic foils lol.

atrophicwhisper

OK, I said I would get a 2, but I ended up getting a 4.

I honestly don't remember writing the first two essays. I remember that the first essay was easier to write than the second essay, but that's about it (hey, it was two months ago. What do you expect?)

My third essay (the open question) was the best out of the three. I wrote on The Stranger and I talked about how Camus juxtaposed Meursault and the chaplain at the end of the novel to show two distinct outlooks on life. I talked about how the chaplain was already metaphorically dead because he had been focusing his entire life on serving God rather than enjoying the simple pleasures that Meursault did like the sun, beach, sex, etc. It was really good though and I knew exactly what I needed to talk about for the essay.

roz707

ha...hahahaha...I got a 4, and I have no idea how. There is no AP English Lit at my school, all we have is Advanced Composition which is not even close to AP. I skimmed a review book the night before the test. I thought I did ok on the MC and the first two essays. I wrote a really great essay for the third one, but I didn't expect that to matter much because I wrote it about Harry Potter. I know that's terrible, but it got me a 4 and some college credit, so oh well.

arnoc

Having an AP grader as a teacher, from my experience, means nothing. My teacher was a complete moron and gave me 2's for 1.5 page essays that were very much relevant to the topic. I'm a consistent 7-9 writer.

atrophicwhisper

Wowwwwwwwwww. I bet you didn't even get a grade for that essay.

Congrats on getting a 4 while doing only 5/6 of the test!

roz707

thats what dumbfounds me...i didnt know what else to write about, because i havent read any book of real "literary merit" in a while, and like i said, i barely studied... is there any way to see the individual scores for the essays?

ArtAficionado

I can't remember what on earth I wrote for the first two essays. I don't even remember what the prompts were for them. For the second essay, I think I wrote about all the attention to the environment, negative diction, how the main character wasn't actually talking, and probably some other stuff that I really can't remember. I wrote about Willy Loman and Charlie from Death of a Salesman for the third one, talking about how Charlie is basically the antithesis to what amounts to all of Willy's beliefs and habits.

Matterbug

I managed a five, and really didn't think my essays were all that great. I completely forgot to pay attention to the basic structure of the poems, and when we discussed possible answers later in class, I wasn't at all close to what the teacher said. I think mainly it must have been MC, although I don't really remember doing especially well on that either. I'm not complaining, though. :P

phanatic

I wound up with a 5, but was expecting a 2.

I felt really confident about the first essay, because my teacher was an expert at poetic analysis and had taught my class to thoroughly and solidly address whatever work was in question.

I, like everyone else, HATED the second essay. I really wanted that kid to just disappear already... but I made some stuff up and talked about, I believe... oh, man, I can't even remember.

I used Memoirs of a Geisha for the third one, and felt like it was quite good, as well. My essay discussed how Sayuri loses her innocence and, by the novel's denouement, sinks to the level of Hatsumomo to get what she wants--and how Hatsumomo's treachery helps to enunciate how far Sayuri has slipped from innocent child to a woman who is anything but.

olgita

For the first one, I discussed the message (different views on ambition...I think?) more than the poetic elements, though I incorporated some stuff about diction and form.

For the second one, I talked about Arun's lack of understanding of the American lifestyle and the sexual tension awkwardness between him and the girl, lol.

For the third one, I talked about Alyosha and Fyodor Karamazov as representations of good and evil, respectively.

I got a 5, but I don't know if the essays or the MC did it. I didn't feel very confident about the MC, and since I usually write stellar essays, I chalk it up to that.

Keane Fan

I got a 5 and I knew it right after I took it! I especially blew up that poetry essay

agsnagel

Quote: A good English class with a focus on analytical writing will teach you the terminology needed for critical analysis.

Funny story: I never took the class or studied the material. Got a 4