AP English Comp official scores

Doctoradj · 07-13-2010, 08:01 PM

what is you AP comp score? was it an easy exam this year? post any your thought about it.

ringopuppers · 07-13-2010, 08:05 PM

Well, do you mean AP Literature and Comp, or Language and Comp?
If you mean Lit, everyone who took it at my school felt confident after the test. Many people felt like they got a 4 or 5. Scores came back and they were actually pretty disappointing on almost all counts. Not sure if it was the teacher, or if the exam just had a weak curve because everyone thought it was so easy.

Doctoradj · 07-13-2010, 10:11 PM

I thought AP Lang and Comp was easy too, but my score was a 4, so it is disappointing.

puggly123 · 07-13-2010, 10:46 PM

In your guys' opinions, is this a good exam to self study? I've always been pretty good at english and reading (scored 33 on ACT English as sophomore), and I feel that my writing skills are pretty good (scored 5 on APUSH which involves a lot of writing). Any advice on doing so? Thanks.

hahalolk · 07-13-2010, 10:51 PM

I got a 5. I think the multiple choice was the easiest I have ever seen, and the essays were also pretty straightforward.

@puggly: I also scored a 5 on the APUSH exam before AP Lang, but they really aren't that much alike. You really should take the class, unless you are willing to go to a teacher to evaluate every essay that you do for practice. I would recommend you do at least 15 essays over the course of the year, all taken from the college board site.

jerrry4445 · 07-13-2010, 11:03 PM

I got a 4 on AP English Language and Composition, which was disappointing. I too thought it was easy, but not easy enough to convince me to pay $25 to do a rescore.

314159265 · 07-13-2010, 11:05 PM

Would you compare the essays to writing a lawyer's closing argument (for those of you familiar with Mock Trial/law)? In essence, do hooks and really "fancy-sounding" rhetoric make a good essay?

hahalolk · 07-13-2010, 11:09 PM

Style helps, but what is most important is having an insightful argument.

jerrry4445 · 07-13-2010, 11:19 PM

In my belief, both style and content are important in an AP English Language essay.

You do not need to have a hook or a "fancy-sounding" rhetoric if they are not part of your usual writing style, but you can improve you own style by being conscious of your own rhetoric. It is difficult to explain. One book that would help you understand and improve style is Prose Style: A Contemporary Guide.

hahalolk · 07-13-2010, 11:21 PM

I think style comes naturally with insightful points.

Stockholmjoy · 07-14-2010, 12:00 AM

I just got my scores in the mail. 5 on AP Language and Composition and 4 on AP Literature and Composition. I find the results interesting because the class I took was for Literature, not Language. However, I'm not actually surprised; the class was pretty ill suited for exam preparation. Overall, I didn't study much for either test. For the Literature one, I studied for twenty minutes in a Barnes and Noble, looking over a Princeton Review book. In class we wrote about four essays during the first semester and took three practice multiple choice tests over the course of the year, though. I studied for a total of about five hours over the course of two nights for the Language test. My sister teaches this class at another school in my city, so she gave me some prep books. I say this just to give others an idea of what the level of difficulty for this test would be if you are a verbally oriented person (35 English, 33 Reading on the ACT).

ringopuppers · 07-14-2010, 12:10 AM

To answer your question, puggly:
Of all the AP exams, I'd say Lit and Language are the two best suited to self-studying. I feel I've only grown marginally as a writer from taking these two classes. With an amazing teacher I think people can improve, but most teachers won't give you anything to take you from, say, a 2 to a 5, or even a 2 to a 4.

That being said, it's not much like APUSH or even ACT/SAT English. I got a 5 on APUSH, and perfect scores on both the ACT and SAT Verbal, and yet... I still got a 4 on both Lang and Lit. Frustrating! That being said, if I had self-studied, I still would've gotten 4's. Classes and teachers didn't help.... But that's just me, maybe?

If you're serious about self-studying, the best way to go about it would be getting a practice workbook, and reading a couple of novels that you'll be able to analyze in essays.

discgolf · 07-14-2010, 12:43 AM

@314159265, I wouldn't say it contributes too much but fancy prose certainly has helped me in all my essays; I got a 5 on AP Lit. I shamelessly pick out really advanced vocabulary words I know and use lengthy syntax, and I think this can help you on the Lit essays. On the actual test I used this strategy because it made it seems as if I understood what I was talking about regardless of whether I actually did or not. And to someone who is grading hundreds of such essays, they will usually be more generous with their grading if you have fancy rhetoric so long as you work in citations and specifics equally.

The AP Lit test is quite possibly one of the most bell-curved tests AP offers, last year only 7% of takers got a 5 (presumably because many kids take it)! Compare that to subjects like Physics C or Calc BC where upwards of 30% of takers get 5's.

Also, my friend took an AP lit course and both tests, and scored a 3 on Lit and 5 on Ap Language. So it also comes down to choosing on which one you think you will perform better.

314159265 · 07-14-2010, 01:33 AM

Would famous quotes work too as a hook or as a closing? I mean, I used Rousseau's "Man is born free" quote on the AP French essay (Should all rules be followed at all times?). Would a good quote make a good impression on the reader?

alittlemonster · 07-14-2010, 01:38 AM

Got a 5 on Language. I'm 100% sure I got a perfect score on the MC. So easy.