pinkellow

AP English--> very specific instructions for how to write a paper.

college writing--> different story?

IM freaking out. what kind of papers are they looking for? (specificaly for CAT1) :[

Slorg

It varies. But writing is still writing. Don't freak out. Everyone is in the same shoes as you.

serenaxcheelam

I thought I would be fairly well prepared coming into a college writing class with years of AP English under my belt. Boy was a suprised when the essays we were writing turned out to be totally different. My teacher told me to disregard what we had learned in high school. Yikes. The essays I wrote in high school were quite different than the ones I had to write in college, though I have to say--AP English does help in that it prepares you mentally for what college will have in store for you.
But its not like anything you cant do.

TTN

It's no big deal, you'll get used to it, just do as they say, you don't have to do anything more, you'll soon find the less structured writing allows you get your opinion across much easier.

And also remember, in classes not CAT 1 or any other writing class, if they ask you to write a paper, it is MORE important that they paper says what you need it say to answer the prompt, not that it is some written masterpiece.

LifeTranscends

When I took Muir 40, I had the same experience as serena. We all wrote like we had for AP, and our TA told us that we all needed to change the way we wrote our papers... But, everyone is in the same boat, so it;s not a big deal...