<p>I heard if you pay a little extra they show you your score breakdown. I’m not sure if that’s actually true or not.</p>
<p>@kiandeco. It’s not true. Or at least it hasn’t been up until now.</p>
<p>Why do tests cost so much?</p>
<p>My teacher has said it’s 50-50 among AP scorers on whether Harry Potter counts as a novel of literary merit… She said that to have a 50-50 chance on whether your essay will even be taken seriously is terrible odds and to never use HP or any recent young adult fiction except as a LAST resort.</p>
<p>Here are mine and my friends’ choices for the third prompt. You guys should rank them so one of us feels like a winner until the scores come in July. :P</p>
<ul>
<li>A Clockwork Orange</li>
<li>Huck Finn</li>
<li>To Kill a Mockingbird</li>
<li>Lord of the Flies</li>
<li>Their Eyes Were Watching God</li>
</ul>
<p>@the84line: Because the College Board is a rip off. Just think that a 4 or 5 can save you $1,000+ from the class itself.</p>
<p>Here are the books I’ve read in class through high school…</p>
<p>9TH GRADE (LA I)
The Odyssey
Romeo and Juliet
To Kill a Mockingbird</p>
<p>10TH GRADE (Honors LA II)
The Bluest Eye (Summer) - This actually created a big fight between parents about the literary merit vs. the adult content for 15/16 year olds and it was never discussed in class. (rolls eyes)
Fahrenheit 451 (Summer)
Huck Finn
Othello
A Raisin in the Sun
Of Mice and Men</p>
<p>11TH GRADE (AP Language)
“Civil Disobedience”
The Great Gatsby
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Catcher in the Rye</p>
<p>12TH GRADE (AP Literature)
How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Summer)
1984 (Summer)
A Clockwork Orange (Summer)
Brave New World
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Invisible Man
In Cold Blood
Turn of the Screw
King Lear
Much Ado About Nothing</p>
<p>My AP teacher said Harry Potter and similar books would definitely NOT be considered to have literary merit and should only be used if we couldn’t think of anything else. By “literary merit,” they mean something on the level you would read in an AP class. I love Harry Potter, but it’s not as deep or challenging to be taken seriously in this sort of exam. And to the person who said they wrote about Snape… Writing about a novel that is at too low a level AND ignoring the prompt and writing about a character who isn’t the protagonist could really cost you.</p>
<p>Pretty sure that harry potter comment was a joke, and if you used it, you probably shouldn’t have been taking this exam. </p>
<p>@the84thline think about it: they have to pay for the people to make it, where they make it, the printing, the storing of the tests, the packaging, the shipping there, the shipping back, the processing, everyone involved in that, plus they have several other costs that we don’t know about and they have to pay for things when it gets graded. Yeah, there are a lot of tests, but who knows how much they actually make? they do have to generate and grade millions of tests</p>
<p>What lively conversation.xD On an unrelated note, I just saw The Great Gatsby.</p>
<p>@The84thline, how was the movie? How similar is it to the book / do you recommend it?</p>
<p>IM FREAKING OUT!! I wrote the first paragraph of the 3rd essay and I didn’t like how it sounded so i skipped a page and started over and completed it. HOWEVER I forgot to cross out the paragraph that I wrote two pages before. Will this effect my score?</p>
<p>You MUST read the book before watching the movie. I know, I know, this seems obvious: in this case, it’s an absolute necessity for truly enjoying the plot. The plot is predicated largely upon interpersonal relationships but the characterization is lacking in my opinion. There’s VERY little action, but it’s exciting IF you read the book. As for it staying true to the book, I’d say yes. Plenty of symbolism, powerful quotes, etc. </p>
<p>Final opinion: it’s a movie for people who READ and ENJOYED The Great Gatsby.</p>
<p>Just saw Gatsby… I have my problems with it, but it certainly has its moments.</p>
<p>Anyway, I almost used Great Expectations, but I ended up using The Chosen for my third essay. I’m fairly certain that not many people used any Potok, even though The Chosen was on the list of suggestions.</p>
<p>Great Gatsby IMO did a great job for those who read. However I’m disappointed with the awkward choice of hip hop. Also I would have loved to see the scene with Nick and Jordan Baker spending the day together. They really just focus on Gatsby however everyone who has read the novel knows that there is more than one love relationship going on. Also who had a problem at the end where they totally ignore the owl eye man and Gatsby’s attending the funeral. It could have been better but it was definitely a treat for scholars who loved the book.</p>
<p>The Great Gatsby (movie) was atrocious. And yes, I read the book.</p>
<p>I thought the Gatsby movie was better than the 70s version, but an OK movie at most.</p>
<p>Having Jay-Z on the soundtrack was a TERRIBLE decision. It sounded like s*** compared to the real amazing 1920s era songs, which were also included, like Rhapsody in Blue.</p>
<p>Many quotes were included just for the sake of inclusion, and were VERY rushed. I don’t feel like specific quotes (i.e. women can be only a fool) aren’t as important as the whole idea, and they focused on putting the important quotes in there, even if they didn’t really fit.</p>
<p>YET AGAIN, a very important scene of the funeral was extremely disrespected. While it was included at least, the only attendee was Nick, which was dumb. Especially when Owl Eyes was included earlier in the library. IMO, there is no point at all to include him in the movie if he doesn’t appear at the funeral.</p>
<p>Jordan was also included for the sake of inclusion. She played a very small part.</p>
<p>Those were the negatives. </p>
<p>Positives include that the actors/actresses all played their respective parts well, the movie was a good length, and the movie was correctly centered around Nick, not Gatsby, like the 70s movie was.</p>
<p>@lilkoolj: I wouldn’t worry about it. The grader should be able to figure out what happened. Essays start as a 1 and slowly become 9’s. They are there to award you points, not take them away. The most that could do is annoy a grader who started rating on the first one… If you didn’t get even through a full page, they would probably notice something was weird before they even started.</p>
<p>Plus it’s not like you can do anything about it now anyway. So why sweat it?</p>
<p>Guys I have a really big problem. So when I read the 3rd prompt, I totally skimmed over the bildungsroman part and focused on the “moral and psychological development” aspect instead. I ended up using Crime and Punishment and didn’t realize what I had done until afterwards. I mean, the book certainly has aspects of a bildungsroman, and I thought the essay in itself was fairly decent (I got a 5 in Lang last year so I’m not too terrible at English)…but will the readers even look at my essay and grade it, or will they just throw it out and give me a 0? And also out of curiosity, what happens if you don’t use a book of “comparable literary merit”?</p>
<p>I know several other people who also used Crime and Punishment as their book. I doubt the readers will just give you a 0, at least you answered part of the prompt!
…actually I’ve already forgotten what “Bildungsroman” means. I hope that doesn’t mean I totally ignored it in my essay too xD</p>