<p>I am currently a junior and thinking about preparing for the AP English Literature exam this May. If I don’t take the AP English Literature exam I would only have 1 semester AP humanity grade under my belt, I am a science/math person so I would have like 5,6 APs in math and science by this year. Unfortunately I’m not even sure if I can break a 3 on the AP English Literature, but I think it would look bad on the college transcript if I’ve only took one AP humanity exam up until my junior year. If I start preparing for the AP English Litarature exam maybe I will have less time to study for the SAT, but do you guys think if it’s worth it? btw, I am aiming at top 20 colleges/universities.</p>
<p>Your post does not stipulate that you have taken the class in AP Eng.Lit…so…I am guessing you have taken the class. The top 20 schools want to see the most rigorous course load, and if you have taken an AP class will look for your AP score.</p>
<p>Don’t bother. One AP class here or there is not going to make a big difference. It’s more important that you focus on doing well on the APs you are taking. Sounds like studying for AP lit will take a lot of your time and stress you out, and you still won’t have a score you are happy with.</p>
<p>From your post, it actually sounds like you haven’t taken AP Lit. Is that right? If you haven’t, don’t bother taking the test. You’ll just be wasting your time and money, plus you’ll probably end up with a middling score. </p>
<p>From an admissions perspective, there really isn’t any special boost for doing well on an AP test, it’s your perfomance in the class itself that they really care about.</p>
<p>If you plan to self-study the exam, I would recommend taking English Language and Composition instead of English Literature; the test is easier.</p>
<p>I am an international ESL, and I almost didn’t study, and scored a 5, so I reckon that should be fairly easy for you to do as well, since you are, well, actually fluent in English.</p>
<p>Good luck! </p>
<p>@Biply: Do you think AP test scores without the test don’t have any weight if your school doesn’t offer APs either?</p>
<p>Are you actually going to study for the SAT? For a long time? It seems that a lot of CCers do that, but it’s uncommon here. Consider whether or not studying AP Lit will actually take away from SAT prep time.</p>
<p>You sound like you’re not very into English. So there’s really no big reason for you to take it. It’s more likely that you won’t do well since it seems you haven’t taken the class and it’s hard to be directed in preparation when one dislikes the topic. Applicants don’t need to be well-rounded. It’s great that you’re sure about your interests.</p>
<p>Step 1: Buy How to read literature like a professor & The penguin dictionary of lit terms & theory
Step 2: Buy some flashcards or something.
Step 3: Make sure you can write essays in the given time/wear a watch
Step 4: Take AP test.
Step 5: ???
Step 6: Score awesome.</p>
<p>AP Eng Lang is easier, but based on arguments, and terms used in arguing (ethos, pathos, logos, technical stuff, like anadiplosis, anaphora, etc) AP Lit is all about analyzation and uses a lot of poetry. </p>
<p>Personally I feel like everyone should at least take one, since in top colleges, writing is pretty crucial, no matter what field you’re in. I had a great teacher for AP Eng Lang, didn’t study, and got a 5. It’s perfectly doable, if you can hammer out essays.</p>
<p>Some of you guys are right that I am currently not enrolled in an AP English course. What do most juniors take? AP English Literature or English Language? I mean I am really good at SAT-type readings but I might need to pay some extra work on working on my timed writing and stuff.</p>
<p>Do AP Language first. It’s less holistic than Literature is, and more straightforward. It’s also probably more relevant to you to be able to form intelligent arguments and discussions in your writing. Most juniors that I know of (and the pre-req at my school) take Lang first THEN lit.</p>
<p>Timed writing will matter.</p>
<p>My AP language teacher was exceptional, and we read a lot of short american stories (Mark Twain is a biggie) and articles about everything- the 2008 election, the sermon of John Edwards about hellfire and damnation, stuff by other big american figures- Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, stuff about American Imperialism, slavery, the harlem rennaissance, etc. The passages you answer questions on will probably draw from articles or american writing. Try and learn a few American literary movements- Romanticism, Classicism, naturalism, transcendentalism, realism, modernism. That helps. I bought the cliff notes flashcards for the test- there were way more cards than needed, but my friends borrowed them and liked them. (And they hit a lot of the lit terms you need that are in the penguin dictionary.)</p>
<p>Finally, my teacher’s method of brainstorming for essays was a PAPA. Purpose of the writing, Audience it’s intended for, Persona of the writer/narrator, Argument in the writing. We had to identify these, and then pick out different terms/methods being used “They’re using ethos to further the argument…” and it gave a great background for our essays. I think my friends jokingly came up with a MAMA Metaphor, Allusions, Movement, and Anaphora (any repetitions) to further it, but PAPA is pretty standard.</p>
<p>I have another acronym for lit, but Language is probably your better bet.</p>
<p>It’s doable to self study for this, but it’s no SAT.</p>
<p>Bestswimmer, I honestly don’t think it’s worth your time to take it if you haven’t been in the class. I didn’t actually study for it either, and I’m not really sure how effective it would be to try. Like Yurtle and others, I had a really great teacher, and I think I probably improved just through constant writing. In terms of difficulty, I’d say AP Lang is several cuts above the SAT for passage analysis, although if you’re a good reader it shouldn’t be super difficult. Your main concern would be the essays. Frankly, I don’t see the point at this stage. Isn’t AP registration over, anyways? </p>
<p>But if you are serious about doing it, the good news is that the AP Lang test is completely self-contained, meaning that it doesn’t assume outside knowledge of history or literature. Any analysis is based only on the passages they give you. Good luck. And yeah, Language and Comp is the standard junior test.</p>
<p>@Guilty, I’m not really sure in your case. But given that you are an ESL and an International applicant, I’d have to imagine they’d be impressed by your score. Either way, congrats! A lot of native speakers don’t do that well.</p>
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<p>What test did you take? AP English Language and AP U.S. History (until this year) was a blocked class with two teachers at my school for a reason. You don’t need it to be AP but a basic understanding of US History would be very helpful. Hence why I mentioned the specific literary/thinking movements (You’ll need to know when transcendentalism was around to understand best the context of the pieces. Same with getting why Puritanical writers wrote the way they did, and the romantics wrote the way they did, and so on.) Now do you need to know exactly when Pearl Harbor happened? No, you don’t. But there are very large literary movements that a big part of history (Harlem Rennaissance, for example.) and many styles of writing or written articles reflect the times they were written in. They don’t honestly ask overly many questions about it, but it’s important enough to note that one or two questions may ask, and the ability to identify the movements would probably improve the essays.</p>
<p>I’ll agree- a good reader/deducer would do just fine on the Multiple choice portion of the exam- that is mostly self-contained, but again, basic knowlege can’t hurt.</p>
<p>College board even says:</p>
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<p>You get two free response questions- one in which you analyze a piece of work’s argument and another where you make your own argument and draw completely from your outside knowledge- (Defend, refute or qualify type statements are common), and one Synthesis paper, in which you form your own argument based on other arguments. Context, context, context. </p>
<p>It’s the essays that will be the biggest hurdle. Read a few online samples OP, see if you can write a good essay. <a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap09_frq_english_language.pdf</a></p>
<p>Images are to be analyzed just like writing. </p>
<p>It’s really up to you, if you think you could do it or not.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that wouldn’t be helpful, but it isn’t impossible to do well without it. </p>
<p>Haha, thanks for editing out the maniacal laughter from your beginning question. I know it was rhetorical, but I might as well say that I took the May 2008 one as a sophomore and got a 5, without really knowing or using any outside historical knowledge. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.</p>
<p>There are a handful of situations where taking an AP test without having taken the formal AP course make sense. For example, if you’re fluent in a language (as through an immersion program, or because you learned it as a child and continued study of the literature) then the AP test would serve to validate your fluency. Or if your high school is a strong academic school that doesn’t necessarily label classes “AP” as a matter of policy (some elite private schools fall in this category), and you want to see how well you can do on the AP.</p>
<p>But in those cases where you haven’t taken the class, you’ve missed the critical writing assignments, the class discussions, etc. In that case the AP test may be a validation that you’re good at absorbing concentrated material on your own. Perhaps if you get a “5” someone on the admission committee would take note. But generally I think they would wonder why you bothered. They already know from your transcript, which I expect is very strong, that you have excellent study skills.</p>
<p>AP classes are not replacements for equivalent named classes at selective academic colleges. I don’t think it wise to try to place out of such classes. By doing so you’ll miss the college experience.</p>
<p>So I think that there are better things for you to do than cram for an AP class in a subject you haven’t taken. These include extra focus on a EC for which you have passion, an exceptional paper that you prepare for another class, and so on.</p>
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<p>Well, yes. But the AP test is designed to include context. This gets especially important for Literature, since it’s one of the types of literary criticism. (Historical/Biographical criticism is pretty big.) You can do it without the context, it’s just unwise if you have the option of bringing more to the table, and the skill is necessary, so might as well pick it up then, yeah?</p>
<p>Yeah, I absolutely agree that you might as well learn as much as you can, not just for the AP test, but because it’ll be helpful in the future. It’s just that, given the OP’s situation, I don’t really think he has enough time to make the effort worthwhile.</p>
<p>Also, look at the schools you’re thinking about applying to and see that they give credit for the AP test. I took USH, WH, Chem, Calc AB, and Lit, and got at least 4s on all of them, but didn’t get credits worth anything for the English test. If I had known it wouldn’t count, I wouldn’t have paid the fee to take the test.</p>
<p>If you end up taking lit, then make sure you’ve read a few of the books on the list they provide at the end for the free essay. Or at least make sure you’ve read some classics/respected literature. If you have enough time, reread a couple of those books. I recommend Heart of Darkness, a Faulkner text, The Awakening (VERY easy to write about imo), and/or an obscure Shakespeare play (aka not Hamlet, R&J, etc.).</p>
<p>^^^ For LIT not Lang.</p>
<p>yeah that’s what I said.</p>
<p>Oh. xD; Wow. I CAN READ. I SWEAR.</p>
<p>Sorry, it just slipped right past. My fault for multitasking!</p>