Tips on getting a 5 in AP Lang and Comp?

CTMorris1999
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 20:32:29 +0000

I made a 5 this year on the Lang and Comp exam, so I have some expertise in the subject. One important question is “Do you have a teacher, or are you just taking the exam?” If you have a teacher, your method of getting a 5 will be a lot different than if you do not.

I’d say to get a 5, you need to practice, practice, practice! First, if you don’t know what rhetorical strategies are, I would look them up, memorize them, and be ready to identify them in a text. If you don’t know rhetorical strategies, you’re gonna have a hard time (I recommend, but do not know how well the list on prep scholar is http://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-language-and-composition-terms Generally prep scholar is pretty trustworthy, so this is a good list to know.

Now that you have the basics of rhetoric in your brain, here are some section specific tips

MULTIPLE CHOICE: I won’t lie…English is my worst subject too. I personally have an incredibly difficult time with the multiple choice. So how did I do it? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ To be honest, I feel that I got 30 or 35 out of 55 correct on my actual exam. Had I practiced more, and gotten more familiar, I would’ve probably done a bit better on the MC…but a 5 nonetheless. My best recommendation is to ask your teacher for some released MC content from past exams. There’s some multiple choice in the course description, but honestly, it was a lot easier than my real exam. I missed about 7ish on this MC, so I wouldn’t put all your faith in it. If your teacher doesn’t have any legitimate released material, you can always look some up, or direct message me and I could hook you up. Here’s some I just found online: BE SURE YOU TIME YOURSELF WHEN YOU TAKE THESE

https://www.losal.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=6255&dataid=12208&FileName=AP_EngLang_Practice_Exam_2014.pdf

Now two key issues will come up: pacing and knowledge.

I had lots of trouble with pacing. I usually had 5 minutes left and entire passage…not good. So take your 1 hour they give you, subtract 5 minutes for bubbling in and you now have 55 minutes. For four passages, thats about 13 minutes and 45 seconds. Force yourself to move to the next passage after about 13 minutes, so you’ll have an additional 3 minutes to answer any questions you couldn’t figure out.

With knowledge, you might miss a question simply because you didn’t know the answer or weren’t able to identify the correct answer. For every question you missed, and every question you were unsure of, write why you missed it/or what you were unsure about and how you will get it right next time. It takes some time, but if you truly want a 5, you’ll do it. Note any specific type of question you’re missing. For example, theres about 3-4 questions on every test about footnotes and citations. If you don’t know how to cite things, look up a tutorial. It’s an easy 4 points.

Doing multiple choice, and getting a feel for the test will keep you from being in shock on test day and messing up badly.

FREE RESPONSE: This was clearly my better section. Because I had excellent essays, I was able to make up for a poor multiple choice section. It may seem daunting–2 hours and 15 minutes to write 3 essays!!! That’s how I felt too, but after practicing, I knew that I would have plenty of time.

The first step is to understand each different free response prompt
Synthesis: Using documents as evidence in your argument
Rhetorical Analysis: Using elements of rhetoric as evidence in your argument
Argument: Using outside knowledge as evidence in your argument

Look online at 2017’s free response questions, you’ll see these three essays, how they’re written, and some sample essays. Really understand these, especially if your teacher isn’t good at explaining.

The second step is to pick an order. My personal order was annotate the documents for the synthesis, write rhetorical analysis, write synthesis, write argument. So how do you pick your order? Personally, because I wanted a 5, I planned on writing all three completely anyway, so I did what essay would take me longest first. So with this mindset, I knew rhetorical analysis was the hardest and it took me the longest, so I’d spend about 55 minutes writing this one. Now I have 1:05 left. I’d write my synthesis, the next easiest, and spend 35-40 minutes on this one, leaving me with usually 0:30 left. Argument was the easiest for me, and I could crank out a decent essay in the least amount of time for this one. My order will probably be different than yours. Do individual essays, and decide for yourself.

Generally try to spend 40 minutes on each essay, but if one essay takes you longer, and you can shave off some time on another, go for it.

To do your best on the free response (remember its 55% of your total grade) do lots of practice. Over my winter break, I did an entire essay set (you can find these by looking online for AP English Free Response) and asked my English teacher to grade it. If you do an essay set over the break when no one else does, you get more personalized advice on your essays. In addition to this, we took a mock exam, so I had, yet again, more practice. Also we wrote about 1 out of class essay every week, skipping every other month, so we got practice that way. Like with multiple choice, time yourself for the best practice.

You might wanna start small. Maybe time yourself for 40 minutes and do just one essay, like we did out of class every week, or add the extra 15 minutes of reading the documents if you want to do a synthesis. Once you’re able to complete each essay, you’ll probably wanna set aside a sitting and do 3 at once. Trust me, with practice, the daunting task of writing three essays is no big deal. You don’t have to overload however. I probably did more writing than necessary for a 5. I should’ve spent that time doing multiple choice.