At my high school the first year that I could take an advanced placement class was last year which was my junior year. Sophomore year I took a Pre-AP English class that was supposed to prepare me for the advanced placement class so I decided to take AP English last year. Little did I know, AP English III was nothing like Pre-AP English.
AP classes are a lot different from just honors classes. They last all year long and are more challenging. They also require anyone who takes an AP class to take a big AP test at the end of the year. My AP English teacher was Dr. Klein and she helped all year to prepare us for this test. Dr. Klein is a very different teacher. At first I really didn’t like her class and I thought that she made us do a lot of unnecessary work, but I eventually learned to like her class and it turned out not to be that bad. The AP test consists of a timed multiple choice section and a timed writing section where you have to write three essays. I have taken multiple choice English tests and have written many essays before but none like this. In the beginning of the year we mostly focused on our junior research paper which helped me with writing but not so much with the timed part, however, during the second semester we took a lot of practice multiple choice tests and had to practice writing in-class essays. These essays were really difficult and not like any essays that I had written before. I remember the first time we had to write one of these essays. Dr. Klein told us to get out a sheet of paper and a pen and told us that we had the rest of that class period to write an essay on the topic that she gave us. I had never written an essay in such a short amount of time before and when she called time I had only wrote an introduction and a body paragraph. After the first time, it got easier and I eventually was able to write an essay that had an introduction, two to three body paragraphs, and a conclusion in the short amount of time that was given. There were three types of essays that we had to practice writing: analysis, synthesis, and argumentative and we only had one class period to write one which is a little over an hour.
Taking these practice tests and practicing writing these essays helped me to understand what the test was going to be like and helped me to be able to work faster. As we practiced writing and practiced taking these tests, I thought the goal was just to pass the test. On the day of the test, all of the AP English III students had to go to East Taylorsville Baptist Church to take the test. I was so nervous and scared that the test was going to be really hard. After starting the test I felt like all of this practice had helped me a lot to strategize and find the right answers and I felt like I did pretty well on the test but after getting the scores back I was devastated. To pass the test you have to score a three or higher but I ended up scoring a two. I thought that all of my hard work was for nothing and that I had wasted my time. After this I was very hesitant to take AP English my senior year, but I finally decided to take the class. This has made me realize that all of my hard work had paid off and that the goal of all of those practice tests and essays were not just to help me with the test, but also to prepare me for twelfth grade AP English IV.
Carlee's Blog 