To my complete surprise, I didn't do as bad as I thought. In fact, I did a lot better than I thought. Many of the questions I thought I got wrong I actually got right, and as I was reading through the passages, I realized I understood a lot more than I thought I did. One of my strong points I discovered was searching for small details in giant blocks of text. The second passage in the test proved this, as I got many questions right that were right from the text, as long as you took the time to find them. I also found that I dealt with lists of answers quite well, like questions where they gave you several words and asked which were found in the text in what way (a specific one was from the second passage, where it asked what "darkness" was referring to). These types of questions popped up all over the test, so as long as I could identify where each answer choice was or was not in the passage, I could solve the problem asked. Another strength I found was that I could analyze poems better than I thought I could. I always thought of poetry as convoluted and difficult to understand, simply because there were so many ways a poem can be interpreted. But as I checked my answers for the two poems in the test, I found that most of my interpretations were actually correct. I managed to find the symbolism hidden in all the figurative language and confusing syntax.
Of course, after that strenuous hour, I knew there were definitely areas I needed to improve in. One of the biggest things I missed was the poetry form questions. I never studied poetry forms, and several ones on the test I had never heard of at all. Okay, I knew that a ballad usually dealt with love, but what in the world is a lyrics? And what's the difference between a Shakespearean sonnet and a Petrarch sonnet? Fortunately, there were only two questions dealing with forms, so it didn't kill my score. Another area I fell heavily on was the figurative language portion. Yes, I know my individual figurative language devices. I know what a simile is, what a metaphor is, what a personification is. But after taking this test I realized how difficult it was to pinpoint an exact device onto a piece of text. They started blending together and looking so similar I couldn't decide which one was the better answer. One more thing that I stumbled upon was the use of an older version of English in the second poem. It was difficult to understand because I never really studied the language of the time, and I got caught up in the words that we don't use today.
So now it comes down to this - what can I improve in the following months up to the actual AP test? Better yet, what are some goals I can set for myself so I can get that 5?
- Study up on poetry forms - This will come with time, I'm sure. I'm quite positive that we're going to be discussing these in class, so when we do, I'll make sure to memorize them so I can be prepared for those easy point questions in May. If I need to, I'll be making flashcards, and until I can recite them off the top of my head, I'll be sure to keep drilling them.
- Review figurative language - This is another one that I'm assuming I'll cover in class, especially how to tell them apart besides the dictionary definition. I think that I'll also need a lot of practice in this area by reading different poems and identifying figurative devices as I go. The more application, the better I'll get.
- Analyzing texts - While I did do quite well in this area - one of my hidden strengths - I don't think I can depend on my skill right now and go take the AP test. This area I have always been faulty in, either doing super well or doing poorly (I think the best example would be my SAT reading scores). It all comes down to what I am given to analyze, and I don't want that to be the only way I can do well. This includes learning how to read older versions of English like of that in Shakespeare. Therefore, as the days tick down to the AP test, I want to improve this area as much as I can, to the best of my ability. Practice, practice, practice!
The horror stories have been displaced for now, in my head at least. AP Lit has proven itself to be a manageable class - in the first few days of course. Hopefully it stays this way as the trimester continues.1
1 This post is for an AP English assignment.
I'm quite grateful as well that we didn’t have to do any of the essays, because I wouldn’t have known even where to start. Like you, I did better than expected, but also worse than expected. Questions I thought I had missed, I didn’t. Questions that I thought I had gotten right, I did miss. Your goals are very similar to mine though you might want to have an actual time frame to complete your goals by. Studying up on poetry forms are easy way to correct some of the mistakes that we made, as I also had no idea what the difference between a Petrarch Sonnet and a Shakespearian one was. Even though, I surprisingly did well on the figurative language aspect of the test, I am definitely still fairly weak on them and flashcards sounds like a great idea. I also didn’t consider that the older form of English had an impact, but looking back it did. In my own blog post I cited the overwhelming feeling of reading some of the poetry and prose pieces, but now I realized my lack of familiarity with this older style of English was critical in being unable to interpret the pieces correctly. Your goal of interacting with different styles of text and language especially with ones you’re unfamiliar should really make a difference in the scores on future practice tests. Finally, even though this wasn’t in your blog post, I totally agree with you on the fact that we have this ingrained sense of skim the passage and move on to the questions, where we definitely need to slow down, annotate and really understand the text.
ReplyDelete