Today we will:
- Score the Part I Questions from yesterday.
- Review the correct answers.
- Plot our progress
Assess, from your performance on your second multiple-choice section, your strengths and weaknesses.
Assignment Parameters: Due Thursday
- Your blog should refer to specific question types, styles and test taking strategies. In addition, unless you are the first to post, refer to an observation or future strategy discussed by one of your classmates.
- When discussing a specific, provide a quote. (This can be from the question, class discussion and/or the passage.)
- This is a meta-cognitive activity. Be specific about your understanding of yourself as a learner. Responses should be a minimum of 500 words.
- (Please do not make reference to your M.C. section score. )
- Perhaps most importantly, look for progress and/or patterns in questions from one test to the nex! How are you learning from seeing your second round of Part I testing?
When taking the test for the second time I realized I was much more aware of test taking strategies and how to approach certain questions. Consequently, I was aware of when I truly did not understand a question, what it was asking, and how best to approach it. After reviewing my missed and correct questions I realized that the factor that was hurting me the most was my lack of vocabulary pertaining to the A.P English Lit exam. There were numerous questions that incorporated a word in which I did not know or properly understand therefore, when answering the question since I did not know what the question was asking I wasn’t able to properly answer it. When answering questions I also would cross out words I did not know or wasn’t familiar with this would lead me to cross out the correct answer almost instantly because I was hesitant to pick an answer to which I didn’t know the meaning. Jossie and I discussed writing down a few words from the exam that were used frequently and looking up the meaning so that we understand their proper meaning next time we take the test.
ReplyDeleteA testing strategy that I was able to use very effectively when test taking was eliminating answer choices down to about two of the best choices and make the most educated guess on answers I was absolutely unsure about. After grading the test I saw that many times even if I got the answer wrong the correct answer was one of the two answer choices that I was deciding between. This proved to me that many times I was eliminating the proper answer choices but when it came down to picking between the final answer I must be much more meticulous in paying attention to what the question was asking.
After seeing my second round of Part 1 testing I came to three integral realizations. Although time is definitely something to be conscious about when taking the test I do not seem to particularly struggle with it. So although I still need to be conscious of the time restraint I need to make sure that I take my time and really think about the questions and their answers before coming to any rush decisions just because I feel pressured about time. Vocabulary is such a big factor of this test that if you really don’t understand some of the vocabulary you are putting yourself at a big restraint. When learning these new words or being presented with vocabulary I must stay conscious of making sure that I am not only learning the meaning of the word but that I am learning how to properly identify and use the word. This is so that when it is presented in a question my overall understanding of the question or answer choice will allow me to move through the test quicker. My third major realization is that I believe that I need to really focus when I am reading the passages and just annotate them as much as can so that I really understand the plot for when it becomes time to answer the question.
Denisha
There are many things that I learned from this second multiple choice Test. While taking the test I noticed that certain types of question gave me a difficult time than the others. The one that I found the most difficult were the grammar and word meaning section. While reading the paragraph I did not pay attention to the specific words and their definition, I was concerned on understanding the paragraph as a whole. So when questions like “what does this specific word mean?” I had to go back to the text to the specific line that word is from, due to the time restraint; I didn’t read the passage the word is from, and instead I read the line where the word is. By doing that I didn’t get the context that the word was used in paragraph, instead I guessed on the choice that seems to make sense the most within the line. Also, as Denisha said “the factor that was hurting me the most was my lack of vocabulary pertaining to the A.P English Lit exam” from this I learned that learning the vocabulary will help us a lot on questions like this.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I noticed that when I came back to the text for reference, I did not clearly remember the text and the specific information, so I learned that if you annotate your basic understanding of each paragraph or stanza while reading it, when you go back to the text you can easily remember what you were reading. This could even be helpful for the word meaning questions.
In the baseline multiple choice test, I faced a hard time with time management since it was the first time I was taking the test. This time I read the passage quickly but with a strong understanding, and I didn’t spend too much time on the questions that I didn’t know. I found out that this strategy works out really well because when you skip the questions you don’t know you are spending time on the questions that you can points on. In fact, every question is one point so by trying to answer the ones you know than spending time on the once you don’t know might boost your score up.
Another type of question that really gave me a hard time was the hidden idea questions. For example, question 41 was, “One can infer that the narrator had: A) been away at school for a long time, B) recently returned from a long journey, C) once valued money a great deal, D) been a mountain climber, E) suffered unimaginable hardships” I chose choice D as the answer but the correct answer was choice C. This told me that I did not analyze the passage well because I chose the answer that was very basic to the text. Since I quickly read the passage due to time management, I did not clearly intake all the information from the passage.
I realized that I have improved on main idea questions and theme based questions and performed well on them this time compared to the baseline test because I start to see a pattern that they appear in. I applied few strategies that I learned from the first test to this one, and now I have developed many other strategies from this second test for how to manage my time and how to annotate them. I also believe that the more practice we do, the more we will be prepared for the real AP exam. Therefore, by practicing these types of questions we will eventually start to see a pattern on how these should be answered and we will also be quicker in answering them by practicing.
~Mariam
Nikki
ReplyDeleteGoing from my first attempt at the AP Lit part one test to my second attempt, my score did not go up. Sadly, it went down six points. I attribute part of this to the fact that I rushed more on this test than I had on the first, and I had more difficulty focusing. I struggled with questions that required me to know different terms and definitions, but I did excel with questions wanting to know about the tone and references.
My biggest problem on the practice test, both this one and the previous one, were the questions involving our literary terms. Whether the question asked which of the following was in the reading or not, or they asked what something can be described as, I had great difficulty answering those. I had issues with them because I did not know what a majority of the words meant, leaving me in the dark. For example, question three was one I could have gotten right had I known what the words meant. The question asked “The narrator’s attitude towards parlor generals and field deserters can best be described as one of…” and our options were derision, tolerance, admiration, impatience, and compassion. With this question, I did not know what derision was. I crossed out admiration and compassion because I knew they were not the answer, and then chose impatience because I didn’t know the meaning of derision. Had I known that derision meant he held contempt for them, then I would have chosen it due to the fact that in line 15, the author wrote “… who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in rhythm”. In other words, I had issues with factual based questions.
The questions that I did well in were ones involving the tone of the reading or asked about some theme or reference involved in it. This was something I seemed to excel in with the previous practice test as well. An example of this can be found in question forty-two, which asks “The theme the narrator expresses can best be summarized as,” where the options were gambling will only lead to unhappiness, man is too taken with his own importance, some things are just not worth understanding, money is not everything, and money is man’s downfall. It was a tricky question, as each answer had some relevance to the question, but I was able to determine that the best answer was the fact that man is too taken with his own importance. I managed to pick out the best answer.
There are a few things I could do to make sure that for the next test, I make sure my score goes up more. I already started annotating while reading, but that didn’t help to bring my grade up. I could try to look more into the answers that are wrong, so I can cross more answers off and bring the possibility of choosing the correct answer up. I could also go through the term list given to use with the answers to this most recent practice test and make flash cards, so I will know their definitions for the future. As Denisha states in her response to the exam, “Although time is definitely something to be conscious about when taking the test I do not seem to particularly struggle with it”. I still had about five minutes at the end of the test, meaning that I do not need to work so much on my time strategies, especially since this test had fifty-eight questions and the most amount of questions we should see in the spring will be sixty. Since I have my time spent properly, now I need to work more on my vocabulary and annotating of the questions.
Sana Suhail
ReplyDeleteAP Literature and Composition
Mrs. O’Donnell
November 28, 2012
I was surprised to see that instead of improving from the first round of testing, my score went down this time around. As I was analyzing some of the questions I got wrong, however, I noticed certain things that improved from my last test, and certain strategies that did not work well for me, this time around. Perhaps, the most predominant issue for most students in the class I noticed was the timing. It was hard to read the passages, often reread them, annotate, analyze, and answer the questions all in the given amount of time. Thus, time management was an issue. Since the last test had three fewer questions, and relatively less complex passages, I was able to finish 15 minutes early and had time to go back to the questions I was unsure about and think them through. This time around, the timing was so tight that towards the end, just to complete the test, I had to skim the reading passages as well as the questions and choices. Noticeably, I got many wrong answers towards the end of the test. For next time, I will answer all questions relating to poems first, since all questions count equally, and the more you answer the better. Then, I will continue with the rest of the test.
Another very noticeable problem I had during the test was, as Sam, Josh, and Shakira mentioned in our review session, that the poems were not marked with stanza numbers, nor was there clear distinction between where a group of lines ended. Thus, since most of the questions, referred to specific stanza numbers, I got many of those wrong. This was not an issue in the first, College Board exam, in which the stanzas were made distinct through appreciate spacing between them. Another factor that was detrimental to my performance on this test was the fact that many of the questions were based on the knowledge of certain rhetorical devices and words. For example, in question number 1, I was able to immediately illuminate the first three choices, but I was stuck between “extended metaphor” and “verisimilitude.” I knew that the poem did indeed include multiple sets of metaphors that ran throughout the poem, but the term “verisimilitude” confused me. I vaguely remembered the meaning of verisimilitude as something which is used to compare two things, and thus chose it as my answer, but the correct answer was in fact, “extended metaphor." During our discussion, Josh and Sam reminded me how Mrs. O’Donnell taught us to “stay away from things you don’t know.” So for next time, when I encounter a word or phrase I do not know, I will try to avoid selecting it as my answer if another answer makes more sense.
Some of the strategies I was able to use from the previous test review that helped this time around was annotating and eliminating answers. As Denisha mentioned, eliminating answers was really helpful, especially if you were having trouble with a question, because it narrowed the choices down. I used to dislike annotating because I thought it was cumbersome and time consuming and used it minimally on the last test. However, I annotated both the passages and questions this time and discovered that contrary to wasting time, my notes actually saved time when I had to quickly glance over parts of the passage. I will continue to use both of these strategies moving forward.
As Mariam mentioned, many of the questions required us to go back to the reading passage and reread a section or two, which was time consuming, especially when time was already limited to begin with. Thus, the first improvement I will need to work on is time management; next time I will attempt the questions related to poetry first. Another question type I had trouble with, as Nikki mentioned, were the tone and inference ones, because they required a critical reading and rereading of the passages. For next time, I hope to overcome the challenges I had during this test and my goal is to improve my score by employing the strategies mentioned above.
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ReplyDeleteLooking back on how I did on the baseline practice test I was very excited to see that the score on the practice test that we just took went up; in fact it almost doubled. This time around I felt that the questions were much easier to answer now having more experience with A.P. type questions. One of my big improvements was one that Nikki had as well and that was annotating more in the passages. My improvement was similar to Nikki’s on the fact that I was starting actually annotate rather than just reading the text. While it turned out that on some passages I didn’t need them, they helped me understand what was going on and have a clearer understanding of the passage as well.
ReplyDeleteOn the first test I did not have a good understanding on how to properly answer the questions and what some were really meaning. I also improved on the amount of time spent reading the passage. Some of the questions that I was successful on was questions that I could understand and were able to use the proses of elimination on. For example, “4. This poem can best be characterized as an example of (A) a lyrical ballad (B) a fable (C) free verse (D) mock heroic (E) iambic pentameter” (164). The correct answer was what I chose which was choice C. I knew that C was correct by using the proses of elimination. I started with the most obvious choice that was wrong which was E then eliminated A, B and D. But what helped me, was knowing what free verse and the other choices meant. By knowing the definitions it made it easier to make a final decision on what answer to choose. These are some of the types of questions that I improved on.
Some of the questions that I still had trouble on were questions that I did not know some of the literary terms. There were other questions that when we looked over them saw that I had the right answer the first time. There was also another type of questions that were difficult those other questions were questions that had multiple answers but having to choose the most correct answer. However, they were easier to deal with than the last test. These were the types of questions that I still had difficulty with.
One of the problems that I still face is using my time more appropriately. On this test I found myself rushing at the end just to fill in the answers and some only just a glance. One of the reasons that I think this happened was due to the fact that I was spending more time on certain questions and not moving on from them allowing for time to be wasted. To improve even more I need to read the passages faster and read through the questions faster as well. Furthermore, I could improve on staying focused, although I did stay focused more than the previous test it is something that I can still work on.
During the second AP Lit Multiple Choice Part I Questions I noticed what kinds of questions I excelled more in, less in, and problems that occurred for me throughout the test. The questions that I excelled in included main idea, hidden ideas and identifying the authors meaning. Questions I did not well on involved identifying some key vocabulary words, diction, and figurative language. Some of the methods that I exercised this time included underlining the word “except” when it showed up in a question and looking back into the passage to find the main idea of what the author was attempting to say. I also exercised my ability to read the passage more thoroughly and less passively this time around allowing me to understand the passages better and grasp what the author is trying to convey to his audience.
ReplyDeleteSome strategies that the people in my group mentioned that I will use for the next test when it comes to a poetry passage are to go through and see if I can identify places where there are literary devices. Since a majority of the questions pertaining to the poem were about things like identifying things like assonance in the poem, I will also have to learn my literary terms better. Two of the major problems I had included staying focused on the test and time management. Since I was so distracted during the test it made it hard for me to get through the test in a sufficient amount of time like I normally do. This caused me toward the end to really rush into placing answers down and not paying closer attention to the questions as I did earlier in the test. The best way I can fix this is to clear my mind and figure out how much time I should take for answering questions and annotating so that I can get through the test to the best of my abilities in the allotted amount of time.
A question that I got wrong number 41, “One can infer that the narrator had: a. been away at school for a long time, b. recently returned from a long journey, c. once valued money a great deal, d. been a mountain climber, e. suffered unimaginable hardships”. The answer that I chose was b because the person seemed to have been in a situation where he could not interact with other people. During my group discussion I understood that the correct choice was c because he references people wanting money but mocking people who care about far too much it now. As Sana mentioned, and as everyone in my group agreed on “the poems were not marked with stanza numbers, nor was there clear distinction between where a group of lines ended”. If the stanza’s had been marked more correctly this would have helped not just me but a lot of people during the last part of the test where everyone’s brains were tired and made it hard to make a justifiable stanza identification. Looking back at the first and now the second test I understand that I need to be more alert to my time during the test and by exercising my strategies I can achieve a better score the next time.
-Sam
Examining the second round of the multiple choice testing, I, like many of my classmates, was very surprised to see my score decrease. However, after going in depth both during the class discussions and at home, I noticed that the questions I got wrong most often were the question types involving literary terms. These questions, as Nikki stated, “which of the following was in the reading or not”. An example is question 27 which states, “This passage can be said to begin” with answer choices a) in a sinister manner, b) in media res, c) melodramatically, d) passively, and e) ironically. This essentially baffled me because I did not have a firm grasp on the meaning of the words which made it difficult for me to answer. In the end, I chose answer choice d, passively, because I immediately was able to eliminate a, in a sinister manner, and e, ironically, because I was aware of the meaning of those two option. However I was stuck between b, c, and d, which gave me trouble because I did not know two of what in media res and melodramatic meant, therefore I was confused and chose the only option that I knew, which ended up being the incorrect answer. Yet, had I known what melodramatic and in media res had meant I could have eliminated the two options and picked the correct answer. SO, as a result, for the next practice exam and the exam in May, I will attempt to learn majority of the literary terms, which in turn will hopefully improve my score.
ReplyDeleteAn additional aspect of the exam that I struggled with was timing. I found the passages, on this test specifically, to be very long and complex. As a result, I spent much of my time simply trying to interpret the passage that I did not have enough time to even underline key words, but simply had to rush to the questions. Also, I found the questions on this practice test to be very difficult, which caused them to be very time consuming on top of the long passage and lead to simply guessing at the end of the test to finish the on time. Additionally, concerning timing, I also had the same problem as the first practice exam where I began the test slow and was forced to move very rapidly at the end. This lead me, like the first exam, to rushing so fast midway through the test because of lack of time, that I did not adequately understand the core meaning of the passage nor exactly what it was asking. This in turn illuminates my lack of annotating. I found that due to my lack of time management and the complexity of the questions, I was spending just enough time to barely read the passages. However, I now see that annotating can in fact save time because it is extracting all of the content in the passage before even approaching the questions, therefore allowing for me to find the answer much more smoothly, rather than searching feverishly through the passages, essentially rereading the entire section.
On the other hand, I seemed to do well on elimination, a concept I struggled with last time. Consequently, this allowed me to increase my probability of answering the question correctly and take out any choices I knew for sure were incorrect. Furthermore, I saw that I succeeded on questions that involved “all of the above except”, because I underlined the key word “except”, which allowed me to remember what I was looking for, such as in question 25 which asked for the feelings the narrator was feeling except, allowing for me to search and eliminate all the options I found and more easily find the correct answer.
I feel that I improved on my methods of elimination and my underlining of “except” allowing me to have my focus drawn back to the passage. I admit that I need to study my vocabulary, specifically concerning literary devices, more in depth. In addition, I need to work on my time management and annotations of key passages, which I can accomplish by practicing and searching for the main idea rather than the small details. Moreover, I hope to implement these strategies, and as a result raise my overall score, into my next practice test, my future quizzes, and the real AP exam.
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ReplyDeleteOn my second attempt on taking the AP Lit multiple choice section I did a much better job than on my first attempt. I went up 7 points but it is still not the score that I would like have. I have improved on my annotating skills, I believe I did a much better job annotating this time than I did before. As Mariam said “I learned that if you annotate your basic understanding of each paragraph or stanza while reading it, when you go back to the text you can easily remember what you were reading”, this is very true because by looking back at the text and reading my annotations, it helped me to answer a question that had to do with text reference. I also applied a few strategies that helped me to find the best answer for each question, for example on most of the questions I used the process of elimination this is something I did not do the first time but I realized that I should do because it would help me out a lot.
ReplyDeleteIn this second attempt I also had difficulties managing my time because I really was not pacing myself the way I should have done. I spent too much time on questions that I was struggling on when I should have just skipped and continue with the others and then come back to it but I did not do this. Therefore since I spent so much time on certain questions I was not able to fully read the last poem and was left to basically guess on most of them. Now next time I know that I should skip the questions that I struggle on and comeback to them later on. Also since I was running out time, I really was not paying attention when I was filling in my bubble sheet and I accidently fill in the wrong bubbles for some questions, for example, I filled in C for 27 when it should have been for 26.I have learned that pacing yourself while taking this exam is a major contributor on how well you do on this test.
I also had many difficulties with the AP lit vocabulary, there were many questions that had the terms in them and I did not know there meaning so therefore, when I had to answer the question I did not know what the question was asking. Learning these terms are very crucial because most of the questions have to do with these terms. I have to begin studying these terms more often in order to receive a better score on the multiple choice section. Overall I hope to improve on the AP lit terms and managing my time so I can raise my score.
Ryan Lawson
ReplyDelete11/29/12
A.P. Literature and Composition
AP Lit. Pre-Test Evaluation 2
My performance was worse on my second trial of the multiple choice section than on my first trial. This shows me that my problems with the multiple are much more extensive than I had originally thought them to be. It is now clear to me that I am still having difficulty with questions pertaining to not only theme, but also to author’s style. It is also obvious that I still have to make substantial improvements to my timing.
After checking my responses and comparing them to the correct responses, I could see that I consistently did poorly in questions that involved the theme or main idea of the passage. For example, question 34 asked, “The main idea of the passage is best stated in which of the following pair of paragraphs?” I incorrectly chose choice C, “paragraphs one and four” when in fact the correct answer was E, “paragraphs one and six”. After reading the explanation as to why choice E was correct, I realized that I had answered incorrectly because my answer, though good, was not the best choice, and of course, one should always aim to find the best choice. I also answered question 31 incorrectly. It asked, “The theme of this passage can best be summed up with which of the following statements?” I answered B, “War makes man do things that he would not do otherwise, but the correct answer was actually C, “Act first; regret later”. After reading the answer guide, I realized that I made this mistake because my answer was not specific to the passage, but rather to the literary theme of war in general.
I also performed poorly on questions that involved the author’s style. One example of this is found in my response to question 14, which asked what one could infer from the passage. I chose answer choice D, “martins are singing” however, the correct answer was B, “pond is melting” Also, when answering question 23, “The word ‘plump’ in line 59, most closely compares to the term” I chose choice A, “chubby” immediately. The correct answer was actually D, “clutch”. My responses to these questions help me to understand that I was completely misunderstanding the author’s style while answering questions, which might also affect my performance on other types of questions as well.
Once again, my timing was a major problem. My running out of time caused me to guess the questions in passage 4, resulting in me answering the majority of those questions incorrectly. I ran out of time because, once again, I spent too much time one questions that confused me. Not only that, but as Anthony noted, “I could improve on staying focused” because I was much less focused during this test than the last one.
Overall, it is clear to me that I still have a large amount of improvements to make before the A.P. Literature exam, and that I will need plentiful practice. After my baseline, I strategized to do more annotations in order to cut down my working time and conduct better analyzation of passage. I did that very little in this test, so that the few annotations that I made served more to waste time than to actually help me in my answering. If I am more diligent in my annotation in the future, I am confident that that same strategy can help me to solve all of my major problems.
Jossieanette Nieves
ReplyDeleteMrs. O’Donnell
AP Lit
11/28/12
When taking the test for the second time I realized I was more aware of test taking strategies. Whenever I came across a question that I did not understand, I tried my best to look for a lot of clues and even if I still had to guess, it would be the best guess I could possibly make. After looking through my incorrect and right answers I came to realization that the questions that affected my grade the most were the ones with higher vocabulary. For instance, there were a lot of questions that in the answer choices it would have one word or two that I did not know the meaning of. Since I did not know what some of the vocabulary words meant or how to identify them, it would throw me off the question.
A test taking strategy that I was able to use while taking this AP exam efficiently was looking for clues to eliminate answer choices down to the two that were the best choices. From that point like Denisha said I would make the most educated guesses on answers I was absolutely unsure about. After I reviewed my answers, I realized that using the elimination process was pretty efficient as a skill for test takers because even if I got some of the questions wrong, the answers that I was stuck between was either the right answer or the one that made the best sense, unfortunately, I would be too unsure and go with the one that made the best sense, but not the correct one. This is inferring that although I would get it wrong, I was eliminating the answer choices that were incorrect.
After seeing how I did on this AP exam for the second time I came to a couple realizations. Time is definitely something everyone should always have in back of their mind. However, this time around I seemed to have managed that well enough, rather than the first time I took this AP exam. Although time wasn’t much of a problem this time around I still need to be aware of time management, but more so, vocabulary. Vocabulary played a critical role when taking this AP exam. Therefore, a good skill that I believe it would be helpful is to always study the literary terms and know how to use them what they mean and how to identify them properly. In addition, another good strategy would be to enhance my vocabulary list and study more words so that when May comes around I will have learned a lot more words that may come up in the AP exam. As Denisha stated, “This is so that when it is presented in a question my overall understanding of the question or answer choice will allow me to move through the test quicker.” Moreover, another thing that I realized was that I’m not good at analyzing passages. I pretty much read them and dealt with what I was able to understand even if I did not understand the whole thing. I have never been a good test taker and seem to always freeze whenever a test comes around which is why I think that analyzing the passage and really focusing on what the questions asks is an important factor.
Asha Chen-Phang
ReplyDeleteNovember 29, 2012
AP Literature – A
Mrs. O’Donnell
AP Literature Exam Multiple Choice Test Analysis
After taking the multiple choice portion of the AP Literature exam for the second time, it is apparent that I have made a great deal of improvement since the original bass line that I took in September. Still however, there is much room for progression of my understanding of the multiple choice section of the AP Literature exam, and furthermore advancement in my score. I realized that I did struggle similarly through this test as I did through the last one when it came to the vocabulary understanding. Again, there were many questions and answers involving vocabulary words I wasn’t familiar with, therefore not allowing me to have and understanding and forming a logical answer. Additionally, there were some uses of literary terms involved that I could not recall the meanings of and confused there meanings with those of other terms. As I continue to progress, I recognize that I will have to take it into my own hands to ensure that I’m familiar with all of the literary terms and will likely appear when I take the test. This will require a lot of studying of those terms, and making sure I actually remember their meanings and thoroughly understand what they mean.
Surprisingly, an aspect that I struggled with this time taking the test was time management. The first time I took the test, I was done before time had run out and even had a chance to check through my answers. However, this time I actually had to rush through the last five to ten questions of the exam. This is likely due to the fact that originally I didn’t take the time to annotate the passages. It may also have to do with the fact that I allowed a few baffling questions to interfere with my procession of the test, and that accounted for some of my time being consumed. In the future, I will have to make sure that I pay attention to the time that’s available to me and don’t spend and excessive amount of time on any particular question.
Moreover, I seemed to do much better with questions pertaining to specific elements within the passages, such as literary devices, and addressing their purpose. I believe that this is due to the similarity of these questions to those of the ones we encountered throughout the quizzes on Hamlet. My constant confrontation with such questions has allowed me to get a better understand of how to correctly answer them and the proper thinking method for answering them. I have developed better test taking strategies to answer these particular questions, which allowed me to excel in them this round of the exam.
In addition, I continue to apparently have trouble with questions dealing with forming a general understanding of the material that I am reading. Questions having to do with the summarization of the overall idea of a passage always seem to confuse me. Throughout most of my life as a student this has been an aspect that I have struggled with, and hopefully I can better myself in this area so that I can be successful on the actual AP Literature exam. In the future I need to try to use process of elimination in order to disregard answer choices that are either irrelevant or too specific, and find the vague, broad answer choices. This will allow me to at least make an educated guess, as pointed out by Denisha, and have a better chance of answering the question correctly.
I am glad that I have managed to receive a much better score when I took the test this time, but I still look forward to acquiring even better scores on the practice exams we take later on and a spectacular score when the time comes to partake in the real exam. In order to do so, I will need to focus a great deal on the aspects I struggled with, as well as further my understand in areas that I excelled in just to ensure that I continue to excel in those portions of the exam. By doing this, I should form an exceptional sense of what to exactly to pay attention to within the passages, and be well prepared to take the actual AP Exam in May.
While looking back on my results, I began to see trends appearing in the mistakes I made. These mistakes were almost, if not, identical to the ones I made on baseline exam. However, there was definitely some improvement, albeit not reflected in my score, with my metacognitive skills.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, a recurring issue that I have had with the two exams now is my lack of knowledge when it comes to the literary terms. This is a great issue because all of the AP Lit. Exams are embedded with literary terms left and right. The bigger problem with this situation is that the exam veers away from the simplistic, vocab-style questions and demands that you know the definition of the word and to the point that you can use that definition and see if and how the literary term affects the passage. Furthermore, another issue as classmate Sana stated, “For most students in the class I noticed was the timing.” One of the reasons why I was not so successful this time around is because I spent too much time on any one question, which put be in a difficult situation when I had twenty minutes to complete thirty more questions. I also found myself rushing towards the end eventually guessing in order to avoid leaving a question blank. Another problem that I saw while going over the test in our groups was that I chose the correct answer on the test itself, but my answer on the answer did not match the answer on my test. Although, this was only responsible for four my “incorrect” answers, those answers could have been and should have been correct. Chances are that I made this mistake because I found myself in a very tight situation (time wise) and did not have even the smallest amount of time to go back and review my answers. Finally, similar to my baseline exam, I kept on choosing the most “sophisticated” answer. For instance, as early as question eleven, “The best example of irony in this poem can be found in the following phrase,” I immediately thought that it was answer choice d, “Hopi vases that held corn are put in museums/ but you know they were made to be used.” Then I start to think (my fatal flaw) and think to the point to where I decided it cannot be choice d because too easy, therefore I ended up selecting another answer.
To steer away from the negative, there was also some major test taking skills improvement. As I mentioned before, time management was a problem for me on the baseline as well, but the difference between the time gaps from this test and the baseline was immense. On the baseline exam I found myself completing the exam in order. This was a problem because the length of the passages did not start with the shorter ones in the beginning and increased until the longest passage was the last one or vice versa. In the baseline you would go from reading the least amount of text to reading the passage with the most. However, in this exam, I actually skipped around and started with the shorter passages first, which is why I seemed to get most of the questions in the longer passages wrong (because they were towards the end of the allotted test-taking time). This strategy helped transform the time spent reading to the time spent analyzing and answering the questions. For this test, I was also more prepared when it came to analyze the actual text. All of the activities that were done in class regarding Hamlet helped me develop this sort “inner speaker phone.” By this I mean that every time I went to refer to the passage (to answer a question) I would recall Mrs. O’Donnell asking, “and why is this important,” and I started to see that everything in the passages that we read is important. In the excerpt from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, “Ambush” yes there is an inconsistency between the simple and long sentences, but it is not because O’Brien thought it would be cool to do so; he wanted to portray the fear he had in his situation by doing so which is much more meaningful and effective.
In order to improve my overall test taking abilities there will have to be changes in my “schedule.” Because I do not completely know all of the literary terms and have seemed to forget a few of them, I will have to start reviewing them more [a quiz ever so often could help]. I also need to lose the feel for prioritizing the answers and spending the exact same amount of time on each question so I do not find myself running out of time. In addition, I have to set whatever spare time I have aside and use it to go over my answers because if I don’t I’ll be thinking “Oh it’s choice a,” but bubbling in letter choice e. Finally, I still have to work on how to differentiate from literal and inference questions because I will wind up selecting the correct wrong answer because the actual answer seems like some sort of trap set by the College Board and in an attempt to prove them wrong, I wrong myself.
Delete-Chuck
Shakira Thompson
ReplyDeleteAP English
November 29, 2012
Mrs.O'Donnel
Baseline Reflection
This baseline assessment was more complicated than the first one. On this one I got questions like number 2 correct which stated “which of the following is not present in the first stanza?” the answer choices were “A. metaphor B. third person limited narrator C. assonance D. simple sentences E. alliteration. The correct answer is B. third person limited narrator. I got it correct because I looked over the entire poem and the only possible answer there was third person limited narrator.
I got question like number 23 wrong. The question stated “The word “plump” in line 59 most closely compared to the term” the answer choices were “A. chubby B. fat C. full D. clutch E. club” I thought the correct answer was E. club but it was wrong, however, the correct answer was clutch. The reason why I chose E was because plump seem closely related to club but after going over it in my group I now know why clutch is the correct answer and it because clutch means close together like travelling in a group and in the poem “plump” was talking about the geese.
One thing I need to work on is the time spent on one question. On the tests to come I will skip the questions I do not know then after I finish, I will go back and review it and then check all my answers and that would be managing my time properly. I also need to review my literary terms and keep most of them memorize and stay away from word that I do not know.
~Shakira
During the second time of this baseline test, I’ve gained a lot of strength. My score went up 8 points higher than it was originally, and I was very fascinated when I found that out. Honestly, I thought that I wouldn’t even go up at all. Furthermore, I managed my time more wisely to annotate and write anything in between the margins that would help me signify the best answer choice. I’m glad that I annotated a lot more on these passages, because to me they were really easy to understand, and a lot more clearer for me to not get stuck on a question comes time to answer. Some of the questions that I was good at answering this time were questions like: The animal references in stanzas one and two could best be identified as: A). personification, B). a fable, C). understatement D). Extended metaphor E). Verisimilitude. The actual correct answer to this question was D. All I had to do for this kind of question in order to get them right were just to refer back to the passage, and look back for what they had asked. And sometimes even my annotations helped me out with it.
ReplyDeleteSome things that ticked me off a little bit about the passages though were the tones of it, so when it came down to asking questions like: The tone of this passage can best be described as… Sometimes I would just guess. It would be two exact answers that were correct, but I would always be confused about which answer would be the most correct. I noticed though, while going back over to review my test, to get better on those type of questions all I have to do is read the passages more slowly, and pay attention to some of the diction the author/speakers uses in her/her poems to make the sentence sound the way it does. Then I know that this would definitely help me figure out tone. Another one of my weaknesses in this test would be identifying vocabulary words. For example: the word “plump” in line 59 most closely compares to the term…. See now I never tend to get that right because I would just guess. Usually when I see a question like this, honestly I would just sound out the word, and see what match out of the answer choice I think might be the best. Therefore, going over this type of question in my group, they gave me a very helpful tool which was to look for the sentence before the actual line sentence with the vocabulary word in it, and try to find a context clue to help match.
In the end, I honestly see that this test is no joke. In order for me to get better, I need to know all my SAT vocab, how to annotate and paste myself while reading so ill have enough time to answer the questions, and also to go back and check my answers if I’m done. I think this tip would definitely help me and I think I’ll be just fine when the actual one comes. But I’m going to keep trying harder, and find the best strategies to helping me answer these questions.
For the second test, I went in with only test taking strategies in mind. With experiences from the previous test, I knew I had to annotate the passage as much as I could, I knew I had to read actively instead of passively, because I basically reread the passages trying to look for answers which lost precious time for me in the previous test, and this one. I knew I had to be around question number 27 at the 30 minute point, I knew I had to read the question carefully and eliminate answer choices that did not make sense. On this test, I spent way too much time reading carefully and annotating that I lost track of time and instead of being at question 27 or more, I was at question 24 at the 30 minute mark. One test taking strategy that I should have applied on this test was to skip the questions that were difficult and move on to other questions which might be easier than others. With 7 minutes left I had to answer 12 questions and I knew I was done for the day. The last passage did not seem difficult because the questions that I read in a hurry might have been easy questions to answer. I need to work better on long passages because sometimes I lose track of what is going on because the language, tone, mood, and message is different for each of the passages and I have to keep an open mind and figure out what is going on right of the bat.
ReplyDeleteI started the test by making a few silly errors. For example, question number 2 asks, “Which of the following is not present in the first stanza?” I read the question so quickly that I missed the key word “first stanza” and looked for the options in the whole poem instead for a part of it, and since it was taking longer than I thought, I chose answer choice E but instead it should have been answer choice B. After reviewing this test, I realized that I did not do well on questions related to literary terms in poems. I need to review terms and techniques that are involved in a poem because there were at least 10 questions in the test that related to those. For example, question 10 asks, “The theme of the poem is best expressed by the lines.” For this question, I needed to know what theme is and with my understanding, theme is a basic message that the author provides the readers which he later explains it in the text he or she writes. I agree with Denisha when she says “the factor that was hurting me the most was my lack of vocabulary pertaining to the A.P English Lit exam.” I have the same concern about myself and if I accomplish this I expect my test score to go higher than what it is now. Early on in the test I did well one factual questions and questions that asked about the tone of the author and questions that related to main ideas. There were a few questions in the test in which I came down to two best options and ended up choosing the incorrect answer. For example, question number 37 asks, “The narrator’s attitude towards his fellow man can best be described as one of.” I came down to options C and D, and I initially chose the right answer which was C but then for some reason I changed my mind and chose D and I got it wrong. I did the same for question number 6.
Towards the end of the test I was out of time and the test strategy that I used was to look at the shortest questions that did not require looking back to the passage. I answered the questions that I had little confidence about. Even though I was doing well on factual questions, and questions relating to inference, I had no time in the end to look back and I got those questions wrong as well.
Even though my test score did not improve, what improved is the way I look at a test. I was pleased that I was aware about the time this time, about annotating as much as I could, skipping questions that were difficult and eliminating choices as I went along. What I have to do now is focus on time management, increase my vocabulary and be aware with the techniques that are used in prose and poems of the test. I did not expect for the passages to be as long as they were.