Homework:
You have been given an answer key for your mid-term. Spend some time reviewing your multiple choic performance, categories, test-taking skills, etc. Post your reflection and comment on your performance and progress on Part 1 of the exam. Posts should contain specifics, quotes, etc. Posts should be a minimum of 500 words. Students must comment on at least one classmate's observation for full credit. Posts are due on Thursday morning as we will be referring to them in class.
Shakira Thompson
ReplyDeleteMrs. O’Donnell
Ap. Lit
January 30, 2013
Test Reflection
This test consists of 54 questions. Some of them were complicated while others were simply but it depends on the question because most of the answers are similar but choosing the right answer may be a struggle. Also some of the questions are based on the literary terms, knowing the definition in cases like that is a big deal. Also dealing with these always have confidence in the first answer choice chosen.
An example of a question I got correct was number one, it states “The “back door to their hearts” in paragraph one is an example of a type of figurative language called (A) onomatopoeia (B) hyperbole (C) metaphor (D) alliteration (E) personification.” The correct answer was C metaphor. I used the process of elimination I knew that answer choice A, B and D were incorrect. So I was left with answer choice C and E. Most people might have chosen E personification because of the phrase and the structure how they would read it, but going back to the passage I realized that based on the context the correct answer would be answer choice C and also based on the definition of the word.
An example of a question I got wrong was number fifty, it states “In line 25, “thine heaven be overcast,” can best be read (A) literally, referring to the havoc created by fierce storms (B) literally, referring to death (C) as a metaphor for illness (D) as a metaphor for general misfortune (E) as a symbol of bad luck.” I chose answer choice B because when something is overcast it normally seems dark and dark can be a symbol of death so it drew my attention to answer choice B. However, the correct answer was D. I now understand why D makes more sense, because darkness could also be a symbol of bad luck so answer choice D is more accurate.
My point-of-view on this test is that the questions were tricky but I should always stick with my first answer choice in some situation. Also I should be more careful on how I read the questions and always refer back to the passage when necessary. Also I should improve on noticing the most accurate answer and not just the simple answer choice. I improved on my time management and I am happy for that accomplishment.
Although most of the questions were precise vs. accurate, the test was a fair one. It also tests the students’ knowledge on the literary terms and how well they do with poems and short stories. Also it gives the teachers an understanding on what to work on more and assess the students to see how far they are.
After taking the AP American Literature and Composition multiple choice section for the third time I feel that I have developed an even deeper understanding on the type of questions that would be present on the actual AP exam in May. In comparison to the first and second practice exams, I have improved greatly on questions pertaining to the theme or hidden idea, for example, question twenty-six states “You can infer that in this poem…” Basically, in the previous two exams, there was always a tendency to get questions pertaining to the hidden idea incorrect, however, I learned that actually annotating and reading the passage for a better understanding was very helpful, whereas before I would not even attempt to annotate. Thus, this leads to the fact that questions pertaining to theme were also much easier this time around, for instance question twenty-eight “which generalization best states the theme of the poem?” This type of question, obviously, refers to the theme of the passage, well in comparison to the first and second practice exam, my original performance and thoughts on similar questions were that these types of questions can be pretty challenging, however, after understanding that the key to these questions is to understand specifically what the author’s intent is. Whereas I use to just read and analyze small ideas on what the author is trying to get at to the reader. Therefore, after taking this practice I now understand that it is actually very beneficial to annotate as much as possible, enabling myself to piece the small ideas that the author is hinting towards the reader and overall to compose a larger central main idea.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was able to improve on certain questions, there was still a vast amount and types of questions that need to be improved on. More specifically questions the pertain the word “describe” or such that is similar, ultimately, main idea questions, for instance question thirty-one “Why did the author chose the word “overseer” (line 7) to describe the factory foreman?” As you could see, this type of question is asking for the reader to fully understand what and why the author chose this word or phrase. Therefore, I think the best way to approach these types of questions are to head back to the text and refer to the line that the question asks, as Shakira stated “and always refer back to the passage when necessary,” and read a couple lines before and after the appropriate phrase or word, this will enable me to also look back at the answer choices and one-by-one eliminate the answer choice that does not seem to make sense and why. At this point I should also be able to annotate the question itself, needing to know how each answer choice can play a role to what the question is asking; thus, this could be the best approach to answering question containing words such as, “describe” and that are pertaining to the main idea of the passage.
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DeleteAnother factor to take account when taking the exam is to distinguish between the most correct answer from solely a correct answer. In other words, there are cases when some questions contain more than one correct answer or there may also be answer choices that may make sense however, there are specific details that may rule out your answer choice. For example, question forty-two states “The author’s primary purpose in this selection is to…” specifically from this question, I chose answer choice B, persuade readers that all women deserve equal rights; well although the passage reveals how the women would argue for their needs, there was no real obvious information given to allow for this question to be correct. Thus, it can be seen as there are multiple questions that may seem tempting to choice a certain answer choice, however, reading and annotating the passage for a deeper and more specific understanding is necessary. This is also probably why it is beneficial to annotate not only the passage but the questions too.
Therefore, taking the AP exam for the third time has allowed me to reflect on what I need to improve on in terms of the styles and types of questions, it has also enabled me to thoroughly understand the types of test taking techniques that are needed to develop a deeper understanding to the passages and questions. Moreover, not only has this exam taught me on what I need to improve one but also on what I have improved on; exhibiting that going over and understanding the flaws that I had previously exhibited allowed me to actually improve and do perform better on those specific type of questions. Thus, focusing on points such as the main idea, distinguishing between the most correct answer, or just simply learning how to annotate the question and passage for a deeper understanding will enable me improve on future AP practice exams, and ultimately the actual AP American Literature exam.
From taking part I of the multiple choice section of the AP Literature and Composition exam for the third time, I can say, with certainty that I have greatly improved. Compared to the first two exams, in which I faced a variety of problems, I have greatly improved in various aspects, one of which is the question types involving specific quotes and their meaning to the work as a whole. This is exemplified in question 2 which states, “The author is using the phrase ‘back door to their hearts to’” Essentially, in the previous two exams I found it extremely difficult to key in on the specifics, and rather focused on the main ideas of the passage, which proved to be hurtful towards my score in the end, because I was unable to interpret specific portion of a passage. Yet, in this exam I was able to effectively key in on specific quotes and their overall meaning. Similar to Jenny, I accomplished this through my annotations, because as Jenny stated, “the key to these questions is to understand specifically what the author’s intent is”, which is accomplished through his diction and therefore requires an understanding of the quotes. This understanding, consequently allowed me to be able to effectively answer more questions correctly.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, on this exam I found that I performed significantly better on the question types that involved “all of the following except”. Previously, I had found these questions as the most difficult because I always found myself rushing to the end and then when I reviewed the tests I found I had skipped over this key word except. Yet, on this exam I found I that I got more of these questions correct, which can be attributed to the fact that just like the text, I annotated the question by underlining this word except. As a result, my eyes were drawn to this word and it instantly keyed me in that I was trying to find the answer within the set that was not true or did not pertain to the question, which allowed me to have a better understanding of what I had to do, such as in the case of question 3 which stated, “According to the first paragraph, ants do all of the following activities and have all of the following traits EXCEPT”. By underlining except in this situation, I knew what I was looking for and was able to effectively proceed with the process of elimination.
Furthermore, on this exam the most crucial concept of test taking that I feel I improved on this test and struggled with on first two exams was time management. On the first two examinations, I constantly found myself off pace and behind the point where I should have been, which caused me to rush and guess on questions, whose passages I skimmed over. However, on this exam I found that I was able to read every passage and every question, and think about it, without feeling like I had to rush. This helped to improve my score because I was able to read and think about every question, as well as I was not feeling stressed out because I skimmed over passages and guessed on questions, just to finish in the allotted time.
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ReplyDeleteYet, there were many aspects that I could have improved on. One such aspect was the meaning of literary devices and vocabulary. Similar, to the first two exams, I found myself struggling, although not as much, with some of the questions pertaining to specific literary devices and vocabulary. An example is question 18 which states, “Which of the following literary techniques does the author use when he describes the soft waters as ‘murmuring by’ in line 10?” This question included an answer choice of “synthesia”, a term I had never previously heard before, which lead to my confusion in which answer was in fact the best choice. I could improve this difficulty involving vocabulary and literary devices, by studying to a greater level with flash cards and extra practice from BenchPrep. Furthermore, on this exam I found that I struggled with questions that involved selecting the best title for a specific passage. As stated in question 27, “The best tile for this poem is”. From the given answer choices, I found it difficult to pick what the College Board views as the “best possible answer”, because I found that more than one answer choice embodies various aspects of the passages. Consequently, my confusion ultimately leads me to taking my best guess, which in most situations proves to be incorrect. However, I could improve this by annotating to an even greater extent, which would give me the ability to better understand the meaning of the passage as a whole, consequently allowing me to choose the “best possible answer”.
Ultimately, taking this exam for the third time has given me some assurance that I am headed in the correct direction, as I see my score improving. In addition, this test and reflection allows me to see my flaws and where I need to concentrate my efforts, so that I may be able to obtain an even greater score. As a result, focusing on my weaknesses, literary devices, vocabulary, and questions involving choosing the best title that encompasses the passage as a whole, will allow me to correct my mistakes and be better prepared for future AP practice exams, as well as the AP exam in May.
Ryan Lawson
ReplyDelete1/30/13
A.P. Literature and Composition
Midterm Multiple Choice Test Analysis
After looking at my latest multiple choice test scores, I can see that I am steadily improving. Despite the improvement, I can still point out many weaknesses in my testing and overall strategy. I still have problems with questions that involve tone and mood. I also had difficulties when questions contained subject matter that I was not very familiar with.
My biggest problem area when answering questions on this test were questions that pertained to tone and mood. Many of my mistakes in the first and second article were due to my misinterpretation of the article’s tone or mood. For example, question 103 asks, “The tone of this passage is best characterized as” and I responded with D, “serious” when the correct response was actually B, “satirical”. Also, when answering question 16, “The mood of the first stanza is best described as” I picked answer choice D, “elegiac and respectful” when the correct response was C, “content and restful”. As I think about this response now, I realize that I never would have considered the responses that were actually correct. This helped to demonstrate my misunderstanding of the tone and mode.
Another frequent problem that I had was with the vocabulary used in the questions and answer choices. One example is my answer to question 23, “The poem’s speaker is best described as” with my answer choice being D, “a naturalist”. I had actually narrowed down my answer choices to this and the correct answer, E, “someone walking through a field”. I decided to go with answer choice D because, even though I was not sure of the definition of the term “naturalist” I knew that it was used to characterize a person’s views. Because of this, I saw answer choice D as more specific than answer choice E. Only when reviewing the test did I realize that the naturalist perspective would not have matched the author’s tone, and was therefore the incorrect choice.
One area in which I was pleased to see improvement in was my time management. Unlike the previous two tests that I have taken, I did not have to guess any of my responses due to lack of time. I was able to complete all of the questions within the allotted time, which made less room for the wealth of mistakes that usually fills the final column of my AP test bubble sheet. I was able to read the final article and discern my answers for each question instead of randomly filling in the bubbles with a hope to simply not get every one of the questions incorrect by default. Even if my final responses were a bit rushed having the time to finish them was much appreciated.
Overall, I am pleased with my improvement. Though there are still refinements to be made, I can honestly say that my score is heading in the right direction. As Shakira mentioned, “I should be more careful on how I read the questions and always refer back to the passage when necessary”. If I do that, while taking care to pay close attention to the tone and mood, I should have done more than enough to solve any problems that I have with this test.
Jossieanette Nieves
ReplyDeleteMrs. O’Donnell
AP Lit
1/30/13
Midterm AP Exam Reflection
After taking this AP exam, I was able to gain an even better understanding of the questions that were presented to me. Like any other exam, there were definitely some difficulties that I had to face. Like Shakira said, “Some of them were complicated while others were simply but it depends on the question because most of the answers are similar but choosing the right answer may be a struggle.” Not all the questions were a struggle to me, but there was a great amount of portion that I was having trouble with. For instance a question that I had a little bit of struggle with was number eleven, which states, “How are the ants’ laws different from ours, according to the author? (A) The ants do not have laws; rather, they have unstated but understood regulations. (B) The ants’ laws have loopholes unlike our ironclad laws. (C) The ants’ laws apply to horses and riding, unlike our own laws. (D) The ants have a set of bylaws and a constitution, whereas we don’t. (E) The ants’ laws have meaning and their lawgivers cannot be corrupted. When I first saw this question I knew that I would second guess myself and be stuck between two answer choices. Essentially, I found myself to be stuck on this particular question because there were at least two answers that made sense to me and I could not really figure out which one was the best; therefore, I just made an educated guess. I chose answer choice D because in the passage it mentioned how ants have a set of bylaws, but now that I look at it closely, nowhere in the text it stated that “we” do not have a constitution. Therefore, answer choice E is the correct one. It is stating that their lawgivers cannot be corrupted and the fifth paragraph assures us that the ants don’t have any legislators that lye around ready to be swallowed.
Moving forward knowing what my strengths and weakness are will help me get better prepared for when the actual AP exam comes around. Things that I should always consider doing when taking this AP exam is keep a hold of time and always go back and look at the text, however, speaking for myself, when I am under a lot of pressure I tend to rush things and not bother to go back and verify my answer.
Without a doubt, I had many difficulties getting through this exam; however, I also had a pretty good sense of what to do to overcome a struggle that was presented to me. For example in question 35, I thought it was a bit tricky, but since I was able to understand the text I was able to use the process of elimination and refer back to the passage to confirm my eliminated answers which lead me to the correct answer choice. This AP exam consists of a lot of literary terms that one must always be prepared for. This is certainly something I need to do because sometimes a literary term is presented to us and because we may not know the meaning of it, it throws us off the question and often leads to the wrong answer.
Overall, this test was a fair one and I think that Mrs. O’Donnell is doing a great job in making sure we are all prepared for the AP exam that we will be taking in May. In addition, because I was able to know my strengths and weaknesses from the baseline my score improved a little bit. I should always be careful with the questions that contain a literary device and study those types of vocabulary. Like Josh said, “Compared to the first two exams, in which I faced a variety of problems, I have greatly improved in various aspects, one of which is the question types involving specific quotes and their meaning to the work as a whole.” There is always room for improvement and you can always do better if you prepare yourself the right way.
Taking this A.P Literature and composition mid-term exam was very complicated and a little tricky. Starting off with the first section which contained 54 multiple questions was not surprising because I knew some of things I needed to be focused on, in order to get a good score. My strategy was to spend up to 3 minutes on 1 question, and if I still didn’t pick an answer choice, then I would just skip it. I was not pleased with my score either because I went down a point or two. So I obviously see the problem is I’m not spending time reading the question carefully, or I’m guessing and checking most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThe type of questions that I mostly got correct had to do with authors referring back to the passage; the phrase in the passage is an example of, or even referring back to literally devices. For example, questions like number 2 which stated: The author is using the phrase “back door to their hearts” to
A: infer that ants, as with any other sentient creatures, can be won over by honest means
B: introduce the concept that people are far superior to ants because people can reason and make conscious decisions
C: conclude that ants are followers, not leaders
D: suggest that ants are straightforward and honest; they do not act in a hypocritical manner by saying one thing but meaning another
E: imply that ants cannot be trusted because they work by indirection
The correct answer for this question was d. I knew that I was going to get this correct because all I did was refer back to the passage, and read a couple sentences before the phrase, and look for clues, and key words that relate to it. So crossing out some of the answer choices from the jump, was not a problem for me. I never have a problem with answering these types of questions.
Some of the questions I struggled with were questions like: how does the author use such and such to create diction? Or the author creates all of the following except. For example on question number 7, it asked: The author creates all of the following effects through the use of the technique identified in question 6 except:
A: rhythm
B: irony
C: emphasis
D: balance
E: conciseness
The answer I originally chose was a, but the correct one was c. and the reason why I had chosen a was because, out of all the other vocabulary choices, I knew the definition of rhythm so I just went along with that one. But after reading the explanation in the answer book, I see that the correct answer was c because he is not using emphasis, because the author wants to appeal his audience. When the final comes in May, I think I know what I have to improve on because it seem seems like it’s a pattern. The same type of questions I got wrong on the other two tests was like the same ones I got wrong this time too.
Just like jenny stated,” Another factor to take account when taking the exam is to distinguish between the most correct answer from solely a correct answer. In other words, there are cases when some questions contain more than one correct answer or there may also be answer choices that may make sense however, there are specific details that may rule out your answer choice. i totally agree with this because i know that the test is going to trick is sometimes, to make us second think if our answer choice we picked is the most correct, or if we just “think” so.
Furthermore, next time I know that I need to spend more time at the end, if I do end up finishing early, I will go back and check over my answers, and see why I chose them.
Khadijah, Hassan
Archit Singh
ReplyDeleteMs. O’Donnell
AP Literature and Composition
30 January 2013
Midterm AP Exam Reflection
Taking these tests over and over again is certainly helping me improve my understanding of the questions on the test as I see my score improve every time, just hoping that I do not get interrupted by flat tires and deer’s next time. On the multiple-choice, I will start by mentioning that I did everything that I had planned to do well before I took the test. Over and over I have myself saying if I only did this, If I only did that, well, on this test I made sure I did everything that I was there to do. As I recall, I wore a wrist watch just for the exam to keep track of my time on the exam. Before I started the exam, I looked at the number of passages included in the test, and according to that I distributed my hour into 15 minute for each section and went from there. Second, I made sure I annotated enough to understand what each part of the passage is mentioning since questions come from specific lines from the passage. Third I made sure I read the passages actively throughout the hour. These tasks have been difficult for me to do in the past however; I accumulated them and scored higher on my multiple -choice.
To go into the details on what I types of questions I got incorrect and correct, I know right off that bat that I need to review most of the literary terms. Even though I have heard of them I have not fully understood them. For example, I had no idea of what apostrophe meant when question number 15 asks, “In the first stanza, the poet uses a literary technique called an apostrophe when he.” Question 22 is another example that I got incorrect because I did not fully understand the literary devices. Other than the literary terms, I tended to struggle on questions word meaning questions and hidden idea questions. For example, question 25 asks, “The poet’s attitude in this poem moves from” which I got incorrect because I did not understand the poem correctly. I chose C as my answer, “assured to pessimistic as he understands that nothing he can do will endure the long passage of time” however, the right answer is B, “negative to positive as he links the flower’s changes in nature to its demise and return to nature.” These two options are not even close to each other and it shows my struggle in hidden idea questions.
I also struggled on word meaning questions and one example is question 31 which asked for the best description of the “overseer” in the factory. I need to understand as I read and determine why the author chose the words that he did to answer these critical thinking questions. To move along with my difficulties, I also struggled with questions that looked at the passage as a whole. After reading each passage, I had a general idea of what they were talking about however, questions like question 38 I got wrong. “Why is this point of view appropriate for this selection?” is a type of question that I need to be familiar with.
For some reason, I had difficulty distinguishing between stanzas in the poems of the test which might had led to wrong answers for me. For example, question 43 asks about author’s purpose in the first stanza and since I could not figure out how long the first stanza was or where it began, it was difficult to answer, question 46 is similar.
Now for the best part of this reflection, the question I did really well on was a factual and main idea questions. Also, there were questions that were word meaning or phrase meaning that I did well on and in some I did not. It was half and half.
DeleteOn this test there was not a type of question that I got wrong mostly. It was a combination of similar questions that I did well on and some not so much. So what I have to try and keep in mind is the fact that most of the questions on the test guarantee the test taker to look back and I have to be prepared for that. Even though I improved, I know there is still room for improvement. I agree with Josh about utilizing Bench Prep as a guide, as a resource and as a life saver to help anyone improve their score by better understanding the literary terms that they or I have never heard about before such as Josh pointed out “synesthesia”. As I look back at my test, the question do not seem difficult, I just seem to assume they are difficult and that nervousness and anxiety makes my performance on the test weaker. I will have to approach the upcoming tests differently even on May 9th.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAsha Chen-Phang
ReplyDeleteJanuary 30, 2013
AP Literature – A
Mrs. O’Donnell
Midterm – Multiple Choice Analysis
Overall, I performed pretty exceptionally on the multiple choice portion of the midterm exam. In comparison to the last test I completed, I answered one more question correctly out of 54, moving from a 38 to a 39. However, there is always room for improvement, and there are a few main aspects of which I need sharpen my skills in order to enhance my score. It seems as though my failure to correctly answer most of the questions relates to having difficulty making the distinction between nuanced answer choices, and my comprehensibility of the question or the answer choices. Making adjustments in my current thought process should allow me to answer the questions more effectively and accurately.
After reviewing my answer choices against the correct ones and their explanations, I realized that many of my answers were along the lines of being correct. However, in most cases I ended up choosing the vaguer, less correct answer of a set of answer choices. In regards to question 22, the explanation demonstrates how answer choice D, the answer I chose, would have been temping as the passage does relate to it, yet it is not the main topic of the passage. Similarly, Jossie mentioned having the belief that there were two answers to a question that made sense, and in essence she resorted to making an educated guess. In answering such questions I will have to try referring back to the author or poet’s purpose and the overall meaning of the work in order to correctly answer them.
Furthermore, of the fifteen questions that I answered incorrectly, a majority of my mistakes had a direct correlation to my misunderstanding in some particular area, whether that be the passage itself or some component of the question being asked. For instance, as far as question 25, my misconception of the larger meaning or the poem led me to the elimination of the correct answer choice. In trying to properly manage my time, I likely skimmed over information in the passage to get through it in a timely fashion. But in doing so, I denied myself the opportunity to properly analyze the entire passage. This ended up reflecting on my inability to correctly answer some of the questions. Moreover, a great deal of my errors are associated with lack of knowledge pertain to the vocabulary in the answer choices. However, most of these mistakes can be easily corrected by familiarizing myself with more literary terms and higher level vocabulary.
I plan on taking great lengths towards preparing myself for the exam in May. Continuous review of my performance, and further analysis of the key areas in which I did not excel in should allow me to have an enhanced understanding of what strategies to use when it comes time to take the real test. Also, by using the packets of literary devices, as well as other resources, I should be able to more so develop my knowledge of the terms and recognize them as they are incorporated into the passages and the questions. If my performance continues to progress in the fashion that it has been, I should be on track to likely acquiring a 5 on the AP Exam that will be taking place not too long from now.
Within the 54 multiple choice test I was stronger in some questions than on others. What determined how well I did on the questions was the type of passage I had to read. For example, one of the types of questions that I got right was a question that involved figurative language. This question was question number one, which read, The phrase “back door to their hearts” in paragraph one is an example of a type of figurative language called (A) onomatopoeia, (B) hyperbole, (C) metaphor, (D) alliteration, and (E) personification. The correct answer was choice (C) which I got correct. Shakira was in the same situation as I was in but this was a good situation in fact we used similar types of ways of figuring out the correct answer. One of the ways was from using the proses of elimination. We were able to eliminate choices (A),, (B), and (D) were incorrect so we both ended up comparing (C) with (E) to see which answer would fit the best for this question. There were several factors that made this question easy to understand. One was that the passage was easy to understand and get info from. This question was also easy to understand because I knew what all of the words in the question meant. This is also shown in question 6 and question7.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I realize that there were specific types of questions that were difficult for me. This could have been due to the sentence structure of the question, the words that made up the question or even the type of passage that was related to the questions for that section. But there was also the chance that I just didn’t understand the question and the passage. For example, one of the questions that I got incorrect was questions 16, which read, The mood of the first stanza is best described as (A) bitter and resentful (B) somber and restful (C) content and restful (D) elegiac and respectful and (E) deferential and uneasy. One of the reasons of why I got this question wrong was because the passage that I was working off of was a poem. Poems aren’t the easiest thing for me to understand. This is part of the reason of why I got 16 wrong. The other reason was because there was a term that I forgot the meaning of and that term was elegiac. Elegiac which I now know is a term that means mournful.
I did begin to notice a pattern that would develop. That pattern is for the poetry passages I got most of the questions wrong there suggesting that poetry for me could use some work to improve my score on the test. Speaking of improvements throughout the year we have been taking the 54 or 55 multiple choice tests and throughout the whole time. The first test I only got 14 questions right. But on the next test I got 26 questions right. Finally on the midterm test I got 27 out of 54 multiple choice answers correct. One of the reasons of my improvement was due to the fact that over the past tests I have learned how to improve on my time management and be able to answer and look questions over more efficiently.
While looking over my overall score for this third practice AP exam, I realized that I still have to strengthen and even develop some strategies to maximize my chances of getting a better score the next around while, I seem to do very well in other areas.
ReplyDeleteThis exam, as with all other AP style questions, contained a handful of questions that produced multiple “correct” answers. The problem appears when a test taker narrows down the possibilities for the right answer down to two. If you do not take the time to fully understand what the question is asking you and why the College Board decided to ask you said question, then you will more than likely select the wrong answer. You are better off selecting the choice that is the most specific, but not specific to the point that the choice cannot apply to the text/question anymore. This happens to be the case with question 6 on the second page. It asked “The repeated phrase ‘They don’t care’ in in the second paragraph is an example of a stylistic element called” and I foolishly selected answer choice d figurative language, for this answer was much to general. Authors use figurative language all the time, but it is up to us to figure out what type of figurative language and why it was used. The correct answer, a, parallel structure, is much more specific and applicable to the question being asked. In addition, another reoccurring problem that lingers in the midst of all the exams I have taken to date is confusion between the “hidden idea” and “main idea” types of questions. A strategy that can be used to combat this hindrance, as I have stated before, is that of thinking of the question as if it was opened ended. This refers to the fact that to answer an opened ended question one has to provide well-grounded evidence. In other words, before selecting an answer, you should go back to the text and see if you can find any plausible evidence to support your answer.
Moreover, questions pertaining to the overall theme of the passage were also a bit troubling. In order to save time, these types of questions do not necessarily require to reread the entire passage but, as Jenny Tang stated, “The best way to approach these types of questions are to head back to the text and refer to the line that the question asks and read a couple lines before and after the appropriate phrase or word”.
Furthermore, and as always, time awareness plays a very crucial role in your success. Most, if not all, of the issues that predominant during the test are caused and grown because the test taker is given such an overwhelming time constraint. With only a minute a question and passages to read, an “active reader” will passionately strive for the correct answer, while the “passive reader” will casually stroll through the text until he/she gets to the answer choices. Active reading does not simply mean underline lines that you classify as important, it implies the recognition and branding of words, phrases, and literary techniques that are sure to be addressed in following questions. If one actively reads, they are prevented from wandering off into space, and can gain crucial time to devote to other questions.
Ultimately, I can walk away from this halfway point and say that I have genuinely learned something new, as anyone should. I have also been able to truly understand the significance of these reflections and sharing them with others. Because of the strategies I have acquired from others, I have grown as an AP student and a test taker. Fortunately, there are a few more practice tests to come, which I can only benefit from.
From my baseline exam reflection and second exam breakdown I can say that I have improved in some ways, and gotten worse in others. Overall, my multiple choice score has remained relatively similar to the second exam; but it is still less than my baseline exam from early during the school year. As a whole, I was able to answer a variety of question types comparatively to the other two and my essay scores were better than I expected. After reviewing the questions that were wrong in this exam, I was able to narrow the question types to fact-based, theme, diction, and word meaning questions. Additionally, in my essays overall I need to work on providing less concrete evidence and really understand how to manipulate author’s craft in to my essays.
ReplyDeleteAfter extensively reviewing my answers I got wrong, I am able to generalize my performance. This time around, I did well in situation, structure, images/figurative language/literary technique, grammar and rhetoric type questions. But some of my troubles continue, such as fact-based, theme, diction, and word meaning kinds of questions. My trouble in language/literary technique is evident in question number 9, “The phrase ‘full of faith’ (lines 22-23) is an example of”. Here I selected answer choice D “faithful, hard-working, and virtuous” after referring to the line mentioned in context, however I failed to recognize the meaning of some of the literary devices and therefore E, “alliteration” was the better choice. Similarly, in question 19 it asked, “Based on context clues which of the following choices is the best synonym for the word “smit” in line 13?” and I could not select an answer because I ran out of time mainly due to my lack of knowledge of the word smit. Therefore, I could not find a suitable synonym in context of the poem. Overall, in my essays I did well and was able to score in the range I wanted, however there are still areas of improvement to make them better. In general, I was able to adequately address the topic given and find support for my three claims, however my analysis still needs to further utilize the purpose of the author’s craft and how it illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.
As Jenny pointed out, “in the previous two exams, there was always a tendency to get questions pertaining to the hidden idea incorrect, however, I learned that actually annotating and reading the passage for a better understanding was very helpful, whereas before I would not even attempt to annotate” and now I realize why it is important to annotate because it may help in determining the meaning of a foreign word or may help you when you need to refer to the text for a specific question. I believe incorporating tactics from the SAT will help me in the AP Literature exam.
In terms of comparing the overall difficulty of this exam to the baseline and second exam, I believe this was slightly harder for a few reasons. The first being the overall pressure of the grade we receive as our midterm grade for this class. As many of my other peers suggest, this test requires a robust background in vocabulary, and I often stumbled through questions because I did not know the meaning of some words. For example, I did not have any idea about the meaning of “smit” during the exam and had to omit the question till the end until I ran out of time and could not make an educated guess. Hence, before the next exam, I would really like to solidify my understanding of literary concepts such as apostrophe and build a sophisticated vocabulary for standardized exams like the AP or SAT.
Having now taken part one of the AP Lit exam three times, I'm noticing that some things haven't changed. Even though I seem prepared to do well on the final AP Lit exam in may, I know there are means and materials I have that I can put to good use to prepare myself for the exam.
ReplyDeleteEven though I got question one correct, I should not have had to use the process of elimination in the way that I did. The question asked what type of figurative language was the phrase "back door to their hearts". I was able to go through the answers and pick them apart. A was onomonopita, which is just a word that sounds like what it is. I knew this was the wrong answer. B was hyperbole, an exaggeration. C was metaphor, a comparison without using like or as. D was alliteration which is repeating consonant sounds, and E was personification, which would be to give something not human some characteristics of humans. What bothers me about this question and the way in which I answered it was that I had not known what alliteration or onomonopita were when I was taking the exam. I chose to stay away from the unknown berries. The problem is, I used the same strategy on our second attempt at this question and ended up getting questions wrong.
This has frequently been an issue of mine when taking these exams, showing that I lack a great deal of literary terms. Thanks to the fact we now have access to the bench prep website, however, this can become something very easy to fix. I can go online and use the flash cards that are there to refresh my memory so I do not forget words I already know, like onomonopia, or so that I can fully learn, understand, and memorize words I still do not remember, such as alliteration.
As Jenny mentioned in her essay, I've discovered just how helpful annotating can be. On the previous essays, I lacked annotations. Even when I tried annotating, I had not truly done much. This left me with extra time at the end of the test which I used to go through my answers, second guess myself, and change them. This change typically turned out to be for the worse, which is something I have noticed that I do on every multiple choice exam I take. So, by annotating the passages better, I not only gave myself a better understanding of the passages so I did better on questions, but I corrected my time management so that I did not second guess myself.
Two good habits I have continued to maintain have to do with what I do when I encounter the questions. For one, I always keep an eye out for that tricky word "except". Because I know it commonly tricks people, I do my best to underline or just make note that the question says except. Another thing is that I use the process of elimination whenever I am unsure about an answer. This eliminates answers that make no sense and allow me to focus on the answers that do make sense so that I can try to pick the one that is most accurate.
Overall, there are a few seemingly smaller changes I can make to how I prepare for the exam that can have a big impact on my score. If I continue to maintain my good moves and try to correct the wrong ones, then maybe I can go from having thirty-seven right to being up in the forty ranges.
Sam Julmisse
ReplyDeleteDuring this test I did way better than I did before. Some of the questions were easier for me than others, but there were others that consisted of mostly definition that caused me the most trouble. Such is the case for the first question. The question reads: the phrase ‘back door to their hearts’ in paragraph one is an example of a type of figurative language called a) onomatopoeia b) hyperbole c) metaphor d) alliteration or e) personification. My original answer was e, personification. I could easily eliminate a, b, and d because they were not plausible answers considering their definitions. However, if I had a better grasp on my definitions I probably would had gotten more answers correct. It is not really word definitions in this case but more of the literary terms, understanding their meaning, and how it lends to the passages and poems.
Just like Jenny said on the blog questions that I definitely need to work on are “more specifically questions that pertain the word “describe” or such that is similar, ultimately, main idea questions.” This comes down to understanding the passage it is that I am reading, and understanding specific questions. If I do not have a clear grasp on the questions I will not be able to answer main idea questions. One of the ways that I know that I can fix this problem would be if I annotated the passage and the questions more. I told the last time I took a practice MC AP exam, that I would annotate the passage more to get a better grasp. However, the passages at times seem to be complicated for me to comprehend, which could hinder me being able to make acceptable annotations to help me understand the passage better. However, I should be able to annotate question and with the further reading I might be able to understand the passage and answer the questions.
Another type of question I should work on is understanding the author, the kind of person he is and how does the kind of person he is lend to the ideas presented in his/her passage/poem. In this case for question 16, the author’s diction lends to the mood and the type of person he/she is will help me identify the mood that is created. The question reads “the mood of the first stanza is best described a) bitter and resentful b) somber and restrained c) content and restful d) elegiac and respectful or e) deferential and uneasy.” With this question my original answer was d. I had gotten rid of the answer choices with words I was unsure of such as deferential. However, if I had a better understanding of not only the poem but what the speaker was trying to convey through their ideas in the poem, I would had understood that c) content and restful made more sense considering how the poem was worded. I did better in this exam then I did the last time, however I still have work to do. Understanding the vocab and the passages is a main concern when I am preparing for the ap exam.
After looking at my results from the AP Literature and Composition multiple choice sections I can see that I am slowly but surely improving. Since this was my third time taking part 1, I felt more comfortable with some of questions that I encountered along the way. But I still found myself struggling on the same type of questions that I struggled on when I first took the multiple choice section. For example questions that pertained to vocabulary and literary devices I still struggled on because I’m still not familiar with these terms as I would like to be. Question 4 dealt with vocabulary and I got this question wrong because of that, it asked “ The phrase ‘eat on the run’ in the first paragraph is a(n) (A) epigram (B) aphorism (C) idiom (D) hyperbole (E) paradox.” The correct answer to this question is C idiom, but I didn’t know what idiom meant so I didn’t pick this but I feel that if I was more familiar with this term and the other ones I wouldn’t have struggled as much as I did when I saw this question.
ReplyDeleteI also had trouble analyzing the poem, when it comes to poems I’m not really comfortable with them and I always find myself struggling with the questions. I have found that almost every time I encounter a poem, I only get two or three questions correct out of the eleven questions. This is something that I need to work on more because poems are something that the AP Literature and composition will always have. Annotating while reading a poem, I’ve found that it really does help you out because it lets you have a better understanding about the poem. But even though I annotated, I still struggled because I encountered literary terms that I didn’t know the definition so I would just guess on the questions.
I also had difficulties with some questions that had similar answers, just like Shakira had said “it depends on the question because most of the answers are similar but choosing the right answer may be a struggle.” An example of a question that had similar answers was fifty; it states “In line 25, “thine heaven be overcast,” can best be read (A) literally, referring to the havoc created by fierce storms (B) literally, referring to death (C) as a metaphor for illness (D) as a metaphor for general misfortune (E) as a symbol of bad luck.” I chose answer choice B because when something is overcast you automatically think it bad and it’s a dark shadow. Darkness is usually a symbol of death or that something bad was going to happen. However, the correct answer to this question was D because now that read it again I can see how it is a metaphor for general misfortune. Although I was able to improve on certain type of questions, there was still some questions that i need to improve on.
Sana Suhail
ReplyDeleteJanuary 31, 2013
Mrs. O’Donnell
AP Literature and Composition
Overall, I did much better on this test than the previous one. My multiple choice scores, my essay scores, as well as my overall composite score was higher than the previous one. Going over some of the answers, I determined that there were certain mistakes that ran throughout my performance, and as I read through the posts of the blog, I noticed that some of these issues were evident in others’ tests too. I started the test by skimming through the test and location prose passages. I am more comfortable with prose, because unlike poetry, it is often more concrete and most of the questions regarding it are less abstract. So I began by answering those questions first. After that, I moved on to poetry and worked through those questions more slowly and meticulously. I found that this time management strategy worked really well; since every question is worth the same value, it is best to answer the ones that you know for sure, rather than attempt to guess the ones you don’t know, and run out of time.
In terms of the questions themselves, I personally struggled on author’s intent and questions that relate to implications rather than explications of the text. It is often these questions that take longer than others and require high level thinking, in a time pressured situation. For example, question 7, the question came down to knowing, understanding, and applying rhetoric such a rhythm, emphasis, balance, conciseness, and irony. In this case, I misunderstood the meaning of irony and thought that the ants were being ironic because if they work so hard, they should care, but in fact, it was quite the opposite. But, as many AP questions, I was able to eliminate three of the choices and come down to two of the choices that make sense. Among those two, my primary strategy was to sift through the context of the passage and figure out which one was supported by the passage the most, because although both could be right, there is only one that is the best choice. I felt like this strategy was at times counterintuitive because some of the choices may sense to you, but since they cannot be supported by the passage, they are incorrect.
Further, another strategy I employed is not reading the entire passage the first time around, and instead skimming it. Then I read over the questions and reread the parts of the passage that pertained to the question. I found this strategy helped because it saved time overall, and sometimes when you read the whole passage, and a question only refers to a part of it, your thoughts on the whole passage may reflect on how you choose to answer, rather than concentrating on that specific part. Thus, I would recommend this strategy to those people who have trouble with time management, because it helps save time for questions that truly require a longer time. As Asha, Ryan, and many other classmates mentioned, time management as well as figuring out what is lacking and what needs to be worked on is essential to improving my scores. I hope I can learn from some of the strategies mentioned by my classmates (such as annotating) and use them to improve my scores for next time.
~Sana
I have improved a lot from my baseline exam and the second exam. I improved in many ways from using the tactics I learned from the practices that I did before. My multiple choice score has improved twice from baseline and it went up five points from last time. However, there are still some things that I can improve on and some skill I need to learn in order to improve my multiple choice score. Most of the time I had difficulty answering questions which relates to the mood and the tone of the passage. Sometimes, I also misunderstood the answer choices, which led to choose the wrong answer. Learning how to handle these types of questions can further improve my grade forward.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reviewing my answer choices, I realized that all the answers that I got wrong because of misunderstanding the answers choices or by choosing a less detailed or vague answer choice. I also struggled on the Vocab questions. For example, question number 19 asked “Based on the context Clues, Which of the following Choices is the best synonym for the word Smit in line 13?” I chose answer choice C which is “consumed by” however the correct answer was choice B “infatuated by” I learned that I need to learn vocabulary, which will help me understand both the question and the answers choices better. I also need to improve on finding the mood of the text. I got question 16, which is “The mood of the first stanza is best described A” I chose choice D “elegiac and respectful” as my answer. However, the correct answer is choice C “content and restful” When I was taking the test, I was struck on this question because I was really confused and most answer choice seemed to be correct. Ryan said that as he was as he thought about this response now, he realized that he would never have considered the responses that he chose. This is true because now that I went back to this question and read the answer explanation I realized how careless I was for choosing certain answers.
This then brings us to time management. I think that this is one thing that I would want to improve the most on because in the end I ran out of time for the last three questions. This made me guess those answer choices because I had no time in the end. I got all the last three questions wrong because of the time. I have read the last few questions and answered them slowly, than I could have got them correct. Next time, I need to pace myself from the beginning. I realized that I spent too much time on the questions that I didn’t know. So overall, my score has improved a lot. I still have some skills to work which can further improve my grades. I need to improve on vocabulary, so I need to start learning new vocal and the definitions of literary devises which will help me improve my grade.
-Mariam
Denisha Kuhlor
ReplyDeleteA Block
AP English
Receiving and reviewing my scores from the most recent practice AP exam I took was vital to me best understanding my strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to the exam. After looking at my scores and considering other factors that day as I took the test I was able to best outline my strengths and weaknesses allowing me to develop my own personalized approach on how to tackle the test best as possible.
I determined that my strengths from this test included utilize effective strategies in tackling multiple choice, improvement of vocabulary, as well as better annotating skills. With such a dramatic increase of 20 plus questions from my baseline AP test these great improvements stem from me utilizing different strategies developed by myself and my class to answer AP questions. Through things like test analysis discussions,test analysis write-up, as well as my own review of my grades I was able to develop common tactics to solve multiple choice problems. When solving multiple choice questions I learned to refer back to the specific part in the passage that the multiple choice question is referring too. When referring back to the specific part in the passage I also would look two sentences above as well as two sentences below to see if there are any context clues that contribute to a better understanding of the question. The process of elimination so that you can make an educational guess can also be very integral in doing well on the exam. When eliminating choices it is important to eliminate choices that are completely irrelevant, ones you can reason out, and choices where you don’t know what many of the words mean. After you have eliminated all these choices you have greatly increased your chances of guessing and getting the question right. Moving forward I saw that annotating the text as I was reading helped me to develop a better and more holistic understanding of the text the first time I was reading it and as I referred back to it as I was answering multiple choice questions.
Furthermore, this exam also allowed me to develop my weaknesses as I prepare to take this exam. My weaknesses as it pertains to the exam is the writing of the essays as well as time management. When writing my essays I tried to develop a plan in place by starting at the last question and working my way backwards. I saw this plan partially worked because the last essay which I did first is the essay which I performed the most favorably. The order of my essay scores was directly proportional to the order in which I wrote them. Although I planned to spend an equal amount of time on each essay I realized that by the last essay I spent the least amount of time on the essay which I received the lowest score. Improving my test scores will directly relate to me improving on my time management. As Josaua said he found that “ he was able to read every passage,every question, and think about it without feeling like I had to rush”.Better time management will allow me to be better focused and analyze and plan when answering essay questions.
Overall althoughI did a lot better on the AP Exam there is still many improvements and advancements that I can make to achieving the best possible score possible.