Do Now:
- Break up into your groups and get organized to continue analyzing the answers to the most recent Part 1 exam.
- Ms. O'Keefe will pass back exams and Answer keys.
- Gio and Nikki will get their graded exams back and join in groups as indicated below. Ronny and Jenny will also be placed in groups as they were on a field trip.
- Joe will step out of the room to take the Part 1 exam.
- Time must be managed so that you have the opportunity to discuss all questions and answers.
- At the end of the class, you will all leave with your tests, answer sheets, answer explanations and any other notes that were taken in class.
- These materials will be used to perform your "post mortem" on the test. What happened, how, why, etc. (See full assignment below.)
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Questions Questions Questions Questions
1-13 14 - 27 28-41 42-54
Sana Asha Josh Archit
Denisha Monish Ryan Jossie
Khadijah Shakira Syd Mariam
Anthony Sam Nikki Jenny
Ronny Gio
Homework:
- Study for the next AP Literature Literary Term test - BenchPrep flashcards from A - P. The test will be on Monday!
- Assess your performance on the most recent Part 1 AP Literature Exam.
Assignment Parameters: Due Monday, March 11th.
- 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?
Sam Julmisse
ReplyDeleteDuring this multiple choice exam I did decently. I had both strengths and weaknesses during this exam. One of my strengths was the identification of the thesis and main ideas of the passages. For example, question 20 asks;
The thesis or main idea of the passage is that
a. The Union is tested by wrongs committed by both the North and the South
b. The Union will always endure, no matter what happens.
c. Only the speaker is qualified to lead the Union in this time of terrible strife.
d. Anarchy is a healthy state because it leads to positive change
e. People must take up arms in defense of their country; to do any less is cowardice.
Right off the bat I eliminate answer choices b, d and e. Answer d was not an appropriate answer because the speaker fears the break in the Union, commenting that some states have already left. This does not show that the Union will always endure, and several times the speaker lets it be known that he/she fears the break and how it will be detrimental. D made no sense because as I said before, the speaker did not like the idea of anarchy. The speaker was displeased with it on all levels and did not voice any kind of positive opinions on it. Then answer e could be eliminated because the speaker towards the end makes it clear he/she will not draw his weapon upon anyone, but will just share the miseries the others will face. This left me with choices a) and c. I could eliminate c because though the speaker seems to be the only sensible during the time, understanding the problems the splitting of the Union would bring and wants very much for it stay together, does not exhibit interest in leading others toward piece. He certainly does not show the backbone that would be needed for such a job, since he would lay down his arms when the time came to fight. Answer choice a made the most sense out of the other choices because the passage was about the splitting of the Union, of the North and the South, and it was the only answer that made the most sense in context, allowing me to correctly choose answer choice a.
One of the complications that I faced during this exam though, stemmed still from my lack of thorough understanding of my literary terms. There were several words I was not completely aware of, far less than the last time, but still there were some. I stayed away from the words I was not sure of though, deciding it was not wise to taste the unknown berries on my way down the road to the completion of the test. I definitely have to focus more on the A letter literary terms because there are so many of them, and I get them confused quite easily, making it hard for me to correctly define the terms when I came across them. The best way for me solve this ordeal is to go over the literary term flashcards provided on bench prep, consistently go over them, to better my understanding of the terms so when I come across them I can effectively answer questions.
Another problem that I was confronted with had to do with the understanding and thorough analysis of the poem. I felt I could have effectively answered more of the questions if I could grasp the connotation of the poem far more successfully, possibly having my MC score escalate in comparison to this one. One of the questions that an understanding of the poem would have come in hand, was question 28. It reads:
The first two lines serve to:
a. Establish the setting, the time and place of the action
b. Help reader infer that the speaker is wise and worldly in the ways of love
c. Present a vivid image of love
d. Introduce the poem’s central conflict, unrequited love
e. Demonstrate the speaker’s confusion over love.
For this question, I chose answer choice d, introduce the poem’s central conflict unrequited love. I understood right away that answer choices a, b and e could be removed from the list. The first two lines do not establish any kind of setting, nor time or place of any kinds of action that would be happening. Answer b did not make sense because the first two lines do not show that the speaker has experienced love many times before, therefore allowing them to be wise and other worldly in the subject matter. Answer choice e could also be eliminated because the first two lines do not hint toward any form of confusion in love, rather someone who understands it. Not understood in the way someone who has been alive for many years and has seen love come and go would, but they still understand and have felt love whether it be once before or this is their first experience with it. I chose answer choice d because I looked at the poem as a whole, not isolating the two lines by themselves to get the true essence of those two lines. After speaking with the people in my group, I understand now that the correct answer was c because the first two lines present an image of how love is like the exchange of ones hearts.
DeleteIn order to better understand poetry for the next test, I will read more poetry in my free time and make attempts to analyze them for their deeper meanings as I go along. I will also do practices tests from bench prep that involves poetry analysis. With more practice, I am sure I will be able to feel more comfortable analyzing poetry. It is through the analysis of my strengths and weaknesses that I am sure I will be capable of improving my test scores next time around.
After taking the AP American Literature and Composition practice multiple choice exam for the fourth time, I have actually showed results that decreased, this time. With the exam being only weeks away, I must take this chance to thoroughly review my strengths and weaknesses. One of my strengths during this exam was specifically with question types that pertain to finding themes: take in consideration question seven “According to line 34, Zimri’s usual themes are,” of this question I had chosen answer choice E, insulting and complimenting other people: I knew E was the correct answer because I was eliminate choices A, B, and C due to the fact that they hardly pertain to the story accurately, leaving me with answer choices D and E. Between D and E I was able to eliminate D due to the fact that compared to E the answer was not as clear or coherent as E was. In other words, although D is correct, there are answer choices were one answer would be more correct than another, thus, E contains more detail or information which makes it the most correct answer. Overall, what I have learned was to be able to differentiate which answers are correct and exam the choices to understand which one would contain the most information or detail to support the question.
ReplyDeleteAnother strong point I had when taking this exam is with questions regarding grammar or word meaning. For example, question forty which states “The poem’s rhythm and rhyme are best described as,” the answer choices for this question contain different types of poem or prose structure containing rhyme, for instance, alternating rhyming lines, or iambic pentameter. In previous exams, I was usually unable to answer such questions due to the fact that I was unaware of the different types of structures and the vocab itself. The reason I was able to understand questions of these types is most likely due to the fact that studying the literary terms via Benchprep and taking constant quizzes on these terms has helped improve my vocabulary. Consequently, in order to constantly do well on such questions I must continue to constantly study these vocab words from Benchprep.
Along with strengths I have also encountered many areas in which I need improvements on. For instance, questions pertaining to the main and hidden idea. Take question number twenty-nine, it states “The central image that the poet creates with the phrases “just exchange” (line 2), “There never was bargain better driven,” (line 4), and “this change” (line 13) indicates love as,” as you could infer, this question is a main idea type of question that relates to the images and how it describes the passage. Overall, I feel that I was unable to understand the passage correctly due to lack of annotations and lack of creating a deeper understanding to the passage. During this exam, I did not annotate the passage or the questions, the probable purpose was mostly because I was setting my goal to finishing the exam, and I felt as if annotations were holding me back. However, the truth is annotating is a technique that can even help speed the process of the questions and at the same time create a deeper understanding to the passage. Therefore, in order for me to have an understanding to the main idea and the hidden idea I must be able to understand the overall meaning of the passage as a whole, and by doing so the best technique would be to take the time to annotate the passage and questions, since in the long run it will most likely even speed of the process of answer the questions.
While reviewing my exam, I noticed that I have gotten many questions that have the phrase “The author…” or “The speaker…means” incorrect. For example question thirty-five states “What does the speaker mean when she claims that both hearts are wounded?” For such questions, it seems as if I am unable to comprehend of thoroughly understand the main idea of the passage, which relates back to my previous point of needing to annotate for a deeper understanding. However, even when answer such questions, it seems as if I have always eliminated the correct answer choices as well, thus it seems as if I need to work on understanding what the author or speaker is trying to convey to the reader. Moreover, since many of the questions that contain “The speaker…means” are mainly related to poetry pieces, it seems to show that poetry passages are a bit more difficult for my understanding, and the best way to create an deeper understanding in reading and analyzing poetry is most likely to, of course annotate, but to also understand the different devices the author uses. Although, I have learned the meanings of many literary devices, it seems as if I am unable to actually put them to use. In other ways, just finding that the poem uses alliteration is not enough, I have to understand why the author chose to use alliteration and what their purpose. Therefore, as Sam has mentioned, it may be best to “read more poetry in my free time and make attempts to analyze them for a deeper meaning as I go along.” Consequently, with the actual AP American Literature and Composition exam only nine weeks away, I must continue to study literary terms, attempt to read and analyze more poetry, and keep in mind annotating is a helpful technique for a better understanding; simultaneously, I must take advantage of the benefit of using Benchprep as a study guide for test preparation as well.
DeleteFrom my baseline exam reflection, second exam breakdown, and midterm exam I can say that I have improved in some ways, and gotten worse in others. Overall, my multiple choice score has decreased since the previous exam; but this time my decreased score was mainly due to the environment I took the test in. As a whole however, I was able to answer a variety of question types comparatively to the other three. 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.
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 word meaning questions is evident in question number 10, “Based on context clues, the best synonym for the word ‘squandering’ as it is used in line 38 is”. Here I selected answer choice E, “acquiring” after referring to the line mentioned in context; however I failed to find the correct substitute for the word squandering from the choices given and the correct answer was actually C, “wasting” because as the answer packet states, “This response is supported by the last lines of the poem that tell us that fools stole his estate while he became the source for much amusement for his ineptness in court”. Diction based questions were definitely an area of weakness in this test and in previous exams as well. An example of a question I marked wrong is evident in question number 24, “The author’s diction can best be characterized as”. Here I selected choice A, “vernacular” because when I reached this question I thought of the repeated instances of patriotism mentioned throughout this essay and therefore picked vernacular as the tone because of the soldier-like mentality portrayed. However, after referring to the answer packet I now understand why C, “formal and precise” is correct because the narrator of the passage spoke appropriately stating facts and supporting his claims with valid arguments.
My ability to better on images/figurative language/literary technique type questions can be directly linked to the quizzes we have been taking in class on the literary terms. As Jenny pointed out, “The reason I was able to understand questions of these types is most likely due to the fact that studying the literary terms via Benchprep and taking constant quizzes on these terms has helped improve my vocabulary. Consequently, in order to constantly do well on such questions I must continue to constantly study these vocab words from Benchprep”. Using BenchPrep provides many advantages because the flashcards provide an example of the literary term in context and a simplified definition. The quizzes have forced me to study the literary devices and terms and overall my performance on these questions has improved. On the next AP Literature exam I hope to see continued improvement on these question types and improve my overall score.
After sitting through the multiple choice part of this exam for the fourth time, I can say I have learned a lot in terms of strategy. For example, from the baseline exam to this fourth exam my time management skills have improved because I do not feel rushed to answer any multiple choice questions. Especially in the first two tests, some of the answers I got wrong were mainly due to the fact that I was not pacing myself at about a minute per question and therefore had to guess the last four or five. Also, my overall knowledge of literature and analyzing literary works is greater than it was in September because of in-class practice and BenchPrep flashcards.
Sana Suhail
ReplyDeleteAP Literature and Composition
March 7, 2013
Mrs. O’ Donnell
I believe my performance was slightly lacking during this practice multiple choice exam. However, I did notice some patterns regarding the types of question I got correct and the types I got incorrect and I hope to improve my score for next time. I felt more pressed for time this time around because I got caught up with the first poem and the questions associated with it. I made the mistake of starting the test in chronological order and by the time I realized that I should have started with the prose passages, I was already 10 minutes into the test, having read the first poem four times, attempting to understand what it meant. Thus a definite strategy to work on for next time, is to use the first few minutes to look over the entire test and get a general sense for the number of passages, prose and poems, and the number of questions associated with each one. Then start with the shorter prose and easier poems, following through with the more difficult ones later on. I believe this strategy will save time (and anxiety) knowing that you’ve started the test with what you know, rather than diving in to what you don’t.
As I review the questions I got incorrect, I notice a recurring pattern between two specific question types. The first is recognizing the meaning of a word in the context of the passage. My flaw in attempting these questions is that I draw in my background knowledge of the word, rather than concentrating on that passage alone. In fact, that is a key pattern I noticed in AP tests; you really have to forget any prior knowledge you have of something, and look at it from the new perspective of the passage. An example of this type of question was question 10, 10. Based on context clues, the best synonym for the word “squandering” as it is used in line 38 is: a) saving, b) investing, c) wasting, d) misappropriating, and e) acquiring. I was able to eliminate three of the choices and was left with c) wasting and d) misappropriating. From my prior knowledge, I knew that the word squander has two meanings, to waste and to scatter. Thus, at first I selected c) but then went back and changed it to d) unsure of which one the passage was referring to. Thus, next time I will make sure that when questions like these come up, I go back to the passage and read the few sentences before and after the location that the word in question appears in, and then make my decision. This is a strategy that I tend to glaze over in the middle of the test because of the pressure of time and impending feeling of ‘I am not going to finish.’ However, if there is time at the completion of the test, I will go back and review questions like these.
The second type of question I frequently got incorrect were questions that tested for my understanding of author’s intent and purpose. Questions such as “The author included lines this and this at the beginning to…” or the “By this metaphor the author sought to convey…” Personally, I struggle with these types of questions because I find it difficult to fully comprehend the author’s intent and purpose without reading the passage multiple times, which may take away from my time as a whole. That’s why I often end up answering these questions after a cursory understanding, and then if I have time left, I attempt to go back and seek a deeper understanding. An example of this type of question in this particular test was question 28, “The first two lines serve to…” I got this question wrong because of unfamiliarity with poetry and lack of time to reread the poem enough times to understand what the purpose of each line was. Consequently, a strategy to incorporate for next time would be to look back over these questions if I have time in the end, and maybe, look at from a fresh new perspective and understand it better.
On a more positive note, I believe that practicing the vocabulary flashcards from BenchPrep has been extremely helpful, and I noticed a marked change from my understanding of the literary terms from past tests to this one. As Sam, Jenny, and Monish all pointed out, continuing to practice with these cards will be extremely helpful on the real AP Exam, just two months away. Furthermore, as we continue to practice with these in class tests, I noticed that people in my group said they are learning to manage their time better, which only does truly come through practice, practice, and more practice. In summation, this part one of the AP Literature exam served as a beneficial learning experience for me.
DeleteRyan Lawson
ReplyDelete3/11/13
A.P. Literature and Composition
AP Exam Post Mortem
After looking over my latest AP practice exam multiple choice scores, I realized that I had not changed methodology very much since my last test. This is characterized by my almost unnoticeable change in score. As with other times, I still had problems with author’s purpose, symbolism, as well as time management. However, I am glad to say that the increased study of vocabulary has been helpful to my test taking on a whole.
As with my last tests I once again struggled with questions that had to do with author’s purpose. As Sana stated, “I struggle with these types of questions because I find it difficult to fully comprehend the author’s intent and purpose without reading the passage multiple times, which may take away from my time as a whole”. My issue is made clear in my response to question 13: “Based on the selection given, an appropriate satiric title for this lampoon of the monarchy of Dryden’s era could be”. I chose D, “Zimri, Friend to Absalom and Achitophel” when the answer was actually C, “Achitophel and Zimri the Not-so-Great”. The difference between these two answer choices shows my complete lack of understanding of the author’s purpose and tone. This is more than likely my own fault, because although I know that I should annotate the passage to assist me in answering the questions, I always feel as if my testing rate is too slow, and therefore I try to focus on getting through as many questions as possible, usually without analyzing them to the extent to which they should be.
My time management was better than my first two tests, but still not quite where I want it to be. While I didn’t have to guess the answers to any questions, I only just barely made the 1 hour deadline. I was quite literally filling in the final bubble as the testing alarm rang, which worried me quite a bit. My lack of time was due to my constant need to look back at passages to figure out the answers to the questions being asked. The time taken to turn back and find a specific part of the passage quickly built up and severely detracted from my overall time, and left me with no time to check my responses.
One area that I am happy to see I have improved in is knowledge of vocabulary. We have been taught that when we see word that we are not familiar with, then we should avoid that answer choice. However, if you are unfamiliar with most of the words, and you determine that the few that you know are incorrect, then the only factor in the answer is how lucky you are when guessing. Seeing that luck should never be the only determinate factor on any test, this situation is unacceptable, and thankfully, my study of the AP exam vocabulary assured that this was not an issue.
Once again, after analyzing my strengths and weaknesses, the method to improve my score is obvious. First, I have to actively annotate both the passages and the questions. This will save time and give me a deeper understanding of the passages and how to answer the questions. Second, I have to continue studying AP vocabulary. This will give me a solid base when answering vocabulary based questions. With a continued focus on these methods, my score should continue to improve.
Mariam Mohamed
ReplyDeleteAp Literature
Ap Exam analysis
3/10/11
After taking this practice multiple choice test, I realized that my score has been decreased by a couple of points compared to the score from the test we took last time. I realized that I have improved in many of skills that I used to struggle before, however, there are still few types of questions in the test that still give me a hard time. My main weakness is on identifying the correct literary term that fits a specific sentence. Even though I know the meaning of the literary terms, I struggle to find a specific literary term that fits a specific sentence. This tells me that I need to practice using these literary terms rather than just memorizing its definition. For example, question number one asks: Which of the following literary techniques does the author use when he describes Achitophel as “A name to all succeeding ages cursed. /for close designs, and crooked counsels fit” in lines 2-3? The choices were A) alliteration B) Personification C) onomatopoeia D) metonymy E) litote. Even though I knew what most of them meant, I found it difficult to figure out which one specifically fits with this. I clearly knew it wasn’t litote, onomatopoeia or personification. However, I struggled with distinguishing between metonymy and alliteration. When I was taking the test, I was rushing to find out the answer that I missed to look at the sentence more clearly. I chose metonymy as my answer, but alliteration was the correct answer. Sam said “I stayed away from the words I was not sure of though, deciding it was not wise to taste the unknown berries on my way down the road to the completion of the test” I agree with that because I followed that too when I was taking the test. When I didn’t know the meaning of the word or a literary term, I just skipped to choose that as my answer.
Even though my score decreased by a few points, I am now confident about the pace of the test because of the many practices that we had. Before, I struggled to finish the test at the correct time and ended up guessing many answers at the end due to the lack of time I had. However, this time I finished all the questions before the time was over. I also maintained a pace and took equal amount of time for every question. When I didn’t know an answer, I skipped it immediately so that I can answer the once that I know. By doing this, I had lots of time in the end to come back to the questions that I got wrong. The more I practice on these multiple choice tests, the more I seem to get better at the timing. Also, before I used to struggle with the vocab based questions, but this time I did better on the vocab questions. For example, question 38 asks for the synonym for “smart” even though the literal meaning of it might be easy, the meaning of the word with the context of the poem was hard to find. I got that question correct because I was able to understand the meaning of it based on the context clues. There are many skills that I have improved significantly compared to the once before. I still have many skills that should work on before the AP exam. I realized I should start learning more about literary terms, not just the definition but to understand it clearly. Also, practicing from the bench prep web site has also been extremely helpful since it provides us with a specific example for each literary term.
During this practice multiple choice exam, I lacked pretty bad than the other couple of ones we took before. I don’t know what happened, it was like the questions in the beginning were really easy, but then towards the end they started to get very challenging. Just like Sana said, “However, I did notice some patterns regarding the types of question I got correct and the types I got incorrect and I hope to improve my score for next time. My very first problem that I knew I was going to have going in with this test was the time. With 58 questions to answer in 1 hour, to me was a little difficult because some of the passages were a bit hard for me to understand. I realized that when I first started to read the 1st poem in the passage I read it over like 2 r 3 more times because I needed to get a basic understanding of the meaning of it. Suddenly I realized that 15 minutes had flown by, and I felt like I had to rush. Now I know that a strategy that I need to set next time is to look over each passage first to see which one might be most difficult for me to understand, and deal with that one last. The most major problem I had with this test were the questions that had to deal with vocabulary words. In the answer choice sometimes 2 answer choices might be correct, but in reality only one is. And even when I knew the definitions of some of the words, still I had some unclear meanings. Now I know that next time I need to work on my vocab.
ReplyDeleteAs I looked over some of the questions that I got incorrect, I noticed a pattern between the two that I kept getting wrong. An example of this type of question would be number 13. Based on the selection given, an appropriate satiric title for this lampoon of the monarchy of Dryden’s era would be:
A: revenge is sweet
B: the pen is mightier than the sword
C: achitophel and zimri the not so-great
D: zimri, friend to Absalom and achitophel
E: Absalom and achitophel the great
The other question was:
Number 32 which says: the word bides in line 8 mostly means:
A: flourishes
B: grows
C: expires
D: dwells
E: regrows
The reason why these questions were hard for me this time was because for one, trying to give an appropriate title to a poem based on after you read it is hard because maybe it can be more than one, so I never know which answer choice would be best. I always seem to hesitate on those types of questions anyway. So I just do a guess and check. And for the other question, if I don’t know what the vocabulary word means in the first place how am I supposed to know what its trying to mean? I mean I know there are context clues that I can go back and look for, but sometimes that does not do anything for me at all. But overall, I had been trying to come up with different strategies to help fix this problem for these types of questions, so when I take the real AP test in May, I’ll be all set and ready to go.
Overall, the rest of the test was really not that bad for me. Yes, the poems were a little boring, and not that interesting to me, but that’s good part because it had me thinking a lot about how I should spend my time, and answer the questions first that I know are my strengths.
Multiple Choice Reflection
ReplyDeleteAfter taking the multiple choice section of the AP Literature and Composition exam, I found, similar to Jenny that my score had decreased. Consequently, I found many weaknesses, as well as strengths that I seemed to have after reviewing the exam in a group setting, including coming across questions that had “multiple right answers”, questions associated with author’s intent, and the speaker’s tone.
A major weakness that I seemed to have throughout this test was having difficulty with questions that had multiple “right answers”. This is exemplified in question 28 which asked, “The first two lines serve to”. The answer choices included a) establish the setting, the time and place of the action, b) help readers infer that the speaker is wise and worldly in the ways of love, c) present a vivid image of love, d) introduce the poem’s central conflict: unrequited love, or e) demonstrate the speaker’s confusion over love. Initially, I was able to eliminate answer choices a, b, and e, but I was stuck between c and d. I ended up choosing answer choice d because I assumed that when the author wrote this poem, he was trying to show the conflict occurring between the two characters. Similar, to my thinking I noticed that my group had a similar problem in distinguishing between the two answer choices. However, after our discussion, we found that we all seemed to misinterpret the poem as a whole. Consequently, I realize that I need more practice with the area of poetry and a better ability to analyze the meaning of the work as a whole, which is best achieved through annotating.
Additionally, similar to Sana, I noticed that I struggled with questions that asked about the author’s intent and purpose. Questions that I seemed to struggle with included question 39 which asked, “The poet achieves what effect by repeating the first line as the last line?”. I seemed to have trouble with this question because I did not understand the poem and its meaning all together, because also similar to Sana, I have a difficult time understanding a piece of literature unless I read it more than once. Consequently, this would take away from my time and hurt my multiple choice score even further, due to the number of skipped questions significantly increasing. Therefore, I will in future tests, read the piece of literature, annotate it, and then go back to my annotations, rather than having to reread the entire text. As a result, I believe that I will be able to more rapidly glaze over the exam and earn a better score, due to my active reading.
Moreover, I had difficulty with questions concerning author’s tone. My flaw with this literary device can mainly be attributed to the fact that I found it very difficult to figure out the author’s attitude towards a topic. I found myself recognizing key elements, however finding the author’s overall tone gave me some trouble. Question 37 exemplifies this when it asks, “The tone of this poem is best characterized as”. The answer choices were a) somber and restrained, b) bitter and resentful, c) elegiac and respectful, d) clever and witty, and e) deferential and uneasy. I chose answer “a”, because I found myself confused at what the author’s tone was towards the topic, due to my misinterpretation of the poem. However, I found that the correct answer was “d” because none of the other answer choices seemed to make sense. This as a result, brings up the idea of reading deeper in the text and annotating everything so I am not confused by all the extra detail, and can focus on the main point.
(Continued)
DeleteOn the other hand, I found myself doing well with questions concerning literary devices, specifically ones associated with the structure of a piece of literature. I found that my increased knowledge of literary devices helped in my understanding of the question and the answer choices, which I can attribute to the Benchprep flashcards. Finally, I feel that by annotating, reading for deeper meaning, and ,as Sana, Jenny, and Monish said, studying the BenchPrep flashcards for the various literary devices, I will be able to raise my score on the multiple choice section as well as improve my essays with a deeper level of analysis on the actual AP exam in May.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAsha Chen-Phang
ReplyDeleteMarch 11, 2013
AP Literature
Ms. O’Donnell
After extensively reviewing my performance on the most recent multiple choice portion of the AP Exam, I realized that I did not work as well as I did on the previous test. It is likely that many of my mistakes were due to the fact that I was rushing a bit so that I could finish in the available time. For instance, similarly to Mariam, I incorrectly answered question 1 which reads, “Which of the following literary techniques does the author use when he describes Achitophel as ‘A name to all succeeding ages cursed./For close designs, and crooked counsels fit’ in lines 2-3? A) Alliteration B) Personification C) Onomatopoeia D) Metonymy E) Litote. However my issue was due to the fact that I overlooked the repetition of the hard “C” sound, which is the reason that answer choice A is correct. Closer attention to detail and focus should allow me to avoid making simple errors such as this.
Additionally, it seems as though many of my errors came from not comprehending the material. I lost the most points in the section of the third passage, questions 28-41. I experienced difficulty in trying to understand the poem and its greater meaning. This made me incapable of correctly answering the questions regarding the theme of the poem and the author’s intent. In many cases I ended up selecting the more vague answer choice that didn’t exactly answer the current question. This is something that I have struggled with all throughout the year, but I seem to be somewhat improving in singling it down to the more specific, correct answer. Maybe if I actually make an effort to take down more thorough annotations and notes along the passages, I will have a greater chance of comprehending the passages in their entirety and I will not experience so much difficulty in answering questions related to my understanding.
An area that I am improving on throughout the course of the year, and show great improvement on this specific test is with the utilization of literary terms. I have become more familiar with the literary terms presented in the answer choices, which allows me to better understand the question and the answers at hand. Continuously expanding my knowledge of the literary terms will provide me the opportunity to score higher on the exam because questions involving them will be so much easier to answer. However, I am still struggling still with some of the vocabulary, such as comparisons between descriptions of a tone conveyed by the narrator. This requires me to familiarize myself with some higher level vocabulary, in addition to the literary terms, so that I may answer such questions with ease.
The real AP test is approaching soon, and there are many aspects of the multiple choice test and my test taking strategy that I need to work on. Still, I believe that I am capable of doing so if I continue to focus my attention on bettering my skills and maximizing my knowledge. I think that by the time May arrives, I will have been well prepared to achieve a great score on the AP exam.
Denisha Kuhlor
ReplyDeleteAfter taking the Part 1 Exam for the fourth time this year my results revealed a decline in my results from the previous exam. A further reflection on my score led me to realize my score which I viewed as unsatisfactory could be contributed to 3 main factors. Lack of focus, a mediocre knowledge of the vocabulary words, as well as being too concerned about time causing me to rush through my test.
Although I was aware I was taking this test I neglected actually preparing myself for it. I did not make sure I went to sleep early or ate a good breakfast. Once seeing how apparent the negative affect choosing to neglect preparing myself for the test I have to be very conscientious about preparing myself around test day. This includes getting enough sleep and eating a good breakfast so that I can be as focused as possible. Not being focused affected my test taking skills a lot. I would have to reread passages many times simply because I was not able to comprehend them. I would read questions but have to reevaluate my understanding of the passage as a whole just to make an educational guess about answering the questions.
Every time I have taken the test my knowledge of vocabulary has increased having a proportional affect on my score. I due believe that, that positive plateau hit a stand still because I did not increase my knowledge of vocabulary enough. The vocabulary quizzes that Ms. O’ Donnell implemented encouraged me to study the vocabulary so that I can do well on the quizzes and as a result do well on the AP exam. My results of those quizzes haven’t been too favorable probably because I haven’t been studying enough and on a consistent basis to really learn the words. In the future and especially leading up the weeks I will be studying the vocabulary words on a much more regular basis. Not only to improve my score on the quizzes but to help improve my score on the A.P Exam.
When I didn’t understand the passage or a had an ambiguous understanding of it when I approached answer the questions I did not do to well. The bulk of the questions that I answered wrong all stemmed from the same passage. When answering questions I have to make sure I have a thorough understanding of the passage or poem because when I don’t I keep reading and rereading the passage because I don’t understand it affecting my understanding of the question.
Some positive things I garnered from viewing my results from this Part 1 is that although I had a less then favorable testing environment I still did pretty well. Next time, I take a practice exam I am confident that by improving on the issues outlined here I can greatly improve my score and exceed my previous scores. Using techniques such as benchprep, and making sure I am focused and ready to take the exam so I can achieve the best score possible!
For this practice multiple choice test, I went down about four points. This has a lot to do with the state of mind I was in when taking the practice test and it made me realize that how I feel when I take the test can in fact have an effect on my score. I came into the test very tired from being sick for a few days, which caused me to be less focused on the test and more focused on finishing it so I can get closer to resting. My head was also very stuffed due to allergies.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the fact I was not very focused on the test, I also did not annotate at all during the test. I did a little underlining, but nothing more than that. Had I remembered to annotate, it is very likely that I would have gotten at least as many questions correct as I did on my last practice, if not more. I know that I took significantly less time to take the test than I normally would have because I was rushing to an extent, I just wanted to get it done. For the real AP exam in May, I should make sure to already be taking my allergy medications so that I do not have to deal with my lack of focus, and I should get extra sleep the night before considering that then I will not be drowsy and trying to get back to sleep.
There is one type of question that remains an issue: questions asking about vocab. Like Sana, I’ve been studying the vocabulary more often thanks to the quizzes, but I am still struggling in that area. One question I got wrong was question twenty-one, where it asks what the three words used to create a syntactical structure was called. I thought it was figurative language, but it was actually parallelism. This is because figurative language is not a syntactical structure term, but parallelism is. I knew things like oxymoron weren’t it, but I couldn’t cross off too many other options.
Another type of questions I had issues with would be with why the author included something in his writing. A good example of this was question five, where it asks why the poet calls Zimri “so various, that he seemed to be/Not one, but all mankind’s epitome” (lines 24-25). I thought it would have been because he had extensive talents that he would symbolize humanity’s archetype, but it was because he was more variable. This was hinted by the fact the poet called Zimri “various”. Missing simple things like this is probably what did not help in getting me a better score as well.
For the next multiple choice test, I should prepare myself with the vocab even more. This way I won’t have any doubts when I have to answer questions involving it. I should also fully prepare myself by getting enough sleep as I stated previously, and find a way to focus better and pick up on the little hints and indicators towards the correct answers.
My score on this test improved drastically just because I found myself going over the test strategies that I had intended on following before the test even started. Since there were 4 passages in this test, I divided my time accordingly and answered the questions in each passage by dividing them in 15 minutes. Also, since we are using BenchPrep as a tool to familiarize ourselves with the literary terms, I was able to answer some questions because those terms were as answer choices in some of the questions. For example, question 34 asks, “This poem is constructed as a(n)” for which the correct answer choice was “C. Conceit.” I agree with Mariam when she mentions that we should not only be able to memorize the literary terms, but also understand its meaning in the passage. Moreover, I was able to read, understand and annotate on this test and it helped me a lot when answering some of the main idea questions. For example, question 3 asks, “Which of the following statements best paraphrases lines 14-15” for which the correct answer choice was C, “only a thin line separates genius from madness.” As a secondary strategy, I did not go in order of the passages, instead, I answered the second, third and fourth before going back to the first which I found most challenging because of the context of the passage and some of the words used. Lastly, as I always have, I used the process of elimination on nearly every question on the test.
ReplyDeleteSome of the questions that I got wrong were hidden idea questions that referred to specific sections of the passage. For example, question 50 asks, “Based on the voice and attitude of the speaker in this passage, he can best be characterized as” for which the correct answer was C, a brave and honorable man. I got this question wrong because I could not understand the farmers tone. I could not tell if the author trying to revolt or was simply trying to defend himself. Other types of questions that I did not do well on were word meaning questions such as question 38 which asks, “The best synonym for “smart” as it is used in line 12 would be” for which the correct answer choice is A, “sting.” I always stump on these types of questions because it requires time and requires thinking as to how the word fits the meaning of the context. One of the answer choices were “intelligent” which is relevant to smart however, the way it is used in the context, it makes it the wrong answer. Question 14 is similar which asks for the meaning of the word “perusal.”
As I had expected, I did the worst on passage 1, and due to that I got many questions wrong because they related most to hidden idea questions and specific/main idea questions that required me to look back at the text. Questions 2, 3, 5 and 6 are questions that require the reader to understand the passage, however, since the passage made minimal sense to me, I got most questions wrong on this passage. In the future I intend to follow the strategies that I did in this test and hopefully see my MC test score go up, because even if I depended on the essays too much, my handwriting will be there to disrupt the beautiful work that I have created (Personification!).
For this practice AP multiple-choice exam, there were definitely expected results. As usual, I showed some strengths and weaknesses, but more strengths than weaknesses this time. I found that I increased in “problem” areas that seemed to destroy my scores before. What I found particularly interesting is that this exam focused on literary terms and techniques much more than the previous exams. Specific examples of where are “literary knowledge” was tested were the first and second passages. For instance, the very first question asks, “Which of the following literary techniques does the author use when he describes Achitopel as ‘A name to all succeeding ages cursed./For close designs, and crooked counsels fit’ in lines 2-3?” The correct answer was alliteration because the words, “cursed,” “close,” “crooked,” and “counsels,” begin with the same consonant sound. As Josh stated, “I found that my increased knowledge of literary devices helped in my understanding of the question and the answer choices, which I can attribute to the Benchprep flashcards.” Thanks to the literary terms quizzes that we have taken, answering questions such as the ones previously stated, has become easier. Unfortunately, I will sometimes answer these same types of questions incorrectly due to my lack thoroughness when reading the question.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the problem of not taking the time to truly analyze every question (to the best of my ability in such a short amount of time), is unbiased because it reoccurs in every part of the exam. I actually found it strange that I “finished” the test with several minutes left to spare because I usually take every second I can to reread and recheck my answers. The probable reason why I had some much time left over was that this particular exam had fewer, or at least less difficult to interpret, poetic passages and those types of passages are the ones that usually take the most time. I underestimated the prose passages and spent not nearly enough time, as I should have.
Moreover, I pleased with the fact that I do not struggle with many of the types of questions that I did before. This means that I feel extremely confident when approached with questions based on “main ideas” and “hidden ideas” for the reason that I learned how to read the question as opposed to just “reading” it. By this, I mean that I simply used to read the words on the paper and tried to find the best answer. However, I now read the question and ask myself why the question is even being asked because if it is on an AP Lit exam, the question has to be important no matter how trivial pointless it may seem.
Ultimately, the moral taken from this session is to take my time and never underestimate any of the questions because some may be more tedious than others, but when it comes down to the score you’re given they are all just as important.
After analyzing my scores from my fourth A.P part 1 exam I noticed a steady increase. Although I expected my scores to go up as my familiarity with the exam I attribute the incline to preparing myself the night before, my rising knowledge of the vocab words, and my capability of having a better understanding of the analysis questions.
ReplyDeleteI took a different approach to making sure I was ready by starting the night before. I got a good night’s sleep and ate a good breakfast. This had a direct correlation on my test performance as when I was taking the test I felt full of energy and focused. Because I was so focused and moving through the questions quickly, I had spare time to go back and double check questions I might have been confused on. Double checking the questions led to me correcting wrong answer choices that I picked earlier.
Studying the vocab words and taking the quizzes has helped me learn more of the words. Now, I do not have to guess on a question because I do not know a word. That gives me the opportunity to get more right because I’ll actually be able to answer the question. Vocabulary is a big part of the test and also helps when analyzing the poems.
Taking the A.P part 1 exam multiple times has gotten me familiar with the test and the type of questions. I am now more comfortable with the test which helps me put more focus into analyzing and makes me less nervous. However, I need to practice picking the answers that are “most right”. When it came down to picking between two answers, I did not always pick the most correct answer. That shows me that I do not have a complete understanding of the question or the passage. Having a little more practice on analyzing will better prepare me for the A.P exam so that I will continue to see an increase in my score.