AP English Language and Composition on my own?

Question

Hi, I am going to be a junior next year. My school is very small, a total of 300 students, thus they do not offer ap english language and composition, only honors english 3. I would like to take the ap test for english language and was wondering how that class compares to honors english 3 - american literature. What can i do so that I will be able to do well on the test. preferably a four or a five. What are the best test prep books for ap english language. Are there any books that I should read? If anyone can provided links on what they had to do for their ap english language and composition course, it would be most helpful. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thank you so much.

Answer 1

Ok for my class we practiced a lot writing essays. You can do the same at home by going on

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/2001.html

All the prompts for past years are on there so time yourself and start writing fast. If you don't know the correct format, read the sample essays. For MC, just buy study guide books like princeton review or Kaplan, just any you can find would be helpful practice. Then we kind of studied rhetorical devices, you just know them. We read a lot of books, great gatsby, scarlet letter, a streetcar named desire, east of eden, just classics like that. If you can write, then you'll be fine.



Practice practice practice.

Answer 2

AP English Language and Composition isn't about books, so I don't have any books in particular to recommend.

Just buy an AP prep textbook (I recommend the Princeton Review - they have sample essays on the back) and read over it and learn the terms. Then you can really just pick up any old book and analyze it based on the information you learn.

Literature classes are about studying the concept of books, such as theme. Language & Composition is totally different because you study the style instead of the actual content of the writing. In Language & Composition, you don't need to pay attention to the plot; only the writing matters! Don't expect to be reading anything interesting. You're going to come across newspaper articles and speeches instead. Also, practice writing synthesis essays and analysis essays, because that's a major component of the exam.

Answer 3

There's absolutely no way they could ever find out if you were lying...If the "personal experience" you wrote about helped support your argument, then it'll only help your score, not hurt it. The types of examples rank like this: 1. Historical 2. Literature 3. Personal anecdote (personal experience) 4. Hypothetical Examples from history and literature are the most supportive and effective, but if you can't think of one, the next best type of example to use is a personal one. Even if it never actually happened to you, it's more effective to pretend that it did...personal anecdotes rank higher than hypothetical situations.