Monday, April 30, 2012

AP Exam Study Plan

This year's AP exams are approaching much faster than expected. Just this week have I finally become aware of their proximity. However, I feel that my study plan is focused enough that I won't have to worry about being unprepared.

My plan is very focused around my own strengths (vocabulary, word usage, literary terms) and weaknesses (ESSAYS). I am very confident in my understanding of the AP vocabulary words and terms that we've learned over the last couple of years, so only a minimal amount of time will be spent reviewing those. I intend to study the term list we've been using in class with traditional methods--and if there's still one that I don't fully understand, I know that it is on one of my colleagues blogs! To tackle my weakness, essay writing, I will begin by arming myself with knowledge. Since I know that the essays are primarily literature based, I feel the best forst step is to bolster my knowledge of several pieces of literature. I find my classmates' blogs most helpful in this. Reading through a number of their literary analyses will help me better understand pieces that I've already read-- like a little refresher course-- and introduce me to new pieces that I may find useful for a particular essay.

Once I've gotten all of the background information set in, it's time for practice. I'll focus on practicing analyzing pieces of literature, such as poems and excerpts. I'll need this for both the multiple choice section and the essay section. My biggest concern, however, is the written portion of the exam. The only way I feel I can prepare for that is writing a number of essays on my own time for practice. My biggest issue is timing, so getting used to writing a couple in a crunch should help me feel more confident when I get into the testing room.

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