AP exam

What you need to know (Taken from the College Board site)

Writing

When you have penned what you think is a great sentence or a clean, logical paragraph, read it over to yourself out loud.

A Tip from E. M. Forster

He is reputed to have said that he never knew clearly what it was he thought until he spoke it; and once he had said it, he never knew clearly what it was that he said until he had written it down. Then, Forster noted, he could play with it and give it final form. Be like Forster: think, speak, write, analyze your writing, then give it final shape

Writing

Write Purposefully with Rhetorical Awareness• When you write, fashion your text with

awareness of key rhetorical elements. • What is the message of your text? • How do you intend to convey your message to

your particular audience? • Give shape to your thinking with language that

enlightens your readers and lets you achieve your aims

How is my essay scored?

• How Is My Essay Section Scored?Each of your essays is read by a different, trained

AP reader called a “faculty consultant.” The AP/College Board people have developed a highly successful training program for its readers, together with many opportunities for checks and double checks of essays to ensure a fair and equitable reading of each essay.

Who scores it?

• The scoring guides are carefully developed by the chief faculty consultant, question leader, table leaders, and content experts. All faculty consultants are then trained to read and score just one essay question on the exam. They become experts in that one essay question. No one knows the identity of any writer.

• The identification numbers and names are covered, and the exam booklets are randomly distributed to the readers in packets of 25 randomly chosen essays. Table leaders and the question leader review samples of each reader’s scores to ensure quality standards are constant

What is the formula?

• Each essay is scored as 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1, plus 0, with 9 the highest possible score.

• Here, if there are 27 possible points divided into 55% of the total possible score, each point awarded is given a value of 3.055.

• The formula would look something like this: (pts. X 3.055) + (pts. X 3.055) + (pts. X 3.055) =

essay raw score• Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3

Math• 150 is the total composite score for the AP English Language and

Composition test. • Fifty-five percent of this score is the essay section; that equals 82.5

points. • Forty-five percent of the composite score is the multiple-choice

section, which equals 67.5 points.• Each of your three essays is graded on a 9-point scale; therefore,

each point is worth 3.055. • You would divide the number of multiple-choice questions by 67.5.

For example, if there were 55 questions, each point of the raw score would be multiplied by 1.227.

• If you add together the raw scores of each of the two sections, you will have a composite score.

What does it mean?

150–100 points = 599–86 = 485–67 = 32 and 1 fall below this range. You do not want to

go there.

What Should I Bring to the Exam?

• • Several pencils• • Several BLACK pens (black ink is easier on

the eyes)• • A watch• • Something to drink—water is bes

Remember

• Write neatly: you do not want to lose points, or worse yet get no points because it is illegible

• Review prompt: What is it asking?• Use SOAPStone if possible• Write with the claim in mind: What am I

proving?• Does this point support it?• Have I used varied and logical supports?• Review flash cards