AP Language exam in a Literature year

[MamaSprout]

So we decided not to board the AP crazy train this year and instead are knocking out a couple of SAT subject tests dd might need for applications. For all practical purposes, though, she's doing AP English Language at home with me (although we won't call it that on the transcript). Next year, she will probably sign up for a couple of APs; a Calculus and Chemistry. We've located a potential test site and a "safety", so it looks do-able for next year.

We're doing straight up literature next year. I've looked ahead to some of her potential schools, and the AP Language exam fulfills a required course. AP Literature comes in as an elective. So is there any good reason she wouldn't be able to do the AP Language Exam next year without doing a class? I've looked over the PA AP Language classes, and she's already been through a lot of the texts/ readings they use. She's a solid but not super-speedy writer. What else would she need to do?

[Farrar]

If she's a good test taker, then it's not a terribly hard exam. The biggest thing is that she has to be able to whip those essays out quickly.

The skills are basically just writing, so most of them should keep being practiced, even if you're focusing on literature. I mean, you'll still write, right?

What was your reasoning not to do the exam in the year that she actually prepped for it? I mean, of all the exams, if you were going to prep and then put it off, this is one of the better ones since so much of it is skill that you (hopefully) continue to apply and use in various ways. However, that never seems ideal to me.

I would not do AP Lit if you know where she's going and it won't even fulfill a credit she needs. It's a much harder exam that has more prep time.

[MamaSprout]

Thanks. AP is a huge learning curve for us since no one does them around here- neither our district school nor any homeschoolers. The registration dates passed by while we were still getting our high school feet under us. I didn't plan to teach AP Language this year, it just kind of worked out that way with what was the "next thing" to teach.

Edited November 26, 2019 by MamaSprout

[Farrar]

You're only midway through the year. I'd stop focusing solely on AP Lang and mix it up with more literature. Then do the same next year so you've spread it out over two years and she'll be more up on the test prep aspect when she actually goes to take the exam.

So this is her 9th grade year? Is there a reason that you're pushing the AP exams so early? Is she an advanced student in English? Does standardized testing come really easy to her?

Really, IMHO, the Lit and Lang exams are a little different from other AP's in that they are focused on a body of information and skills that students acquire over an extended period. Most of the AP exams are focused on a specific set of content (and associated skills) that students intensively cover in a single year. The specific prep for the test is the thing that happens in the year that you take the exam so that you're ready. But the content is - ideally - something that you're learning throughout a traditionally rigorous English education. For example, as a kid myself, when I took the Lit exam, I did not choose works I'd read that year in the actual AP English Lit class to write about on the actual exam. I wrote about two works - one that I'd read the previous year for my honors English course, and another that I read for an English elective I took that year. It's not so different on the Lang exam... you're just writing a paper. Since you didn't get your course certified this year and it doesn't sound like you plan to for the future either, then I'd suggest that you spread the content out. A good English year has a lot of writing and a lot of literature. Since she won't be taking the exam anyway, just mix it up. At least, that's my take.

[madteaparty]

My understanding is that that exam changes this year and even the available prep material is not available yet (though I’m overseas so my info may be a couple months dated.)

i have looked at exactly one small MCQ set for this test and they strike me as totally nonsensical. I don’t know if i’m going off my rocker but I don’t think this about the ACT, or SAT or other AP test questions, just this one. They looked like they used google translate for one prompt. So I don’t know, maybe it’s not as predictable as one would think of this the most predictable of APs. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by madteaparty

[Farrar]

11 minutes ago, madteaparty said:

My understanding is that that exam changes this year and even the available prep material is not available yet (though I’m overseas so my info may be a couple months dated.)

i have looked at exactly one small MCQ set for this test and they strike me as totally nonsensical. I don’t know if i’m going off my rocker but I don’t think this about the ACT, or SAT or other AP test questions, just this one. They looked like they used google translate for one prompt. So I don’t know, maybe it’s not as predictable as one would think of this the most predictable of APs. 

Some of them seem absurd to me, too. But I'd say that about the mcq's about reading on nearly every single one of these standardized tests. My kids both just took the Accuplacer for community college and that's obviously supposed to be so straightforward and easy and... some of the practice questions we looked at were nonsense. But you just have to get in the mindset of what they want and not actually try to understand or analyze the passages.

I didn't realize they were doing a rewrite next year. Sigh. It rarely seems to improve these tests.

[MamaSprout]

She's very advanced, so it's not really pushing APs on her so much as taking the exams when they make sense. A lot of her middle school coursework was high school level.

To be clear, we're not preparing of AP Language... we're just at that level- a rhetoric elective and previous work with "They Say", "Art of Lively Writing", etc and lots of speeches. We are doing literature in the spring with focus on devices and such. If it's an exam where she could set aside some time to run through test specific practice, I think she'd do fine. She has scored high on other standardized test stuff for English already. We don't really have a dual credit option for English.

[madteaparty]

51 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Some of them seem absurd to me, too. But I'd say that about the mcq's about reading on nearly every single one of these standardized tests. My kids both just took the Accuplacer for community college and that's obviously supposed to be so straightforward and easy and... some of the practice questions we looked at were nonsense. But you just have to get in the mindset of what they want and not actually try to understand or analyze the passages.

I didn't realize they were doing a rewrite next year. Sigh. It rarely seems to improve these tests.

See I don’t think that at all of most SAT or ACT passages. The one odd question in 30 , sure. This one I had to look around to make sure I wasn’t being punked. some obscure publications and I would put real money on the original language of at least one passage not being the English language 😂 maybe they have a sense of humor after all.