AP Review and Preview

Dr. Humble
18 April 2019

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

From “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So. As we are wending our way towards May 15 (about five weeks from now), I
think about you as you are preparing for your AP exams and ours, in particular.

I’ll share notes and tips, from years past, with you over the next few weeks. I am
composing this one with you in mind. It’s called “Markers.” What are the markers
that will show your nice (=precise), sophisticated levels of reading, thinking, and
writing. Well, your writing will demonstrate what a thinker you are. Perhaps your
writing will contain these markers. Please note that I am pitching this advice from
the perspective of encoding (your writing), and these markers also apply to your
decoding (your reading).

Markers
● A mature writing style
○ Your syntax comprises complex and compound sentences. Complex
sentences convey complex thinking.
○ Your writing conveys images that clarify, define, and assert your
ideas.
○ Your diction shows. You have and use comfortably an enriched
vocabulary. You use transitional words.
● A tone or tones that would convey a mind at work.
 ● A reasoned organization
○ A defining statement (you address the prompt in one sentence, usually
at the beginning).
○ Transitional words that link ideas of causation and contrast and other
ideas
○ Fully developed paragraphs that plunge deeply into the pool of ideas.
○ Claims supported by evidence (Nest, rest, and digest. Do not hit and
run.)
● An appreciation for
○ Decoding and encoding
○ Nuance
○ Irony (we English teachers love us some irony--decoded or encoded)
○ Humor
○ Tone
○ Layering of ideas
● An ability to play on the Abstract-Concrete Continuum
○ Think generally. Link specifically.
○ Run (play) up and down the scale.
● An ability to read deeply
○ The Mississippi River has depth, and its currents run below the
surface. Untrained passengers can only see what is on the surface.
Trained pilots, like Samuel Clemens, can see what is happening below
the surface. Are you seeing (reading) only what is on the surface? Can
you read deeply, beneath the surface?

Now, here is some advice about writing, particularly about drafting, the kind of
writing you’ll be doing on your AP exam. Play with these ideas. Don’t take them
literally.

● Cross over to the next border, the next boundary. Your “performance” on
your AP exam will prove whether you can place yourself in advanced
courses in college. Put yourself in that advanced thinking mode. You got
this. You can do it.
 ● Sometimes--and particularly in a pressured situation--you cannot remember
the detail you wish to recall. If you can voice whatever comes to mind, even
if that idea is wrong, that thought may open the gate to the path leading to
the right answer. Embrace the remembered association that may awaken the
neural connection to the forgotten.
● Don’t worry about whether your writing is good or right--just start writing.
● A capitalist metaphor. Don’t invest in or withdraw from brainstorming. Just
brainstorm, and increase your capital!
● Identify the abstraction; then visualize it and illustrate it with concrete
details.
● Don’t worry about knowing all about where you are going. Begin, ask
questions, and let the logical sequences unfurl and unfold.

Accept your work. Accept your thinking. Accept your writing.

You are engaging in high-stakes testing. In July, you’ll get feedback from the AP
folks about your day in May. That feedback is very good, though it may well not
be perfect. What if one of the questions threw you? Our exam is a 30-year
experiment where students (you) work to convince a college that you can do the
work of introductory college composition based on a test based on work in high
school. If you do not receive advanced placement, then the college course in
composition will benefit you.

My lists of advice are meant to solidify what you have learned about reading and
writing over the last several years. These lists do not replace your years of
preparatory education in the language arts in general or your year of education in
rhetoric in particular.

You’ll be fine. You are fine. Relax. Go to work.