Test-prep Monday

First:  an important message from the college board about your scores: AP scores

MULTIPLE CHOICE PRACTICE-30 minutes/2 passages

Today I would like you to try to use the following strategies (if you haven't tried them already):

Try this: Read the questions first and put brackets and numbers around the text corresponding to each question. 

1. Annotate the passage by underlining strong opinions and circling/labeling key words and rhetorical strategies that stand out.

2. When you read the questions, cover the answers and read only the question stems.  Can you anticipate what the right answer should be?  

3. Read the answers and judge each one as a true/false statement.

4. Answer the "easy" ones first and then go back to the harder ones in the set.
5. For the tough ones:

• Go back and reread the focused part of the text and eliminate the obviously wrong answers. 
•  Do any of the other questions in the set give you clues to the right answer?  Use them. 
•  Watch out for distractors that are only PARTIALLY correct.  
• Then, consider carefully the phrasing of the answer. Look carefully for qualifying or clarifying terms; those are clues that this is probably the right answer (if you have to make an educated guess). 
• Look for two statements that balance (or contrast) each other.  One of them is probably the right answer.

Here is a document I found helpful in preparing this list for you: http://goo.gl/L2cAXv Thank you Mr. Gunnar!

Tuesday: Multiple Choice practice--Yippee!

The AP exam

Today we begin in earnest our preparations for the AP exam on May 9.

Here is an excellent overview that you might want to review regularly: http://prezi.com/vho2d45tg4s8/ap-english-language-and-composition-review/

Today we will read two dated passages (they are the hardest kind--here's one) and complete their multiple choice questions.  Keep in mind that you should read it once for the gist and then carefully reread, marking the test.  You will need to this quickly, however.  With practice, your accuracy should improve.

This is a good time to start studying your rhetorical devices flashcards from the summer.  Here are some sets on quizlet.com that should do the trick:

http://quizlet.com/26787029/mvhs-ap-english-language-and-composition-rhetorical-devicesvocabulary-flash-cards/

http://quizlet.com/15982051/ap-rhetorical-devices-miletic-flash-cards/

http://quizlet.com/32644759/ap-rhetorical-devices-flash-cards/

Last Day before FINAL

Today we will share examples of irony and use them to come up with a good answer to the question: What is the value of irony in argument?

Then, students will write their own multiple choice question for the final exam, using AP question stems, keeping in mind the different kinds of distractors that usually appear on the AP test.

REMINDER:  the final exam will consist of 1) vocabulary test on lessons 1-7  2) multiple choice questions on "A Modest Proposal" and 3) an argument essay on a sample AP prompt.