Post 16: Final Reflection

This past week I took the AP English Literature exam. Overall, I believe I performed well on the exam, but not as well as I had been performing in class. The multiple choice portion of the exam was much less challenging than in-class practices while the free response portion was more difficult. I specifically feel that I struggled on the open question essay in the free response. For the open question, I had difficulty choosing a text and connecting the meaning of the work as a whole of that text to the prompt. The open question prompt dealt with the positives and negatives of a character with an idealistic perspective on life. For my essay, I discussed West Side Story and the characters’ - Tony and Maria - idealism for their future together that led to Tony’s death. While I believe I addressed the prompt, I struggled to organize my analysis as I progressed through my discussion of the play. In addition, I had issues addressing the meaning of the work as a whole initially, although I did address that later in my essay. The other essays for the free response section were much easier to answer, although I believe they were still more challenging than ones we have practiced with in class. I had difficulty relating literary techniques in the prose passion to the characterization of the daughters, which I believe may have weakened my overall analysis. The multiple choice section of the exam was much easier than practice we have done and I felt very confident in my answers. Some techniques I utilized during this section were noting the type of question being asked - function versus inference and levels one, two or three. This skill helped my understand what the question was asking of me so I was better able to find proper textual support for my answer. Knowing whether it was an inference question or a function question allowed me to know whether support should come from the context of the lines or from the effect of the lines on the overall passage. Overall, I felt that I was very prepared for this exam and it was a great culmination of the year’s work.