The AP Test is Just Around the Corner

Essays, essays, essays.With how much we have written them lately, us students probably see them in our nightmares. We complain and fuss and whine about doing these essays, but think about it. The AP test is NOT in any way far off! Yeah, we have a few more months, but that's what we said about those government assignments we have online that got assigned to us in September. "Oh, they're not due until February. I will do them later." It's February and I know I sure don't have them done. Time flies and the end of the year will be here before we know it. We may hate that by the time we're done writing our essay in class, we can't feel our hand anymore, but think about going into that test and sitting there not even knowing what an 'analytical essay" is! These essays are more than effective in preparing us for the test. 

I feel as though my understanding of the types of essays and their form is pretty adequate, although my scores may say otherwise sometimes. I know that in an analytical essay, you should have at least 3 different rhetorical devices and that you need to explain how they relate to your closed thesis. I know that a synthesis essay requires loads of citations and tons of reading that you get about 0.2 seconds to read, and I know that an argumentative essay is mainly your opinion, but not too much of fallacious language. Would any of us even know that a fallacy was if we hadn't seen examples, read about it, and done a project on it? It may seem like a tad bit of over-kill, but try to forget what a fallacy is now.

My opinion on the essays is generally positive. Yes, I loathe the depth of thinking I am forced to do, but who doesn't? Almost all of us are lazy enough to say that. And yes, hand cramps do get annoying, especially when your mind is throwing ideas at you left and right and your hand is crying, but isn't it worth it? Getting out of two years of English in college and not having to pay those fees sounds pretty fantastic if you ask me! So why not do the work now instead of later in life?

Confusing items do come up in the essays at times, from not knowing a good word to describe what you're trying to say to not understanding a word of the prompt at all. There are always going to be obstacles in everything we do. It makes most of us feel like AP graders expect us to study the dictionary every night and have the knowledge of Jesus, but in all reality, we're the ones who took an AP course. We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We knew that with a hard class comes more rigor, more work. A college credit test is not going to ask you how to spell cat. Yes things can be hard at times, but we need to buckle up and try our best because in the end, all of this work will be worth it.