Another potential metaphor for us: The blobfish, when removed from the pressure to which it is accustomed, explodes a little bit. This is the much-less-horrifying plush version.
Your AP Exam
48 hours from now, you’ll be on the other side of the hadal pressure of the AP exam. Very few of you have typed up the free-response practice assigned a while back, which means I had little to give feedback to this weekend. That shifts your focus for these next 48 hours, because
- it might not be all that helpful to write three essays, revise three essays, and then write another three essays1; and
- it will be a bit harder for me to give you much individual feedback on those essays once we’re inside 24 hours until the exam.
Instead of writing and revising, focus on decoding the prompts and brainstorming approaches. Do outlines. Only write and revise responses if you know that will help you.
Doing the multiple-choice is still valuable, if you haven’t done it yet. Find an hour. Otherwise, study the glossary of terms and review the format of the test. Here’s the glossary work again:
- Glossary Guide: The Language of Composition
- The Language of Composition: Glossary
- The Language of Composition: MLA Guidelines for a List of Works Cited
Copies are in Room 210. They actually have some utility beyond the exam, but not much. As the last post suggested, you might also benefit from reading over the summer reading:
That folder contains other review material, too. Reading now helps. Writing, less so.
About the Multiple-Choice
The 2017 exam was assigned on April 29. It was due on May 4. Then it was prioritized in class from May 4 through May 11. As of May 14, however,
- only 16 of 29 students in P2 had entered their Section I answers; and
- only 14 of 26 students in P9 had entered their Section I answers.
Some of that is due to apathy and poor self-control; much of it is due to anxiety, pressure, and burnout. Whatever the cause, 45% of you didn’t enter the data necessary for us to work together2
I’m going to send you notes on the nine most pressing questions from Section I, based on the 55% of you who did the work:
- Most critical: 5, 39, 53
- Others: 18, 19, 35, 36, 37, 47
That will be posted tomorrow, when there are no other AP exams but this one in front of you.
GAP Scoring
The last three weeks have seen a couple of deaths in my extended family, a move to another state, and a bit more of the most disruptive stuff life has to offer. That’s why GAP scores aren’t yet finalized for Q4A. Q4B ends Friday, so you’ll receive both scores around the same time.
Changes to the GAP report:
- There will be an offline version available. Here it is as a PDF.
- The online version no longer requires any analytical writing.
You are still strongly encouraged to do the now-optional analytical writing (It is the only way to justify high profiles and one of the best ways to improve low ones. I’m making it optional to speed up the reporting process: If you neglect these paragraphs, that’s evidence enough of a lower profile.))
If (when) you sit down to analyze your progress, do it having studied the form in advance. Here it is again in offline form:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2FGAP-Report-Offline-Template-Google-Forms.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=500px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
The online version will be posted to Google Classroom on Thursday.
The Good Stuff
By the end of this week, you will shift your focus away from test prep and onto a couple of end-of-year assignments. This is the good stuff. We will circle back to the Regents Exam (in all its ignominious glory), but not in class; instead, you’ll do a kind of triage through an online practice test.
First, we will finalize this year’s work on your Pareto Projects. We’ll talk details in person. I’ll also post more directions toward the end of the week. It looks very much like we’ll be able to use the iLC and some space online to showcase your accomplishments.
Second, we will look back on your writing. This will be a bit like compiling a writing portfolio, but you will be encouraged to stretch your focus beyond this year. The simple goal will be to write reflectively and metacognitively about your growth as a writer; the more complicated goal will be to make sense of the last decade, give or take a few formative years, of your writing life.
Start thinking about how you will spend the three weeks from May 21 through June 11 in those terms:
- You’ll finish up this year’s work on your Pareto Project.
- You’ll complete a writing life retrospective.
Add a footnote about Regents Exam triage, too, but focus on three weeks or so of authentic, makerspace-infused work.
If you have any immediate questions, ask them below. We will be fine-tuning these plans all week, though, so there is no rush.
The lesson, as always, is about organization: The more organized and prepared you are, the better you’ll do. Procrastinating only works when the process isn’t all that important. That’s often the case, unfortunately, but not when it comes to test prep in a course like ours. Spamming a lot of prep work in the hours before the exam will just exhaust you. ↩
This is why we started the year with a focus on self-control and akrasia, talked frankly about blame, and continue to emphasize accountability and self-efficacy. 45% of you didn’t meet expectations. For the free-response section, the time required to write and then to revise might pose a problem, even across two weeks of steady in-class focus; there really isn’t an excuse for this multiple-choice work to go unfinished. You know the metaphor about shooting oneself in the foot? You’ve murdered your feet like they are Rasputin and you’re his assassins. It’s brutal. ↩