In our course, “cram” is a bit of a misnomer. It might even be ironic: You can’t cram the ability to read, think, and write at a college level into your short-term memory, so we mean something like the opposite of “cram.”
Instead, the days before our AP exam should see us revisiting Paul Graham’s “Age of the Essay,” which puts the goal like this:
[T]he more you learn, the more hooks you have for new facts to stick onto — which means you accumulate knowledge at what’s colloquially called an exponential rate.
This AP exam rewards you for working hard all year. Those “hooks” work for skills, too: The more you’ve invested so far, the easier this exam will be. The more you’ve read of the exam-related materials in March and April, the more the ones posted in May will help.
There are still some things you can do in the days before the exam, of course. That’s what this post provides: quick guides for the essays, prompts from over a decade of tests, and probably the best “quick” practice for Section I.
Exam Overview
The exam’s basic structure should be familiar to you before you open a post on cramming for the test, but the College Board’s website has you covered, if that isn’t the case. Then you should revisit the first four chapters from your summer reading:
Skim those, and then read this:
Go through that last document carefully, and notice that it connects what you’ve done all year, starting with the summer reading, to the more focused test prep of the last few weeks.
Section I
By the time you start cramming, you’ll have practiced a lot of multiple-choice, including a focused workshop on Section I of the 2012 exam. With about a week left, if you’d like more practice, you have plenty of options. You’ll have access to many of the more recent exams in class, but I would suggest going back to 2001:
That is a Google Drive folder locked to your BHS account (i.e., you can’t open it unless you are using a Brewster login). It offers a crash course in Section I of the 2001 exam. The official test, which is available in class, is not included. Instead, you’ll find
- the four passages, reformatted as close-reading exercises;
- the questions, organized by passage;
- a lecture on how to deconstruct the second passage, which is arguably the hardest of the four;
- the answer key; and
- a complete analysis of every multiple-choice question, provided by the folks at the College Board.
The 2001 exam is helpful because it opens with a passage from 1862, and then it follows with a passage from 1848. There aren’t often two passages of archaic prose on the test, let alone in a row; 2012, for instance, only has one nineteenth-century excerpt, and it comes last.
Closer to the exam date, you can boost your score slightly on Section I by studying the glossary from The Language of Composition, the textbook assigned as summer reading. Use this handout, which is printed for you, too, despite losing some obvious efficacy offline:
Section II: Question 1
Remember that you’ve already practiced Section II in its entirety. You’ve also been given ETA workshops for each question on Section II. You can still cram, though, by reading through this old guide of mine:
Then set aside time to workshop some of the prompts given from 2007-2018. The idea is to know, even before you read the sources, what you’re thinking — to know what you know what you need to know to write the argument. Use the ETA workshop to practice the source work properly; use the PDF below to cram by analyzing only the prompts.
Section II: Question 2
Remember that you’ve already practiced Section II in its entirety. You’ve also been given ETA workshops for each question on Section II. You can still cram, though, by reading through this old guide of mine:
Then set aside time to read as many passages given from 2007-2018 as you can. Use the ETA workshop to analyze complete essays; use this PDF to practice identifying strategies. I wouldn’t do much more than outline a response for any of these.
You can also use the same glossary work given to you with Section I to cram a few terms into your short-term memory. That handout again:
Section II: Question 3
Last time: Remember that you’ve already practiced Section II in its entirety. You’ve also been given ETA workshops for each question on Section II. You can still cram, though, by reading through the last of these old guides:
The best practice for Question 3 is to write practice essays in full, which you’ve done often enough to understand what that pressure feels like. You can also use the ETA workshop on Question 3 to see what’s expected of you. The second-best practice is to decode prompts, brainstorm approaches, and discuss what you would write.
Here are all the Question 3 prompts from 2007-2018:
One of the best ways to use class time before the exam is to select one of these prompts, read it together, and then collaborate to list as many divergent approaches and examples as possible.
Q&A: How to Cram
If you have questions about these resources, ask those questions in the comment section below. Remember that “cram,” in our course, is mostly ironic. You are sharpening your sensibilities and reminding yourself just how prepared you already are. But “cram” is the verb that will do the most work for us, metaphorically speaking.
I’d actually invite those of you who’ve read this far to come up with a better verb/metaphor. What are you really doing? “Sharpening your sense of self-efficacy” is accurate but way too wordy. Add your thoughts below.