#junior year tips

hello everyone! i decided to do a series called “junior year tips” to help those going into junior year this year or sometime soon!

the first topic is AP English Language and Composition

TIPS FOR BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS

understand the class

the ap lang class is largely focused on a student’s ability to analyze text, speech, or images and create an argument based on the analysis. you will see this through an essay called a rhetorical analysis, a synthesis essay, and an argumentative essay. even though they’re all different in format, what it comes down to is analyzing some form of literature, speech, film, personal experience, etc to constitute the evidence for your argument.

look at your readings for the school year, or read books similar books to those 

some suggestions (ones we read):

The Scarlet Letter

The Grapes of Wrath

Essays from people like Zora Neale Hurston

practice reading academic articles, classics, news articles, etc to practice analyzing the text

google scholar

the economist

plus: how to read journal articles critically

reading classics

learn rhetorical strategies

this is v impt, bc even if you know a lot, there’s ALWAYS MORE!!! i stg, every practice test i took had at least 1 rhetorical strategy that i didn’t know

here’s a site i used

and a tumblr post

improve your vocab!

vocab is good to expand for many reasons, one of which is that the ap lang exam consists of advanced vocab in its questions, answers, and prompts. it’s best to know those words to have a better chance at scoring higher!

a guide to vocab

TIPS DURING SCHOOL

read your required readings. please. just do it. 

ok honey lemme tell you why this is instrumental

first of all, your teacher may have pop quizzes, tests, discussions, or whateva on this book, and i cannot tell u how annoyed i got when i would be one of the few to read the freakin book and everyone else used spark notes. like hun look i understand it’s hard to read the book EVERY TIME but pick up the damn thing and read it at least once. THEN U CAN GET ON SPARK NOTES. pls.

another things is that YOU CAN USE THESE BOOKS FOR UR ESSAYS!!!! (really synthesis & argumentative) wow. really? yeah. i know. i mean, let’s be real, you can use bullshit for your essays if it goes with your argument, but understanding the books you read for class is so helpful when writing those essays!! i promise. like, if an argumentative essay be like: man often associate weather with mood. does weather cause mood shifts? use evidence. you can be like, okay dude, in the grapes of wrath, the weather CAUSED ALL THE MOODS. there. you’re done. and you can add scarlet letter like: in the forest, when the narrator describes the weather as beautiful, hester’s mood changes!!! yeah, anyway.

last but most definitely not least, READING IS SO GOOD for you. for every part of you. (well, forgetting the pain.) it enhances your brain, it improves your vocabulary, it makes you more empathetic...i could go on. ‘

practice the multiple choice reading comprehension questions

yeah it sounds horrible and it can be, but you can become a master at this shit. 

good thing is, you have to do this for SAT as well, so it’ll be one for two, ya know?

check out the college board for a practice test

here are some tips

please please please practice the essays

these essays are so different and specific compared to regular essays (i mean, argumentative essay is closest), so it is essential to understand what each requires and how they work (please refer above)

essay tips

rhetorical analysis

argumentative

start studying as early as possible

this could be applied to almost any class, but starting early will enhance your memory in the long run if you keep studying the same material throughout the year

resources

my ap lang tag

ap exam tips

ap books for free!!

ap course notes

guide on ap classes

aplangandcompkids

my stuff

back to school masterpost

study tips masterpost

productive morning masterpost

guide to sleep

ask me anything, any time!!

check out my youtube??

my new booklr and my aesthetic tumblr

Don’t:

Don’t freak out, you can do this

Don’t procrastinate? IDK, we all do it just try not to.

Don’t worry too much about testing… study/practice steadily ahead of time, rather than cramming

Do:

Have fun!

Join clubs or sports, if you haven’t already

Participate in community service.

Start getting chummy with teacher’s or school admins you could ask for recommendations for university/college next.

oh yeah, i'll have to take the sat this year i forgot about that (and the act too probably since different colleges look for different things and i have no idea where i want to go at the moment)

Hey I'm gonna continue here. Another tip, read. Holy shit read. It's gonna seem like a lot of reading but oh my god I probably would have passed the APUSH test if I had read. For real. I don't know if you even have apush sorry I'm making assumptions.

we do have apush- i could have taken it last year but just took normal u.s. history instead, since i don't really plan on ever doing anything history-related. this year, though, i'm taking ap government during second semester for some reason, so your tip probably still applies.

oh gosh that's like my number one problem how did you know