#2: Exam Reflection

While completing my first Practice Test for AP English and Literature, I encountered many obstacles, but there were a few positives to my performance as well. I have found the a strength I have when taking an multiple choice test is I do keep a healthy pace that allows me to finish within that 60 minute time span (which is due to my tough conditioning in AP Composition). Also, I think I pick up on many literary devices, important diction choices, and syntax that stands out or changes from the usual while reading the text, fairly well. It is important to notice such changes in the reading as the "Thinking About Literature" reading pointed out because they are purposeful on part of the writer. The pieces I annotated were usually referenced in a question, so I know I'm at least pulling out and recognizing a few of the important literary details in the literature.

Despite these positives, I struggled with remembering to look for less basic literary terms. For example, I can identify a metaphor, simile, personification, oxymoron, paradox, and polysyndeton well, but, for the most part, I forget the rest of the literary terms. I also need to slow down in the reading enough to realize the importance of the devices I've highlighted as well. For example I realize there's a metaphor in a poem, but I don't spend much time thinking about it's purpose. I also tend to skip the important step of feeling or connecting with the text as I read, like "Thinking About Literature" discussed. That's the first "step" in reading a piece of literature and it's important to enjoy the text, on some level, in order to understand what it's talking about since I can't "torture a confession out of" poems, as Billy Collins would say. In order to understand the full meaning and purpose of the literature I need to be focused on both the step of feeling, enjoying, and connecting with the literature as well as analyzing it to get all out of it that I need to. For example, in the poem, Now Goes Under..., which was in the Practice Test, I didn't realize the meaning of the poem or what the poet was referring to until I saw the repeated occurrence of the word "relationship" in the questions. I also don't know most of the forms of poems, like a lyric or a sonnet, well, therefore I was just guessing on the questions involving them, and I got a few lucky guesses, but I can't distinguish between the several forms well.

My plan for improving upon my performance is to stop after reading the text and write down the intended purpose of the piece or the main point being made by the author, so I won't miss questions about that subject matter. I should be able to institute this immediately in every work that I read from now on by taking the time to do this step after reading. By doing this I hope to be able to unwrap extended metaphors in order to understand the main point or purpose of the reading more easily. By November I hope to be getting almost all of the type of questions relating to the purpose or the main topic of the literature correct. Another goal I want to set in place to improve my testing performance, is using or identifying at least four literary devices I usually don't use or think of by the start of November. I hope this will make me more aware of the various literary devices that writers use to convey a message that I am overlooking while analyzing the text. I think this will help not just with the multiple choice, but with the extended responses when we get to them and in my writing in general.

I also need to work on learning the different forms that poems can be written in, like a sonnet, a lyric, or a dramatic monologue, which were all mentioned in the Practice Test. In order to overcome this difficulty and improve my scores I will learn a new type of poetic form and read at least three examples of poems in that form every three days so I will be able to identify that form without a problem. I want to be able to know these forms very well because I need to identify them quickly in a multiple choice testing situation and putting some effort into looking into the forms beyond their basic definitions.