My English Experience : My Personal Experience In AP English Language

As a junior, I had three AP classes: AP United States History, AP Language and Composition, and AP Chemistry. I thought taking them was going to be a breeze. As the AP tests approached at the end of the year, AP test preparation accelerated to levels where the question was not whether or not we had homework, but instead e how much time the homework would take to complete. My struggle came with preparing for the AP Chemistry test that coupled complex chemistry topics with difficult algebra. I took practice test after practice test, read test prep book after test prep book, and asked for help constantly on any perplexing concepts and any convoluted math problems. The time came and went slowly, yet very quickly.

As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.

Throughout the course of this semester in AP Lang, my eyes have been opened to many of the weaknesses I never knew I had in writing. Coming into this semester, I had heard about the difficulty of this class, but was not unduly worried about not receiving an A; I have always considered myself as a competent if not strong writer. However, after failing to attain desired grades on several important essays, I was devastated, and realized that although I had mastered the basics of grammar and writing, there was still much for me to work on. Also, I did not understand that much of my grade in AP Lang would be determined by speaking in front of others, which is not my strong suit. What I have come to find is that writing essays containing all of the new information we have learned throughout the semester, such as requirements for different types of essays and good writing strategies, takes a lot of work, time, and thinking. Unfortunately, my procrastination caused me to only get done what had to be done instead of putting in the extra work and truly understanding everything.

I decided to take AP Language and Composition due to the requirements of the University of Iowa. For my intended major, I need two rhetoric classes and one literature class. Last year I completed the literature class which improved my reading ability tremendously. After completing ENG 105, I have improved in multiple areas, but I am most proud of my improvement on the writing volume and stamina as I now have the ability to write college level essays. When examining all of the competencies, I have not mastered any one of them, but have improved in multiple categories throughout the semester.

When I passed my AP World History test. During my freshman year I was put into an AP class. I didn’t know what AP was, I didn’t know what to expect. I was able to handle my honors classes because it was material back in middle school. However, AP World History was strenuous and took major effort. There were multiple times where I had uncertainty of whether or not I was capable to keep going. I really felt out of place because it was a difficult class with essays, chapters to read and exams every week. Nonetheless, I never gave in, I convinced myself that the reason why my school put in roughly 90 kids, including myself, out of at least 1000, is because they saw potential in us and knew that we would be able to handle the stress of a college

Coming into junior year and taking an AP English class, I am extremely nervous. Outside of English, I am taking two other AP classes, so I am worried about the work load that I will be responsible for throughout the year. I have heard from my older sister that AP English is a fun, great class. Throughout my eleven years of school, I have always been one to challenge myself and I fell that by taking AP English I will be challenging myself once again. I am looking forward to a good year this year.

The classes that have been observed and that will be analyzed in this essay are the English Honors and AP English courses which took place at Cerritos High School during the second semester of the academic year 2015/2016. This analysis will focus on the instructor of said classes, David Hind, and on their curriculum, specifically on how the assessment of the students’ learning took place.

English language techniques are used in many writings to help the readers to have a better understanding and for the writers to express more. It is also same for an argumentative writing. In this particular essay, the writer had used language techniques to persuade readers that Australia should not become a republic country. This essay will discuss about what kind of language techniques the writer had used to persuade the readers that the writer’s opinion is correct.

Throughout many of the arduous AP courses I took in high school I was pushed to my limits, but I accomplished my goals through hard work. One example of this would be my AP United States History class. This class was one of the most difficult courses I had taken, mostly due to the sheer amount of information being presented and needed to be memorized. Even though the basics of U.S. history had been taught to me in one way shape or form every school year, there was brand new information on people and important dates. At first I struggled with the work load and text, but I eventually made it through and succeeded by diving

When I was in the second grade we had a new student in our class named Yvonne. Yvonne had recently arrived from Haiti and knew very little English. Due to the fact that she didn’t understand English a whole lot, the other kids in my class thought it would be funny to call her names and bully her. One day we were at electives. Our class was divided into two, some going to Dance others going to Drama. The doors were across from each other so we could see what was happening. I was in Dance, as well as Yvonne. We were practicing our routine for Ciara’s “1, 2 step”. Yvonne was quick to pick up the dance and was amazing at it, which I think made the other kids in our class resent her. Our instructor dismissed us 5 minutes early to pack up our things. I quickly went to my corner and grabbed my backpack. When I looked up I saw a bunch of girls surrounding Yvonne. I remember hearing them calling her names like ‘ugly’ and ‘loser’. I noticed that no one moved to defend her. One of the girls actually pushed her to the ground and took her backpack dumping all her things on the floor; that’s when I acted. I pushed my way through the girls and placed myself in front of Yvonne. I grabbed her backpack out of the girl’s hand pushed her and called her a ‘mean witch for making fun of Yvonne’. I also told the other girls that if they messed with Yvonne, they would have to

I am an academic thrill seeker; I search out and thrive in fast-paced, high-octane learning experiences. In these situations, I am able to test and tweak my creative and critical thinking skills, fine-tuning my learning styles and methods. It was for this reason that I chose to pursue AP courses,

     As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.

I used to consider writing as tumble words from your mind, write, read it through, fix minor mistakes, and done. However, you rarely get successful. The truth is many students, including myself, struggle with starting to write a word, or getting stuck in the middle without knowing the main point of the writing. After completing English 101, I can explain the writing process, evaluate the strengths of my essay, and identify my weaknesses.

The course definitely changed the way I approached writing a paper. One day in lecture you quoted Ernest Hemmingway saying, “The first draft of anything is shit.” This changed the way I approached and wrote papers. I used to start papers the night before, barely look over them and making few changes. This course encouraged me to outline, write a rough draft and constantly review then finalization the paper. Peer review before this class I though was pointless because most student hardly pay attention to the paper and usually wrote “good job.” The students in the class actually read my paper and gave honest feedback and ways to improve it. Also to have a teacher read your draft and give feedback with what is wrong and ways to help the quality of the paper helped greatly. This English class was definitely different than high school English.

English is a subject I have always felt strong with as a student, this area of strength has not only benefitted me in my this course but has helped me to succeed in every class I have taken. American literature so far has gave me a new and refined understanding, from read and writing to communicating my ideas in group discussions. Never before have I been able to have such a confident understanding of was I was reading and writing. I have gained a new and refined belief of what it means to annotate a text and why it is important, though I will always have reserved feelings about them. In discussion groups by referring to my annotations I am able to express my ideas and observations about the text. I have never before been so challenged with a piece of writing, throughout my career as a student prompts had always been specific and specifications were always strict. Writing literary analysis was not only a new type of essay writing for me but it required me to refer back to my annotations and think deeper about why I was having certain thoughts and opinions on a text to develop an argument. Whether it is reading, writing, or speaking the significance of everything I have mastered, and will continue to learn in english class will allow me to have fate in they way I express myself in the future.