Blog Post #2: Pre-test Evaluation - It Only Goes Up From Here

As painful as it was to grade my pre-test, it had to be done. While I am not too willing to share my score with the world, I am more than willing to share all the big and small things that I feel the need to improve upon in an overall reflection. In literary analysis, my feeble strengths lie mainly in the surface level comprehension of the passages that I read. It is easy for me to read a passage and follow along with the story-line or poetry and understand the basic meaning of the text. Certain questions such as #24. "'That time of year' (line 1) refers to" or #4. "'He' in line 15 refers to" are the questions that I normally answer correctly because all they require is a basic understanding of the text as a whole and a quick glance back at the lines that are specified. Also I did reasonably well on the questions that ask for an analysis of a small portion of text, such as #26. "Line 12 is an example of..." or #7. "The reader can infer from the play on words in the last stanza that the speaker is..." These types of questions that focus on zoning in on the smaller details are usually the ones I can focus easier on and evaluate with a better frame of reference and context.

I have many things that I struggle with from the big picture questions to the more symbolic ones. Starting with the big picture questions, my biggest weakness is an inability to evaluate the passage as a whole. The tone and "all of the following except" questions tend to trip me up rather consistently because right now, I am not skillfully able to connect the dots of the passage to understand the texts (especially poetry) in a deeper sense, whatever that may mean. This weakness also leads to a shortcoming when evaluating symbolism. Some of the poems and literary texts are more vague and ambiguous in meaning, and digging through the symbolism to find the author's message and real meaning is something that I look forward to improving upon. Poetry as a whole presents a new challenge that I definitely foresee to be the area that I have to work the hardest on this year; currently, some of the poems I read seem almost like a foreign language. As the AP Literature & Composition textbook describes it, interacting with literature consists of three phases: "Experience. Analysis. Extension." In regards to poetry, I think I am in the young stages of truly analyzing it. With constant exposure to this type of literature, I know I will be able to develop more meaning and knowledge in tackling these texts.

I have plenty of room for improvement that goes beyond the above mentioned weaknesses. Starting with general things: I need to do better with my time management. When the 30 minute warning was called (halfway point), I had already finished all of my test. Finishing uncharacteristically early was only part of my problem, as I attempted to go through the passages again and changed some of my right answers (which there weren't too many of) to the wrong ones, second guessing points off my final score. I should have looked through the multiple choice sections in the beginning to see how many passages there were and how the questions were distributed. Then I would have been able to read a little slower and much more cautiously as a stumbled through each section. Secondly, there were around 3-5 questions where I had to blindly guess on just because I had not been exposed to the vocabulary before. For example, on #29 the five answer choices were "A. elegy, B. Spenserian sonnet, C. Petrarchan Sonnet, D. Shakespearean sonnet, E. sestina" I had absolutely no idea what any of these answer choices meant or represented; however, with the development of my Literature and specifically poetry vocabulary throughout this course, these types of vocab questions should become one of the easier questions to answer correctly come AP exam time.

As for my goals, I have thought of some tangible steps I can take to slowly improve my consistency and score.
1. Compile a master list of poetry terms/forms and literary devices and go through an appropriate amount (determined once list is compiled) per week until the end of first trimester. This will help me review and learn the necessary terms that will be found on the AP exam. Hopefully, some class time will be dedicated to learning some of the poetry forms and literary devices so that examples can be provided and I can review with my classmates.
2. Read and practicing annotating poetry passages, developing a highlighting/underlining/circling/etc. technique that is similar to the one I adopted for AP Language & Composition. Aim for one poem per two to three days. Analyze and annotate for theme, tone, symbolism and meaning, literary devices, poetic form (once learned), etc. This will significantly increase my exposure to poetry and make me more aware of what to look for and take note of in these passages.
3. Learn to value every single word on the page. Too often, I find myself skimming a passage, and by the end of the paragraph, I only have a partial idea of what is going on. In order to improve this, I want to develop a natural habit of checking with myself after each paragraph - in all my reading - whether I picked up on the complete ideas and messages of the excerpt I just read. If I do not pick up on ideas of the paragraph, I will proceed to reread. There is no end date for this goal, only a start day--and I am making that day today.

Sources: 5 Steps to a 5: AP English Literature, AP Literature and Composition Textbook