In high school, you would take AP classes to demonstrate to future colleges you were an academic superstar. Well, OK. I took AP English in 11th grade because I’m pretty smart and have good study habits. Also, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. So this class would only help me grow. If I took the big exam at the end of the year and got a 4 or 5, I would have some college credits taken care of.
That didn’t happen. I failed the AP exam. I got a stinkin’ 2 out of 5, much to my surprise. I was thinking, “OK, I could get a 4. I'm a smart cookie.” Nope. With months of writing those timed essays and analyzing reading passages, it seemed nothing would have been enough to get me to pass.
I was mostly disappointed that I would have to take English 101 in college. Not because I wanted to avoid reading books, but because the more GURs I pushed out of the way, the more I could focus on my degree-related courses.
Well. I took English 101 in college, and guess what? We didn't write any essays in that class. We read one book that was mostly designed to encourage students to do well in life. Nothing at all like what I spent junior year doing. How this was the equivalent of what I did in high school, I don’t know. High school was way more work. This class, however, was for the more creatively-inclined — not a formula the AP Exam expected you to memorize.
Instead, we made a podcast! Plot twist!
I do have to say the timed essays did assist me in college. Many exams have an essay portion, and I feel I can tackle those pretty well. So I'm a little offended I failed the exam in high school. Did I really write that poorly? Did I always fail to properly analyze a text? Apparently. So I guess it’s a good thing I had to take English 101 to compensate for my inadequate abilities.
Hopefully, I'm no longer too inadequate, because I will be a writer after college. I'll be the writer that failed AP English. I just could never muster that 7, 8 or even 9 grade on my essays. Just a measly 6. Moral of the story: don't take AP English too seriously. In fact, don't even bother taking an advanced class if you plan on going to a college like mine. (No shade to Western, but 80% of people who apply get in... I probably didn't need to pull my hair out with mindlessly stressful advanced classes to get in here.)
Focus instead on doing extracurriculars you enjoy. Or working a job. Or getting more than five hours of sleep. Just don’t feel like you’re a fool for not passing an exam. (I think they asked trick questions on there. Those multiple choice questions—come on. Sometimes several of the four options were plausible.)
Anyways. If I were to take the AP exam again in May, I think I would fail. Three years of college still probably wouldn’t be enough to get me even a 3 on that exam. Fine. It’s just a test. An insignificant test that doesn’t measure creativity or originality.
