Practice Test Afterthoughts (Blog Post #2)

Today in class we were given a timed assessment, modeled after none other than the feared AP English Literature and Composition test all Lit students are expected to take in May. However, much to our relief, this was only a practice multiple choice section and- giving thanks to all things holy- ungraded. Nonetheless, it was an hour long and comprised of 47 multiple choice questions regarding a number of essays and poems, courtesy of the 5 Steps to a 5 study book.

Going into the practice test, I actually felt okay. Not great, not weak-at-the-knees, just okay. While it is true that nearly every AP Lit veteran had christened Lit as one of the most challenging courses offered at Mason, I was convinced that surely at least half of that was just talk. After all, you just had to read a poem and answer some questions, just like the past seventeen hundred English tests we've taken by now. How bad could it be? Thus I embarked on my 60minute quest of deciphering prose. The first question asked about the form of the poem-or-lyric-or-sonnet-or-ballad-or-dramatic monologue we had just read. "Nauseous", I believe, would have been an appropriate adjective for how I felt at that moment. Promptly following the first question were a series of interrogations surrounding the implications of certain words, phrases, and motifs that I had mostly brushed over while reading. This skimming turned out nearly fatal: by far most of the questions I missed were involved with the first reading. Midway through, I had decided that this test had been much more challenging that I had expected, involving much more in-depth analysis and hair-tearing than anticipated. However, this hour-long assessment had given me a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses while tackling "actual literature". Analyzing these qualities proved to be a relatively simple task: Weaknesses- absentmindedness, poor analytic capability, even poorer figurative capacity, rich illiteracy; Strengths- nil. In all seriousness, I realize that both pros and cons are involved in my reading prowess. Let's start with the bad news first, shall we?

From my earlier comment with regards to skimming, it can be said that a none-too-forgiving weakness I possess while reading is carelessness. Utter lack of acute attention. For example, when asked about specific words, I often found myself rereading the passage just to make sure that the words of question were actually included, surely some of these had to be a printing error on the test writer's part? When asked later what "darkness" had referred to in the another passage, I realized that I had hardly noticed the word "darkness" once. Upon closer examination it became apparent that darkness showed up not once, twice, nor thrice, but a whopping four times. By then, I had come up with a fifth idea of what darkness could reference: my fate. Another con may be that while reading anything I find "uninteresting", I tend to zone out particularly effectively. Consequently, I have fallen into the habit of reading only pieces that captivate my immediate interest. As a reader, I have become inflexible as far as different writing styles and their comprehension are concerned (Ex. Shakespeare. Over yonder light window--what?). I realize this is just about an English teacher's worst nightmare but- though I take full responsibility- I would like to address the lack of experience students nowadays have with reading challenging or "un-modern" literature rather than simply entertaining stories. There are techniques that need to be learned and mastered before we are ready to take on pieces that require extensive analysis or involve heavy symbolism and many such techniques that are only perfected through practice.

As such, I have devised three personal goals to hopefully set me on the right path in literature analysis:

1. To develop good habits as an attentive reader while cutting my skimming habits. This I would like to accomplish by reading every class-related piece that requires analysis at least twice to ensure that nothing, big or small, has been missed due to the silly carelessness that makes me want to kick myself. 
2. To make more markings while reading. This sounds simple since we have been "annotating" every piece of writing we've received since setting foot into the high school. However, I realized that when I "annotate", oftentimes I am not truly annotating. My notes are shallow, and many fail to build the deep connections with the writing needed to fully understand anything not directly stated. For the rest of the trimester, I have made a goal to make at least one quality marking per sentence while annotating a piece of literature to help further my understanding of the piece at hand. These markings may include writing, underlining, bolding, starring, highlighting, cartoon illustrations if that's what it takes.
3. To have read and fully analyzed fourteen (one for each question missed) pieces of literature that I do not particularly like or have experience with by the end of the year. This would not include school assignments but rather focus on poems/essays/articles I find myself. Who knows, maybe I'll even come to enjoy the challenge. Try new things, right? 

And now that my reading skills have been subject to sufficient [constructive] criticism, I would like to acknowledge some "esteem-boosters". Though I tend to miss the details in a passage, I am more apt at capturing the "big idea" being conveyed. As a result, I usually miss few questions regarding the overall purpose of a text or the mood being conveyed. This skill is helpful as I continue to learn and experiment with developing mood in my own writing. Another strength that came as rather surprising was my ability to pick out figurative devices. Of course these questions have cropped up on past assessments and are arguably the area of literature that we as students have spent the most time studying. Nonetheless, I did not stumble as much as I'd though I expected to on this particular area of the test. The AP exam is legendary for being jam-packed full of figurative devices- whether it be identifying or analyzing them- hidden in poems written in what might as well be a foreign language. It has also been said that you are better off "going with your gut" than actually wasting precious minutes reading and rereading a passage to find these ambiguous clues (for the record, the number of times my "gut" has been correct in any testing scenario may be counted on three fingers). However, it was a pleasant surprise when I answered most of the questions regarding literary devices correctly after taking the time needed to think through them.

Now that my performance has been thoroughly analyzed, I would like to leave a final thought: that test was by far the worst assessment I have ever taken in any English class setting. And with that, it seems safe to say, that while grading my test and closing the book afterwards, I still felt distinctly nauseous- but hopefully that will wear off by May.