Blog Post #2: Diagnostic Test

I took my first practice AP "diagnostic test" today in class.  It was a bit strange getting to take what is essentially the final exam for a class that you have just started, but I really liked it for a few reasons.  For one, it very simply outlined essentially what the class is all about, and what we will learn.  But perhaps more importantly it assessed very clearly my skills from the very beginning of enrolling in the class.  From the start of the class to the final AP test in May, I will be able to very clearly quantify exactly how much I improved my skills in taking this course -- something is very rare in an English class.  But not only will I be able to see exactly how much I improved in the raw score, but I will see exactly in which areas and specific skills I improved.  And from this diagnostic test, I can quite clearly see which areas need improvement.

The most obvious are in need of improvement is the recognition of each type of literature.  This is most definitely because I have never been in a class that has given detailed differentiation between specific types of poetry and literature.  This is painstakingly obvious in the very first question -- which distressed me initially.  When asked simply which type of poem the passage was, I was alarmed to realize that I had never heard a formal definition of any of the answers and was left only to decide with my rare hearing of the words in context -- if at all.  An ode, like ode to joy?  A sonnet, a ballad, each sounding like a type of poetry but for the life of me I could not tell you the difference.  But will all the confusion, I was quite reassured that I could simply shrug it off for this test, surely I'll learn the difference in the class.  Of all of the mistakes made in the diagnostic exam, these types of questions clearly seem to be the easiest to correct.  By the time of the test in May, I hope to clearly know all types of poetry and literature, and be able to get every question of this type correct on the AP test.

A slightly more subtle mistake that I often make is with concentration.  With especially long passages, I seem to have less endurance and occasionally gloss over important details.  With an very small, highly metaphorical passages, I can easily tackle each complex turn in focus or tone, but with long, drawn out pieces, the main idea is extremely convoluted.  To me, it seems that with more words, there can be more problems and more ways for the reader to trip up or be misled.  With a short poem though, nearly every line is important; so there is not very far you can wander off to.  By the time of the AP test, however, I hope to improve my ability to sift through the "junk" to find the meaningful phrases and ideas.  I will hopefully have the same scores on sections with short and long passages -- and hopefully they will both be high!

So there are my goals.  This diagnostic test has done great things as it has clearly quantified the areas that I need to improve upon.  As I complete AP English, I will focus on learning how to identify different types of literature, and I will improve my focusing and sifting ability on lengthy passages.  With these skills in mind I am sure that I will learn a lot about literature and how to read it in this class, and hopefully get a 5 on the exam!