“Your final exam will be in three parts: multiple choice, primary source analysis, and three major essays. I won’t be allowed within 2 miles of you when you take the exam.” The words of Mr. F, my AP US History teacher, reverberated between my ear drums. He either didn’t notice or didn’t seem to care: “The AP US History exam will be on a Saturday in mid May. It’s graded on a scale of 0 to 5. Zero being the lowest possible score, 5 being the highest.” A student in the front row raises her hand, interrupting our baptism by fire. Mr. F motions for her to speak.
“Are you related to Stephen King?” I didn’t realize it at the time (because let’s face it, I didn’t voluntarily read anything that wasn’t a motorcycle magazine until my senior year of high school) but Mr. F bore an uncanny resemblance to the best selling suspense author. Even their eyeglasses were similar.
“He’s my cousin.” the teacher nodded, pausing to recollect his thoughts. “The test is pretty simple, but it’s probably more difficult than anything you’ve taken before.” I had yet to learn the eccentricities of the oxymoron, but that fact didn’t hinder Mr. F as he grinned slyly while he mouthed the previous statement. “The Regents exams have 4 possible answers. The AP has 5, and they’re usually more difficult to discriminate between. The primary source section will be basically the same thing you run into on Regents Part 2s: political cartoons or other documents accompanied by a set of questions. The essays are probably going to be the biggest hurdle for you. You are required to write three instead of the usual one or two on a Regents exam. Like the Regents, you will be given a limited choice between essay topics to write on, and at least one of the essays will probably...
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... feedback, he had to show me what the AP would think of my essay. Mr. F wasn’t flawed. The whole process was - pardon the shamelessly obvious pun - flawed (you had to see that coming since the first 2 lines of the paper). Especially after having read Peter Elbow’s book on the teacherless writing class, thinking about that year of AP US History is absolutely appalling. The whole writing process was turned on its head. It wasn’t about learning to write or how to improve writing. It was about what to do in order to pass. I can only imagine how a member of the Iroquois Nation must feel about living in 21st Century New York: join us or be left behind in poverty. Write this way. It is the only way. Indians are subhuman. Be a man: become an American. No, a real American. Write this way. It’s the only real way to write. And then again . . . maybe I just don’t like US history.
There have been reports, even from elementary schools, that young children vomit in their standardized test booklets from stress. If children this young are already becoming sick with school-related stress, we can only begin to imagine their state of being once the added pressure of middle school, high school and college enters their lives. It is critical for school boards to realize that the crippling anxiety that runs rampant through the crowded halls of American schools is a serious cause for concern. Part of this concern stems from the disadvantage at which high stakes testing often puts students with testing anxiety. An example of this can be found when Audrey, whose life Robbins chronicles in The Overachievers, feels that tests do not reflect her knowledge of a topic. Indeed, it is true that if a student is mentally distressed on an extreme level, he/she is not in a good position to show his/her knowledge. In discussing this phenomenon it is important to understand that while most students feel anxious about high stakes tests, it is the ones with clinical anxiety who suffer the most, who vomit in their textbooks and who are
Prompt: In 500 words or more, describe your collegiate experience thus far. How has this experience and the knowledge you've gained influenced what you plan to study? How have they influenced your decision to apply to St. Edward's?
I was taking AP World History, my first AP class. Keeping up my grades in the class was one of my biggest concerns, but surprisingly, it turned out to be a relatively laid-back class without much homework. Throughout the year, the class was mainly notes and document analysis. The only difficult part of the class was the tests. They were long and arduous with several vague questions based on specific parts of the curriculum that we had only gone over lightly. The course became more vigorous as the exam date drew closer; we began writing more essays, the tests we took grew longer, there were after school study sessions, and even a mock
October 20, 2007, the day that I’m going to say goodbye to my hometown. I was born and raised in Philippines by my grandparents for sixteen years. It is heart-breaking to think that I will not see them anymore like how I used to. I was 16 years old, and it will be my first time to travel with my big brother in the airplane. Our trip from Philippines to Virginia is approximately about 18-20 hours. It is not a direct flight, so we have to change plane three times, and it is a long trip for us. I was crying the whole time when we were in the airplane. As soon as we reach our last destination which is the Washington D.C., we have no way of communicating with my mom and auntie because we have no cellphones. I was hesitant to
During my first semester of college I was enrolled in a freshman English class. I began to notice college was nothing like high school. In high school I could wait till last minute to complete an essay and still get an A on the paper with little to no effort. When my first college essay was due I waited till the day before to finally sit down and start writing my paper. I turned my paper in with confidence thinking I was going to get an A. We received our papers back two days later; I was stud to see I had gotten a low C on my paper.
My first college English class was ENC 1101 at the State College of Florida. In this course, I learned a vast amount of information about writing, reading, and grammar. When I first walked into ENC 1101 in August, I expected the class to be like any other English class in High School; with rushed busy work and a lot of useless tests and quizzes. However, throughout each week of the semester, Professor Knutsen’s class made me beg to differ. This class was not like any other high school English class. In this class I actually learned important information and did not do work just to complete it. This class had a few assignments here and there, enough to maintain, in order to learn proper information. I learned a lot in this class because I was not rushed to
How I have to carry a different binder for every class, how one of them I physically have to carry in my arms because it’s too big to fit in my backpack. But I won’t because that’s not in the spirit of an AP student. AP students carry responsibility. They carry the expectations of parents, peers, teachers. Tangentially, and quite fortunately, they carry the potential to meet those expectations. In that way, it’s not fair for me to complain that my AP Art History Binder weighs 300 pounds and leaves my hands calloused and bleeding, that I have to carry it 10 miles back and forth every day, uphill, both ways. So I won’t complain. After all I chose to take these
.... The students are stressed by the possibility of their entire future being decided by these tests and the possibility of making their teachers lose their jobs; the teachers are stressed by the potential loss of their careers; program leaders or fine art teachers are stressed about losing the funding for the programs which can help students; and college bound students are stressing about how they might not be accepted into ninety percent of four-year colleges. All in all, these tests are overhyped and played to be an all deciding factor in every aspect of a student’s life and they should not be. Nor should the proficiency exam results choose which schools have funding and which schools have less. While these exams should not be eliminated completely, they should not be as important as the system allows them to be.
I came back to the Lutheran Seminary in 2012 after a having a conversation with man that would later become a mentor to me. At his prompting along with many others I made a decision to enter into the ordination process of the ELCA. For me that brought mass levels of trepidation as I had heard horror stories of that process. It became another entity in my life where value becomes evident by participation. I knew the work that would be required and I decided to make that plunge.
Today is the day. It is the day I begin my Senior AP English class. I have been in a mix of sweat, tears, and adrenaline the build up to this day for more than nine months, since I’ve registered. I’ve never been an AP student, and still don’t feel quite like one. AP, it stands for ‘advanced placement’, though I’ve never felt exactly advanced in anything. Maybe as ‘advanced’ as the first person who discovered a feeble and lazy mule can be born between a male donkey and a female horse, but only to find it’s sympathetic uselessness in not being able to reproduce.
During my first semester while in the First Years Honors Program, I was able to get involved with Meals from the Heartland. I helped raise money by working at a bake sale. It also gave me the chance to help prepare and package the meals. While I was a leader for the First Years Honors Program, we organized a service learning activity for our class. For this activity, we made and delivered gift baskets for children in the hospital. My membership in Tau Beta Pi has also given me opportunities for community service. During my initiation, I served as a volunteer judge at the Tau Beta Pi roller coaster competition, which aims to motivate young students to pursue a degree in engineering. I also helped with the 2016 Pi Mile Run which raises money
America has a gift to every generation. Its gift to my generation is freedom, rights as a citizen, and equality for all races and cultures.
Resilience is something that I had learned through my hardship in senior year. It was something that was discovered during my most stressful time and saved me from further making myself sick and poisoning my own brain with thoughts of doubt.
Just like other people, I have my own American Dreams too. We all have different dreams, some have bigger dreams, some have smaller dreams but we all have the same goal which is to achieve our dreams. I have three American Dreams that I’d like to achieve in the future. First is to go to college, play professional soccer and have happy family. I will do anything to achieve these dreams.
My early educational experience made me feel alienated and discouraged. In addition to the relentless news reports of the statistical inferiority of African American students in comparison to Caucasian students, public schools I attended were meager in racial diversity. While it is normal for a person to be proficient in some areas and deficient in others, as one of the few African Americans in my class, I felt representative of my entire race. Moreover, I was not athletic or coordinated enough for the positive stereotypes, and my grades were not high enough to refute the negative stereotypes. Every C and D served as a harrowing reminder that I was a disgrace to all the people who fought and died for my right to an education.