1987 AP Exam

NOTES

Overall, I thought that this exam was fairly difficult. The poems especially were hard for me. Out of the the 47 questions, I got 33 right so there is definitely room for improvement. I tried timing myself and I already knew that time would be an issue for me. Many of the questions are really complex and I get tend to get stuck on a certain question for too long. Most of the questions that I got wrong were questions about the poems. The poems took longer to comprehend then the story excerpt so I had to rush through them a little more and I found myself guessing on them. 

Questions like 12, 14, and 50 are difficult because multiple answers could be correct but you have to choose the one that makes the most sense. These questions trip me up because I spend too much time on them and constantly second guess myself.

I had to completely guess on question 19 because I had no idea what "wear the Bays" could possibly mean. After I took the Exam I looked it up and found out that it means to be crowned with the bay laurel leaves which means to be honored. This would have been helpful to know before the Exam. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_wear_the_bays_mean_in_British_literature).

Question 20 was difficult for me because those types of questions take a lot of re-reading of the passage to answer.

Questions 32 and 61 I had to pretty much guess on because I was unfamiliar with the vocabulary used in the questions. I didn't know the difference between types of poem verses like Terza rima, Ballad Meter, Blank verse, Dactylic Hexameter, Rhyme royal, or Heroic couplets. I was able to figure out Question 32 because I inferred that Heroic couplet meant that 2 lines had to rhyme and that fit the poem, so I chose that answer.

Question 59 was difficult because the language style used in the second poem was difficult for me to understand so it was hard to answer analytical questions.

Questions like 11, 17, and 26 were straightforward so they were quick and easy for me to answer.