Dear New APELC Student,
Welcome to AP English Language and Composition! This class may be one of the most challenging classes you have taken so far in your high school career, but don't fret–if my peers and I survived this year, I'm sure you will have no problem taking on the work that this course demands. This letter will hopefully clear up many misconceptions about APELC, give you many tips for this school year, and offer morale-boosting encouragement for when the going gets tough. First off, the workload is not as bad as one would think. Most of the homework assigned to us were either TOWS or readings, and there was the occasional multiple choice practice passage or essay. Be sure to always be on top of those assignments. Missing a TOW can affect your grade and keep you behind on developing the writing skills necessary for the AP exam. If you miss a reading assignment, you will have no idea what to do when you're handed a pop quiz on that assignment the next day.
Secondly, everything seems much harder in the beginning of the school year. The first test you take or timed essay you write may be one of the worst grades you've ever gotten, but with hard work, you will be able to take those tests and write those essays with no problems. I would say that I had a tough first marking period, but I think that was simply because I was just starting my junior year and I wasn't used to rigorous AP courses. By the end of the first marking period, I figured out how to balance out the work among all my classes and I saw a great improvement from my first to my second and third marking periods.
Timed essays were really hard for me to write in the beginning of the school year because I would always read the essay prompt and then get writer's block. 45 minutes was not enough for me to write just one essay, and on the AP exam, we're only given around an average of 40 minutes per essay (that's right: you have to write three essays on the exam.) However, once I practiced more and read challenging nonfiction pieces, I could outline my ideas faster. I found Analysis essays to be the hardest essays to write, and although I still find them hard to write, I was more confident in writing them on May 9 than I was in September, and I owe that to TOWs, IRBs, the Language of Composition, etc. Basically, I think the best way to get better at writing essays is to read more sophisticated nonfiction works and to practice analyzing them. Having to write three essays is very intimidating, but once you're sitting in the square gym and taking the AP exam, everything will easily come to you. Trust me. I hope this letter was helpful and that my impartial opinions gave you a good idea of what APELC really is and what you need to do to succeed. Good luck!
From,
Old APELC Student
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