Taking the AP English Language & Composition Exam is just one of the things on our list of “things to accomplish in high school” for our oldest daughter’s homeschool high school plan.
College prep has been a topic of conversation in our house (and in my mind) since my now graduating senior was in 7th or 8th grade. Laying out a high school plan that gave her the option to enter college if she so chose was important to me. It was also important that we make the best use of our time and money. For this reason we chose the route of earning as much dual credit in high school as possible.
We have gone about earning dual credit in three ways:
- CLEP Exams
- AP Credit
- Community College Courses
AP English Language & Composition Exam
While our daughter was taking a Virtual AP Class through a local school district, we also felt it was important to engage in specific test preparation. {Her teacher for the virtual class also felt very strongly about this} To accomplish this we looked into AP specific study books. Cracking the AP English Language & Composition Exam from The Princeton Review was by far our top choice! We felt the book did a fantastic job not only with general test taking strategies, but with really walking you through this specific AP Exam.
What’s Inside This Book?
- 2 full length exams – including answers and explanations
- Detailed information about the AP English Language & Composition Exam – including the structure of the exam, overview of topics, scoring, and other helpful resources.
- Test taking strategies – including how to approach the multiple choice questions as well as specific help for each of the 3 types of essays required on the exam.
How We Used This Book
Our daughter’s teacher recommended frequent and specific test practice, including practice with timed multiple choice as well as weekly essay writing.
This book made it easy to study alongside taking her AP course. Not only are there two full tests to take (one you take early in the book and one at the end), but in the Test Taking Strategies chapters there is directed practice to help your student hone their test taking skills.
Where to Find Cracking the AP English Language & Composition Exam
You can find this resource at various online resources such as Barnes and Noble, Walmart and [amazon_link id=”080412616X” target=”_blank” ]Amazon[/amazon_link].
Other High School to College Test Resources
- Top College Test Prep Resources
- CLEP for College Credits
- Earning College Credit with Online CLEP Prep
- Earn College Credits with AP Test Prep
- ACT Test Prep for Homeschool
Heidi Ciravola is mom to three kids who are all currently homeschooled. One in high school, one in middles school, and one in elementary school. She spends much of her time navigating the high school waters (from electives to college prep) and creating unit studies from her unschooly youngest child's adventures. You can find her writing about these things as well as her love of books and homeschool life in general over at Starts At Eight.
Taking test really helped my oldest daughter. However, my younger daughter wasn’t a great test taker and didn’t like the intensive study as much. However, studying for the test really helped her when she took the classes online with UMUC.edu and she stated that she was glad that she’d studied for them all. We are now trying the ‘test-out’ method with my youngest and will focus mostly on CLEPs since he will be attending UMUC also and they accept CLEPS, DSST and some other forms of education for credit. Thanks for sharing the AP resource as we use those also. With the FREE clep lesson plans from here: http://clepprep.tripod.com/cleplessonplans/id4.html