I actually enjoyed the chapter one reading. This surprised me because it was a textbook, and the standard textbook isn't exactly a comic book if you were to rate it in terms of entertainment. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, or even close. I think that had a lot to do with the intro, the whole idea of books being considered cultural artifacts, because back when I was younger I loved to read and would read at every opportunity I had, and the whole idea of having a book, something tangible, versus an E-book, has always appealed to me. Something about having a copy of the book you're reading always made it a lot easier for me to connect with the story. The chapter also had a great way of mixing up genres of literature. There were a lot of poems, but none of the poems were hard to understand or analyze, which made a lot of sense to me and also made me confident in my analyzing abilities.
The chapter also had a pretty accurate foreshadowing of what my weaknesses would be on the practice AP exam. My patience was very low with the exam. I wasn't confident on my answer to the first question, and even though I shouldn't have judged the entire test based on the first question, the fact that I didn't get it right was pretty upsetting. Also, my mind wandered a lot during the test; I couldn't focus and I was losing concentration in the middle of the pieces, which made analyzing them pretty hard. My attentiveness was also pretty low, which tied into why I couldn't concentrate and made answering the questions hard because I had to look back at the text quite a few times. So, to sum it up, the book was completely accurate in what it advised me to focus on.
It seems pretty obvious that given my low score on the test and my weaknesses, that I should do exactly what chapter one said. My first goal is to increase my stamina when it comes to analyzing literature. I plan to do this by slowly increasing the time I spend focusing on my AP Lit homework every night. It won't happen all at once, because that's not how increasing tolerance works, but eventually I'll get there. My second goal is to use my imagination and creativity more when it comes to analyzing literature. There is rarely one meaning or one symbol, and since a text can be interpreted in many ways, I need to think outside the box and work on interpreting the text in different ways. Finally, I need to realize that I won't necessarily enjoy every text that I have to interpret. I just need to accept what I have been given and work with it to the best of my ability. Hopefully a combination of reaching these three goals will help me improve my 64%.
I agree with you Jack on the fact that it is very difficult to stay focused on the task at hand when you're reading a Middle English sonnet. I also had this issue a few times over the course of the hour, and based on my experiences in the AP testing room, the ordeal is tough, especially when adding on the essays. Your plan to improve on this seems like a great idea, slowly spending more time on AP Lit will train you, like you said, and what could also help is to actively annotate and close read the passages, which not only helps improve your score but gives you something to do while reading the passage. It also can build up your confidence going into the questions, by using your annotations to predict what type of questions will be asked and what they will ask them about. Getting a head start on the test makers and getting the feeling of accomplishment when your page is marked up is a huge mental boost. This is the method I use, and it seems to work fairly well, for me at least. A 64% is very solid this early (better than me), and everything we do from now on in class will help you get better.
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