They Can Be Structurally Distracting
Mary Edgington
The second practice poem of the section, "The Chambered Nautilus," rhymed like a song. It's a very musical piece with its rhythm. Reading it, I almost felt a little hypnotized and began reading for the melody and not taking in the words and their story. Sometimes the rhyming is distracting! Also, I can't help but pause at the end of the line, rather than the end of the sentence. So ideas get a little bent. I noticed because it was one of Peterson's suggestions. The author warned against getting tripped up by the lines. I'll have to keep myself very focused to avoid that problem.
Also...
Read
the poem four times? That is the first advice given by Peterson's, and he
suggests first skimming, then reading for main ideas and idea flow, and
then again for significant details, and again to hear the rhythm. I
don't know about you guys, but there is no way I can read the poems that
many times and answer all the questions without going into a panic
during the test. I can't read quickly enough for that, so maybe that's
the first thing I will start practicing as we prepare for the class and,
ultimately, the exam. If I feel rushed I start blindly stumbling over
the words and searching frantically for answers... It's a bad situation.
So my #1 difficulty is understanding the poem in a timely manner.
What Happened To Creative Interpretation?
Mary Edgington
While taking the practice exam for AP Lit in Peterson's AP English I encountered a problem that is typical of all AP exams, regardless of the subject. That is that there are often several answers that are extremely similar, and one must resort to a guessing game to choose one. For example, question 36 asks what is meant by "over strained and out sung themselves" in a poem; answer options include both "Tired out" and "Worked too hard". With the context of the poem, I think they both could convey the same thing! The answer ended up being "Lost creativity" anyways, but it seems like one could argue that any one of those answers is correct.
That brings me to my question about individual interpretation. Many of these questions ask "What does the author mean..?" and propose answers to choose from. Sometimes I think one could argue that a different answer was correct! I always considered literature to be like any art form in that it's never really the same for every person; people can interpret things differently, especially in these overly-figurative poems, and they can each be right. Question 48 asks the meaning of a sentence about the Brahmins and their poetry. Language is imperfect, and I think a person could insist an answer other than the "correct" one is correct.
Despite these small difficulties, I scored about an 80%! Granted, I guessed a lot. But I'm pleasantly surprised with that score considering we haven't begun the class yet. I think my biggest obstacle will be reading the passages quickly enough to get thoughtfully through each question.
