Building Confidence and Diminishing Anxiety For the AP® Lang Exam

As educators, we face a lot of criticism for “teaching to the test”. While our goal as AP Lang teachers is to help our students become great writers, we find that even our most advanced students underperform on timed exams. Testing anxiety is a very real struggle for even our most exceptional writers. Because we care about our students, we cannot ignore the fact that so much rides on students getting a passing score on their exams: earning college credit, passing their English class, and upping their GPA. While we may not be licensed therapists, there are many strategies we can implement to help ease our students’ anxieties and improve their confidence. Timing, strategy, and stamina matter.

Just because a student is an excellent writer does not mean they excel at writing quickly. If you typically give students several days to plan, draft, and finalize an essay, that time is invaluable to ensuring your writers perfect their craft. However, that does not mean they are prepared for the high-pressure scenario of completing every step of the writing process three times in two hours. Dedicating a few class periods to allowing your students to work through a synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument prompt will make a world of difference in their pacing skills. Here is how this looks in my classroom:

1. I set a timer for 45 minutes.
2. As the time progresses, I give students “checkpoints”:
• “You should have your reading and annotating completed. Move on to prewriting as soon as possible.”
• “Now, you should move on from prewriting and begin drafting.”
• “Take the last few minutes to edit your essay for clarity and attempt to correct any grammatical errors.”
3. I do not offer feedback or suggestions during timed testing. I want the process to feel as genuine as possible. They have to practice working through their hesitations and confusions on their own.

Timing

If you find that your students struggle with a 45-minute timer, you may scaffold this lesson by giving them a full class period to complete their work and gradually dial back the time per lesson. I have found that completing a “live scoring” session with students in the days following the first timed writing assessment is very valuable because it is personal, and students absorb my device better than typical digital comments on a Google Doc. This is a time commitment, but it is worth it! It also sets the tone for future digital commentary I offer as the year progresses.

Strategy

Strategy is another major component for students to consider. While they may have excellent prewriting strategies to intricately plan out essays in the classroom, they are not allotted that time during testing. As we cycle through the writing prompts during the year, I have students formulate their own templates for organizing their thoughts. We discuss the writing goal for a rhetorical analysis piece vs. a synthesis essay. What is their focus? How can they find it, and how can they stick with it? Going into a timed test without a strategy is like going into the grocery store without a list. You may end up with some good stuff, but is it cohesive enough to make a meal?

Stamina

While timing and strategy are key preparation factors, nothing compares to building up stamina. Writing three essays in two hours is a monumental task. Even if a student has their timing down and key strategies in place, they have to have their mind prepared for the task at hand. For the last month before our AP Lang exam, I plan to follow a strict schedule with my students so they are used to the stamina required to complete their tests:

• Monday: multiple choice mini-set
• Tuesday: discuss multiple choice questions and strategies (eliminating wrong answer choices, identifying common distractors)
• Wednesday: timed writing response
• Thursday: review writing pieces, consultations with me, edit
• Friday: released passage review (look for common themes and discuss best practices for writing)

You're not doing your students any favors by going easy on them leading up to test day. Marathon runners, mountain climbers, and even competitive eaters do not take breaks in the weeks leading up to their big events-it’s when they train the hardest. We have to show up for our students as their own personal trainers to help them prepare.

Teachers Should Take the Test, Too! 

My final piece of advice is something I intentionally saved for last, as I do not think it is something that any teacher wants to hear: take the test yourself! Note the strategies you implement for multiple choice questions, timing, and tackling the various essays. Letting your students know that you have vetted these strategies with success will increase their buy-in and engagement as you work through these processes with them.