First Impression

My first impression after looking at some of the practice AP tests is that I feel ready for the multiple choice. After looking at some of the questions, I feel a lot more familiar with the vocabulary. I believe that this is from religiously studying my literary terms and from reading my literature analysis novels carefully. I am not just reading to finish the assignment, but am reading to get something out of the book and to practice recognizing literary techniques and analyzing aspects of the story. I believe that my hunger for reading has truly helped prepare me for the multiple choice section of this test. As for the essays, I am in a little bit of a different situation. After reading the prompt, I feel as if I have great ideas and answers to answer the question fully and with good information, but when I sit down to actually write the essay my ideas seem lame. It is not the ideas that are lame, but the writing that is lame. I have not practiced enough with finding my voice and improving my word usage. I believe that the ideas in my head are good, but getting them onto paper in a well written form is very difficult for me. I need to practice writing freely and about something that interests me, so that I can first find my voice as a writer. I then need to focus on enhancing my vocabulary and sophistication. With these two aspects, I believe my writing will reach the 7 to 8 range that I wish to be in. The work only starts now!