• *No names, and not so embarrass anyone, but to get something through your heads:
  
  • One student wrote a CCOT essay about Japan and China, incorrectly placing them in Southeast Asia when they are really located in Northeast Asia. She received a 0 for that essay because it was completely off-topic. Therefore, she received an overall score of 2. With just THREE points on that essay, she would have received a 3.
  • Another student put India and Bangladesh in Southeast Asia--luckily she also mentioned Vietnam and was able to get 1 point for her essay.
    
  • Another student has now put Pakistan in the Middle-East. Thus, she was only able to earn a 2 for her essay.
    
• LEARN THE GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS!!
  

• NEVER USE THE WORD ECONOMICAL IN A HISTORY ESSAY. YOU WANT TO USE ECONOMIC. THERE WILL NEVER BE A TIME WHEN YOU NEED TO USE 'ECONOMICAL' IN AN AP ESSAY SO GET IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM. IT. IS. THE. WRONG. WORD.
  
• Some students are still confusing "labor" and "laborer": A laborer does labor--not vice versa!
• Use of "circa". Now that I have taught you this word, you are like a pack of addicts. We will call it "Human Web Syndrome". Do not use this word:
  • To describe a long era "Circa 1450-1800..." It's redundant--you just gave the reader a large timespan to think of.
    
  • When you know the exact date(s). If you know WWI ran from 1914-1918, why use "circa"? It means "around"...
  • It is better used for a single large date, like a century, i.e., 'Circa the 4th Century BCE" or "Circa 1750..." Not specific years, and NOT for recent events or years. Saying "circa 2000" just sounds silly.
    
• The noun form of abolish is abolition, NOT abolishment. (Click easy edit--you will see the red line under "abolishment".)
  
• DO NOT USE CONTRACTIONS like "gov't" in an essay!!
  

• Some students are still referring to regions and continents like Southeast Asia and Africa as "countries". At this stage, in an AP class, this is nothing short of INFURIATING. (Think of your poor teacher...) GET IT STRAIGHT.
• People have tended to discuss the imperial powers in Africa for the CCOT essay. I suspect this is because they are not familiar enough with the African nations, leaders and nationalist movements. You will not get away with this on the AP exam, and you did not get away with it with me. Learn the African, Southeast Asian and Latin American movements!
  • In the same essays several students have spoken of the negritude movement, but few have actually talked about nationalism and national identity. Kwame Nkrumah, great--but how did he try to nationalize? What ideologies were influential? Who did he receive help from? How did the Cold War come into play? What were the actual results of his movement?
    

• Some students are asking for unrealistic, sometimes absurd, additional documents. For example, many students asked for "The journal or diary of a laborer from the Han or Roman Empire." How many manual laborers in Ancient Rome or China do you think kept journals? Honestly--how many factory workers TODAY keep journals? Journals are kepy by the literate and educated classes of a society, so your request makes no sense and would not receive a point. How about: "the lyrics of a worker's folk song from Han China that showed the people's attitude toward large government projects"? See my point?
  
  • BAD DOCUMENT REQUESTS:
    • "A worker from the era..." Not even the diary of a worker--just a worker. (Two students did this.) PEOPLE: YOU MUST REQUEST DOCUMENTS, NOT INFORMATION OR PEOPLE!!!
      
    • "A diary of a man from the Neolithic Age." Ahhh, a diary from someone when only 1% of the population knew what written language was...
      
    • Also, for the young woman who wanted "photographs of the time" I would like you to divulge the source of your product. Photos from Han China??? Think, people. THINK.
• Examples of good add docs:
  • Mahir: Additional documents that can be used to help back up the benefit of agricultural technology are the records of taxes and demographic statistics of Han China after the innovation of the dams and flood prevention.
    
• The "social, political, economic" BS line in the intro/conclusion is the perfect example of empty writing. Lots of you throw it in there, but then don't discuss those elements. It is a waste of time--stop using it. ESPECIALLY IF IT IS IN THE PROMPT. Be specific!!
• One student should clearly have received a 5, but only earned a 4 because her CCOT and COMP essays were so illegible that I could not read them.
  

• I say "unforgivably" because people are only occasionally receiving reduced scores for not knowing their history (there are some of you that put some wild stuff in your essays, however). More so, people are losing points for not following the rubric, not following directions/reading the prompt carefully, and not applying what they have been taught and have been practicing for months. The AP Essay grading is based on an EXTREMELY CLEAR process:

• Follow the assignment guidelines as required by the prompt.
  
• Adhere to the rubric requirements of each particular essay.
  
• Apply the techniques we have been practicing all year.
  
• That's it.
  

• Related unforgivable errors include:
  
  • Not reading the prompt. Two students for some reason decided to write about two of the of the regions provided for the CCOT essay. People, look at this prompt:
    • Analyze major changes and continuities in the formation of national identities in ONE of the regions listed below from 1914 to the present.
      
  • Do I need to request that the Collegeboard start printing the ONE in florescent rainbow colors and have it dance around on the page? One of the students who made this mistake has made the SAME mistake twice this year already. (Again, think of what you are doing to your poor teacher!)
• The geographic regions. The geographic regions. The geographic regions.
  
  • 5 students received 1s or 2s because they still don't know where countries are. We are going to work on this, but you need to realize that this is a major problem. There is no special skill or intelligence needed to know where things are. If you can point correctly to the 5 boroughs of NYC and you know that Penn Station is in Manhattan, Citi Field is in the Queens, and nothing of any importance whatsoever is in Brooklyn, you have the ability to remember that Japan is in North, not South, East Asia.
    

• All of us have been in a class where the teacher's grading strategy seemed a mystery--we had no idea how he/she did it and it often appeared quite random. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH THE AP EXAM. All you have to do is add what is required on the rubric. THAT'S IT. And at this point, you have no excuse for not knowing what is on the rubric. If you are still confused, you need to speak with me ASAP. You have two more huge mocks in your near future--you don't want those grades to suffer too. (Or the Exam you are taking on May 14th.)

• Essay Score Specifics:
  • Not following the rubric.
    
    • Many people are still not requesting additional documents (or are requesting things that aren't docs or are unrealistic docs), still not using BME and still not supplying reasons for the similarities and differences in their COMP essays. Quite simply, not adding these required elements causes you to lose 1-3 points per essay, and completely removes any possibility of excellence points. If you don't supply the basics, you kill your essay cruelly. (It was young; it wanted to live!)
      
    • But BY FAR the greatest issue in terms of the rubric for all 3 essays is what the heck you people are doing with your introductions. Approximately 4-5 of you follow the guidelines that have been set out all year, and they rest of you write absolute, absolute, ABSOLUTE 100% EMPTY BLAH. (That's right, BLAH.)
      
      • People, the intro is where you grab the reader's attention, establish context, provide outside information and outline your thesis. IT IS NOT THE PLACE YOU WRITE 4 POINTLESS SENTENCES BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO.
        
      • I have been going over this all year, but now I am actually going to take the time to show you two unsatisfactory and two satisfactory examples from the recent mock:

• OK, enough of my dramatics--but I hope they are finally getting the point across: Guys, these intros are BAD. Really, really BAD. Not OK. Not "needs work". Just awful with no excuse to be at this stage. So let's look at some good intros in three styles: basic, detailed, and analytically clear. We can use names here, I think.
  

• Look at your AP Exam like this:
  
  • The MC section establishes the base of your score. What score you can eventually reach will be determined ultimately by your result on the MC section.
    
    • From the MC section, you will either stay where you are, or raise your score based on your essays.
    • If you look at the correlation between the MC raw scores and the final AP results, you will see what I am talking about.
      
    • I.e., as most students wrote unsatisfactory essays this mock, most students remained exactly where their MC scores gave them the potential to be.
      
  • Two examples:
    
    • The student who put Japan in Southeast Asia had an MC score that put her on the "potential edge" of a 3. But, when she received a 0 for that essay, she fell on the wrong side of the edge.
      
    • Mariuxi and Rosemary, on the other hand, both scored just below 50 (46 and 49 respectively), putting them on the 4/5 potential edge. However Rosemary wrote an 18 essay battery and Mariuxi wrote a 21--both scores were enough to push them over to the 5. Well-written essays allowed them to reach the potential their base MC score gave them.
  • For those of you who may now be reacting with a "I'll never get that kind of an essay battery score," keep in mind, you get that score JUST FOR FOLLOWING THE RUBRIC. If you do nothing sexy in your essay, but just make sure what is supposed to be in it, is in it. You will reach your highest potential on the test.
    

• Fact: Absolutely everyone who scored a 2 on the mock would have passed if their essay battery was 3-5 points higher...