Sophia Shao - Last Week - GOOD JOB WE DID IT


 We made it! We finally took our APENG exam! I’m really proud of you guys and how far we have come. I know we’re not supposed to comment on the exam, but I’m going to anyway. What are they going to do, cancel my scores? Mrs. Smith, look away!

 I remember stepping into the testing room and anticipating the essay section. I had a feeling that I would like the prompts a lot, so I was pretty excited to write! First, I had to get through the MCQ’s though. We started around five minutes late, which was actually better compared to my other APs. I was also really stoked for the donut holes that Mrs. Smith brought us for the break.

After everything was ready, it was time for the MCQ section. I actually enjoyed most of the MCQ’s, especially the one about loquats. The entire time, I kept imagining them as persimmons, but after talking with Anthony Zhou about it after the exam, I realized that I was heavily mistaken. I thought the passage was really wholesome and heartwarming, though, and I was happy to be there!

There was another very notable passage that started with “LOOK AT ME.” It was really hilarious to read, and people kept making fun of it after the exam, especially online. The author was hyper analyzing the phrase, and it was quite funny. I don’t really remember the other questions in the MCQs as they were pretty normal.

After the break and THREE donut holes instead of ONE, it was time for the FRQs. Like I guessed, I really enjoyed the prompts! The first one was a little funky, and it was about GPS’s. It asked us to argue about the value of a GPS, which was initially confusing because I didn’t understand why someone would argue that a GPS has no value. The rhetorical analysis question was my favorite one by far. I really loved how it emphasized connection with nature, and I thought it was just a really fun read and fun to write about. Finally, with the argument prompt, I unfortunately did not have enough time to write a counterclaim, but I made it work with some shoddy evidence.

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys had fun writing the essays, or you got the score you wanted! How was your experience taking the AP exam? Also, thank you for a wonderful semester of blogging! May the best be with you.

Comments

  1. Tegbir KaurMay 20, 2025 at 1:05 PM

    Hi Sophia! Thanks for this rundown about your experience with the AP Lang exam; it is interesting to see how my experiences align with others in such stressful situations. I believe that the FRQs have now been released (but I will not be going back and checking for any of my exams—I’d rather just never think about them again). During the FRQ part of my exam, I spent a lot of time on my synthesis essay, but it ended up working out as we had so much rhetorical analysis practice that I was just able to yap and get that one done quickly. I also enjoyed the MCQ passages, because I was just thinking about the memes that those academic Instagram accounts like GetKnowt would inevitably be posting after the exam (I was right). I completely understand what you said about the passage being “really wholesome,” because I feel like the whole year we have been analyzing such heavy topics that it was nice on the exam to lay back and talk about nature and grounding ourselves back to our roots. I also “did not have enough time to write a counterclaim,” but I will not complain about the argument essay because I got to use Helen Keller as one of my pieces of evidence which made my heart so happy. Yet, I do remember this one scary incident during the exam, particularly during the synthesis essay portion, where I was trying to delete a word or two and the key glitched while it was clicking it, and it began to delete everything automatically. I had to furiously click the pointer to make it stop, and I thought I was about to have a heart attack. I don’t even know what happened, because this happened in my APUSH DBQ too; but I am just so thankful that I was able to stop it from deleting everything. That would have been bad! Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for all your blogs this semester because they have always been so enjoyable and light-hearted!

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  2. AnonymousMay 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM

    Hi Sophia!! I’ll be honest, the AP exam was so much easier than I expected and I share the exact same relief that you do. I’m not going to comment on the mcqs (because I’m scared of college board & my parents), but I finished them in half the time and sat there thinking, “There’s no way it’s supposed to be this easy.” Also how did you get three whole donut holes??? I’m around 99% sure that everybody was only supposed to get one, it was pretty good though, if a bit sweet. I also think that the prompts for the essay questions were really easy, but that argument prompt was not it. I very shoddily made my way though, and while I feel like I didn’t do the best on it, I’m quite confident in the rest of my essays. I’m so glad that we’re all done and I’m definitely going to miss you over summer break. I hope we share a class next year!!

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  3. Anushree NavaneethakrishnanMay 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM

    Hi Sophia, reading this transported me back to the sterile testing room of a gym and I could feel my heart race quietly yet rapidly and my palm growing increasingly sweaty. I really appreciate how you were able to capture all the different aspects of the test and make it into a conversation where everyone feels comforted rather than anxious about how it went. It is interesting how about a year from now we will forget all the tiny details about this AP exam from the loquat confusion (which I thought were just small mangoes) to the donut holes, which honestly motivated me to write three essays in two hours and fifteen minutes. It is comforting to know that for many people around me the test was a joyful experience, especially because the months leading up to it were stressful and overwhelming. I felt the same excitement you felt about the rhetorical essay source because it was dense with so many techniques and devices; it was as if the author actually wanted us to interact with the text rather than making us decode it like a robot. Even though we all walked out of that gym regretting things we did not do, for me it was definitely the counterclaim, this blog was a refreshing reminder to end the semester with a positive note.

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  4. Yash SinhaMay 21, 2025 at 9:33 PM

    Hi Sophia! As soon as I exited the gym I thought the exact words you used to title this blog so I knew I had to read it. When I was taking the exam I felt extremely happy because I was not expecting the questions to be as easy as they were. However, when I spoke to my friends from other schools, they found the test to be quite challenging so with that being said, I feel like we are all very lucky to have had such a good teacher this year that has prepared us for this exam. While there were definitely some questionable passages within the test, most of them were relatively simple and straightforward and the questions that went with them were not too bad at all. Overall I feel really good about my performance on the exam and I would like to say I am proud of all my classmates for powering through this year and this exam. Thank you for sharing this blog and being such a great member of our cohort!

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