I actually love taking benchmarks and tests; am I the only one?

Tonight:


Explain on your blog why almost all students missed questions 4, 7, 9, 13,
21, 24, & 54. What were these questions asking? What makes them difficult?


Also, looking at your benchmark and your essays from the last few weeks,
what are your SPECIFIC goals for the rest of this semester?


Please post before second block.


Begin reading Beloved.


Come ready to write!


I can only assume why so many students missed this, but I can only speak for myself somewhat (I eliminated most of these into two choices, but chose the wrong one sadly): 


4: asks for why he called the quotations by the author "vilely phrased"; difficult because... i was misunderstanding - simple. in retrospect, stupid mistake. The answer was obvious! It's pretentious/roundabout because the poet mentioned is comparing the beautiful furniture to nature. Nature! That is blasphemy right there. A shame to the immaculate quality of Oxford furniture because nature is not beautiful and so full of flaws. Anyways, what makes the question difficult is that it's comparing two things that associate with one another, but in two polar ways. 


7: "Primary rhetorical function." In retrospect, stupid mistake again. It was a digression from the central topic - so obvious! It was difficult because it relates to the topic of the sentence before it.


9: most of the choices were mentioned somewhere within the reading, but either in one speech or another. Projected my opinions again; didn't really get the vibe that "failures of nature inspire people to create."


13: "comedy" and "chiefly." All the choices could have been comedic, however only one is used primarily. Projected opinion again; thought it was superficial. 


21: Ah, Grammar. I probably have a lot of grammar mistakes right now. Personally thought this question was a trick question like the previous diagnostic, but it wasn't this time. Grammar gets people because the layman doesn't care beyond the basic. But this was basic. Oh, the horror! The horror! I thought "I" would be the direct object of "Lift." 


24: I think the term, idiosyncratic, got most people. I vaguely knew the term as something associated with uniqueness - still got the answer wrong. the three middle choices were obvious omissions. I didn't think tone would be something considered unique and I only checked the meter for the first two lines due to time. I should've check the whole thing! 


54: Finally, one that I actually got right. I suppose the part of the speech could have connote some of the choices like   colloquial, amorous, pedantic, or refined. However, the other descriptions were invalid and only the last answer seem to both reflect the speech. 


My specific goals for the rest of the semester is to: pass both the class and the AP exam and learn about and appreciate literature of course. Seriously, I think it's absurdly unfair how this school, in my time here, practically only has AP History classes to show. My strong subjects are the mathematics and sciences. AP Environmental Science is so elementary. I'm not going to waste my time taking a class I dislike purely because it's AP. 


In benchmarks: more active reading. I love marking the paper, but I need to be consistent and thoughtful about it. Be more conscious of what I'm doing, I suppose. However, I'm not happy with my grades until they're at least a B or an A without curving. Some general strategies I use: active reading and "one wrong is all wrong!" 


In essays: organization, literary devices, expanding my ideas, and thoughtfulness. You don't really leave a lot of feedback of my papers; I would like to talk about that someday. I assume there isn't much you can say, right? Besides restating what you've said plenty of times. In general, the school environment has conditioned me, if not most students, to think that fun/humor isn't important, that you must be serious in everything. It's one of the rare things I've experienced in class and it's quite fun to experience that learning is fun again. I love learning. And you've helped me found that appreciation in the school system and in literature again. There's still hope, haha. However, it's just as you said before about how it's different when students pick up a book on their own to read and when they're forced to by the teacher. I hate being forced to read mostly because I can't take my sweet time and it kind of ruins the enjoyable experience when you know you're being forced to; pretty sure I'll hate Harry Potter if you make me read it. And Amy Tan if I didn't think of wanting to read it first, which I haven't yet. Maybe soon, I hope. Also, I would love my essays to be worded as eloquently as Gingrich (did you know he went to Emory?) or Obama. So euphoric. And I'm still very proud of my two 9's, which I haven't been able to recreate yet. It's frustrating when it's so close!   


Maybe I'm not being specific enough. Overall, I think my current abilities will suffice. Also, it would be great if the sponges were more ironic/humorous since we suck at it so very much. 


"I like pressure. If I am not on the edge of failure, I'm not being sufficiently challenged." Your class have certainly given me that again and I finally feel up to par with my elitist friends at their elitist schools. And it's probably the only class that has given me that at Clarkston. 


Looking forward to Film Club!