AP Round 4 . . . FIGHT!
Welp, it's that time again. Got back from my fourth year scoring AP English language exams, and of course that means I have quotes to share. But first, other notes on the trip.
I think I've become somewhat inured to the tedium of scoring, because the 56 hours and 1,850 essays scored didn't seem so bad. In fact, I think I sped up quite a bit from last year--if it didn't feel like too much work to go back and look, I would check my entry from last year, but I'm pretty sure the other years I only did about 1200 total. Maybe this question was easier to score, or maybe because the answers weren't as entertaining I didn't stop to write down as many quotes. Either way, unless my accuracy was terrible (based on how many 1-3s on the 9-point scale I gave, I might be labeled as "stringent," though I think those were completely justified--and verified often by my table leader--and I just kept getting low folders), I think my speed and seeming to be in good graces with my table leader should qualify me for an invitation again next year (though life circumstances will probably not allow me to attend next year).
I was dubious about this year because my last two years' roommate, Holly, was in Romania. I get along really well with Holly, and she was a perfect roommate. This year I almost ended up with a random person, because even though I knew I had met some nice and friendly people through the church service we had last year, I somehow didn't have any of their contact information. I was down to Random Person or the only other female I knew who was going who I did have information for--Elisa. I technically knew Elisa before last year--she overlapped my grad school experience by one year, though we were never really friends, and we have mutual friends. But I never really hung out with her last year until AP, when Holly and I would sometimes go play games or hang out with her and Grover. The problem is Grover is a longtime friend of hers and they have a million inside jokes and stories, and are both obsessed with pop culture, which made for really long conversations where I would sit there bored and not contributing for upwards of a half hour before they might notice me and try to include me somehow before going straight back to some "hilarious" and hyperbolic story about some obscure person they both knew ten years ago. A whole week of this became pretty insufferable, leading to the condundrum of Random Person or Elisa starting to weigh heavily in favor of Random Person. But in the end I decided to just go with what I knew, asked Elisa if she wanted to room together, she confirmed, and that was that. And it actually ended up great! Grover ended up not going, and Elisa sans Grover is actually a very enjoyable person. She was great to ride the bus with, eat some meals with, and have a few nights to lounge in our room where she introduced me to all the crap TV that I know nothing about. We went to Liberty Jail once together (she brought a car) and that was fun too.
As far as other events: I went to a quickly thrown-together church service (in a hotel common room) on Sunday evening that I got an email about the day before (I knew there had been an email list last year!) and met a few people. Partially because one had said she had a car and was going to the Kansas City temple one night, and I wanted in on that (with our nearest temple three hours away I am not able to go much). So five of us ladies went to the temple Tuesday night, which was an adventure-they only had sessions at 6:00 and then 7:30, and we pretty much got to the temple doors at 5:58. We had called ahead our rental clothing sizes so could grab them and run, and we barely made it in (I think they must have held the session for a few minutes, too, or else we were the recipients of a miracle and Heavenly Father momentarily stopped time for us). Tuesday night was also our dine-out night (we are reimbursed $25 for one night to eat out instead of the usual convention center buffet) so after the temple we went to an upscale burger place. Unfortunately I was having stomach cramps all through the temple session and was not particularly feeling up to greasy burger food, where normally I would have loved it, so I didn’t get to enjoy that as much as I might otherwise. Still, it was a fulfilling evening.
Thursday night I got together with Jane (one of the others who went to the temple) and another friend of hers to go to Shakespeare in the park, which was Twelfth Night. I had just roped Jeremy into watching She’s the Man with me the weekend before, so it happened to be good timing. Since none of us had cars, we took the bus there, then stuffed six of us (we joined with another group after the play that Jane knew) into a five-seater Uber to get back. I’ve never used Uber before, but it seems like a pretty good idea. There was apparently a string of five armed muggings the night before not too far from our location, so we were a little wary (not of the Uber driver, just being out at night), but we had fun.
Friday ended up being really great. Well, not so much during the day. Usually our last day of the reading is pretty nice-we bring a book and usually have some interim periods to read while the books are being shuffled around and the last tests come in (they have to rotate through three groups of people doing the three essay questions). The day before, our question leader had uncharacteristically told us that we might be done by 3:00, that we were all doing great. Well, Friday morning she comes on and tells us SOMETHING happened, we all MAJORLY slowed down, and now we’ll be lucky if we’re done by 5. This was particularly irritating because I had planned to meet with Sarah after work (driving all the way from Omaha) and for once I had legitimate reason to really want to be done early. And since I had been keeping a tally of my own daily progress I knew that I for one had not in any way slowed down. It felt like the whole class having to stay in for recess because of that one acting out kid-and that’s even if they were telling the truth about the cause of the sudden extra work. The day continued under martial law, with stretch breaks being eliminated, stern no-talking admonitions, lunch break being delayed 15 minutes-I was surprised she didn’t come on and tell us we were forbidden bathroom breaks. THEN, when we finally finished the last book at our table, it was clear that there really weren’t any more books squirreled away somewhere, and the entire room breathed a collective sigh of relief-at quarter to five-Question Leader came on again and told us we couldn’t leave until 5:00. Which absolutely had no purpose, and hadn’t been done in any previous years, and remember how she had just told us the day before that she would let us out at 3:00? (Note: the other two questions had already cleared out by now. Not to mention the other AP subjects. It was only Question 3 of AP Lang that had slaved all day and then sat there pointlessly for 15 minutes). My guess is that particular question leader may not be getting complimentary comments on the survey.
But anyway, once 5:00 finally hit and we were free once and for all, I had a great evening. Sarah met me at the convention center. Elisa decided to drive home that day instead of waiting for the next, and had given me her name badge, so Sarah took on the new identity so we could get the free buffet food (it’s so-so, but it’s mostly just the foodies who constantly complain about it. I think the food is pretty good for being mass feeding). Then we drove to Liberty Jail-I’m glad I went a second time, because the second-time missionary was much more loquacious than the first, and I learned a lot more. Then we went back to Kansas City and got some delicious ice cream (roasted strawberry and dark chocolate, and Sarah had a rose petal saffron that was surprisingly good), and then went to Shakespeare in the park again (though we came at intermission). We had to park in a dark alley in front of an abandoned bandit house, but we survived. I think I remember liking Midsummer Night’s Dream in Louisville a bit more than this production of Twelfth Night, but part of that was just that it was the perfect scene for Midsummer Night’s Dream-the timing of course, but also all the trees in that particular park and the fireflies made it perfectly match the play. There were trees and fireflies at this production too, and there is definitely something extra fun about enjoying Shakespeare in an outdoor setting. Then we went back to enjoy one last night at the cushy hotel before morning departure.
Oh, and then there’s travel days. The next morning (Saturday) was my departure. I hadn’t had a great experience leaving Shreveport for Kansas City-I had gotten a note from my doctor to excuse me from the full-body scanner because of pregnancy, but when I asked to opt out, and mentioned the letter, I got undisguised sighs, eye rolls, and “are you SURE you want to do this [the pat down alternative]. You know the scanner is perfectly safe. You should tell your doctor that there’s much more radiation when you talk on a cell phone” blah blah blah. Because my doctor is going to immediately be convinced by the second-hand word of a couple TSA agents. They both individually tried to dissuade me from opting out and then exchanged condescending and exasperated looks with each other in front of me, no attempt at disguising whatsoever. It was so irritating and unprofessional and I very much wanted to remind them that both my doctor and myself are far more educated than both of them and capable of making educated health decisions, thank you very much, but I’m sure that would have only detained me longer and I would have ended up on some suspect list for irritating them. Also on the way there I almost missed my connecting flight because my first was delayed a bit, then I sprinted across half the Dallas Fort Worth airport to get my connection only to find that I had the wrong gate somehow, and my real gate was back right next to the original gate I had just been, so I sprinted all the way back and would have missed my flight, except it was delayed too. So that was good at least. I made it to Kansas City in decent time, about an hour later than I had expected.
So back to the flying home-I was delighted to find that in the Kansas City airport-though it is certainly a screwy airport-there are no full-body scanners! It was a huge relief not to deal with that again. What I did get to deal with was how they have several separate security lines for small sets of gates. So I went through a TSA line that was just for two gates. This meant that I was stuck on the other side of security, but in a very small space, for almost three hours (I didn’t need as much time as I thought I would, and then my flight was delayed), in a space that had no food or drink available for purchase-not even vending machines-and no drinking fountain-and we couldn’t bring water through security. It did have a single seater bathroom. I am a thirsty person even when I’m not pregnant, so yes I did fill my water bottle at the bathroom sink-not the tastiest, and definitely lukewarm, but I’m still alive. The rest of the trip involved another sprint to my connecting flight, and this time I barely made it, three minutes before the gates closed. I went and used the plane bathroom right before the attendant was about to begin her safety speech because I hadn’t had any time between and really had to go-one of those I’m going to ask forgiveness rather than permission-but it didn’t seem to disrupt anything. And I made it home on schedule! Where we went straight to Will’s friend’s birthday party for the next two hours, and then put him to bed, and then I still had to go get groceries. It was definitely a relief to finally relax at home (before succumbing to long-awaited sleep).
And now for the grand finale, quotes from the essays!
Starting with this year’s Question 3 prompt:
In 1891, Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) observed, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
Wilde claims that disobedience is a valuable human trait, and that it promotes social progress. Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Wilde’s claims are valid. Use appropriate examples from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.
Once again, I didn’t find as many entertaining reads this year-mostly examples of the American Revolution and Rosa Parks-though there were a startling number of references to Harry Potter as an example of disobedience for good. Also one person who meant to write about Rosa Parks kept instead writing “Harriet Tatum,” and there was at least one spelling of “Martian Luther King.” And now, without further ado, I give you words of wisdom from AP lang students of 2016:
I think I've become somewhat inured to the tedium of scoring, because the 56 hours and 1,850 essays scored didn't seem so bad. In fact, I think I sped up quite a bit from last year--if it didn't feel like too much work to go back and look, I would check my entry from last year, but I'm pretty sure the other years I only did about 1200 total. Maybe this question was easier to score, or maybe because the answers weren't as entertaining I didn't stop to write down as many quotes. Either way, unless my accuracy was terrible (based on how many 1-3s on the 9-point scale I gave, I might be labeled as "stringent," though I think those were completely justified--and verified often by my table leader--and I just kept getting low folders), I think my speed and seeming to be in good graces with my table leader should qualify me for an invitation again next year (though life circumstances will probably not allow me to attend next year).
I was dubious about this year because my last two years' roommate, Holly, was in Romania. I get along really well with Holly, and she was a perfect roommate. This year I almost ended up with a random person, because even though I knew I had met some nice and friendly people through the church service we had last year, I somehow didn't have any of their contact information. I was down to Random Person or the only other female I knew who was going who I did have information for--Elisa. I technically knew Elisa before last year--she overlapped my grad school experience by one year, though we were never really friends, and we have mutual friends. But I never really hung out with her last year until AP, when Holly and I would sometimes go play games or hang out with her and Grover. The problem is Grover is a longtime friend of hers and they have a million inside jokes and stories, and are both obsessed with pop culture, which made for really long conversations where I would sit there bored and not contributing for upwards of a half hour before they might notice me and try to include me somehow before going straight back to some "hilarious" and hyperbolic story about some obscure person they both knew ten years ago. A whole week of this became pretty insufferable, leading to the condundrum of Random Person or Elisa starting to weigh heavily in favor of Random Person. But in the end I decided to just go with what I knew, asked Elisa if she wanted to room together, she confirmed, and that was that. And it actually ended up great! Grover ended up not going, and Elisa sans Grover is actually a very enjoyable person. She was great to ride the bus with, eat some meals with, and have a few nights to lounge in our room where she introduced me to all the crap TV that I know nothing about. We went to Liberty Jail once together (she brought a car) and that was fun too.
As far as other events: I went to a quickly thrown-together church service (in a hotel common room) on Sunday evening that I got an email about the day before (I knew there had been an email list last year!) and met a few people. Partially because one had said she had a car and was going to the Kansas City temple one night, and I wanted in on that (with our nearest temple three hours away I am not able to go much). So five of us ladies went to the temple Tuesday night, which was an adventure-they only had sessions at 6:00 and then 7:30, and we pretty much got to the temple doors at 5:58. We had called ahead our rental clothing sizes so could grab them and run, and we barely made it in (I think they must have held the session for a few minutes, too, or else we were the recipients of a miracle and Heavenly Father momentarily stopped time for us). Tuesday night was also our dine-out night (we are reimbursed $25 for one night to eat out instead of the usual convention center buffet) so after the temple we went to an upscale burger place. Unfortunately I was having stomach cramps all through the temple session and was not particularly feeling up to greasy burger food, where normally I would have loved it, so I didn’t get to enjoy that as much as I might otherwise. Still, it was a fulfilling evening.
Thursday night I got together with Jane (one of the others who went to the temple) and another friend of hers to go to Shakespeare in the park, which was Twelfth Night. I had just roped Jeremy into watching She’s the Man with me the weekend before, so it happened to be good timing. Since none of us had cars, we took the bus there, then stuffed six of us (we joined with another group after the play that Jane knew) into a five-seater Uber to get back. I’ve never used Uber before, but it seems like a pretty good idea. There was apparently a string of five armed muggings the night before not too far from our location, so we were a little wary (not of the Uber driver, just being out at night), but we had fun.
Friday ended up being really great. Well, not so much during the day. Usually our last day of the reading is pretty nice-we bring a book and usually have some interim periods to read while the books are being shuffled around and the last tests come in (they have to rotate through three groups of people doing the three essay questions). The day before, our question leader had uncharacteristically told us that we might be done by 3:00, that we were all doing great. Well, Friday morning she comes on and tells us SOMETHING happened, we all MAJORLY slowed down, and now we’ll be lucky if we’re done by 5. This was particularly irritating because I had planned to meet with Sarah after work (driving all the way from Omaha) and for once I had legitimate reason to really want to be done early. And since I had been keeping a tally of my own daily progress I knew that I for one had not in any way slowed down. It felt like the whole class having to stay in for recess because of that one acting out kid-and that’s even if they were telling the truth about the cause of the sudden extra work. The day continued under martial law, with stretch breaks being eliminated, stern no-talking admonitions, lunch break being delayed 15 minutes-I was surprised she didn’t come on and tell us we were forbidden bathroom breaks. THEN, when we finally finished the last book at our table, it was clear that there really weren’t any more books squirreled away somewhere, and the entire room breathed a collective sigh of relief-at quarter to five-Question Leader came on again and told us we couldn’t leave until 5:00. Which absolutely had no purpose, and hadn’t been done in any previous years, and remember how she had just told us the day before that she would let us out at 3:00? (Note: the other two questions had already cleared out by now. Not to mention the other AP subjects. It was only Question 3 of AP Lang that had slaved all day and then sat there pointlessly for 15 minutes). My guess is that particular question leader may not be getting complimentary comments on the survey.
But anyway, once 5:00 finally hit and we were free once and for all, I had a great evening. Sarah met me at the convention center. Elisa decided to drive home that day instead of waiting for the next, and had given me her name badge, so Sarah took on the new identity so we could get the free buffet food (it’s so-so, but it’s mostly just the foodies who constantly complain about it. I think the food is pretty good for being mass feeding). Then we drove to Liberty Jail-I’m glad I went a second time, because the second-time missionary was much more loquacious than the first, and I learned a lot more. Then we went back to Kansas City and got some delicious ice cream (roasted strawberry and dark chocolate, and Sarah had a rose petal saffron that was surprisingly good), and then went to Shakespeare in the park again (though we came at intermission). We had to park in a dark alley in front of an abandoned bandit house, but we survived. I think I remember liking Midsummer Night’s Dream in Louisville a bit more than this production of Twelfth Night, but part of that was just that it was the perfect scene for Midsummer Night’s Dream-the timing of course, but also all the trees in that particular park and the fireflies made it perfectly match the play. There were trees and fireflies at this production too, and there is definitely something extra fun about enjoying Shakespeare in an outdoor setting. Then we went back to enjoy one last night at the cushy hotel before morning departure.
Oh, and then there’s travel days. The next morning (Saturday) was my departure. I hadn’t had a great experience leaving Shreveport for Kansas City-I had gotten a note from my doctor to excuse me from the full-body scanner because of pregnancy, but when I asked to opt out, and mentioned the letter, I got undisguised sighs, eye rolls, and “are you SURE you want to do this [the pat down alternative]. You know the scanner is perfectly safe. You should tell your doctor that there’s much more radiation when you talk on a cell phone” blah blah blah. Because my doctor is going to immediately be convinced by the second-hand word of a couple TSA agents. They both individually tried to dissuade me from opting out and then exchanged condescending and exasperated looks with each other in front of me, no attempt at disguising whatsoever. It was so irritating and unprofessional and I very much wanted to remind them that both my doctor and myself are far more educated than both of them and capable of making educated health decisions, thank you very much, but I’m sure that would have only detained me longer and I would have ended up on some suspect list for irritating them. Also on the way there I almost missed my connecting flight because my first was delayed a bit, then I sprinted across half the Dallas Fort Worth airport to get my connection only to find that I had the wrong gate somehow, and my real gate was back right next to the original gate I had just been, so I sprinted all the way back and would have missed my flight, except it was delayed too. So that was good at least. I made it to Kansas City in decent time, about an hour later than I had expected.
So back to the flying home-I was delighted to find that in the Kansas City airport-though it is certainly a screwy airport-there are no full-body scanners! It was a huge relief not to deal with that again. What I did get to deal with was how they have several separate security lines for small sets of gates. So I went through a TSA line that was just for two gates. This meant that I was stuck on the other side of security, but in a very small space, for almost three hours (I didn’t need as much time as I thought I would, and then my flight was delayed), in a space that had no food or drink available for purchase-not even vending machines-and no drinking fountain-and we couldn’t bring water through security. It did have a single seater bathroom. I am a thirsty person even when I’m not pregnant, so yes I did fill my water bottle at the bathroom sink-not the tastiest, and definitely lukewarm, but I’m still alive. The rest of the trip involved another sprint to my connecting flight, and this time I barely made it, three minutes before the gates closed. I went and used the plane bathroom right before the attendant was about to begin her safety speech because I hadn’t had any time between and really had to go-one of those I’m going to ask forgiveness rather than permission-but it didn’t seem to disrupt anything. And I made it home on schedule! Where we went straight to Will’s friend’s birthday party for the next two hours, and then put him to bed, and then I still had to go get groceries. It was definitely a relief to finally relax at home (before succumbing to long-awaited sleep).
And now for the grand finale, quotes from the essays!
Starting with this year’s Question 3 prompt:
In 1891, Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) observed, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
Wilde claims that disobedience is a valuable human trait, and that it promotes social progress. Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Wilde’s claims are valid. Use appropriate examples from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.
Once again, I didn’t find as many entertaining reads this year-mostly examples of the American Revolution and Rosa Parks-though there were a startling number of references to Harry Potter as an example of disobedience for good. Also one person who meant to write about Rosa Parks kept instead writing “Harriet Tatum,” and there was at least one spelling of “Martian Luther King.” And now, without further ado, I give you words of wisdom from AP lang students of 2016:
- Wilde’s claim had to be true, since the timeframe was around 1854-1900.
- Till this day disobedience has done positive stuff.
- If people can see that saving someone is good they may want to save someone.
- Parks was tired of this crap.
- It was the illegal sitting on buses, the boycott of foreign goods, and the adoption of previously chastised clothing that pushed our country to its forefront today.
- Bras? Who needs them? They were created by men and don’t do anything other than help give support.
- Walt Disney not only accepts mistakes but encourages his employees to make them.
- In order to define our own beliefs we have to rebel against society. How else would polygamous relationships be established?
- If Europe still controlled everything it would be normal to do really unhygienic stuff.
- If she [Rowling] was to obey what her publishers told her we would not have Hogwarts.
- The gay rights movement was seen as a disobedience to the traditional, conservative view of a heterozygous marriage.
- When Oscar Wilde was in 1891, he probably had problems but not like we do today in the world. They had things caused by farmers, maybe war, or something else.
- Who knows where society would be if Eve obeyed God and never ate that apple?
- Disobedience is an incredibly pungent trait that has promoted extensive social progress for millennia.
- Had Darth Vader not been disobedient and killed the emperor, the Empire would still be alive and well and likely on its 4th or 5th Death Star seeing as those things don’t last too long.
- After the contraband committed by Adam and Eve . . .
- In addition to the attack on the Twin Towers, children being disobedient in school has resulted in much social change.
- If Huck Finn did not capture his own slave and help him become free, would there still be slavery in America today?
- Today women’s rolls have grown.