AP Lang is known as being one of the hardest APs you can take, but I'm here to tell you that it's not impossible to succeed in. As someone who began AP Lang with zero hope and ended with not only an A in the gradebook and a 5 on the exam, I know how it feels to experience the ups and downs of the class. Trust me, I once thought the class was impossible too, but you learn to grow with it.

Now, I know many of you might be unsure as to whether you even want to take the class. So before I get into tips for success, let me convince you to actually take it.

Why You Should Take AP Lang

When someone asks me about my experience with AP Lang, I always begin with the same response: "AP Lang is the first English class I've ever learned something in." English classes for many are filled with repetitive assignments that do little to improve your writing. This was true for me up until I took AP Lang. During the class, my writing quality grew a lot.

And I mean a lot. After just a few weeks of the class, I would get a little disgusted reading my old writing. My thoughts became much more organized, and my points became more sophisticated.

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AP Lang does more than just improve your writing quality— it helps you develop your style. One of the six possible points you can get on an AP Lang essay is sophistication. This includes a nuanced argument, but also something a little more fun and creative: a persuasive argument.

AP Lang taught me what a writer's voice was and how to have one myself; it taught me that I love em dashes, parentheses, and colons. These things helped me find out who I was as a writer. I grew past the boring structure of school assignments—I learned to write with passion and emotion.

These things, quality and style, are lessons I got from AP Lang that I will never unlearn. And I can employ them in almost every aspect of my life: my school assignments, my resume, my diary, and even my articles for The Teen Magazine. I can get my thoughts on paper in a precise way that allows me to share my life with others. AP Lang has allowed me to apply the nuances of the English language in a way that opens up galaxies of opportunities.

So, with these considerations of the benefits AP Lang has that go beyond the class, and the fact that it will help you write a better college essay (which I'm guessing a lot of readers are stressed about), you should take the class. It will be hard and it will be stressful.

But you'll come out a better writer than you ever were before. And with my long spiel about AP Lang being my canon event finally completed (if you haven't watched the Spiderman franchise, sorry about the niche reference), I can now move on to the technicalities you've been waiting for: tips to help you succeed in the class.

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Tips to Help You Succeed in AP Lang

1. Preparation

Before you write your first for-credit timed essay—yes, timed essay as in only 40 minutes of writing time—you need to do something essential in preparation: write one on your own. If your first timed essay is the real deal, whether your teacher is taking it for a test grade or an assignment, you do not want the test drive to be then. As tedious as it seems, sit down and write a timed essay on your own beforehand.

College Board has released several AP Lang prompts that you can choose from. So read the instructions carefully and write one with the timer.

2. Evidence

One of the essay types is named "argument." The argument essay is a one-paragraph prompt that gives you no evidence. Your job: form an argument about the prompt with supporting evidence of your own. But how can you be sure you'll have a vault of evidence you can pull from when the prompt hits your table?

Create a personal library for evidence. I made a Google Doc that I separated by topic (reading, entertainment, history, universal truths, government, and observations; or REHUGO as coined by AP Lang teachers on YouTube) and wrote down everything I knew and added to it as the school year went on.

A few minutes before my timed essay, I would look over the Doc to refresh my memory, and I would most likely remember a piece of evidence that fit with the prompt after the timer started. The best pieces of evidence come from the news and books. I recommend just keeping up with big current events (elections are great evidence for a lot of topics, but be careful when writing about politics since you don't know what party your grader is affiliated with) for the news part.

For books, some of the best books that fit a lot of AP Lang prompts include 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Life of Pi, The Giver, and The Old Man and the Sea. These have good universal themes that apply to a dozen College Board essays. I think I used 1984 as evidence in almost all of my argument essays. Trust me, these books are a fix-all for the no-evidence problem.

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3. Approach

As soon as the timer starts, you might feel lost as to where to start. There are a dozen YouTube channels that tell you to plan out an entire outline, but don't limit yourself to that. For me personally, the outlines never worked.

I worked better when I just began writing instead of trying to write out a whole plan. I would always start with my thesis. As soon as that was done (which shouldn't take long since your thesis should be one or two sentences), I would try to write an interesting and creative introduction. If nothing inspirational was coming to me, I'd move on to the body paragraphs.

For the body paragraphs, begin with a topic sentence. Then, write a few sentences that describe your evidence, and finally add commentary. Commentary should be at least equal to the amount of evidence you have (but preferably more).

However, don't get stuck in the essay mold handed to you by your middle school teachers. An essay doesn't have to have three body paragraphs. The rule of thumb is this: two solid body paragraphs are much better than three mediocre body paragraphs. What's more interesting is that if your first two paragraphs are phenomenal but your third is lacking, you could've gotten a better score by eliminating the last paragraph altogether.

So, when in doubt, begin with your thesis and make sure to prioritize quality over quantity. Once you've secured the most important points—thesis, evidence, and commentary— you can begin to worry about the extra stuff, such as the hook and bulk of your intro or even a conclusion paragraph. Remember, AP graders are treating your essay as a rough draft.

Get the most important content in first, that's what matters. After all, evidence and commentary are four out of the six possible points you can earn. That nuanced introduction or creative style can only get you one point. So focus on what matters most first.

4. Sophistication

Sophistication is the hardest point to get on AP Lang essays. Partially because it can be subjective to the grader, and because it's hard to even understand what the point really is. Sophistication isn't really something that can be taught.

You might get the point because the prompt was about the destructiveness of technology, and you have a lot of outside research that allowed you to develop the argument further than most. Maybe you were in a flow state and had an extremely prominent writer's voice that made the essay entertaining to read. But these things are hardly consistent. However, there is something that is much more consistent than those two things that can get you sophistication: counterargument.

Although counterargument is difficult to bring in for the rhetorical analysis essay, for the other two essay types, you can include a counterargument. This means you acknowledge the opposing side, bring evidence to support the opposition, but then bring in more persuasive or stronger evidence to combat it followed by a nuanced discussion. College Board will never give you black and white prompts.

So, by showing the grader you understand the grey zone, you can get that sophistication point. Just make sure your counterargument isn't more persuasive than the point you're trying to make, since that can weaken the argument. And you can include this in its own paragraph or even as a few sentences throughout every body paragraph in your essay. But remember, this is secondary to your evidence and commentary.

5. Improvement

Many people say there are only two ways to get better at writing: reading a lot and writing a lot. But there's a secret third way, or maybe just an obvious merge of the two: reading about writing. College Board does more than offer prompts: they have student samples.

After you write on a prompt, go in for that same prompt and read the feedback for the sample essays. Understand what the students did well and what they didn't. And most importantly, apply that to your future essays.

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Maybe you need to make a list of reminders for your essays so that you can review them beforehand. Whatever it is, make sure you're actually taking in the feedback, not just passively reading it. There's only one thing better than the College Board sample feedback: the feedback your teacher gives you on your own essays.

This will be a personalized breakdown of your strengths and weaknesses that you should cherish. And don't be discouraged by your mistakes, be excited to learn from them.

If you can keep these five tips in mind throughout your time in AP Lang, you're bound to see huge improvements in your writing. Not only will this lead to better grades in the class and maybe a good score on the AP exam, but you'll also learn to use the English language to express complex thoughts. It will teach you how to consider complex issues by looking at all sides.

AP Lang has permanently altered the way I view the world. And although it's a little creepy that I start unconsciously analyzing the rhetoric of every ad I see, I kind of enjoy it. It's like I carry a piece of that class with me everywhere I go.

I can never repay my teacher for the sheer positive impact that class has had on my life. So do your best, grow as a writer, and enjoy discovering a whole new world of expression. AP Lang might seem scary, but it's only impossible if you aren't prepared to work hard. Good luck, I believe in you!