Pop Quizzes

            Argument and persuasion. This is the content we are learning right now in AP Language and Composition, along with tone and tone vocabulary. Well, it’s not going so hot. Or at least that’s what my grade would like to reflect. I feel like I understand the information, but something isn’t going quite right in the reviewing department. As many of you know, we took a pop quiz before break and not many people did well; I know I didn’t. However the frustrating thing was that I had actually studied a few times that week and reviewed my materials and flow chart. I’m not mad that my quiz grade was bad, but the fact that I reviewed, asked questions, and prepped this material, all for a “down the drain” grade was frustrating. My study techniques worked first trimester, why all of a sudden are they not doing so well? I don’t know what to change because I have always found success in the past.

The other thing that really irked me was the fact that people who were absent on pop quiz day then knew about the quiz, the questions, so therefore they had time to prepare for a quiz they knew about. When you have knowledge of a quiz, it is no longer “pop” and doesn’t have the same psychological effect it had on the rest of us when we suffered through the hard quiz. Because we can’t take a retake, it comes down to this: the kids who skipped class got rewarded with a better quiz grade, thus a better class grade, while others who actually went to school received a lower score. This may not be the case for everyone, because it very well may have been that the kids who didn’t come to school didn’t study, and students who came to school simply did not prepare like they should have. Maybe I’m just being a baby, but I feel like to be fair, the students who missed class should face a pop quiz at a later unknown date.

If you completely disagree, don’t get me wrong; I know grades are not everything in this world. I definitely don’t think I should have gotten a better grade because I know that I tried my best and everything I could do. I know that my grade will eventually go up once more assignments are put in the grade book too. The major problem I’m facing now is: What’s going on, and why all of a sudden are my AP Lang study techniques not working? Is it because the material is harder, or because my methods are simply ineffective now? We just took a quiz on Monday, and it seemed to go better-at least I felt like I knew more answers without a doubt, but we’ll see the result soon and how my studying seems to be working.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  (482)