Tackling the AP English Literature & Composition Section 1: Multiple-Choice Questions

Elimination: One strategy that is helpful for students to do well in the multiple choice section is eliminating the choices that do not make sense. Eliminating the choices that do not make sense helps improve your odds. When you do not know the answers to a question you should always guess because there is no penalty in guessing compare to the SAT Exam where you get points taken off when you get the answer incorrect.

Annotations:Making annotations while you are reading is good method to help understand the passage. It is important to pay close attention to the tone, diction, time, and the literary techniques the author uses. Although, making annotations on the questions is also a great way to help you.Underlining or circling context words in the question is a strategy 

Time:
For the first section Multiple Choice you have 60 minutes to complete the first part and there usually 52-58 questions. After you finish reading the passage and making some annotations you have around 40 seconds for each question. Therefore, when you do not know the answer to a question, you should just skip it and answer the questions you understand because you are wasting time, stuck on the same question. At the end when you are done answering the rest of the questions you return to that question and if you still do not understand it, circle the most reasonable choice. 


Before answering the questions read carefully looking for key words. Such as ALL, EXCEPT, NONE and others it might confuse the reader on what to do. if the questions says "all the answers are true EXCEPT." The reader looks for the correct answer, and questioning themselves either if they are right or wrong, since they didn't look over the questions twice or three times to find key words that will help find the answer faster.
When you're done with all the multiple choice questions make sure to go over all the answer and make sure you wrote down the right answer. If you think you might of made a mistake double check before correcting it, because usually the first choice you pick is usually correct. 


Being that this section is multiple-choice, it allows the test taker to have a higher opportunity to guess the correct answer. In order to do this one must analyze the text efficiently and at a steady pace.

For instance when looking upon a text don’t simply read over the title analyze it. The title allows you to draw inferences and connotations on what the text will be about. You can use the title as a device to foreshadow the plot of the text.


Instead of simply reading the passage twice take a look at the questions that deal with particular lines and mark them up on the text this will allow you to pin point the areas where you must make an inference of the meaning of the line as well as help you locate any form of figurative language being used such as similes, metaphors, personification and so on.

At the end of each stanza or paragraph depending on the text analyze what you have just read take notes on the author’s purpose/message, what was the topic discussed and any details the author used to support his/her argument. This makes it much easier for you to answer the questions since you dissected the text before hand.

When reading the passage keep in mind the diction and the elements the author uses to develop the text and make an inference on how this effects the text as a whole or any of the protagonists.

When analyzing the text look out for any change or shift in the author’s tone or perspective because that ultimately will guide you in answering questions regarding the author’s tone, point of view or transition from one idea/feeling to the next.

Circle vocabulary words that may seem unfamiliar to you and try to figure out their meaning through what it connotes or how it is used in context. Finding echo words for difficult vocabulary can also guide you to answer questions that appear tricky due to their language or wording format.


Look for symbolism as it may help to illustrate the purpose of the passage and give meaning to the title as well as what you have concluded after reading the text. Also, pay close attention to its role in the text and if it represents the theme of the text as a whole.

Locate any comparison or contrast made in the text as it can trick you into concluding that the passage is about one idea while it is actually the complete opposite. Metaphors and similes are good markers to this form of comparison and contrast.

Syracuse University  

In our bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) degree program, students pursue various modes of production including experimental, narrative, documentary, and animation and are required to take film history, theory, and criticism courses. Our approach is that of the total filmmaker. You learn everything from scriptwriting to pre-production, production, and post-production techniques. This structure permits you to study abroad for one semester in any of the SU Abroad locations or in our program with FAMU (the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague, Czech Republic. Students must participate in a portfolio review, which is held at the end of each semester. 

Jobs:

Vacancy:  Film Maker for Music Video Employer:  Manner Effect Location:  New York Duration:  1 to 2 days of production, starts TBD

The band Manner Effect is looking for an energetic, creative film maker to help produce and direct our next music video. We are a five-piece jazz/pop band, and the song for the video also has a throwback/Motown feel. We are hoping to do one or two days of shooting, and use creative ideas to keep it at a lower budget. We want to make it fun and appeal to younger audiences. The song is just under five minutes long. If you're interested in taking this visual journey with us, please check out our website and email us with your info. We will send the track upon request. Thanks for your interest.

Vacancy:	Director
Employer:	NYC Reality TV Production Co
Location:	Field
Duration:	see ad, starts mid-April

Busy New York based production company seeks Director with male programming experience. Must have reality experience preferably with recreation shoot background. Previous work with Discovery Channel is also a plus. Prep begins end of March, with shoot beginning middle of April and running approximately 12 weeks. Please apply only if this experience and availability applies to you. Attach resume and rates.

Vacancy: 

Media Director

Employer: 

Aish Center

Duration: 

review after 3-mos. trial, starts ASAP

The Aish Center is looking to hire a recent film school graduate who is thoroughly familiar with the full gamut of new media to produce, manage and direct our recently developed digital strategic plan. This will include the writing, directing, and editing of short films, Khan Academy Style videos, Ted style lectures and promotional films. We are looking for a highly creative and entrepreneurial person who would like to gain experience and exposure while helping a branch of a global non-profit organization launch their digital offerings. Skills required: Editing Filming

Illustrator CS5

In the video Getting Started-What is Illustrator CS5 is talks about how its use to design graphics. It shows efficient ways to design graphics using the design tools. Illustrator is useful for any kinds of graphics. You could always scale your graphics into any size you wish it to be and vector graphics will always look clean, sharp and its will never lose detail in the graphics. It will not show the pixels. Illustrator could import and export many different kinds of graphics file formats. In Illustrator you can use cross media design. Illustrator could be use by many different kinds of people even though you are not a design and they help create your graphics with the tools that are available.
          In the second video was called Creating Files for Print. In this video it explains to us how to get started in Illustrator. It shows us how to use a print file. It shows all your options in creating your print file for example it said that you could name your file, change the number of art boards, change the width or height in any measurements and it converts automatically by clicking the Tab key, and you could change your size either letter or legal etc. You could change the orientation of the layout either landscape or portrait. In the video is says that we could use the bleed option. Bleed is a term that is often use for artwork that is beyond the actual trim size. It is helpful to see that there would be no white gaps when you are printing. You also have advance options which are color mode, pixel, and preview mode. You could change those settings as well.

Lab p7_Jennifer toledo

Nameplate- It is the banner that is in front of the newsletter. It usually holds the newsletter name, graphic or logo. It usually is horizontal in the top and front of the newsletter
Content (and number of articles and entries)- It is the information that forms the newsletter.
Table of Contents- It is a list of different chapters or articles and its has the page in where each of them start
Masthead- It is more likely found in the second page but it could also be found in any page and it a list names of the publishers name and other information.
Title and headers-
Page Number- It is a method that is use to number your pages
Bylines-it is the name of the reporter that wrote it. It is mostly found in the top of the article
Continuation Lines- There are two different types of continuation lines which are jumplines and continuation heads.  They are lines that help the reader find their place in where they left out and find the rest of the article
Pull Quotes- it is a catchy quote to pull the reader into the article
End Signs-Its is something or marks that show the end of a story in a newsletter. It helps the reader that they have finished.
Photos/Illustration-
Mailing Labels-

Peer Review- Shabeli

     Her brochure was about a yoga program. She did a great job. The colors of her brochure are pink as a background and white as the text. I think you should of change the color of the text to a darker color so it could be better and make it more visible for the costumers. The brochure layout was good everything seem to be in the proper place. You could of use a different colors  that were similar to pink so it could catch the audience attention.
      You could could of used more pictures because people seem to be more visual. It seem that the length of text was good. All pictures seem to relative to your brochure. The brochure seem to have alignment. I notice she did not have a logo of the company or program if it did have she should of added. I think she did a great job.
    

Peer Review

Overall I think Sinyi Portfolio is very nice. The welcome page is very creative. It was a picture that I would of   never have thought to put it but it was not a bad idea. I also like the color of the welcome page. I think that it is good that she placed her flow chart to show the people how your PDF portfolio is set up. I think she should of put the folder first instead of the narratives. I also see that she placed the narratives separate at the beginning. She also  placed them with the project or lab the narrative corresponded to and she did not have to write them at the beginning as well. 

I notice she do not have your labs. I think that color scheme is good and I like it. The ten pictures we had to take outside are some what pixelated.If she had finish her PDF Portfolio I would of gave her a 90. I like that fact she had her contact information and how to reach her because that is important for the reader to know.

Photoshop Magic Content Aware Scaling

In the video I just watched Photoshop Magic Content Aware Scaling it will help us in the our brochure. In the video it talked about how to make our images more proportional and it would it will look more professional. It would help me make better brochures for our project because the picture will be more clear and more eye catching rather than any other pictures. It would make our brochures look more professional and show that we could be designers. This will also make our brochures look better and it could scale the image better. When you do this it will most affect the background and not the most important part of the picture

Narratives

Jennifer Toledo

Visual Design

Period: 8

      Project #1- Collage
 In project, one is my collage. My collage was about me.  It was about all the things that are important to me and things that describe me. We could only use pictures we took on our own. In our visual design class we could of done any kind of collage, it had to be creative as well. We had to at least had thirty pictures and we only had three to four days in class to do it. After that, our classmates criticized it and gave us feedback on what to improve and what we did well.

                  

Project #2- Logo

In this project, we created our own logo. This project as well as the others we had to use our own pictures or create our own using Photoshop. We could make a logo for anything that we would like. My logo was something that would represent Cross Country. I did the logo only using the shape tool, text tool, and the colors. Like every other project the class saw it and judged it and commented in our project.

                

  Project #3- Business Card

In this project, it is difference instead of using Photoshop we had to use another program called InDesign. We made our own business card like if were business workers. We before analyzed other business card before we did ours. We use text and our pictures to create it.  We had three days and we had to add all the elements in a business card.

                 

Project#4-Advertisment

This is our fourth project and we had to make an advertisement. Our teachers gave us iteams we had to advertise. They were the black box, yellow ball, and the red star. We had to be creative and make them anything we wanted to and make an advertisement.  Mine was the black box and it was magical. It turned into a housewife and did all the things a housewife did. At the end of our project we presented it to the class.

                 

Lab 1_P1- In lab one our class went outside to take pictures of anything you could see. You needed to have to at least ten pictures. After that we had to add the color effects on to every picture we took. You had to keep one picture normal and the other one with the effects and they had to be the folder to keep them organized.

                

  Lab #2_P1-  In this lab we had to use paint brush, pencil, mixer brush,  specialty brush tips, and the pattern stamp tool and we used it to make random things to see how that brush works. We wrote on name and saw the different between them.

                 

Lab 3- In this lab we used to pictures to show the effects of different kinds of filters. I did liquify, water color, and film grain, solarize, smart blur, and the glass filter. We saw how the affected the picture. The background I changed to a cloud effect.

               

   Lab 4- In this lab we had to use different shapes and we had to insert text inside that shape. We could of also written outside the shape. We used a scissor shape to write almost around the shape. this helped us to make our advertisement for our company.

                

  Lab P4_1- This lab was an advertisement to bad habits teenagers have. I decided to make a advertisement about underage drinking alcohol.  I wanted to make it stand out to grab that person attention and by grabbing their attention I used bright eye catching colors rather than dark and dull colors.

                 

      In class we use shapes and lines to write text in the path of that shape or text. The text tool and the pen tool are going to be useful in our project. It will help us be more creative and make everything in the project look better instead of everything look like boxes. We could use the direct selection tool to and grab the anchor point and move the shape. In the shape, line, or curve we could write text around it. It could be very useful and make our project look nice.

 The things that drive me to buy things are the advertisements the store has. The price is another way to convince me into buying that product. The features that the items contains for example a computer or laptop is another way to dive me into buying.

How to analyze advertisements

Describe the layout of the advertisement. How is content arranged? For example, are elements arranged symmetrically or asymmetrically?

The advertisement I'm doing about is wonder bread. The layout of is colorful and very eye catching. The content is a asymmetrical.

Describe the relationship between the written (copy) and graphic elements of the advertisement.

How does the advertisement use page space? Is the advertisement full of text and graphics or does it have a lot of

white space?

How does the advertisement use alignment to organize its information?

Describe the colors used on the advertisement. Do they work well together? Is there a high contrast ratio between text and background?

Does the color scheme add to the purpose or tone of the advertisement? What tone or message do these colors convey?

Is a photograph used in the advertisement? If so, what kind of shot is it? What angle is it taken from? What is the lighting like? How is color used?

If people or animals are in the advertisement, how would you describe them? What are they doing?

What is the background of this advertisement? That is, where does it “take place”?

What “story” do you think this advertisement is trying to tell?

Describe the font(s) used for each element of the advertisement. How does the advertisement use typography to distinguish among different elements (create hierarchy or emphasize a message)?

Describe the font families used (name them if you can). What messages do these font families convey?

Reflection Journal

    In class we were learning about shapes and paintbrush tools. We were assigned to create our own logos for a company, store or anything but it had to be our own. At first it as hard to come up with an idea but then I came up with the idea of cross country. I came up with this idea as my logo because I am in the school cross country and i wanted to advertise it and make it more popular for others to join.
     In our logos we had use design elements and design principles. The design principles i used were emphasis and repetition. The design elements i used in my logo are shapes, line, and color. This helps your logos look better. I also used value making things that are more important brighter.
   We learned about the difference between vector and bitmap images. Bitmap images are images that combine different kind of color pixels to make one image. Vector images use mathematical equations that are great to scale an image especially  for logos or design. This makes the image more sharp and less blurry on the edges or sides or the image.
    I did some changes for my redesign logo. I added more color and I added another shape. I added more texture in my logo. I changed the size of some things in my logo to put more emphasis on it. I pretty glad with my logo and how it came out as a final job.

Do Now Vector Images

 What is bitmap image?
Bitmap images are different color pixels that go together to create the image. What does "resolution- dependent mean?
Resolution-dependent means that the size and characteristic of an image depend on the number of pixels.   How does a vector image works?
Vector images work by scaling the image because they mathemacical 

The initial goals for this logo is to represent Ecuador's  independence. It has the Ecuador flag.
Yes, the logo does match the initial goal.
Yes, i have new goals for the logo. I could add fireworks because its a celebration and also i could make the ecuadorian flag more visual.

How to understand Color Management by Jennifer Toledo

For this lab we had to take screen shots to understand color management. In this screen shot i

Design Principles

Emphasis is to express an image to make it powerful which has an important meaning to it. It is to make it stand out and catches the eye of the viewer. Balance is comparing two things or images. It is also to contrast between them. Proximity is placing similar objects closer together unlike putting them closer. Harmony is combining similar or related elements together. Repetition is the recurrence of an object. Repetition is use for the readers to see the importance. Color is also know as hue. Color is used to draw attention to a particular object. There are   primary colors, secondary colors. White spaces could be a good and bad thing. White spaces are nothing its just a white space. It breaks down texts and graphics.You could add white spaces to make the page less cramping or confusing. Alignment helps keep everything in order.

the do now

 Do Now: List the basic design elements
 The graphic design elements are lines, color, shape, and texture.

my color palette

I picked these colors there are my favorite colors. I also picked these colors because like how they were together. Hue is in my palette because it means color. Chroma is the intensity of the colors so each of my color has a different intensity.  MY color palette has tint because the orange and the yellowish color has some white in it. Shade is represented because some colors have some black in the to make them darker.