#4 Thinking Quickly

Everybody thinks, even if it’s unconsciously. When is your brain not active? Never, just agree with me on this. However, I am not talking about just thinking, I am talking about quick thinking, thinking on the fly, thinking off the cuff. Picture it like this, it is like driving, you have to see, think about, and react to everything that happens on the road. So hey, don’t panic - you do this all the time.

Let’s say you are planning a surprise party for your friend. The friend sees you carrying a huge birthday cake, which has the friend’s name on it, and you think “!*#$”. Even though you may have less than 10 seconds to come up with a plausible reason, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to come up with a good reason to allay your friend’s suspicions. You Can Think On Your Feet!!

For in-class essays, you will need to think and think fast because, for timed writings, you only have 45 minutes to think about the prompt and respond. It might seem tough – and it is - but the AP Lang teachers will give you lots of practice, so take advantage of that and practice away.  C’mon – don’t be daunted. You can do this.

In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to boost your grade through the seminars which are open-ended debates about pieces of literature, such as The Great Gatsby. Anyhow, you will need to quickly assess your views on the topic and support them with evidence from the supplied text (you will always have text to use). Just think of this as a verbal essay. You have two minutes of the class’s attention to explain why Daisy Buchannan is a horrible person.

In order to get through life, you need to think quickly, period. For many of us, this is a skill that takes time to acquire and patience to build to its maximum potential. Especially since some of the college classes you will take are seminars. So might as well get started training now.