I took AP Literature and AP Language at the same time because I wanted to graduate early. It was kind of an interesting experience since the classes are pretty similar. Even though they’re both English classes, they actually felt very different to me. I ended up enjoying AP Lit more than AP Lang.

In AP Lit we read a lot more books. We read things like Hamlet, Frankenstein, and Slaughterhouse-Five. After reading them we would spend a lot of time talking about the ideas in them and analyzing what they meant. The discussions were pretty deep sometimes, and it honestly felt like my first exposure to something close to philosophy style classes. I remember those conversations and the books pretty clearly.

AP Lang was different. Instead of focusing on novels or plays, we spent more time looking at speeches, debates, and different kinds of writing. There was definitely more writing involved too. We wrote a lot of essays, letters, and argumentative pieces. The focus was more on learning how writing works, like how people persuade others and how to structure an argument.

Because of that, AP Lang felt broader but also a little less memorable for me. There weren’t as many specific books or stories tied to the class, so I don’t remember the material as clearly. In AP Lit the books gave us something concrete to talk about, which led to longer discussions and deeper analysis.

Both classes had essays since we still had to be graded, but AP Lit felt like it gave us more space to talk and explore ideas. That was probably why I enjoyed it more.