AP Language and Composition teachers are always searching for argument prompts that feel current without being shallow. The Cheating Culture offers a ready source because Callahan's claims about competition, inequality, and weak enforcement can be tested against students' own experience. The questions are contestable, which is exactly what the argument essay on the AP exam requires. Students can take a position without needing specialized background knowledge, yet they still have to reason carefully to do it well.

A strong AP-style prompt gives students a statement to evaluate, such as the idea that people cheat mainly because they believe everyone else already does. Students then choose a stance, which could be agreement, disagreement, or qualification, and support it with evidence from reading, observation, and experience. Because Callahan builds his case through layered causes, the prompt invites students to distinguish between a primary cause and a contributing one. That distinction is often what separates a sophisticated essay from a competent one.

Teachers can adapt the same material to the rhetorical analysis task by asking students to examine how Callahan persuades readers who might resist his thesis. He mixes statistics, anecdotes from different industries, and a measured tone that avoids sounding like a lecture. Students can trace how these choices serve his purpose and how they might fail with a skeptical audience. This builds the analytical vocabulary AP graders reward without requiring a separate text.

Prompts that mirror the three AP tasks

Practicing all three free-response formats from a single book saves time and lets students see how reading, analysis, and argument connect. The synthesis task works especially well when the teacher assembles four or five short sources, such as an excerpt from the book, a news article about a school cheating scandal, and a survey summary. Students must weave those sources into their own position rather than summarizing each in turn. Pairing sources of different lengths and tones keeps the task realistic.

• Synthesis: Should schools respond to cheating mainly through stricter enforcement or by reducing pressure?
• Argument: To what extent does competition for scarce rewards excuse unethical behavior?
• Rhetorical analysis: Examine how Callahan builds credibility when describing wrongdoing in respected professions.
• Argument: Is the claim that cheating has become normal supported by what you see around you?
• Synthesis: Evaluate whether technology has changed the nature of cheating or only its convenience.

Scoring against the AP rubric

The College Board scoring guide for the argument essay centers on thesis, evidence and commentary, and sophistication, and teachers who grade practice essays should mirror that structure. A thesis earns its point when it takes a defensible position rather than restating the prompt. Evidence earns credit only when the commentary explains how it supports the line of reasoning, which is where many students stall. Reporting scores by row instead of by a single overall number shows students exactly where to improve.

Calibration is the hard part when a teacher grades dozens of practice essays across several class periods. Scores can drift toward generosity after a few excellent papers or toward harshness after a run of weak ones. Using the same anchored rubric descriptors for every essay, and checking a few scored samples against each other midway through, keeps the practice scores meaningful as predictors of exam performance.

Common weaknesses to watch for

Students writing about cheating often lean on broad moral claims instead of evidence, producing paragraphs that sound passionate but prove very little. Another frequent problem is relying entirely on personal anecdotes, such as a friend who copied homework, without connecting them to a larger point. Teachers can address both by requiring each body paragraph to pair a specific example with a sentence explaining what the example demonstrates about the claim.

A third weakness is the one-sided essay that never acknowledges why someone might disagree. Callahan himself anticipates objections, and students can learn from how he handles them. Asking for a concession and rebuttal paragraph in practice essays trains the habit early, and it is easier to grade because the teacher can look for one clearly identifiable move rather than a vague sense of balance.

Making feedback fast enough to matter

AP practice only improves scores if students get feedback while the essay is still fresh in their minds. A teacher who returns papers three weeks later has missed the window where a comment about thesis precision could change the next attempt. Tools that draft rubric-aligned comments for each essay can shorten that turnaround to a day or two, with the teacher reviewing and sharpening the comments before they go out.

The most effective routine is a short cycle where students write, receive criterion-level feedback, and then rewrite a single paragraph that addressed their weakest row. Over a semester, those small revisions accumulate into noticeably stronger exam essays. The book provides enough material for many such cycles without students feeling they are rewriting the same prompt, because each chapter opens a different line of argument.