What the reader sees that you can't.
Most AP English advice tells you what to write. We write about how your essay actually gets read: the six points a reader is really counting, the moves that earn them, and the small craft decisions that decide whether your argument lands. Written by the instructor who built Maro.
The Admissions Read
What actually happens when an admissions reader opens your college essay, from someone who reads them for a living. The clichés they can recite, the openings that work, and the advice the guides keep getting backwards.
The six essays every admissions reader can recite from memory
Overdone topics are not a list of banned subjects; they are a list of borrowed endings. The six scripts, the beat where each one takes over, and the paste test that tells you whether yours is safe.
Read the articleHow to start a college essay (burn the hook advice)
The dramatic one-liner, the dictionary definition, the famous quote: why the standard hooks die on arrival, and the three openings that make a tired reader want sentence two.
Read the articleFrom the Reader
The candid, behind-the-curtain series on how AP essays actually get graded, from someone who has sat at the scoring table. The advice the study guides keep getting wrong, posted free while Maro is in beta.
The Rubric, Decoded
Plain-English breakdowns of the AP English rubric, one row at a time, so the scoring stops feeling like a black box and starts feeling like a checklist you can audit.