Because a high percentage of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition (APELC) students from a small rural high school were receiving below-average grades on the Advanced Placement Examination, a 10-week composition program was designed and implemented. The composition program included three main strategies: (1) the use of the rubric as an instructional device; (2) the use of forensic invention as an instructional strategy to teach writing in the argumentative mode of rhetorical discourse; and (3) four weekend sessions of test simulation. Pre- and post-tests were graded holistically by a qualified reader using a scoring rubric. Results showed the program to be successful: the pretest passing rate of 38% (5 of 13 students) was raised in the posttest to 67% (10 of 15 students), which closely approximates the national norm of a 60% passing rate. Elements of the program will be expanded to include department implementation and cross-curricular application. (Fourteen references are attached. Four appendixes contain 1985 and 1986 APELC reports for the target high school, as well as one question in the argumentative mode from each of the 1985 and 1986 APELC examinations.) (Author/SR)