AP Lit Referenced Titles as (and ).
AP Literature Open Prompts, 1970-2024, as , , and (Thanks to Claudia Felske).
AP Literature Poetry Prompts, 1970 to 2024, as .
AP Literature Poetry Prompts with Poems, 1970 to 2024, as .
AP Poets Referenced, 1970-2024, as .
AP Literature Prose Prompts, 1970 to 2024, as .
AP Literature Prose Passages, 1970 to 2024, as .
AP Prose Writers Referenced, 1970-2024, as .
AP Prose Prompts Rewritten with Stable Wording, as (Thanks to Tia Miller).
Overview of AP Literature Stable Pronots, as and as .
Interesting re-grouping of AP Literature prompts by subjects (Thanks to Ann Elizabeth Richards). , , and .
All Three AP Language Free Response Prompts, 1970 to 2024, as .
AP Language Prose Passages, 1982 to 2024, as (Thanks to Chris Godat).
Overview of AP Language Stable Prompts, as and as .
.
).
Each prompt is now a separate dated file with prompt, scoring guide (6-point and/or 9-point), sample student essays, comments -- whatever I have, attached. Released multiple-choice exams are in a separate folder. . | ||
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You can still use the to locate which file holds the scored sample essays. |
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AP Central & YouTube -- Finding your way around the Advanced Placement website can be tricky. Direct links listed below (with some of those acronyms defined).
AP English FaceBook Groups
Teacher Sites -- Where have all the teachers gone? On sabbatical, into administration, to commercial sites, to retirement. So sorry.
Terminology
Writing Help
Literary Theory and Criticism
Miscellaneous Resources -- $ Resource Requiring Payment
“The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
(uses College Board’s My Roads) | (Greek & Roman Mythology) (National Poetry Month) (an ekphrastic unit) | by Anthony Doerr (Film) -- yes, a fan page with YouTube links to all the great John Green short videos. |
You may find other useful materials at Assignments , Handouts OR Yummy Bytes .
If you download or print anything from this site, please consider making at least a $10.00 donation through PayPal. I can maintain and expand this website only with your help.
How to approach ap® english literature free-response questions.
What We Review
What content is covered in the free-response section of ap® english literature.
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Focus on critical reading, utilize your syllabus, take notes as you read, carefully consider principal ideas, explore the context, read out loud, reread when necessary, consult your dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopedia, write, review, and rewrite regularly, how to answer ap® english literature free-response questions.
Outline your essay, write clearly and eloquently, what are ap® english literature free-response questions like.
Looking for ap® english literature practice, interested in a school license, 2 thoughts on “how to approach ap® english literature free-response questions”.
Are you expected to have read the actual work previously for free response question #1 and #2? (For instance, would the test writers expect you have read Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) for 2016 essay?)
Can you still pull out score 5, even if you haven’t read the work before and write your response solely based on the given passage?
Hi Jen, you would not have had to have read the passage before. You’d be expected to be able to interpret from the passage provided — this is how they assess you on your analysis skills.
Comments are closed.
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Lit & More
June 5, 2022 ·
Planning Content & Choosing Curriculum
It’s time to analyze the titles listed for question 3 of the 2022 AP English Lit exam! Many AP Lit teachers use this list to inform their purchases for classroom libraries, student reading suggestions, and of course, personal reading ideas! The 2022 exam included 17 titles included that had never been listed on an official open question before. Here’s a rundown of the new additions, as well as some other interesting data I found in analyzing the list.
Disclaimer: Inclusion to the AP Lit open question is not an official milestone or designation. Just because a novel has been included doesn’t mean it’s officially AP-worthy, nor does an omission mean that a book is not worthy of AP.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I personally use and love, or think my readers will find useful.
Author origin : USA
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopia
Awards: Hugo Award for Science Fiction, National Book Award
Goodreads rating: 4.22/5
Goodreads summary : Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life—Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.
Misc. Information: The Dispossessed is the first in a seven-novel cycle called the Hainish Cycle, although it was the fifth book published in that series.
Genre: coming-of-age
Goodreads rating: 4.12/5
Goodreads summary : Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.
As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
Author origin : Trinidad and Tobago
Genre: post-colonial fiction
Goodreads rating: 4.03/5
Goodreads summary : Carnival takes on social and political importance in this recognized classic. The people of the shantytown Calvary Hill, usually invisible to the rest of society, join the throng and flaunt their neighborhood personas in masquerade during Carnival. Aldrick, the dashing “king of the Hill,” becomes a glorious, dancing dragon; his lovely Sylvia, a princess; Fisheye, rebel idealist, a fierce steel band contestant; and Philo, Calypso songwriter, a star. Then a business sponsors Fisheye’s band, Philo gets a hit song, and Sylvia leaves the Hill with a prosperous older man. For Aldrick, it will take one more masquerade—this time, involving guns and hostages—before the illusion of power becomes reality.
Genre: Dystopian
Awards: American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, Spoken Word Grammy (for audiobook)
Goodreads rating: 3.98/5
Goodreads summary : Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
Misc. Information: Despite this novel’s firm place in the literary canon of the US, it has never been a suggested novel for the open question. Some perceive it as too “low-level” since it is a popular choice in grades 9-10. Fahrenheit’s inclusion on this list is a sign that College Board is taking steps to reward good analysis of all fiction, not just high-brow literature.
Genre: historical romance, feminist
Goodreads rating: 3.38/5
Goodreads summary : Set in seventeenth-century New England in the aftermath of the Pequod War, Hope Leslie not only chronicles the role of women in building the republic but also refocuses the emergent national literature on the lives, domestic mores, and values of American women.
Misc. Information: Catharine Sedgwick’s career is an interesting study, as she was a rare example of a woman making a full time living off of her writing in the early 19 th century.
Author origin : Chilé
Genre: Magical realism
Awards: Best Novel of the Year (Chilé)
Goodreads rating: 4.26/5
Goodreads summary : In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.
Misc. Information: The novel is set to be adapted into a television series on Hulu, starring Eva Longoria, in the near future.
Author origin : Mexico
Genre: Historical fiction
Goodreads rating: 4.2/5
Goodreads summary : It is 1889, and the civil war is brewing in Mexico. Sixteen year old Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream – a dream that she has died. Only it was not a dream. This passionate and rebellious young woman has arisen from the dead with the power to heal – but it will take all her faith to endure the trials that await her and her family now that she has become the Saint of Cabora.
Misc. Information : Urrea spent nearly two decades researching his own family history for material in this novel.
Genre: Romance
Goodreads rating: 4.27/5
Goodreads summary : In this honest and stunning novel, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
Misc. Information: This is Baldwin’s only novel with a female narrator.
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Goodreads summary : Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide ‘physical, intellectual and moral training’ which will equip its inmates to become ‘honorable and honest men’.
In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear ‘out back’. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King’s ringing assertion, ‘Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.’ But Elwood’s fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors.
Misc. Information: The Nickel Academy is based on a real reform school from Florida, the Dozier School for Boys. Officials reported that the school was “nothing more than a prison” when they finally shut it down after 111 years of operation. Read this article from The Washington Post to learn more.
Genre: Epistolary novel
Goodreads rating: 4.05/5
Goodreads summary : On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.
Misc. Information: Producers announced in 2020 that the movie version of the novel is coming.
Goodreads rating: 3.49/5
Goodreads summary : In a future, long-declining America, society is strictly stratified by class. Long-abandoned urban neighborhoods have been repurposed as highwalled, self-contained labor colonies. And the members of the labor class – descendants of those brought over en masse many years earlier from environmentally ruined provincial China – find purpose and identity in their work to provide pristine produce and fish to the small, elite, satellite charter villages that ring the labor settlement.
In this world lives Fan, a female fish-tank diver, who leaves her home in the B-Mor settlement (once known as Baltimore), when the man she loves mysteriously disappears. Fan’s journey to find him takes her out of the safety of B-Mor, through the anarchic Open Counties, where crime is rampant with scant governmental oversight, and to a faraway charter village, in a quest that will soon become legend to those she left behind.
Genre: Science fiction/dystopian
Awards: New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Goodreads summary : n 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
Misc. Information: Parable of the Sower is the first in a two-book series called Earthseed . Novel #2 is called Parable of the Talents .
Author origin : Nigeria
Genre: Post-colonial fiction
Awards: Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book
Goodreads rating: 4.18/5
Goodreads summary : Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They’re completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating.
As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.
Misc. Information: Adichie’s novel Americanah (2013) is a popular novel among AP Lit teachers and is destined to be a choice on the open question one day as well. You might as well add it to your reading list while you’re making it.
Author origin : England
Goodreads rating: 3.68/5
Goodreads summary : Daniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God.
Misc. Information: Many consider Robinson Crusoe to be the first English novel.
Genre: Play
Awards : Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Goodreads rating: 4.15/5
Goodreads summary : In one of the poorest cities in America, Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of down-and-out factory workers struggles to keep their present lives in balance, ignorant of the financial devastation looming in their near futures. Set in 2008, the powerful crux of this new play is knowing the fate of the characters long before it’s even in their sights.
Misc. Information: Lynn Nottage extensively interviewed the residents of Reading, Pennsylvania to research for this play. Their experiences fuel the play’s themes on working class living and economic decline in America.
Genre: Satire
Goodreads rating: 3.79/5
Goodreads summary : A novel that chronicles the lives of two women who could not be more different: Becky Sharp, an orphan whose only resources are her vast ambitions, her native wit, and her loose morals; and her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a typically naive Victorian heroine, the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.
Misc. Information: The novel has been attached to several subtitles, including “Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society” and “A Novel Without a Hero.”
Author origin : India
Genre: Picaresque novel
Goodreads rating: 3.76/5
Goodreads summary : Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village’s wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man’s (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram’s new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly (“Love — Rape — Revenge!”), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.
Misc. Information: The novel was adapted into a film in 2021 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in the same year.
That’s all the new titles for 2022, but certainly not all of the books included for the open question this year. The following titles were also suggested for the open question and have been listed as an option before. Titles marked with a * denote a popular title, having been suggested for the open question ten or more times.
Question 1: “shaving” by richard blanco.
Richard Blanco holds many accolades as a poet. In 2013, he recited his poem “One Today” at Barack Obama’s second inauguration. He was the youngest, the first immigrant, and the first openly gay U. S. inaugural poet at that time. Currently, Blanco works as a professor and the first Education Ambassador for the Academy of American Poets. His work “Shaving” can be found in his collection City of a Hundred Fires . To learn more about Richard Blanco you can check out his website .
Goodreads rating: 4/5
Goodreads summary : Raised in a remote seaside village, Thomas Witka Just marries Ruth, his beloved since infancy. But an ill-fated decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever: cut off from his Native American community, he fathers a child with another woman. When he returns home a hero, he finds his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale, both a symbol of spirituality and rebirth and a means of survival. In the end, he reconciles his two existences, only to see tragedy befall the son he left behind.
To view all the titles used for the open question, check out this free download from my TpT store. You can use this to help inform your choices in cultivating a student library, selecting whole class reads, or your own personal reading.
[…] You should also check out Gina Kortuem’s post: Breaking Down the 2022 AP Lit Titles […]
All Subjects
15 min read • july 11, 2024
We know that studying for your AP exams can be stressful, but Fiveable has your back! We created a study plan to help you crush your AP English Literature exam. This guide will continue to update with information about the 2025 exams, as well as helpful resources to help you do your best on test day. Unlock Cram Mode for access to our cram events—students who have successfully passed their AP exams will answer your questions and guide your last-minute studying LIVE! And don't miss out on unlimited access to our database of thousands of practice questions.
Going into test day, this is the exam format to expect:
Multiple Choice | 1 Hour | 45% of Exam Score - 55 questions total - 5 sets of questions with 8–13 questions per set. - Each set is preceded by a passage of prose fiction, drama, or poetry of varying difficulty. - Will always include at least 2 prose fiction passages (this may include drama) and at least 2 poetry passages. Free Response | 2 hours | 55% of your score
View an example set of questions and the corresponding scoring guidelines from the College Board to get an idea of what they look for in your responses!
Check out our study plan below to find resources and tools to prepare for your AP English Literature exam.
The exam is on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 8:00 AM your local time—this will be a paper test at your school.
Before you begin studying, take some time to get organized.
🖥 Create a study space.
Make sure you have a designated place at home to study. Somewhere you can keep all of your materials, where you can focus on learning, and where you are comfortable. Spend some time prepping the space with everything you need and you can even let others in the family know that this is your study space.
📚 Organize your study materials.
Get your notebook, textbook, prep books, or whatever other physical materials you have. Also, create a space for you to keep track of review. Start a new section in your notebook to take notes or start a Google Doc to keep track of your notes. Get yourself set up!
📅 Plan designated times for studying.
The hardest part about studying from home is sticking to a routine. Decide on one hour every day that you can dedicate to studying. This can be any time of the day, whatever works best for you. Set a timer on your phone for that time and really try to stick to it. The routine will help you stay on track.
🏆 Decide on an accountability plan.
How will you hold yourself accountable to this study plan? You may or may not have a teacher or rules set up to help you stay on track, so you need to set some for yourself. First, set your goal. This could be studying for x number of hours or getting through a unit. Then, create a reward for yourself. If you reach your goal, then x. This will help stay focused!
🌱 unit 1: intro to short fiction, big takeaways:.
Unit 1 is the first prose analysis unit, focusing on short fiction. It helps to establish your prose analysis vocabulary, focusing on identifying and describing basic literary elements such as plot, narrator, and setting. This unit also gives the foundations for writing analyses of text, beginning with paragraph structuring and claim defense.
📚 Read these study guides:
Unit 1 Overview: Introduction to Short Fiction
1.1 Interpreting the role of character in fiction
1.2 Identifying and interpreting setting
1.3 Identifying how a story’s structure affects interpretation
1.4 Understanding and interpreting a narrator’s perspective
1.5 Reading texts literally and figuratively
1.6 The basics of literary analysis 🎥 Watch these videos:
Prose Prompt Deconstruction : An overview of the Prose Analysis prompt and strategies for preparing to respond
What Lit Is : An overview of the course and exam and their expectations 📰 Check out this articles:
[object Object] : Short stories of literary merit to stretch your analysis muscles ✍️ Practice
Best Quizlet Decks for AP English Literature : Practice with these quizlets to strengthen your AP Lit vocabulary!
Unit 2 is the first poetry analysis unit, focusing on everyone's favorite figurative language devices -- metaphor and simile . Because poems often have a specific form, this unit also begins analysis of form/structure and also looks at contrasts in a text (which create the complexity that the exam expects you to analyze). All of these poetic elements, though, are being analyzed for their function in the poem -- this unit helps you practice looking for why authors make the choices that they do.
This unit continues the work of Unit 1 in developing paragraphs that establish a claim and provide evidence to support that claim. It’s more important that you can write a stable, defensible, claim-based paragraph at this point than it is that you can write an entire essay (that might not be as strong).
Unit 2 Overview: Introduction to Poetry
2.1 Identifying characters in poetry
2.2 Understanding & interpreting meaning in poetic structure
2.3 Analyzing word choice to find meaning
2.4 Identifying techniques in poetry to analyze literary works 🎥 Watch these videos:
Literary Device Review : An overview of some literary devices that you may have forgotten, or an introduction to some new ones that you want in your analysis vocabulary.
Defending a Claim : Before practicing your paragraphs, watch this stream for guidance in building a claim from the passage in response to a prompt.
How to Read a Poem : A stream dedicated to developing poetry reading skills, including a useful acronym (SIFT) for prioritizing important elements of a poem.
Annotating for Understanding: This stream guides you through the annotation process, making sure that you are annotating purposefully, and developing your own library of symbols. 📰 Check out these articles:
Poetry Overview : Our Fiveable guide to the poetry analysis question -- what to expect and what you need to do to respond effectively.
Here we go with the novels! Because the exam’s literary argument essay (also affectionately known as Q3 in the Lit circles) asks students to analyze a novel-length text, it’s important to get practice on analyzing novels or plays (did someone say, Shakespeare?). This unit boils down to paying closer attention to character and plot, with a sprinkling of setting analysis. Because novels are longer than short stories, not only can authors spread out the creation of literary elements and go deeper, but you can see more about how it’s done.
In terms of composition, this unit starts discussing the development of a thesis statement! So now we can establish a thesis, and then support it with a paragraph (or two). This means we’re also starting to create a line of reasoning that is introduced in the thesis statement, and supported in the body of your essay.
Unit 3 Overview: Introduction to Longer Fiction and Drama
3.1 Interpreting character description and perspective
3.2 Character evolution throughout a narrative
3.3 Conflict and plot development
3.4 Interpreting symbolism
3.5 Identifying evidence and supporting literary arguments 🎥 Watch these videos:
Theme Statements and Thesis Statements: This stream distinguishes between these two important statements in a Q3 response, and further discusses thesis statements in general.
Annotating for Analysis, part 2: This stream is more about annotating an exam prompt, and then preparing to respond to it.
Characters and Relationships : All about characterization, with terms and tips for understanding the creation of characters and why they matter. 📰 Check out these articles:
Fiveable study guide to the Literary Argument prompt
Because of the way that the AP Lit units are structured, we spiral skills and text types, so this is phase 2 of short fiction analysis. While the first short fiction unit was focused on identifying and describing elements, now you’re being asked to explain the function (that why again) and describe relationships.
This unit also asks you to start analyzing how those relationships and elements are created by authors. That means you are reading more closely for diction and syntax and paying more attention to how a speaker/narrator’s perspective is shown to you.
We’re still working on defensible thesis statements and building commentary to make clear connections between our claim and the evidence. This is what builds the line of reasoning and earns a 4 in evidence and commentary on the Lit rubric.
Unit 4 Overview: Character, Conflict, and Storytelling
4.1 Protagonists, antagonists, character relationships, and conflict
4.2 Character interactions with setting and its significance
4.3 Archetypes in literature
4.4 Types of narration like stream of consciousness
4.5 Narrative distance, tone, and perspective 🎥 Watch these videos:
Prose Analysis Prompt Deconstruction and Strategies : Before you read the text, make sure that you know the task before you, and you’re ready to read with that in mind.
Q2 Thesis and Introduction : There are some exam-taking tips in here, from a college freshman who conquered the exam. She also discusses forming a thesis and an introduction that works. Quickly.
Q2 Evidence and Commentary : Practicing creating commentary to respond to the prompt efficiently. This stream uses practice prompts to show the process of reading a text with the prompt in mind to select evidence while reading. 📰 Check out these articles:
Short Fiction Overview : Revisit this guide! Read the section on “How to Read a Short Story. Like, Really Read It.”
💎 Check out this stream on creating a "boot camp" that was originally meant for teachers, but gives guidelines and suggestions on how to dive into short fiction. ✍️ Practice
AP Lit Prose Analysis Practice Prompt Answers & Feedback – [object Object] (Diction): The focus of this practice prompt is diction – analyzing it AND using it yourself, with a little syntax thrown in! Try it yourself and compare it with student responses and feedback.
AP Lit Prose Analysis Practice Prompt Samples & Feedback – [object Object] : Practicing prose analysis is a great way to prep for the AP exam! Respond to this practice prompt and review practice writing samples and their corresponding feedback.
AP Lit Prose Analysis Practice Essays & Feedback – [object Object] : Writing essays is a great way to practice prose analysis and prep for the AP exam! Review student responses for an essay prompt and corresponding feedback
We’re going back to poems! This unit asks you to “identify and explain the function” of various poetic elements and devices. All at the same time. Those literary devices you learned in Poetry I might come in handy here, but the analysis is more about why the author made those choices about repetition, reference, comparison, etc.
In order to select the most significant, “relevant, and sufficient” evidence to support your line of reasoning from your thesis , you have to know the function of the personification or metaphor or imagery. Ask yourself, “Why would the author write ____ instead of ____?” This helps you analyze the connotations of the choice, and therefore the function in the text.
By now, we’re writing a thesis plus paragraphs. This is also an opportunity to work on the organization of your essays (hint: organizing by the device is neither efficient nor sophisticated; try to find a shift or two in the poem and use them to develop your paragraph chunks.
Unit 5 Overview: Structure and Figurative Language
5.1 Traits of closed and open structures in poetry
5.2 Use of techniques like imagery and hyperbole
5.3 Types of comparisons in poetry including personification and allusion
5.4 Identifying and interpreting extended metaphors 🎥 Watch these videos:
How Form Creates Meaning: Learn about poetry-specific choices authors make, and what elements of form look like in practice. Also, explore a couple of common forms and why they might be used.
Open Poetry Study : An opportunity to practice some of the skills from “How to Read a Poem ”.
Q1 Evidence and Commentary : Follow the process of reading a poem and selecting evidence in real-time. You can have an essay before it’s through.
The complexity of Poetry: This is an opportunity to look specifically at how poets create tensions and complexity in their work. Since this complexity is always a point of analysis on the exam, you can study how it works, and how to write about it
Because novels are longer stories, we can look at more elements at a time. That’s what this unit wants from you -- examining speaker perspective and reliability, the formation and function of literary or contextual symbolism, characterization, character relationships and contrasts, the function of plot events, etc. All at the same time.
What you need to know: The bottom line of reading for Q3 is the meaning of the work as a whole or theme . And you might not fully understand what that is until the novel or play is finished, but you can start to build ideas around what BIG IDEA the author is addressing. Your job is to keep track of how characters, plot, and setting contribute to the discussion of this big idea (like greed or isolation or jealousy or love or anger or insanity).
Unit 6 Overview: Literary Techniques in Longer Works
6.1 Interpreting foil characters
6.2 Understanding and interpreting character complexity
6.3 Understanding nonlinear narrative structures like flashbacks and foreshadowing
6.4 The effect of narrative tone and bias on reading
6.5 Characters as symbols, metaphors, and archetypes
6.6 Developing literary arguments within a broader context of works 🎥 Watch these videos:
Finding Theme Through Characterization : A discussion of the function of characterization as it applies to the meaning of the work as a whole.
🎥 Watch these videos:
Multiple Choice Intro : an introduction to the AP Literature multiple choice -- an overview of the weights, number and types of questions you will encounter, with some tips for practice and preparation.
Prose MC Strategies and Practice: covers all aspects of the Multiple Choice section of the AP Lit Exam, including tips on-time efficiency, annotation, and picking the best answer choice. This is followed by 2 sets of practice passages and questions and explanations for each of the provided answer choices. 📰 Check out these articles:
English Literature Multiple Choice Study Guide
AP English Literature Multiple Choice Help (MCQ) ✍️ Practice
AP English Lit MCQ Practice Tests
The last three units of AP Lit ask you to dig even deeper into what you're reading to analyze it. In Unit 7, you'll focus on how characters fit into the societal and historical context of the work they're in, and how those features can become important facets of stories. Importantly, you'll be asked to analyze how complexity develops over the course of the story.
Unit 8 will introduce you to more complicated techniques in poetry that are harder to spot and analyze. You will be asked to identify and analyze devices like punctuation and structural patterns, juxtaposition, paradox, irony, symbols, conceits, and allusions. Although these are a little harder to correctly identify in poetry, if you can master them, they can earn you major points on the exam. Additionally, you'll learn about how to correctly cite and attribute information when writing literary analysis!
The final unit of AP Lit will task you with creating even more nuanced analyses of longer works and drama. To do this, we'll look at how characters change over the course of the plot and react to the resolution of the narrative, how suspense, resolution, and plot development contribute the meaning of a work, and how inconsistencies and differing perspectives create nuance in longer works.
Breaking Down an Exam Prompt: A discussion of how to break down an AP Literature exam prompt into smaller questions. We end with some do's, don'ts, and common pitfalls for students writing AP Literature essays.
Commentary and Sophistication FAQs: Review the criteria for earning maximum evidence/commentary points and the one sophistication point from the rubric. Next, read scored examples and see what they earned in those two categories. ✍️ Practice
AP English Literature Free Response Questions (FRQ) – Past Prompts : A sortable list of all the AP English Literature free-response questions.
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Free-response questions and scoring information.
Download free-response questions from this year's exam and past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions.
If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at [email protected] .
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Note: The table below features a selection of free-response questions and related scoring information from the 2020 exam. You can find all of the 2020 FRQs and corresponding scoring information in AP Classroom .
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IMAGES
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COMMENTS
the prose passage means reading closely for both literary techniques and meaning, a challenge given the relative length of the prose passage. Students were expected to view the text specifically as a prose passage, recognizing conventions particular to the genre, and then analyze how those techniques are used to shape the passage and its meaning.
Download free-response questions from this year's exam and past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions. If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at ssd@info ...
AP English Literature and Composition 2022 Free-Response Questions Author: ETS Subject: Free-Response Questions from the 2022 AP English Literature and Composition Exam Keywords: English Literature and Composition; Free-Response Questions; 2022; exam resources; exam information; teaching resources; exam practice Created Date: 10/19/2021 1:40:00 PM
The AP Lit prose essay is the second of the three essays included in the free-response section of the AP Lit exam, lasting around 40 minutes in total. A prose passage of approximately 500 to 700 words and a prompt will be given to guide your analytical essay. Worth about 18% of your total grade, the essay will be graded out of six points ...
Fifth: Give each literary device its own body paragraph. In this essay, the writer examines the use of two literary devices that are supported by multiple pieces of evidence. The first is "romantic imagery" and the second is "hyperbolic imagery.". The writer dedicates one paragraph to each idea. You should do this, too.
All AP FRQ #2 Prose Prompts, 1970-2022. ... For example, consider the prompt from 2016. Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge: In this exerpt from the novel (1886), ... Another choice is to Google "AP English Literature FRQ #2 2016" or simply search the College Board's website.
To get a nine on the prose analysis FRQ essay in the AP® Literature and Composition exam, you should practice timed essays. Write as many practice essays as you can. Follow the same procedure each time. After reading the prompt, map out your thesis statement, paragraph topic sentences, and supporting details and quotes in the order of their ...
Practice: AP English Literature Short Fiction Trivia 1. Practice: AP English Literature Short Fiction Trivia 2. Review: Prose Fiction Argument Scoring Guidelines (page 2) Practice: 2022 Prose Fiction Argument Practice (page 3-4) Graded examples. Practice: 2021 Prose Fiction Argument Practice (page 3-4) Graded examples.
The AP Literature Exam is a three-hour exam that contains two sections in this order: An hour-long, 55-question multiple-choice section. A two-hour, three-question free-response section. The exam tests your ability to analyze works and excerpts of literature and cogently communicate that analysis in essay form.
2022 AP Lit FRQ 1: "Shaving" by Richard Blanco. Part 2 of 4. Written by Michelle Lindsey. Here is the order of confidence my student feel about their essays: Question 3 takes the lead, Question 1 is a close second, and then Question 2 might be miles and miles and miles away from both of them. To ease some of my anxiety, my students ...
2022 AP ® English Literature and Composition ... essay, analyze how Blanco uses literary elements and techniques to develop the speaker's complex associations with the ritual of shaving. In your response you should do the following: ... Examples that do not earn this point:
This is the best AP Lit practice test available. It's the most recent exam released by the College Board, and it follows the format of the current test with 55 multiple-choice questions and three free-response questions. Definitely make use of this test! 1999 AP English Literature and Composition Exam. This test excludes the poetry and prose ...
The essays often demonstrate a lack of control over the conventions of composition: inadequate development of ideas, accumulation of errors, or a focus that is unclear, inconsistent, or repetitive. Essays scored a 3 may contain significant misreading and/or demonstrate inept writing. 2-1 These essays compound several writing weaknesses.
The best way to score a 5 on the AP® English Literature exam is to practice, practice, practice. And we're here to help. Below, we've compiled an ultimate list of AP® English Literature practice tests, study guides, AP® Lit prose essay examples, test-taking strategies, and more. Think of this page as the ultimate AP® English Literature ...
All FRQ #3 Open-Ended Prompts, 1970-2022. Thanks to the hard work of Sandra Effinger, all the open-ended prompts from 1970-2022 have been assembled on one page. Please see this link. This is incredibly useful as a way of building general questions about independent reading. For example, a teacher might use this resource to build independent in ...
And more. . . Advanced Placement® Language and Literature Tests from 1970 to 2024. AP Language and LiteratureTests Reorganized: Each prompt is now a separate dated file with prompt, scoring guide (6-point and/or 9-point), sample student essays, comments -- whatever I have, attached. Released multiple-choice exams are in a separate folder.
AP Lit: Prose Analysis. There are three types of free-response questions on the AP Literature exam. You will be given 120 minutes to read two pieces of text and write all three essays, so you should take approximately 40 minutes to write each one. The entire free-response section is worth 55% of your total exam score.
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org. AP® English Literature and Composition 2022 Scoring Guidelines. Question 3: Literary Argument 6 points. Many works of literature feature characters who accept or reject a hierarchical structure. This hierarchy may be social, economic, political, or familial, or it may apply to some other kind of structure.
It is comprised of three free-response essays and 55 multiple-choice questions. The free-response section accounts to 55% of your score. You will be given two hours to complete three free-response essays. The first will correspond to a given poem. The second will be regarding an excerpt from prose fiction or drama.
Titles marked with a * denote a popular title, having been suggested for the open question ten or more times. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller*. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens*. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.
Review 2022 AP English Literature Exam Guide for your test on Study Tools. For students taking AP English Literature ... FRQ Scoring Rubric for the 2025 AP Lit Exam. View an example set of questions and the corresponding ... Writing essays is a great way to practice prose analysis and prep for the AP exam! Review student responses for an essay ...
Section I: Multiple Choice. 55 Questions | 1 Hour | 45% of Exam Score. Includes 5 sets of questions with 8-13 questions per set. Each set is preceded by a passage of prose fiction, drama, or poetry of varying difficulty. The multiple-choice section will always include at least 2 prose fiction passages (this may include drama) and at least 2 ...
Download free-response questions from this year's exam and past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions. If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at ssd@info ...