AP English Language and Composition · Exam guides

AP English Language and Composition Exam Guides

Free plain-language guides to the AP English Language and Composition exam: how each section is scored, worked examples with weak and strong answers, and the mistakes that cost points. Start with the overview, then open the guide for the question you want to practice.

Start here

• AP English Language FRQ Guide: The Three Essays and the 6-Point Rubric
  How the 6-point rubric works, the evidence and commentary ladder, and a 135-minute plan.

Free-response and writing

• AP English Language Synthesis Essay Explained: How to Use Sources to Earn 6 Points
  How to use at least three sources, a sample prompt with weak and strong examples, and the mistakes that cost points.
• AP English Language Rhetorical Analysis Essay Explained: How the 6 Points Are Scored
  How to move from naming devices to explaining their effect, with an example on the Gettysburg Address, and the common mistakes.
• AP English Language Argument Essay Explained: How to Earn the 6 Points
  How to take a defensible position, choose specific evidence, and add commentary, with a sample prompt and common mistakes.
• AP English Language Thesis Statements Explained: How to Earn the Thesis Point on Every Essay
  A plain-language guide to writing a defensible thesis for the AP English Language synthesis, rhetorical analysis and argument essays, with a weak and a strong example for each.
• AP English Language Commentary and Line of Reasoning Explained: Earning the Four Evidence Points
  How to build a line of reasoning, write commentary that explains the evidence, and move from a score of 1 to 4, with a worked paragraph.
• AP English Language Sophistication Point Explained: What It Rewards and How to Earn It
  Four ways to earn it, with an example for each, and why one clever sentence is not enough.
• AP English Language Rhetorical Devices and Their Effects: From Naming to Explaining
  A table of common devices and what they do, and a three-step method that turns a label into analysis.
• AP English Language Synthesis Essay: How to Use a Chart, Table or Image as Evidence
  Reading a chart, stating what it shows, and tying it to your argument, with a made-up example.
• AP English Language Argument Essay Evidence: How to Choose Examples That Score
  History, current events, literature and experience, with a made-up prompt and a weak and strong example.

Multiple choice

• AP English Language Multiple-Choice Guide: Reading and Writing Questions
  Reading sets on nonfiction passages and writing sets that ask you to revise a draft, with an example of each and a pacing plan.

See the AP English Language and Composition course Free lessons and lesson list All exam guides