AP English Literature and Composition · Exam guides

AP English Literature and Composition Exam Guides

Free plain-language guides to the AP English Literature 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.

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• AP English Literature FRQ Guide: The Three Essays and the 6-Point Rubric
  How the 6-point rubric works, the evidence and commentary ladder, and a 120-minute plan.

Free-response and writing

• AP English Literature Poetry Analysis Essay Explained: How to Earn the 6 Points
  How to write a thesis, comment on specific words, and use the poem's shift, with an example on Wordsworth's sonnet.
• AP English Literature Prose Analysis Essay Explained: How to Earn the 6 Points
  How to analyze narration, tone, and character, with an example on the opening of Pride and Prejudice.
• AP English Literature Literary Argument Essay Explained: How to Earn the 6 Points
  How to choose a work, recall specific evidence, and interpret the work as a whole, with an example on The Scarlet Letter.
• AP English Literature Thesis Statements Explained: Earning the Thesis Point on Poetry, Prose and Literary Argument
  A plain-language guide to writing a defensible thesis for the three AP English Literature essays, with a weak and a strong example for the poem, the prose passage and the open question.
• AP English Literature Evidence and Commentary Explained: Earning the Four Points in Row B
  Choosing specific evidence, writing commentary that explains it, and building a line of reasoning, with a worked paragraph on a Frost stanza.
• AP English Literature Sophistication Point Explained: Tensions, Shifts and Complexity
  How to show complexity, tension and the whole-text view, with examples from Frost and Dickens.
• AP English Literature Poetic Devices and Their Effects: From Naming to Interpreting
  A table of poetic devices and what they can do, a three-step method, and a worked reading of a Frost stanza.
• AP English Literature Prose Techniques: Narration, Diction, Syntax and Shifts
  Narrator and point of view, diction, syntax and shifts, with a worked reading of the opening of Great Expectations.
• AP English Literature Open Essay: How to Choose and Prepare Works You Can Write About
  Choosing works, building an evidence bank, and matching one work to many prompts.

Multiple choice

• AP English Literature Multiple-Choice Guide: Prose and Poetry Sets
  Five sets on prose fiction and poetry, the skills tested, and a routine for each set, with an original example.

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