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AP lITERATURE and composition exam
If you're anything like me, test anxiety is REAL. But, with these helpful sources, it may not have to be anymore! Here are several resources I have found helpful to direct you toward a 5 on the AP exam.
1. Study vocabulary
2. Practice claims
3. Become VERY familiar with classic literature and their themes
2. Get enough sleep the night before, eat a healthy breakfast, and show up on time!
2. Practice claims
3. Become VERY familiar with classic literature and their themes
2. Get enough sleep the night before, eat a healthy breakfast, and show up on time!
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Resources that will help you
If you're lacking confidence on your knowledge of literature, SparkNotes can be very helpful. It can be used to refresh your memory of the plot of the story, or you can even read their analysis so you can get more insight. Happy SparkNoting!
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You know what they say, practice makes perfect! College Board offers tons of helpful practice for the AP Exam, and real prompts and sample essays from past exam years. There are gobs of good resources to help you practice to perfection.
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The exam is divided into two sections. Lets talk about those.
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mULTIPLE CHOICE
The main thing you can do to make multiple choice less scary, is to use strategies in your benefit that fit your way of thinking.
Here's some strategies
- First things first: Read the questions. This strategy will help you get a bit of background information on what the passage will be about and the things you need to be paying attention to while reading so you are picking up on things the questions will be asking.
- Annotate your butt off! It may seem like a waste of time, but if a thought comes to your head, write it down! You will have more to fall back on if you have things written down that can help you get to your answer, or even just guide your thought process to better understanding.
- Go with your gut. If you don't have a rational educated reason for changing your answer, chances are your first answer was the correct one.
- Use process of elimination. There will always be answers that will completely contradict the entire meaning of the passage. Once you get those out of the way, answering the remaining questions isn't so menacing.
- Take educated guesses if you are running out of time. You would rather have something answered than nothing. Who knows, maybe that "Uhhhhh, C!" is right!
- Below I have provided a handout from class that addresses the types of questions on the test, and what literary content those questions are referring to.
The essays
There are three free response essays you will need to write in two hours. I know, it sounds terrifying. I'm here to help.
The three essays.
- Analysis of a given poem.
- Analysis of a given prose fiction.
- Analysis of a given concept, issue, or element in literary work that you choose.
Here's some tips.
- Make sure you know a wide array of literature with different themes. (See SparkNotes)
- Study up on vocabulary. Push AP level vocabulary in your essays, but don't overdo it by throwing an excessive amount of unnecessary fancy words. Hold back on the glitter.
- PLAN PLAN PLAN! Take about seven minutes to gather your thoughts, understand the prompt, map out the paragraphs, then write up your claim. Planning is NEVER a waste of time and will save you time by preventing you from getting stuck
- While writing, use the prompts 'buzzwords' and never stray away from your claim.
- The more you write, the more likely you will get some good analysis 'nuggets' that could bump you from a 6 to a 7. They will always reward what you do well.
- Make sure you wrap the bigger why and the meaning of the work as a whole up in your essay. That is higher level analysis that will help you score higher
Handouts from class about the essays
AFTERALL...
There is nothing that will prepare you for what prompts are on the test and what you can expect. If it is something that stumps you, it's important you just stay calm and do the best you can. Good luck!