AP English Literature and Composition Exam
Feeling stressed about the upcoming AP English Literature and Composition Exam? This challenging test requires a deep understanding of literary concepts, strong analytical skills, and the ability to write persuasive arguments under pressure.
Whether you’re a seasoned reader or just starting your journey into literary critique, this blog is your one-stop guide to ace the AP English Literature and Composition exam. We’ll break down the format, analyze question types, and offer tips to maximize your score.
Overview of the AP English Literature and Composition Exam
The AP English Literature and Composition exam is designed to assess your ability to analyze and interpret literary works. It tests your comprehension of the key concepts covered in a typical AP English Literature course, along with your written communication skills.
The exam itself is a three-hour affair divided into two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response section. The multiple-choice section tests your knowledge of literary devices, themes, and analytical approaches. On the other hand, the free-response section requires you to write analytical essays based on unseen literary passages. Performing well on this exam can potentially grant you college credit for introductory literature courses.
When is the AP English Literature and Composition Exam?
The AP English Literature and Composition exam is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8th, 2024. The College Board administers the AP exams in schools across the country over two weeks in May.
In 2024, these two weeks are May 6th through 10th and May 13th through 17th. Be sure to check with your school counselor or AP coordinator and the College Board for any specific details or last-minute changes.
What’s on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam?
The College Board outlines 6 skill categories important for AP English Literature and Composition, both in the course and on the exam.
1. Character (CHR)
Literary characters embody a rich tapestry of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms. By analyzing these aspects, you gain a deeper understanding of the characters themselves and the ideas they represent.
2. Setting (SET)
The setting and its intricate details not only establish time and place but also convey values associated with that environment. Understanding the setting allows us to interpret the story within its broader context.
3. Structure (STR)
The way a text is structured—the arrangement of sections, their relationship to each other, and the sequence of information revealed—is a deliberate choice by the author. Recognizing this structure prepares you to decipher meaning within the text.
4. Narration (NAR)
The narrator’s or speaker’s perspective dictates the details and emphasis presented to the reader. This narration directly influences how you experience and interpret the text.
5. Figurative language (FIG)
Authors use comparisons, representations, and associations to move beyond literal meaning and create figurative language. This toolbox includes word choice, imagery, and symbols. Examples include similes, metaphors, personification, and allusions.
6. Literary argumentation (LAN)
This category delves into how you, the reader, engage with literature. By drawing on the first five skills (CHR, SET, STR, NAR, FIG), you develop your interpretation of the text. The key here is to communicate your interpretation effectively. This involves writing a thesis—a claim you can defend—and supporting it with concrete evidence drawn from the text itself.
AP English Literature and Composition Exam Format
The AP English Literature and Composition exam is a three-hour test divided into multiple-choice (45% of the total score) and free-response sections (55% of the total score).
Section 1: Multiple-choice (55 questions)
- This section comprises 5 sets of multiple-choice questions, each containing 8–13 questions.
- The questions will test your comprehension of various literary passages, including excerpts from the following:
- Prose fiction (may include drama)
- Poetry
- At least two passages will be from prose fiction (potentially including drama), and at least two will be from poetry.
- Each passage will be followed by several multiple-choice questions designed to assess your understanding of the passage’s content and literary devices.
Section 2: Free-response (3 questions)
- This section requires written responses to three questions chosen from the following categories:
- Poetry analysis: You will analyze a provided poem, formulating a thesis statement that presents a specific interpretation of the poem supported by textual evidence.
- Prose fiction analysis: Analyze a provided passage of prose fiction (may include drama), developing a thesis that offers a literary interpretation backed up by evidence from the text.
- Literary argument: Analyze a provided literary concept or idea, exploring how it contributes to the interpretation of a literary work. You can choose a work from a list of roughly 40 provided options or select another work of prose fiction or drama from your personal reading to construct an evidence-based argument that addresses the prompt.
Bonus tip: When selecting a work for Question 3 (Literary Argument), make sure it is relevant to the prompt and of a similar quality to the works covered in your AP classes.
How is the AP English Literature and Composition Scored?
AP scores range from 1 to 5. While colleges typically prefer scores of 4 or 5 for AP English Literature, some institutions might award credit for a 3. To learn more about specific college credit policies, visit the College Board’s guide to AP credit. It’s important to note that AP exams are curved, so the average score can fluctuate slightly each year. Here’s a breakdown of how AP English Literature students performed on the May 2022 exam:
| Score | Meaning | Percentage of Test Takers |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Extremely qualified | 16.90% |
| 4 | Well qualified | 27.30% |
| 3 | Qualified | 33.70% |
| 2 | Possibly qualified | 14.10% |
| 1 | No recommendation | 7.90% |
What is the Scoring Rubric for the AP English Literature and Composition Exam?
The AP English Literature and Composition exam’s scoring rubric emphasizes a well-developed argument supported by strong evidence and insightful analysis. To score high, your writing needs to begin with a clear thesis that directly addresses the prompt. This thesis then becomes the foundation for your essay, guiding your analysis of literary elements and textual evidence.
The key to a high score lies in how you use evidence and commentary. Merely mentioning quotes or summarizing the text won’t suffice. Instead, you need to closely examine specific passages and explain how they connect to your argument. You should also show awareness of literary techniques and how they contribute to the overall meaning of the text. Finally, strong essays will show a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of the literature. It potentially acknowledges alternative interpretations or considers the work within a broader context.
What is a Good AP English Literature and Composition Exam Score?
A good score on the AP English Literature and Composition exam depends on your goals. A 3 is considered the passing score by most colleges and universities. This score will qualify you for college credit or placement in introductory literature courses. This score indicates that you’ve grasped the key analytical skills required for college-level literature studies.
However, if you’re aiming for advanced placement or credit in higher-level literature courses, then a 4 or 5 is ideal. These scores reflect a strong understanding of complex literary concepts and the ability to analyze literature in a nuanced and insightful way.
Booklist for the AP English Literature and Composition Exam
There isn’t a single required reading list for the AP English Literature and Composition exam. The College Board does provide a recommended list of authors, though, to help you prepare for the types of writing you’ll see on the exam.
| Poetry | Drama | Fiction (Novel and Short Story) | Expository Prose |
|---|---|---|---|
| W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, William Blake, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Browning, George Gordon/Lord Byron, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Lucille Clifton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Billy Collins, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Rita Dove, Paul Laurence Dunbar, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Joy Harjo, Seamus Heaney, George Herbert, Garrett Hongo, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Ben Jonson, John Keats, Philip Larkin, Robert Lowell, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander Pope, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Leslie Marmon Silko, Cathy Song, Wallace Stevens, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Derek Walcott, Walt Whitman, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats | Aeschylus, Edward Albee, Amiri Baraka, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, Caryl Churchill, William Congreve, Athol Fugard, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, David Henry Hwang, Henrik Ibsen, Ben Jonson, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Molière, Marsha Norman, Sean O’Casey, Eugene O’Neill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Shepard, Sophocles, Tom Stoppard, Luis Valdez, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson | Chinua Achebe, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Allende, Rudolfo Anaya, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Raymond Carver, Willa Cather, John Cheever, Kate Chopin, Sandra Cisneros, Joseph Conrad, Edwidge Danticat, Daniel Defoe, Anita Desai, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Ralph Ellison, Louise Erdrich, William Faulkner, Henry Fielding, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, Kazuo Ishiguro, Henry James, Ha Jin, Edward P. Jones, James Joyce, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa, Jhumpa Lahiri, Margaret Laurence, D.H. Lawrence, Chang-rae Lee, Bernard Malamud, Gabriel García Márquez, Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Herman Melville, Toni Morrison, Bharati Mukherjee, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O’Connor, Orhan Pamuk, Katherine Anne Porter, Marilynne Robinson, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, John Updike, Alice Walker, Evelyn Waugh, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, John Edgar Wideman, Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright | Joseph Addison, Gloria Anzaldua, Matthew Arnold, James Baldwin, James Boswell, Joan Didion, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Hazlitt, bell hooks, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, Thomas Macaulay, Mary McCarthy, John Stuart Mill, George Orwell, Michael Pollan, Richard Rodriguez, Edward Said, Lewis Thomas, Henry David Thoreau, E.B. White, Virginia Woolf |
AP English Literature and Composition Exam Past Questions and Scoring Information
The table below displays the 2023 AP English Literature and Composition exam questions, sourced from the College Board. If you’re looking for practice with similar questions, visit the College Board’s website.
From the Desk of Yocket
The AP English Literature and Composition exam pushes you to develop strong analytical skills and a deep understanding of how language works to create meaning by requiring you to grapple with complex texts, identify literary devices, and write analytical arguments. The close reading and critical thinking honed through AP Literature preparation can be highly rewarding. A strong performance on the AP Literature exam can potentially earn you college credit and give you a head start in your academic career.
However, the exam’s format can be stressful and might not fully represent your true literary understanding. In a short time frame, you must not only comprehend complex passages but also articulate insightful arguments. This focus on timed writing can limit opportunities for nuanced analysis, and the specific prompts might not always align with your strengths. Additionally, the emphasis on specific literary devices can overshadow the broader enjoyment and appreciation of literature itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the format of the AP English Literature and Composition exam?
The AP English Literature and Composition exam is divided into two sections: multiple-choice and free-response. The multiple-choice section consists of 55 questions based on 4–5 passages of literature (prose, poetry, or drama) and takes 60 minutes to complete. The free-response section allows 120 minutes for students to write three essays in response to different prompts.
What types of questions are in the multiple-choice section of the AP English Literature and Composition exam?
The multiple-choice section tests your reading comprehension and analytical skills. You can expect questions that ask you to identify the main idea of a passage, analyze the author’s use of literary devices, understand character development, and interpret the meaning of specific passages.
What are the free-response prompts like on the AP English Literature and Composition exam?
The free-response section offers three prompts that fall into different categories. One prompt will ask you to analyze a given poem; another will focus on a prose fiction passage (including drama); and the third prompt will allow you to choose a literary work you’ve studied and analyze it based on a specific concept, issue, or element.
How much time is allotted for each section of the AP English Literature and Composition exam?
The multiple-choice section is one hour long and is worth 45% of your total exam score. You will receive one point for each question you answer correctly. The free-response section is two hours long and is worth 55% of your total exam score.