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.
Advanced Placement (AP)
If you're planning to take the AP English Literature and Composition exam, you'll need to get familiar with what to expect on the test. Whether the 2023 test date of Wednesday, May 3, is near or far, I'm here to help you get serious about preparing for the exam.
In this guide, I'll go over the test's format and question types, how it's graded, best practices for preparation, and test-day tips. You'll be on your way to AP English Lit success in no time!
The AP Literature Exam is a three-hour exam that contains two sections in this order:
The exam tests your ability to analyze works and excerpts of literature and cogently communicate that analysis in essay form.
Read on for a breakdown of the two different sections and their question types.
The multiple-choice section, or Section I of the AP Literature exam, is 60 minutes long and has 55 questions. It counts for 45% of your overall exam grade .
You can expect to see five excerpts of prose and poetry. You will always get at least two prose passages (fiction or drama) and two poetry passages. In general, you will not be given the author, date, or title for these works, though occasionally the title of a poem will be given. Unusual words are also sometimes defined for you.
The date ranges of these works could fall from the 16th to the 21st century. Most works will be originally written in English, but you might occasionally see a passage in translation.
There are, generally speaking, eight kinds of questions you can expect to see on the AP English Literature and Composition exam. I'll break each of them down here and give you tips on how to identify and approach them.
"Pretty flowers carried by ladies" is not one of the question types.
Without further delay, here are the eight question types you can expect to see on the AP Lit exam. All questions are taken from the sample questions on the AP Course and Exam Description .
These questions test your ability to understand what the passage is saying on a pretty basic level . They don't require you to do a lot of interpretation—you just need to know what's going on.
You can identify this question type from words and phrases such as "according to," "mentioned," "asserting," and so on. You'll succeed on these questions as long as you carefully read the text . Note that you might have to go back and reread parts to make sure you understand what the passage is saying.
These questions ask you to infer something—a character or narrator's opinion, an author's intention, etc.—based on what is said in the passage . It will be something that isn't stated directly or concretely but that you can assume based on what's clearly written in the passage. You can identify these questions from words such as "infer" and "imply."
The key to these questions is to not get tripped up by the fact that you are making an inference—there will be a best answer, and it will be the choice that is best supported by what is actually found in the passage .
In many ways, inference questions are like second-level reading comprehension questions: you need to know not just what a passage says, but also what it means.
These are questions for which you have to either identify what word or phrase is figurative language or provide the meaning of a figurative phrase . You can identify these as they will either explicitly mention figurative language (or a figurative device, such as a simile or metaphor ) or include a figurative phrase in the question itself.
The meaning of figurative phrases can normally be determined by that phrase's context in the passage—what is said around it? What is the phrase referring to?
Example 1: Identifying
Example 2: Interpreting
These questions involve identifying why an author does what they do , from using a particular phrase to repeating certain words. Basically, what techniques is the author using to construct the passage/poem, and to what effect?
You can identify these questions by words/phrases such as "serves chiefly to," "effect," "evoke," and "in order to." A good way to approach these questions is to ask yourself: so what? Why did the author use these particular words or this particular structure?
These questions ask you to describe something about a character . You can spot them because they will refer directly to characters' attitudes, opinions, beliefs, or relationships with other characters .
This is, in many ways, a special kind of inference question , since you are inferring the broader personality of the character based on the evidence in a passage. Also, these crop up much more commonly for prose passages than they do for poetry ones.
Some questions ask you to identify or describe something about the passage or poem as a whole : its purpose, tone, genre, etc. You can identify these by phrases such as "in the passage" and "as a whole."
To answer these questions, you need to think about the excerpt with a bird's-eye view . What is the overall picture created by all the tiny details?
Some AP Lit questions will ask you about specific structural elements of the passage: a shift in tone, a digression, the specific form of a poem, etc . Often these questions will specify a part of the passage/poem and ask you to identify what that part is accomplishing.
Being able to identify and understand the significance of any shifts —structural, tonal, in genre, and so on—will be of key importance for these questions.
Very occasionally you will be asked a specific grammar question , such as what word an adjective is modifying. I'd also include in this category super-specific questions such as those that ask about the meter of a poem (e.g., iambic pentameter).
These questions are less about literary artistry and more about the fairly dry technique involved in having a fluent command of the English language .
That covers the eight question types on the multiple-choice section. Now, let's take a look at the free-response section of the AP Literature exam.
Keep track of the nuts and bolts of grammar.
The AP Literature Free Response section is two hours long and involves three free-response essay questions , so you'll have about 40 minutes per essay. That's not a lot of time considering this section of the test counts for 55% of your overall exam grade !
Note, though, that no one will prompt you to move from essay to essay, so you can theoretically divide up the time however you want. Just be sure to leave enough time for each essay! Skipping an essay, or running out of time so you have to rush through one, can really impact your final test score.
The first two essays are literary analysis essays of specific passages, with one poem and one prose excerpt. The final essay is an analysis of a given theme in a work selected by you , the student.
For the first two essays, you'll be presented with an excerpt and directed to analyze the excerpt for a given theme, device, or development . One of the passages will be poetry, and one will be prose. You will be provided with the author of the work, the approximate date, and some orienting information (i.e., the plot context of an excerpt from a novel).
Below are some sample questions from the 2022 Free Response Questions .
For the third and final essay, you'll be asked to discuss a particular theme in a work that you select . You will be provided with a list of notable works that address the given theme below the prompt, but you can also choose to discuss any "work of literary merit."
So while you do have the power to choose which work you wish to write an essay about , the key words here are "literary merit." That means no genre fiction! Stick to safe bets like authors in the list on pages 10-11 of the old 2014 AP Lit Course Description .
(I know, I know—lots of genre fiction works do have literary merit and Shakespeare actually began as low culture, and so on and so forth. Indeed, you might find academic designations of "literary merit" elitist and problematic, but the time to rage against the literary establishment is not your AP Lit test! Save it for a really, really good college admissions essay instead .)
Here's a sample question from 2022:
As you can see, the list of works provided spans many time periods and countries : there are ancient Greek plays ( Antigone ), modern literary works (such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale ), Shakespeare plays ( The Tempest ), 19th-century English plays ( The Importance of Being Earnest ), etc. So you have a lot to work with!
Also note that you can choose a work of "comparable literary merit." That means you can select a work not on this list as long as it's as difficult and meaningful as the example titles you've been given. So for example, Jane Eyre or East of Eden would be great choices, but Twilight or The Hunger Games would not.
Our advice? If you're not sure what a work of "comparable literary merit" is, stick to the titles on the provided list .
You might even see something by this guy.
The multiple-choice section of the exam comprises 45% of your total exam score; the three essays, or free-response section, comprise the other 55%. Each essay, then, is worth about 18% of your grade.
As on other AP exams, your raw score will be converted to a score from 1-5 . You don't have to get every point possible to get a 5 by any means. In 2022, 16.9% of students received 5s on the AP English Literature test, the 14th highest 5 score out of the 38 different AP exams.
So, how do you calculate your raw scores?
For the multiple-choice section, you receive 1 point for each question you answer correctly . There's no guessing penalty, so you should answer every question—but guess only after you're able to eliminate any answer you know is wrong to up your chances of choosing the right one.
Scoring for multiple choice is pretty straightforward; however, essay scoring is a little more complicated.
Each of your essays will receive a score from 0 to 6 based on the College Board rubric , which also includes question-specific rubrics. All the rubrics are very similar, with only minor differences between them.
Each essay rubric has three elements you'll be graded on:
We'll be looking at the current rubric for the AP Lit exam , which was released in September 2019, and what every score means for each of the three elements above:
Restates prompt. Makes generalized comment. Describes work rather than making a claim. | Is incoherent or does not address prompt. May be just opinion with no textual references or references that are irrelevant. | Attempts to contextualize interpretation consist mainly of sweeping generalizations. Only hints at other interpretations. Does not consistently maintain thematic interpretation. Oversimplifies complexities. Uses overly complex language. | |
Provides defensible interpretation in response to prompt. | Focuses on broad elements, summary, or description rather than specific details or techniques. Mentions literary elements, devices, or techniques with little or no explanation. | Identifies and explores complexities/tensions within work. Situates interpretation within broader context. Accounts for alternative interpretations. Style is consistently vivid and persuasive. | |
— | Consists of mix of specific evidence and broad generalities. May contain some simplistic, inaccurate, or repetitive explanations. Does not make multiple supporting claims or does not support more than one claim. No clear connections or progression between claims. | — | |
— | Uniformly offers evidence to support claims. Focuses on importance of specific words and details. Organizes argument as line of reasoning composed of several supporting claims. Commentary may fail to integrate some evidence or support key claim. | — | |
— | Uniformly offers evidence to support claims. Focuses on importance of specific words and details. Organizes argument as line of reasoning composed of several supporting claims, each with adequate evidence. Explains how use of literary techniques contributes to interpretation. | — |
To get a high-scoring essay in the 5-6 point range, you'll need to not only come up with an original and intriguing argument that you thoroughly support with textual evidence, but you’ll also need to stay focused, organized, and clear. And all in just 40 minutes per essay!
If getting a high score on this section sounds like a tall order, that's because it is.
Practice makes perfect!
There are several things you can do to hone your skills and best prepare for the AP Lit exam.
One of the most important steps you can take to prepare for the AP Literature and Composition exam is to read a lot and read well . You'll be reading a wide variety of notable literary works in your AP English Literature course, but additional reading will help you further develop your analytical reading skills .
I suggest checking out this list of notable authors in the 2014 AP Lit Course Description (pages 10-11).
In addition to reading broadly, you'll want to become especially familiar with the details of four to five books with different themes so you'll be prepared to write a strong student-choice essay. You should know the plot, themes, characters, and structural details of these books inside and out.
See my AP English Literature Reading List for more guidance.
One thing students might not do very much on their own time but that will help a lot with AP Lit exam prep is to read poetry. Try to read poems from a lot of eras and authors to get familiar with the language.
We know that poetry can be intimidating. That's why we've put together a bunch of guides to help you crack the poetry code (so to speak). You can learn more about poetic devices —like imagery and i ambic pentameter —in our comprehensive guide. Then you can see those analytical skills in action in our expert analysis of " Do not go gentle into that good night " by Dylan Thomas.
When you think you have a grip on basic comprehension, you can then move on to close reading (see below).
Your AP class will likely focus heavily on close reading and analysis of prose and poetry, but extra practice won't hurt you. Close reading is the ability to identify which techniques the author is using and why. You'll need to be able to do this both to gather evidence for original arguments on the free-response questions and to answer analytical multiple-choice questions.
Here are some helpful close reading resources for prose :
And here are some for poetry :
You'll want to be familiar with literary terms so that any test questions that ask about them will make sense to you. Again, you'll probably learn most of these in class, but it doesn't hurt to brush up on them.
Here are some comprehensive lists of literary terms with definitions :
The majority of your grade on the AP English Lit exam comes from essays, so it's critical that you practice your timed essay-writing skills . You of course should use the College Board's released free-response questions to practice writing complete timed essays of each type, but you can also practice quickly outlining thorough essays that are well supported with textual evidence.
Taking practice tests is a great way to prepare for the exam. It will help you get familiar with the exam format and overall experience . You can get sample questions from the Course and Exam Description , the College Board website , and our guide to AP English Lit practice test resources .
Be aware that the released exams don't have complete slates of free-response questions, so you might need to supplement these with released free-response questions .
Since there are three complete released exams, you can take one toward the beginning of your prep time to get familiar with the exam and set a benchmark, and one toward the end to make sure the experience is fresh in your mind and to check your progress.
Don't wander like a lonely cloud through your AP Lit prep.
Before we wrap up, here are my six top tips for AP Lit test day:
And don't forget to eat breakfast! Apron optional.
The AP Literature exam is a three-hour test that includes an hour-long multiple-choice section based on five prose and poetry passages and with 55 questions, and a two-hour free-response section with three essays : one analyzing a poetry passage, one analyzing a prose passage, and one analyzing a work chosen by you, the student.
The multiple-choice section is worth 45% of your total score , and the free-response section is worth 55% . The three essays are each scored on a rubric of 0-6, and raw scores are converted to a final scaled score from 1 to 5.
Here are some things you can do to prepare for the exam:
On test day, be sure to really look closely at all the passages and really interact with them by marking the text in a way that makes sense to you. This will help on both multiple-choice questions and the free-response essays. You should also outline your essays before you write them.
With all this in mind, you're well on your way to AP Lit success!
If you're taking other AP exams this year, you might be interested in our other AP resources: from the Ultimate Guide to the US History Exam , to the Ultimate AP Chemistry Study Guide , to the Best AP Psychology Study Guide , we have tons of articles on AP courses and exams for you !
Looking for practice exams? Here are some tips on how to find the best AP practice tests . We've also got comprehensive lists of practice tests for AP Psychology , AP Biology , AP Chemistry , and AP US History .
Deciding which APs to take? Take a look through the complete list of AP courses and tests , read our analysis of which AP classes are the hardest and easiest , and learn how many AP classes you should take .
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Ellen has extensive education mentorship experience and is deeply committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.
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Trevor Packer
The following data reflect the 297,009 students worldwide who took either the paper or the digital AP English Literature Exam in May. Data from students who tested in June are not yet available.
The following table enables comparisons of student performance in 2021 to student performance on the comparable full-length exam prior to the covid-19 pandemic:
AP Score | 2019 | 2021 |
---|---|---|
5 | 6% | 5% |
4 | 16% | 12% |
3 | 28% | 27% |
2 | 34% | 39% |
1 | 16% | 17% |
US Census Category | Authors within the 2021 Exams |
---|---|
Asian (5.9%) | 26 (7.7%) |
Black (13.4%) | 85 (25.2%) |
Latinx (18.5%) | 30 (8.9%) |
Indigenous (1.5%) | 12 (3.6%) |
White (60.1%) | 184 (54.6%) |
Female (50.8%) | 182 (54%) |
Male (49.2%) | 155 (46%) |
Big Ideas and Skills:
This is the first year I’ve ever seen the poetry analysis essay receive the highest scores of any of the 3 essays, outpacing the prose analysis essay and, even more surprisingly, the “reader’s choice” literary argument essay. That said, the performance differences are very narrow, indicating that students had developed very similar levels of proficiency this year across these various modes of analysis and explication. So despite all the other challenges of 2020-21, poetry did not take its usual backseat to prose in student essay performance this year. Nice work.
Part 1 of 4
Written by Heather Garcia
In this four-part article, Michelle Lindsey and I will walk you through why the released FRQ questions for AP Lit are so valuable for classroom instruction, and we will explore each of the three released essays in a separate article. Our hope is that you will be able to use this four-part series as you begin thinking about planning for your AP Lit course for next year.
Looking for helpful AP English Literature resources? Check out our Summer Writing Workshops and our AP Teacher Courses .
_______________
Why are we excited? AP Lit teachers impatiently wait for the release of the essay questions that our students were asked to respond to on the AP Lit exam, and thankfully College Board doesn’t make us wait but a few days. This is good news because as soon as those prompts are released, we can discuss them with our students, and our students can discuss them with us. It creates a celebratory atmosphere in the room as the year quickly spirals to an end once the exam is over. If you haven’t seen the prompts yet, you can find them here .
Why are these past Free Response Questions valuable?
How can I incorporate them into my course next year?
While this is not an exhaustive list of the ways you can use College Board’s released prompts, it is a place to get started, especially if you haven’t been using these released prompts in the past.
Keep reading for more on each released question!
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 convinced me they did a solid job on this Question 1 prompt. They said they went through our writing process, annotated the poem, planned their essay, and dazzled the College Board.
I always tell my kids to read the poem first to gain some context about what it’s about. This poem, luckily, was pretty transparent. It’s about a guy thinking about the act of shaving, then thinking about when he’s actually shaving, and linking it all to his late father. It was accessible, which we all appreciate. What my students struggled to find was the complexity , which is unfortunate considering it’s worded right there in the prompt- therefore, it has to be there somewhere.
Here is the prompt for Question 1:
The Prompt : In Richard Blanco’s poem “Shaving”, published in 1998, the speaker writes about the act of shaving. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Blanco uses literary elements and techniques to develop the speaker’s complex associations with the ritual of shaving.
I asked my students if they broke down the prompt into questions, and they promised they did. If they actually did the work, their questions may have looked like this:
Once they have the questions isolated, they can begin to hunt down the information they need within the poem.
In stanza 1, our author compares the growth of his beard to silent, misty, blurry things . He uses a simile to compare the growth of his beard to the ocean steam and spiderwebs in the mornings. We can see this. We can visualize the foggy clouds lifting off water or the puffy, yet obscure spiderwebs that cling to wet grass in the mornings. We don’t see these things forming, the formation is silent much like the rose replenishing itself with water from the vase. These are soft similes comparing the mystery of stubble growth to the passing of his father, which ironically came up quite suddenly within the poem and apparently it crept up on the author in real life too.
Looking at the two ideas paired together, the mysterious growth of beard hair, which is symbolic of manhood, and his father’s life passing them by, readers can begin to see the association between the act of shaving and something our narrator missed out on with his father.
Stanza 2 shifts to when he is actually shaving. So, now we have manhood and our narrator navigating something he was never shown how to do. He catches glimpses of his father literally and figuratively with the memory of the father shaving and his “legacy of black whispers” on his own face. This stanza doesn’t have the soft imagery as the first one. The diction is harsher with words like “masquerade”, “blade”, “dead pieces”, and “black seeds”. Readers gain a little more insight into the emotion behind the poem in stanza 2 and the idea that the association between shaving and his father might not be a pleasant one as we learn the father “never taught me how to shave.”
Stanza 3 has a bit of an epiphany but not an entirely happy one as he talks about how quickly everything can vanish. One morning he wakes up with a beard that, however long it took to form, can be easily erased with the swipe of his blade. Obviously, this connects with the unpredicted passing of his father.
Once my students navigate their way through the poem, they’re supposed to go back and answer those questions they formed from the prompt:
Here is what my thesis might look like:
Blanco associates the ritual of shaving with the passing of time and life. He recognizes there is a beauty in the growing of life, symbolized by the beard, but also grief towards that life-ending in order to remind readers that life itself is cyclic.
I would follow up my introduction with a paragraph about stanza 1 and the calm atmosphere and then my next body paragraph would be about the grief evidenced in stanzas 2 and 3. I would probably only have two body paragraphs because I let the answers to the questions from the prompt drive my essays.
This isn’t perfect. After these questions were released, I also heard about ten different interpretations from my kiddos. I embrace their diverse thinking and as long as they can write their ideas with conviction and solid evidence, they’ll be ok.
Part 3 of 4
Those few days between students testing and when the AP Literature FRQ questions are released seem infinite. I can’t be the only one checking the website obsessively just hoping they will drop those little gems a bit early – right? (Right?)
Now that they are public, they are open to scrutiny, and for question two, there was a lot to analyze.
For context, or for those of you who haven’t read the prompt yet, here is what College Board was asking the students for question two, the Prose Analysis Essay in 2022.
The following excerpt is from Linda Hogan’s novel People of the Whale, published in 2008. In this passage, the narrator described two events that occur in a community: an infant’s birth shortly followed by an octopus’s walking out of the sea. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how the author uses literary elements and techniques to develop a complex characterization of the community. In your response you should do the following: ● Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation. ● Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning. ● Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning. ● Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.
After looking at this prompt, there is a lot to unpack before moving into analyzing the passage.
Here are the questions I know I need to answer as I read the passage, based on the above prompt:
These questions can lead to a rough outline of the essay to write, but first, we need to really examine the excerpt provided from People of the Whale . Students may choose to do this in chunks, taking one paragraph at a time and really examining it through the lens of the questions above. Or, they may read the passage as a whole first to get an overall gist of what the excerpt is about and then go back and look deeper at each of the paragraphs.
Regardless of the approach they take, this excerpt is one of the longer ones that College Board has put out in recent years, and there is a lot of depth within the excerpt to pull from as students write.
After reading through the Prose Analysis Essay Excerpt , we can answer the questions above. This is how I would respond to them, but keep in mind, that students may respond differently, as might you. That is okay. That, in fact, is to be celebrated because the readers from College Board do not expect (or desire) to read essays that are carbon copies of one another.
Here is how I would approach these questions:
My thesis statement for this prompt might look like this:
This community is characterized primarily by its reaction to the octopus, which they treat as a deity to both pray to and fear, emphasizing their desperation and also their faith in forces beyond themselves.
In the chart below you will see the lines that I would pull for evidence if I were writing this essay and how I would connect them to my thesis.
“…the eye of it looking at them, each one seen as if each one were known in all their past, all their future.” (11-13) | The community reveres this octopus as a wise creature, one capable of seeing into a person’s past and a person’s future, much as a deity or god would- and that is before it ever takes up residence in the cave. This is just as it is walking on land- emphasizing their willingness to call on superstition as a first reaction. |
“…wanted to throw kerosene in the cave and burn it” (32) | Since the octopus was regarded as a deity, some feared it and what it meant to their community, and their response was to kill it, to ruin not just the creature, but the fear of the unknown that it awoke in them. |
“Its purpose was a mystery.” (36-37) | This octopus is imbued by the community with a sense of purpose which elevates its position in the community, highlighting its god-like status and assuming it has a mission beyond mere shelter. |
“And so the people thought it was holy and they left gifts outside the entrance to the black rock cave.” (39-41) | The townsfolk begin to offer the few possessions they have, their most valued treasures, as offerings for the god-from-the-sea. They act as if this sacrifice to the octopus will cause it to show them favor |
“…held her kicking baby up to it, to be seen by it. “Here is my son. You knew his grandfather. Watch over him.” | Not only are offerings being made in the form of physical goods, but by holding up the baby in front of the cave, this mother is essentially offering her son or dedicating him to the octopus in exchange for protection for the baby. This behavior implies that the mother is willing to offer not just pearls or physical treasures, but she is willing to offer up her newborn son which emphasizes her desperation. |
There are SO many ways to approach this excerpt, and hopefully, students were able to take the time to explore them as they were writing their essays, but even if time didn’t permit them to explore the passage as thoroughly as they might have hoped, there is no doubt that this Prose Analysis Essay question is rich in detail and provided many opportunities for interpretation and analysis.
Part 4 of 4
With AP Literature testing finally over and the College Board finally releasing the Free Response Questions, it’s time to talk about Question 3.
Fortunately for my kids, we had a class discussion recapping the novels we read throughout the year. We read Homegoing , The Nightingale , Clap When You Land, Twelfth Night, and then the kids had group novels they read. Some groups chose Fahrenheit 451, A Thousand White Women, and The Great Alone. Throughout the discussion, we recapped themes, major characters and their complexities, and powerful quotes. We ended by talking about common themes all the novels shared and we just so happen to talk about how all our novels challenge societal norms, political power, etc. So, it was perfect. But I know we got lucky with that prompt and not everyone was in our boat.
Of course, once the test was released, upon student request, I dissected the Question 3 prompt, and how I would have tackled this prompt.
The Prompt: 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. Either from your own reading or from the list below, choose a work of fiction in which a character responds to a hierarchy in some significant way. Then, in a well written essay, analyze how that character’s response to the hierarchy contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole period do not merely summarize the plot.
Let’s start by breaking down this prompt into the sub-questions nested within:
There are various ways this prompt can be broken down, but these seem like the main gist of the prompt. I love this prompt, by the way.
Before students can begin answering these questions, they may have needed to look at the context the College Board gave them about the types of hierarchies in order to decide which novel to choose.
I provided some examples of the different hierarchies in the chart below. This is not an exhaustive list, but it certainly can be a good starting point if you plan on using this prompt next year as practice. I also explored these ideas with my favorite novel from this year.
Types of hierarchies | Familial | Economical | Political | Social |
What it might look like in a novel | Some family member(s) might have a higher or lower ranking than other members of the family- for whatever reason- or no reason at all. | People with more money might have a higher ranking or power.
People with less money might have lower ranking or power | People with political power might have power over other groups. | Some social groups might have a higher or lower ranking than other groups. |
The Nightingale | Vianne certainly has a higher “rank” as she takes on the motherly role to try to keep Isabelle safe. Isabelle responds with complete rebellion and bitterness. | The Nazis shut down the school where Vianne works, and she just silently accepts her dwindling meager savings out of fear | Obviously, the Nazi soldiers invade France and seize complete control over everything. Vianne accepts this in silent fear, at first. Yet, Isabelle is determined to be a martyr. | Isabelle is described to be beautiful, and she catches the attention of a lot of young German soldiers. She responds with reckless rudeness and disdain. |
After determining how these hierarchies exist within some of our novels, we could use these ideas to answer the questions nested within the prompt. Again, The Nightingale was my favorite novel of the year so I will use that one.
My thesis would look something like this: Isabelle fights desperately to get out of the bottom of the familial hierarchy with her sister and the political one with the Nazi regime. Her rebellion against the injustice she faces and sees others facing is lifesaving, and life-changing, despite both hierarchies telling her she is invaluable and could never make a difference.
I would then spend a body paragraph defending how Vianne made her feel like a burden and an outcast within her own family. I would include all sorts of specific examples of moments when Vianne causes Isabelle to feel invaluable. I would then argue how her rebellion saved her own life, not in a literal way, but in an emotional sense as she gained self-worth. That drive to prove her worth and ability to make a difference would lead me to the next paragraph.
My next body paragraph would focus on the political hierarchy and how the Nazis constantly made her, and the people in her community, feel disposable and worthless. There are numerous examples of this as well that I would include. I would then link that disposable feeling to her rebellion and all the airmen she saved as she took on the persona of “The Nightingale”, truly making a massive difference in the lives of not only the airmen and their families, but causing some serious turmoil within the Nazi regime.
Is this essay perfect? Probably not. But this essay is accessible and when I showed this essay structure to my students after their exam (and after it was legal), they weren’t afraid that their essays were too far from the mark. They felt confident they were on the right track. And, when I show this essay idea to my class next year, they won’t be intimidated by the tasks within the prompt.
And there you have it. The breakdown of every free-response question on the 2022 AP English Literature Exam. We hope this was helpful.
Heather Garcia is an English teacher at Charlotte High School, Florida, where she teaches AP ® English Literature and AP ® English Language. She is a professional development leader in her district, running annual new-teacher trainings and is now the Curriculum and Instructional Specialist for her district for grades 6-12. After 16 years of hands-on experience, Heather has developed a series of strategies to help her students navigate challenging texts. Her favorite book is the Steinbeck classic, East of Eden .
Michelle Lindsey has been a high school teacher in Florida for nine years, and currently teaches AP® Capstone as well as literature and writing courses.
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To strengthen your AP Literature Poetry Essay essay, make sure you prepare ahead of time by knowing how the test is structured, and how to prepare. In this post, we’ll cover the structure of the test and show you how you can write a great AP Literature Poetry Essay.
The AP Literature exam has two sections. Section I contains 55 multiple choice questions, with 1 hour time allotted. This includes at least two prose fiction passages and two poetry passages.
Section II, on the other hand, is a free response section. Here, students write essays to 3 prompts. These prompts include a literary analysis of a poem, prose fiction, or in a work selected by the student. Because the AP Literature Exam is structured in a specific, predictable manner, it’s helpful to prepare yourself for the types of questions you’ll encounter on test day.
The Poetry Essay counts for one-third of the total essay section score, so it’s important to know how to approach this section. You’ll want to plan for about 40 minutes on this question, which is plenty of time to read and dissect the prompt, read and markup the poem, write a brief outline, and write a concise, well-thought out essay with a compelling analysis.
1. focus on the process.
Writing is a process, and so is literary analysis. Think less about finding the right answer, or uncovering the correct meaning of the poem (there isn’t one, most of the time). Read the prompt over at least twice, asking yourself carefully what you need to look for as you read. Then, read the poem three times. Once, to get an overall sense of the poem. Second, start to get at nuance; circle anything that’s recurring, underline important language and diction , and note important images or metaphors. In your annotations, you want to think about figurative language , and poetic structure and form . Third, pay attention to subtle shifts in the poem: does the form break, is there an interruption of some sort? When analyzing poetry, it’s important to get a sense of the big picture first, and then zoom in on the details.
No matter the prompt, you will always need to respond with a substantive thesis. A meaty thesis contains complexity rather than broad generalizations , and points to specifics in the poem.
By examining the colloquial language in Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem, “We Real Cool”, we can see the tension of choosing to be “cool”. This raises important ideas about education, structure, and routine, and the consequences of living to be “real cool”.
Notice how the thesis provides a roadmap of what is to follow in the essay , and identifies key ideas that the essay will explore. It is specific, and not vague. The thesis provides a bigger picture of the text, while zooming in the colloquial language the speaker uses.
A good thesis points out the why as much as the what . Notice how in the above example, the thesis discusses language in the poem as it connects to a bigger message about the poem. For example, it’s not enough to discuss Emily Dickinson’s enjambment and hyphens. A good thesis will make a compelling argument about why those infamous Dickinson hyphens are so widely questioned and examined. Perhaps a good thesis might suggest that this unique literary device is more about self-examination and the lapse in our own judgement.
To support your thesis, always use textual evidence . When you are creating an outline, choose a handful of lines in the poem that will help illuminate your argument. Make sure each claim in your essay is followed by textual evidence, either in the form of a paraphrase, or direct quote . Then, explain exactly how the textual evidence supports your argument . Using this structure will help keep you on track as you write, so that your argument follows a clear narrative that a reader will be able to follow.
Your essay will need to contain both description of the poem, and analysis . Remember that your job isn’t to describe or paraphrase every aspect of the poem. You also need lots of rich analysis, so be sure to balance your writing by moving from explicit description to deeper analysis.
A great essay for the AP Literature Exam will contain an introduction with a thesis (not necessarily always the last sentence of the paragraph), body paragraphs that contain clear topic sentences, and a conclusion . Be sure to spend time thinking about your organization before you write the paper. Once you start writing, you only want to think about content. It’s helpful to write a quick outline before writing your essay.
There’s nothing worse than a strong argument with awkward sentences, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Make sure to proofread your work before submitting it. Carefully edit your work, paying attention to any run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, commas, and spelling. You’d be surprised how many mistakes you’ll catch just by rereading your work.
It can be helpful to know what not to do when it comes time to prepare for the AP Literature Poetry Essay. Here are some common mistakes students make on the AP Literature Poetry Essay:
Your thesis should be arguable, and indicate the central ideas you will discuss in your essay. Read the prompt carefully and craft your thesis in light of what the prompt asks you to do. If the prompt mentions specific literary devices, find a way to tie those into your thesis. In your thesis, you want to connect to the meaning of the poem itself and what you feel the poet intended when using those particular literary devices.
Always stay close to the text when writing the AP Literature Poetry Essay. Remember that your job is not to paraphrase but to analyze. Keep explicit descriptions of the poem concise, and spend the majority of your time writing strong analysis backed up by textual evidence.
Make sure it’s not jarring to the reader when you switch to a new idea in a new paragraph. Use transitions and strong topic sentences to seamlessly blend your ideas together into a cohesive essay that flows well and is easy to follow.
Always include quotes from the text and reference specifics whenever you can. Introduce your quote briefly, and then explain how the quote connects back to the topic sentence after. Think about why the quotes connect back to the poet’s central ideas.
Of course, to write a fully developed essay you’ll need to spend a few minutes planning out your essay. Write a quick outline with a thesis, paragraph topics and a list of quotes that support your central ideas before getting started.
To improve your writing, take a look at these essay samples from the College Board, with scoring guidelines and commentary.
While you can self-report AP scores, they don’t really affect your admissions chances . Schools are more interested in how you performed in the actual class, as your grades impact your GPA. To understand how your GPA impacts your college chances, use our free chancing engine . We’ll let you know your personal chance of acceptance at over 1500 schools, plus give you tips for improving your profile.
Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.
December 14, 2023
We’d like to let you in on a little secret: no one, including us, enjoys writing timed essays. But a little practice goes a long way. If you want to head into your AP English Exam with a cool head, you’ll want to know what you’re getting into ahead of time. We can’t promise the AP Lang Argument Essay will ever feel like an island vacation, but we do have tons of hand tips and tricks (plus a sample essay!) below to help you do your best. This article will cover: 1) What is the AP Lang Argumentative Essay? 2) AP Lang Argument Rubric 3) AP Lang Argument Sample Prompt 4) AP Lang Argument Essay Example 5) AP Lang Argument Essay Example: Answer Breakdown.
The AP Lang Argument Essay is one of three essays included in the written portion of the AP English Exam. The full AP English Exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long, with the first 60 minutes dedicated to multiple-choice questions. Once you complete the multiple-choice section, you move on to three equally weighted essays that ask you to synthesize, analyze, and interpret texts and develop well-reasoned arguments. The three essays include:
Synthesis essay: You’ll review various pieces of evidence and then write an essay that synthesizes (aka combines and interprets) the evidence and presents a clear argument. Read our write-up on How to Write the AP Lang Synthesis Essay here.
Argumentative essay: You’ll take a stance on a specific topic and argue your case.
Rhetorical essay: You’ll read a provided passage, then analyze the author’s rhetorical choices and develop an argument that explains why the author made those rhetorical choices. Read our write-up on How to Write the AP Lang Rhetorical Essay here.
The AP Lang Argument Essay is graded on 3 rubric categories : Thesis, Evidence and Commentary, and Sophistication . How can you make sure you cover all three bases in your essay? We’ll break down each rubric category with dos and don’ts below:
When it comes to grading your thesis, AP Exam graders are checking off a box: you either have a clear thesis or you don’t. So, what crucial components of a thesis will get you your check mark?
This rubric category is graded on a scale of 0-4 where 4 is the highest grade. Unlike the rhetorical and synthesis essays, the evidence you need to write your AP Lang Argument Essay is not provided to you. Rather, you’ll need to generate your own evidence and comment upon it.
Typically, the AP Lang Argument Essay prompt asks you to reflect on a broad cultural, moral, or social issue that is open to debate. For evidence, you won’t be asked to memorize and cite statistics or facts. Rather, you’ll want to bring in real-world examples of:
For this essay, your graders know that you’re not able to do research to find the perfect evidence. What’s most important is that you find evidence that logically supports your argument.
In this essay, it’s important to do more than just provide examples relevant evidence. After each piece of evidence you include, you’ll need to explain why it’s significant and how it connects to your main argument. The analysis you include after your evidence is commentary .
According to the College Board , one point can be awarded to AP Lang Argument essays that achieve a high level of sophistication. You can accomplish that in four ways:
In sum, this means you can earn an additional point for going above and beyond in depth, complexity of thought, or by writing an especially persuasive, clear, and well-structured essay. In order to earn this point, you’ll first need to do a good job with the fundamentals: your thesis, evidence, and commentary. Then, to earn your sophistication point, follow these tips:
The sample prompt below is published online by the College Board and is a real example from the 2021 AP English Exam. The prompt provides background context, essay instructions, and the text you need to analyze.
Suggested time—40 minutes.
Many people spend long hours trying to achieve perfection in their personal or professional lives. Similarly, people often demand perfection from others, creating expectations that may be challenging to live up to. In contrast, some people think perfection is not attainable or desirable.
Write an essay that argues your position on the value of striving for perfection.
In your response you should do the following:
As the old phrase says, “Practice makes perfect.” But is perfection something that is actually attainable? Sometimes, pushing for perfection helps us achieve great things, but most often, perfectionism puts too much pressure on us and prevents us from knowing when we have done the best we can. Striving for perfection can only lead us to shortchange ourselves. Instead, we should value learning, growth, and creativity and not worry whether we are first or fifth best.
Students often feel the need to be perfect in their classes, and this can cause students to struggle or stop making an effort in class. In elementary and middle school, for example, I was very nervous about public speaking. When I had to give a speech, my voice would shake, and I would turn very red. My teachers always told me “relax!” and I got Bs on Cs on my speeches. As a result, I put more pressure on myself to do well, spending extra time making my speeches perfect and rehearsing late at night at home. But this pressure only made me more nervous, and I started getting stomach aches before speaking in public.
Once I got to high school, however, I started doing YouTube make-up tutorials with a friend. We made videos just for fun, and laughed when we made mistakes or said something silly. Only then, when I wasn’t striving to be perfect, did I get more comfortable with public speaking.
In the world of art and business and science, perfectionism can also limit what we are able to achieve. Artists, for example, have to take risks and leave room for creativity. If artists strive for perfection, then they won’t be willing to fail at new experiments and their work will be less innovative and interesting. In business and science, many products, like penicillin for example, were discovered by accident. If the scientist who discovered penicillin mold growing on his petri dishes had gotten angry at his mistake and thrown the dishes away, he would never have discovered a medicine that is vital to us today.
Some fields do need to value perfection. We wouldn’t like it, for example, if our surgeon wasn’t striving for perfection during our operation. However, for most of us, perfectionism can limit our potential for learning and growth. Instead of trying to be perfect, we should strive to learn, innovate, and do our personal best.
The sample AP Lang Argumentative Essay above has some strengths and some weaknesses. Overall, we would give this essay a 3 or a 4. Let’s break down what’s working and what could be improved:
Looking for more tips to help you master your AP Lang Argumentative Essay? Brush up on 20 Rhetorical Devices High School Students Should Know and read our Tips for Improving Reading Comprehension .
If you’re ready to start studying for another part of the AP English Exam, find more expert tips in our How to Write the AP Lang Synthesis and How to Write the AP Lang Rhetorical Essay blog posts.
Christina Wood holds a BA in Literature & Writing from UC San Diego, an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in English at the University of Georgia, where she teaches creative writing and first-year composition courses. Christina has published fiction and nonfiction in numerous publications, including The Paris Review , McSweeney’s , Granta , Virginia Quarterly Review , The Sewanee Review , Mississippi Review , and Puerto del Sol , among others. Her story “The Astronaut” won the 2018 Shirley Jackson Award for short fiction and received a “Distinguished Stories” mention in the 2019 Best American Short Stories anthology.
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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 ...
4 points: • Uniformly offer evidence to support claims. • Focus on the importance of specific words and details from the passage to build an interpretation. • Organize and support an argument as a line of reasoning composed of multiple supporting claims, each with adequate evidence that is clearly explained.
Question 1. (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.) In Ai's poem "The Man with the Saxophone," published in 1985, the speaker encounters a man playing a saxophone. Read the poem carefully.
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 ...
55 questions 45% of Score. There are 5 sets of questions made up of 8-13 questions each. Questions include excerpts from prose fiction, drama, or poetry. Each excerpt is accompanied by several multiple-choice questions. There will be at least 2 prose fiction passages (this may include drama) and at least 2 poetry passages.
1.D, 7.A, 7.B, 3 more... Original free-response prompts for AP® English Literature that mimic the questions found on the real exam. Our expert authors also provide an exemplary response for each AP free response question so students can better understand what AP graders look for.
The writing focuses on the experience, evaluation, and interpretation of the literature. The AP English Literature Exam format is: Multiple-Choice Section. -60 minutes. -45% of final grade. -55 multiple choice questions. Free-Response Section. -120 minutes. -55% of final grade.
The actual AP English Literature free response questions from 1999 to 2018. Also includes scoring guidelines, sample essays, statistics, and distributions. Exam Reader's Writing Advice. Make sure you review this before taking your final exam. It's a quick read, but it has a number of useful tips for the AP Lit free response section from an ...
There are 46 AP Literature multiple choice questions in the College Board course description on pages 12 to 27. Also includes sample free response questions. A great review! Varsity Tutors. Over 500 free practice questions with full answer explanations. These questions are all organized by topic. Practice with the whole set or pick a specific ...
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 ® English Literature and Composition Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary Inside: Free-Response Question 2 ... Question 2 (continued) essay but rather to engage in a process of thinking as they explored the passage and drafted their responses. Sample: 2A
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.
Question 1: Olive Senior, "Plants". The score should reflect the quality of the essay as a whole — its content, style, and mechanics. Reward the students for what they do well. The score for an exceptionally well-written essay may be raised by 1 point above the otherwise appropriate score. In no case may a poorly written essay be scored ...
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 ...
16%. 17%. Of these 297,009 students, 3 achieved a perfect score from all professors/readers on all essays and correctly answered every multiple-choice question, resulting in the rare and impressive feat of earning all 120 of 120 points possible on an AP English Literature Exam. Identities of the 2021 AP English Literature Exams' Cited Authors.
2021 AP ® English Literature and Composition ... Sample 1A 2 of 4; Sample 1A 3 of 4; Sample 1A 4 of 4; Sample 1B 1 of 3; ... 2021 AP Exam Administration Student Samples: AP English Literature and Composition Free-Response Question 1 College Board 2021 AP Exam Administration: Student Samples and Commentary ...
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 ...
The AP Literature exam has two sections. Section I contains 55 multiple choice questions, with 1 hour time allotted. This includes at least two prose fiction passages and two poetry passages. Section II, on the other hand, is a free response section. Here, students write essays to 3 prompts.
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 ...
AP®ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 2018 SCORING GUIDELINES. Question 2: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance. The score should reflect the quality of the essay as a whole — its content, style, and mechanics. Reward the students for what they do well. The score for an exceptionally well-written essay may be raised by 1 point above ...
2021 AP ® English Literature and Composition Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary Inside: ... Sample 3B 2 of 2: ... AP English Literature and Composition Free-Response Question 3 College Board 2021 AP Exam Administration: Student Samples and Commentary ...
Typically, the AP Lang Argument Essay prompt asks you to reflect on a broad cultural, moral, or social issue that is open to debate. For evidence, you won't be asked to memorize and cite statistics or facts. Rather, you'll want to bring in real-world examples of: Historical events. Current-day events from the news.