AP Literature & Composition Exam Review

May 9th, 2018

Part 1:Multiple Choice

60 minutesApprox. 55 questions

Both Prose & Poetry

What kind of questions will I see?

How should I spend my time?

Strategies to use?

Example QuestionsProse

What kinds of questions will you see?

Several things going on here…

-Connotation of individual words (#7)

-Tone (#7-pedantically, grandiloquently, #9)

-Inferencing (#8)

-Author’s purpose (#9)

Example QuestionsPoetry

What kinds of questions will you see?

Several things going on here…

-Interpretation of figurative language (#19 & #20)

-Structure & Inference (#21)

1. Multiple ChoiceTips: Use the same annotating and analysis strategies for the MCQs as you would with the Free Response Questions (aka, the close reading essays).

➔ Structure?Do you notice anything unusual with the structure, particularly in the poems? This includes syntactical considerations.

➔ Tone?What is the author’s attitude? Does it change?

➔ Time?How are you doing on time?

Part 2:Free Response

Section2 hours3 essays

How should I approach each close reading passage?

Writing for Question 3?

Close Reading Questions

The ultimate goal is to discuss the textual elements and their

impact on the passage’s meaning.

The example to the right incorporates examples of what you need to address: textual elements, the device used in that

textual element, and the author’s purpose for including it.

We start with a statement like this, and build related statements into a

paragraph.

Diction/Tone& Syntax

Because I Could Not Stop For DeathEmily Dickinson, 1830-1886

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us – The Dews drew quivering and chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses’ Heads Were toward Eternity –

Mother to SonLangston Hughes, 1902-1967

Well, son, I’ll tell you:Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.It’s had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.But all the timeI’se been a-climbin’ on,And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,And sometimes goin’ in the darkWhere there ain’t been no light.So boy, don’t you turn back.Don’t you set down on the steps’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.Don’t you fall now—For I’se still goin’, honey,I’se still climbin’,And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

The Great Scarf of BirdsJohn Updike, 1932-2009

Playing golf on Cape Ann in OctoberI saw something to remember.

Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the netsof their branches. The mapleswere colored like apples, (5)part orange and red, part green.The elms, already transparent trees,seemed swaying vases full of sky. The skywas dramatic with great straggling V’sof geese streaming south, mare’s-tails above them. (10)Their trumpeting made us look up and around.The course sloped into salt marshes,and this seemed to cause the abundance of birds.

As if out of the Bibleor science fiction, (15)a cloud appeared, a cloud of dotslike iron filings which a magnetunderneath the paper undulates.

It dartingly darkened in spots,paled, pulsed compressed, distended, yet (20)held an identity firm: a flockof starlings, as much one thing as a rock.One will moved above the treesthe liquid and hesitant drift.

Come nearer, it became less marvellous, (25)more legible, and merely huge.

“I never saw so many birds!” my friend exclaimed.We returned our eyes to the game.Later, as Lot’s wife must have done,in a pause of walking, not thinking (30)of calling down a consequence,

I lazily looked around.The rise of the fairway above us was tinted,so evenly tinted I might not have noticedbut that at the rim of the delicate shadow (35)the starlings were thicker and outlined the flock

as an inkstain in drying pronounces its edges.The gradual rise of green was vastly covered;I had thought nothing in nature could be so broad but grass. (40)

And asI watched, one bird,

prompted by accident or will to lead,ceased resting; and, lifting in a casual billow,the flock ascended as a lady’s scarf, (45)transparent, of gray, might be twitched

by one corner, drawn upward and then,decided against, negligently tossed toward a chair:the southward cloud withdrew into the air.Long had it been since my heart (50)had been lifted as it was by the lifting of that great scarf.

2. Close ReadingOur ultimate goal is to determine how the author uses a variety of textual elements (the method) to create meaning...

➔ Diction & ToneWhat does the author’s word choice reveal about the characters? About his/her attitude?

➔ SyntaxWhat effect does the author’s sentence structure create? Does it speed things up? If so, why?

➔ Other elementsWe didn’t talk much about imagery or other figurative language, but the same principles apply.

Question 3

What are you going to get?

What are you going to get?

3. Question 3Our ultimate goal is to determine how an author uses the subject from the prompt (cruelty, justice, sacrifice, etc.) to develop the novel or play’s overall meaning.

➔ MOWAWHow does the subject develop the novel/play’s theme? What is the universal truth the author is attempting to convey?

➔ “A Work of Similar Literary Merit”Any of the texts we read this year will qualify for Question 3. Please don’t choose Young Adult fiction (Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.)!

➔ Be specific!Be specific in your references to the text, even if you can’t remember direct quotations. Concrete references to characters, events, etc., will help your discussion.

Question 3As part of your review...

Look at our list of titles from this year. Brainstorm the subjects that each text dealt with (see the image to the right for an example), and for the 3-4 texts that you feel most comfortable with, go further. How are those subjects explored? How does the subject contribute to the MOWAW?