Cracking the AP Literature Exam

1
Cracking the AP Literature Exam

• Multiple Choice

2
It is likely that at least passage is chosen from
each of the following periods

• Sixteenth or the early seventeenth century
• Restoration or eighteenth century
• Nineteenth century
• Twentieth century
• Within the Last 500 years!

3
Reading the Multiple Choice Passages

• Pay attention to punctuation and rhythms of the
  lines or sentences.
• Read as if you were reading the passage aloud to
  an audience emphasizing meaning and intent.
• Hear the words in your head.
• Pay attention to the title, author, date of
  publication, and footnotes.
• Look for foreshadowing.
• Be aware of thematic lines and details.
• Pay attention to enjambment and end-stopped lines
  in poetry.

4
The Straightforward Question

• The poem is an example of
• The word smooth refers to

5
The question that refers you to specific lines
and asks you to draw a conclusion or to interpret.

• Lines 52-57 serve to

6
The all . . . except question

• These require extra time because they demand you
  consider every possibility.

7
Make inferences or abstract a concept that is not
directly stated in the passage

• In the poem My Last Duchess, the reader can
  infer that the speaker is
• Skip if you are short on time.

8
Roman Numerals

• In the poem, night refers to
• The death of the maiden
• A pun on Sir Lancelots title
• The end of the affair
• Skip if you are short on time.

9
Dramatic Situation Questions

• Speaker
• Male or female
• Where
• When
• Circumstances
• Audience

10
Structure Questions

• Punctuation
• Repetitions
• How are stanzas 1 and 2 related to stanza 3?
• What word in line 20 refers back to an idea used
  in lines 5, 10, and 15?
• Which of the following divisions of the poem best
  represents its structure?

11
Theme questions

• Which of the following best sums up the meaning
  of stanza 2?
• With which of the following is the poem centrally
  concerned?
• The poet rejects the notion of an indifferent
  universe because . . . .

12
Images and figures of speech questions

• Expect a large number of these.
• Sensory objects
• Similes and metaphors (What is compared?)
• Pattern in the images
• To which of the following does the poet compare
  his love?
• The images in lines 3 and 8 come from what area
  of science?
• The figure of the rope used in line 7 is used
  later in the poem in line . . . .

13
Single word questions

• Diction
• Which of the following words is used to suggest
  the poets dislike of winter?
• The poets use of the word air in line 8 is to
  indicate . . . .
• The poets delight in the garden is suggested by
  all of the following words EXCEPT . . .

14
Tone questions

• These do not appear frequently.
• The tone of the poem can best be described as . .
  . .

15
Literary devices questions

• Rhetorical devices
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Which of the following literary techniques is
  illustrated by the phrase murmurous hum an buzz
  of the hive?

16
Grammar questions

• Look carefully at the context.
• The obvious meaning of the word is usually not
  the one used in the poem.
• May exploit double meanings
• Which of the following best defines the word
  glass as it is used in line 9?
• To which of the following does the word which
  in line 7 refer?
• The verb had done may best be paraphrased as .
  . . .

17
If no choice immediately strikes you as correct,
you can

• Eliminate those that are obviously wrong.
• Eliminate those choices that are too narrow or
  too broad.
• Eliminate illogical choices.
• Eliminate answers that are synonymous.
• Eliminate answers that cancel each other out.

18
If two answers are close, do one or the other of
the following

• Find the one that is general enough to cover all
  aspects of the question.
• Find the one that is limited enough to be the
  detail the question is looking for.

19
If time is running out and you havent finished
the fourth selection

• Scan the remaining questions and look for
• -the shortest questions
• -the questions that direct you to a specific
  line
• Look for specific detail/definition questions.
• Look for self-contained/direct questions.

20
Poets

• Shakespeare
• John Donne
• Philip Larkin
• Emily Dickinson
• Sylvia Plath
• Dylan Thomas
• May Swenson
• Theodore Roethke
• Richard Wilbur
• Adrienne Rich
• Edmund Spencer
• W. H. Auden
• W. B. Yeats
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Elizabeth Bishop
• Langston Hughes

21
Prose Multiple Choice
22
Genre questions

• From what kind of work is the selection taken?
  (fiction or nonfiction)

23
Narrator questions

• Speaker
• Attitudes toward the characters or subject
• Who
• Where
• When
• Why
• audience

24
Subject questions

• Purpose

25
Structure questions

• Determine how each part (paragraph) advances the
  passage as a whole.

26
Style questions

• Diction
• Imagery
• Figurative language
• Syntax
• Rhetoric (use of words to persuade or influence a
  reader)

27
Situation and content questions

• The main subject of the passage is . . . .
• The primary distinction made in the first
  paragraph is between . . . .
• According to lines 3-7, which of the following is
  the chief . . . .
• In the third paragraph, the author is chiefly
  concerned with . . . .

28
Meaning of words or phrases questions

• As it is used in line 2, the word ---- can be
  best understood to mean . . . .
• In line 7, the word ---- employs all of the
  following meanings EXCEPT . . .
• The phrase ----- is best understood to mean . . .
  .

29
Diction questions

• The speakers choice of verbs in the paragraph is
  to stress the . . . .
• The speakers anger is suggested by all of the
  following EXCEPT . . . .

30
Figurative language questions

• The comparison in lines 1-3 compares . . .
• The analogy of the second paragraph compares . .
  . .
• The phrase ----- is best read as a metaphor
  relating to . . . .
• The purpose of the astronomy metaphor in line 9
  is to . . . .

31
Structure questions

• The transitions from the first to the second and
  the second to the third paragraph are dependent
  upon . . . .
• The last paragraph of the passage is related to
  the first chiefly by . . . .

32
Literary techniques questions

• In the third paragraph, the description of the
  cat on roller skates is an example
• of . . . .
• All of the following phrases are paradoxes EXCEPT
  . . . .
• The phrase silent scream is an example of . . .
  .

33
Rhetoric questions

• The rhetorical purpose of lines 1-6 is to . . .
• The argument of the passage can be best described
  as progressing from . . . .
• Which of the following best describes the
  function of the last sentence?
• The effect of shifting from the past to the
  present tense in the third paragraph is . . .
• The happiness of the speaker is conveyed
  primarily by the use of . . . .

34
Tone questions

• The tone of the passage may be described as . . .
  .
• In discussing ------ in the second paragraph, the
  speaker adopts a tone
• of . . . .