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 .
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).
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.
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.
Advanced Placement (AP)
A lot of students wonder if there's a specific AP English reading list of books they should be reading to succeed on the AP Literature and Composition exam. While there's not an official College-Board AP reading list, there are books that will be more useful for you to read than others as you prepare for the exam. In this article, I'll break down why you need to read books to prepare, how many you should plan on reading, and what you should read—including poetry.
This might seem like kind of an obvious question—you need to read books because it's a literature exam! But actually, there are three specific reasons why you need to read novels, poems, and plays in preparation for the AP Lit Test.
Reading a diverse array of novels, poetry and plays from different eras and genres will help you be familiar with the language that appears in the various passages on the AP Lit exam's multiple choice and essay sections. If you read primarily modern works, for example, you may stumble through analyzing a Shakespeare sonnet. So, having a basic familiarity level with the language of a broad variety of literary works will help keep you from floundering in confusion on test day because you're seeing a work unlike anything you've ever read.
You'll also want to read to improve your close-reading and rhetorical analysis skills. When you do read, really engage with the text: think about what the author's doing to construct the novel/poem/play/etc., what literary techniques and motifs are being deployed, and what major themes are at play. You don't necessarily need to drill down to the same degree on every text, but you should always be thinking, "Why did the author write this piece this way?"
Perhaps the most critical piece in reading to prepare for the AP Lit test, however, is for the student choice free-response question. For the third question on the second exam section, you'll be asked to examine how a specific theme works in one novel or play that you choose. The College Board does provide an example list of works, but you can choose any work you like just so long as it has adequate "literary merit." However, you need to be closely familiar with more than one work so that you can be prepared for whatever theme the College Board throws at you!
Note: Not an effective reading method.
That depends. In terms of reading to increase your familiarity with literature from different eras and genres and to improve your close-reading skills, the more books you have time to read, the better. You'll want to read them all with an eye for comprehension and basic analysis, but you don't necessarily need to focus equally on every book you read.
For the purposes of the student choice question, however, you'll want to read books more closely, so that you could write a detailed, convincing analytical essay about any of their themes. So you should know the plot, characters, themes, and major literary devices or motifs used inside and out. Since you won't know what theme you'll be asked to write about in advance, you'll need to be prepared to write a student choice question on more than just one book.
Of the books you read for prep both in and out of class, choose four to five books that are thematically diverse to learn especially well in preparation for the exam. You may want to read these more than once, and you certainly want to take detailed notes on everything that's going on in those books to help you remember key points and themes. Discussing them with a friend or mentor who has also read the book will help you generate ideas on what's most interesting or intriguing about the work and how its themes operate in the text.
You may be doing some of these activities anyways for books you are assigned to read for class, and those books might be solid choices if you want to be as efficient as possible. Books you write essays about for school are also great choices to include in your four to five book stable since you will be becoming super-familiar with them for the writing you do in class anyways.
In answer to the question, then, of how many books you need to read for the AP Lit exam: you need to know four to five inside and out, and beyond that, the more the better!
Know the books. Love the books.
The most important thing for the student choice free-response question is that the work you select needs to have "literary merit." What does this mean? In the context of the College Board, this means you should stick with works of literary fiction. So in general, avoid mysteries, fantasies, romance novels, and so on.
If you're looking for ideas, authors and works that have won prestigious prizes like the Pulitzer, Man Booker, the National Book Award, and so on are good choices. Anything you read specifically for your AP literature class is a good choice, too. If you aren't sure if a particular work has the kind of literary merit the College Board is looking for, ask your AP teacher.
When creating your own AP Literature reading list for the student choice free-response, try to pick works that are diverse in author, setting, genre, and theme. This will maximize your ability to comprehensively answer a student choice question about pretty much anything with one of the works you've focused on.
So, I might, for example, choose:
A Midsummer Night's Dream , Shakespeare, play, 1605
Major themes and devices: magic, dreams, transformation, foolishness, man vs. woman, play-within-a-play
Wuthering Heights , Emily Bronte, novel, 1847
Major themes and devices: destructive love, exile, social and economic class, suffering and passion, vengeance and violence, unreliable narrator, frame narrative, family dysfunction, intergenerational narratives.
The Age of Innocence , Edith Wharton, novel, 1920
Major themes and devices: Tradition and duty, personal freedom, hypocrisy, irony, social class, family, "maintaining appearances", honor
Wide Sargasso Sea , Jean Rhys, novel, 1966
Major themes and devices: slavery, race, magic, madness, wildness, civilization vs. chaos, imperialism, gender
As you can see, while there is some thematic overlap in my chosen works, they also cover a broad swathe of themes. They are also all very different in style (although you'll just have to take my word on that one unless you go look at all of them yourself), and they span a range of time periods and genres as well.
However, while there's not necessarily a specific, mandated AP Literature reading list, there are books that come up again and again on the suggestion lists for student choice free-response questions. When a book comes up over and over again on exams, this suggests both that it's thematically rich, so you can use it to answer lots of different kinds of questions, and that the College Board sees a lot of value in the work.
To that end, I've assembled a list, separated by time period, of all the books that have appeared on the suggested works list for student choice free-response questions at least twice since 2003. While you certainly shouldn't be aiming to read all of these books (there's way too many for that!), these are all solid choices for the student choice essay. Other books by authors from this list are also going to be strong choices. It's likely that some of your class reading will overlap with this list, too.
I've divided up the works into chunks by time period. In addition to title, each entry includes the author, whether the work is a novel, play, or something else, and when it was first published or performed. Works are alphabetical by author.
Warning: Not all works pictured included in AP Literature reading list below.
The Queen of AP Literature surveys her kingdom.
Don't get trapped in a literature vortex!
Don't stay in one reading position for too long, or you'll end up like this guy.
You probably won't be writing about poetry on your student choice essay—most just aren't meaty enough in terms of action and character to merit a full-length essay on the themes when you don't actually have the poem in front of you (a major exception being The Odyssey ). That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be reading poetry, though! You should be reading a wide variety of poets from different eras to get comfortable with all the varieties of poetic language. This will make the poetry analysis essay and the multiple-choice questions about poetry much easier!
See this list of poets compiled from the list given on page 10 of the AP Course and Exam Description for AP Lit, separated out by time period. For those poets who were working during more than one of the time periods sketched out below, I tried to place them in the era in which they were more active.
I've placed an asterisk next to the most notable and important poets in the list; you should aim to read one or two poems by each of the starred poets to get familiar with a broad range of poetic styles and eras.
You might rather burn books than read them after the exam, but please refrain.
Why do you need to read books to prepare for AP Lit? For three reasons:
#1 : To become familiar with a variety of literary eras and genres #2 : To work on your close-reading skills #3 : To become closely familiar with four-five works for the purposes of the student choice free-response essay analyzing a theme in a work of your choice.
How many books do you need to read? Well, you definitely need to get very familiar with four-five for essay-writing purposes, and beyond that, the more the better!
Which books should you read? Check out the AP English Literature reading list in this article to see works that have appeared on two or more "suggested works" lists on free-response prompts since 2003.
And don't forget to read some poetry too! See some College Board recommended poets listed in this article.
See my expert guide to the AP Literature test for more exam tips!
The multiple-choice section of the AP Literature exam is a key part of your score. Learn everything you need to know about it in our complete guide to AP Lit multiple-choice questions.
Taking other APs? Check out our expert guides to the AP Chemistry exam , AP US History , AP World History , AP Psychology , and AP Biology .
Looking for other book recommendation lists from PrepScholar? We've compiled lists of the 7 books you must read if you're a pre-med and the 31 books to read before graduating high school .
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AP English Literature and Composition Exam Questions
2021 AP ® English Literature and Composition ... together to support the essay's line of reasoning—"it is not even inherently the actions of others that spark . AP ® English Literature and Composition 2021 Scoring Commentary . AP ® 2021 AP Exam Administration Student Samples: AP English Literature and Composition Free-Response Question 1
2021 AP ® English Literature and Composition ... At the end of paragraph 4, the essay brings together the examples presented through the observation, "Here the thematic conclusion on trauma is clear— ... 2021 AP Exam Administration Student Samples: AP English Literature and Composition Free-Response Question 3 College Board
Fifth: Give each literary device its own body paragraph. In this essay, the writer examines the use of two literary devices that are supported by multiple pieces of evidence. The first is "romantic imagery" and the second is "hyperbolic imagery.". The writer dedicates one paragraph to each idea. You should do this, too.
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 ...
to heal." The essay also develops a complex literary argument as evidenced in the line of reasoning consistently layered throughout the essay. Sample Identifier: B—Wuthering Heights Score: 1-4-0 A. Thesis (0-1 points): 1 • This clearly organized essay analyzes the symbolism of the two houses in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
The AP English Literature and Composition Exam is 3 hours long and broken up into two sections. Section I (One hour) 45 percent of total score 55 multiple-choice questions based on 2 or 3 poems and 2 or 3 passages of fiction. Section II (Two hours) 55 percent of total score 3 essays. Essay 1: An analysis of a poem.
concepts—albeit with examples very explicitly tailored to the AP Literature Exam. This overlap is deliberate. The two AP English Exams essentially form a "set": they are written according to a common template and share the same question types. The fact that one focuses on non-fiction and the other on fiction is in many ways incidental.
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.
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.
inforces the argume. oxicating2021 College Board.Visit College Board on the web: collegeboard.org.feeling of authority" and "Ivan clings to the authority for a wh. onstrate sophistication.Sample Identifier: B Score: 1-4-0Thesis (0-1 points): 1This essay responds to the prompt with a clear examination of the complex.
Thanks! 8 months ago. You can find high-scoring essay examples for the AP Lit Exam on the College Board website. They provide samples of student responses along with the corresponding scores and commentary. Navigate to the year you want, and you'll find samples with detailed explanations. Here's the link to their resources: https://apcentral ...
The essay focuses on the three main characters from the passage: the narrator, Ivan Loon, and the woman who is the victim of Loonie's trick. The student incorporates specific examples of literary techniques, such as "specific details" and diction, but does so through the lens of each character's level of authority. For example, in
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 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. ... AP Lang Argument Essay Example—More Resources. ... Christina Wood holds a BA in Literature & Writing from UC San Diego, an MFA ...
The 2019 AP English Literature Course and Exam Description has practice multiple-choice questions and free-response questions.They don't add up to a complete test--there are only 19 multiple-choice questions instead of 55-but there are three free response questions (enough for a full test). Even though there aren't many multiple-choice ...
Starting in the 2024-25 school year, AP English Literature and Composition multiple-choice questions (MCQs) will have four answer choices instead of five. This change will take effect with the 2025 exam. All resources have been updated to reflect this change. Exam Duration.
The AP English Literature and Composition Exam has consistent question types, weighting, and scoring guidelines every year, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day. There will also be a consistent range of difficulty in the reading passages across all versions of the exam from year to year. The free-response questions will be ...
rors that interfere with communication cannot earn the fourth point in this row.To earn the fourth point in this row, the response may observe multiple instances of the same literary ele. Reporting CategoryScoring CriteriaRow. tication (0-1 points)0 pointsDoes not meet the criteria for one point.1 pointD.
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.
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.
An Addendum on Poetry. You probably won't be writing about poetry on your student choice essay—most just aren't meaty enough in terms of action and character to merit a full-length essay on the themes when you don't actually have the poem in front of you (a major exception being The Odyssey).That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be reading poetry, though!
37.3. 18.8. The following comments on the 2021 free-response questions for AP English Literature and Composition were written by the Chief Reader, David Miller of Mississippi College, with assistance from Chief Reader Designate Steven Price and Exam Leader Kathy Keyes. They give an overview of each free-response question and of how students ...