College Board AP English Language and Composition: Past Exams

Browse our range of College Board AP® English Language Past Exams and Mark Schemes below. Testing yourself with AP® English Language past exams is a great way to identify which topics need more revision, so you can ensure that you are revising as effectively as possible to help you get ready for your AP® English Language exam.

Visit all of our College Board AP® Past Exams here .

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The 2022 AP® Lit FRQ Questions Were Just Released: Now what?

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 .

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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?

  • They provide us a glimpse into the mind of College Board so we can prepare appropriately for the exam each year.
  • When we use these past questions in our lesson plans, they help students familiarize themselves with College Board’s style of questioning, which creates comfort heading into the test in May.
  • They expose students to a broad spectrum of literary excerpts and poems that they may not have read otherwise.
  • It gives classes a common reading experience and reference points throughout the year so students can say “Hey, this poem is like the one about the Juggler from College Board”, and then a conversation can ensue.
  • College Board will eventually release a sample high, mid, and low scoring essay for us to use in our classrooms with our students, which allows students to apply the rubric and determine what College Board is looking for from students.

How can I incorporate them into my course next year?

  • Use the released prompts as weekly practice: You can rotate prompts out week by week or coordinate them to the units you are teaching according to the Course Exam Description provided by College Board.
  • Model your own prompts after College Board’s: If you want to use the content you were planning to teach anyway, say a particular poem that you love or an excerpt from a novel or play you are already reading, you can use the 2022 prompts as models as you create your own College Board-like prompts.
  • Incorporate them after each novel or play you read: The released Literary Argument prompts (question 3) can be used as discussion prompts, journal prompts, or timed essay prompts for novels or plays that you are already reading in class.
  • Encourage students to analyze the released student samples: Since College Board releases a high, mid, and low scoring essay for each essay prompt, those are great examples to offer students. Students can “peer score” them on the rubric or they can analyze them with partners to determine what works and what might need improvement to raise the score.

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!

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 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:

  • What are the associations with the ritual of shaving?
  • What is complex about those associations?
  • How do we know? (can be answered in their body paragraphs)
  • Why do we care? (something I make them add to encourage them to talk about the theme as a common reading)

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:

  • What are the associations with the ritual of shaving? A: Our narrator associates the ritual of shaving with the passing of time and life (and his father).
  • What is complex about those associations? A: Although he begins the poem in a calm manner, it is evident that our narrator (or author) still has unresolved grief he is still managing.
  • How do we know? A: Stanza one has the calm similes and imagery- yet slight undertones of the unknown and stanzas 2 and 3 have the tone shift (but I would save these ideas for my body paragraphs).
  • Why do we care? A: We care because life is a cycle, like shaving, life grows and is then cut off and more life grows after that.

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.

The 2022 AP Lit FRQ 2: Examining Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale

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:

  • How would I define this community and how it is characterized?
  • Why or how is it complex?
  • What literary elements or techniques are being employed to create this characterization?

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:

  • This community is closely connected and ruled by a combination of fear, superstition, and religion that clouds their perceptions of reality as they treat the octopus as a deity that consumed and enriches their lives despite their poverty.
  • The complexity arises because the people of the town do not all respond the same way to the octopus residing in the cave- causing tension and unrest amongst the community and many ultimately ended up worshiping the octopus out of fear or devotion. 
  • Characterization of the community occurs through the use of mounting tension within the narrative, through the use of personification of the octopus, and through the various reactions of the townsfolk (selection of detail).

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.

2022 AP Lit FRQ 3: Accepting or Rejecting Hierarchical Structure

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:

  • What is the hierarchy within the novel?
  • Which character has a response to it?
  • How does that character respond?
  • What is the interpretation of the work as a whole?
  • What makes that response significant regarding that interpretation?

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 hierarchiesFamilialEconomicalPoliticalSocial
What it might look like in a novelSome 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 NightingaleVianne 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 fearObviously, 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.

  • What is the hierarchy within the novel? A: Familial hierarchy and political hierarchy play the largest roles. I would mention both hierarchies to bring in some complexity
  • Which character has a response to it? A: Although both sisters respond to both hierarchies, Isabelle would be my focus because she feels she is at the very bottom of both hierarchies and has the largest character arch.
  • How does that character respond? A: She responds with rebellion, anger, and recklessness
  • What is the interpretation of the work as a whole? A: The entire novel focuses on fighting against injustice- in all different forms.
  • What makes that response significant regarding that interpretation? A: Isabelle is sick of feeling inferior to her sister and feeling disposable by the Nazis, so she decides to do something about it. She shows readers that a single person can truly make a big difference.

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

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

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.

ap released essays

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, .
in the DropBox files. Many of these files are available in Word document form in the DropBox, so you can edit the originals easily.

AP Lit Referenced Titles, 1970 to 2024, as .
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.

.

You can still use the to locate which file holds the scored sample essays.


Long lost formats, four that were actually used for both Literature & Language. Personal favorites, like the Pairs Prompt. And a 1996 Country Prompt student essay on that the Chief Reader agreed was a 10 (and photo-copied for me). Yes, a 10.

It’s All Happening Online —Useful Links

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 Language Home Page -- Classroom Resources
  • AP Language Exam -- CED (Course and Exam Description), 2021 FRQ (Free Response Questions), and Past Exam FRQs (from 1999).
  • AP Literature Home Page -- Classroom Resources
  • AP Literature Exam -- CED (Course and Exam Description), 2021 FRQ (Free Response Questions), and Past Exam FRQs (from 1999).
  • AP Teacher Community (Skip Nicholson) -- Join the AP English community, a combined group for Language & Literature. New version of the old ListServ .
  • AP Language YouTube Channel (Live Review) -- 11 videos
  • AP Literature YouTube Channel (Live Review) -- 10 videos

AP English FaceBook Groups

  • A P Language and Composition Teachers (Kristy Seidel)
  • A P Literature and Composition (Brian Sztabnik)
  • A P Literature and Composition Teachers (Michael Yeakey & Heather Davide Carlotz)

Teacher Sites -- Where have all the teachers gone? On sabbatical, into administration, to commercial sites, to retirement. So sorry.

  • Gina Korteum’s Lit & More : Modest but masterful, Gina shares a wealth of free resources on her website and extensive affordable materials on Teachers Pay Teachers. Practical, adaptable jewels.
  • Tim Freitas’ The Garden of English : Delightful, often surprising viewpoint. Sense of humor meets excellence. Love all the videos, handouts and posters.
  • Susa n Barber’s and Brian Sztabnik’s Much Ado About Teachin g : The reincarnation of AP LIT Help. These gifted inspiring teachers have mastered the ability to explain everything AP clearly. Articles, videos, handouts are amazing.
  • Beth Hall’s Coach Hall Writes offersmany free AP Language materials with links to Teachers Pay Teachers materials. Subscribe to her YouTube channel for excellent, focused videos.
  • Brian Tolentino shares dozens of short videos on his YouTube Channel, Tolentino Teaching . SAT Vocabulary and Rhetorical Terms are especially helpful.
  • Kristian Kuhn’s home page shares some excellent assignments. Teachers Teaching Writing , his YouTube channel has dozens of clever, useful videos for AP Literature.
  • Susan Barber’s Teach with Class site offers Teacher Resources.
  • Jerry Brown’ s website has buried treasure, well worth seeking.
  • Don Pogebra’s Quixotic Pedagogue : Gorgeous website with generous materials. Retired.
  • Ronnie Campagna’s DropBox is a wealth of materials. Please download; do not delete or move.
  • Dawn Hogue’s Online English Resources provides a Teacher’s Toolbox and other online resources for AP and regular classes.
  • M sEffie’s LifeSavers : Several ways to get there – Google “mseffie” [first hit], use the short domain router (mseffie.com). Mine. What can I say? Such a nerd!

Terminology

  • Brian Tolentino Teaching includes 35 term specific videos
  • Dictionary of Literary Terms (Joel Littauer)
  • Literary History
  • Handbook of Rhetorical Devices (Robert Harris)
  • Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms -- videos for more than 60 terms
  • Poetic Terms (Robert Shubinsky)

Writing Help

  • Elements of Style
  • Guide to Grammar and Writing
  • Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab )

Literary Theory and Criticism

  • Literary Resources on the Net (Jack Lynch)
  • Literary Theory and Criticism (Brigham Young University)
  • Guide to Critical Theory (Dino Felluga)
  • Introduction to Modern Literary Theory (Kristi Siegel)

Miscellaneous Resources -- $ Resource Requiring Payment

  • TeachIt is a United Kingdom site (for their teachers) whose worksheets approach texts in a different way than we do. Though designed for their “regular” classes, the emphasis is usually on the kind of analysis we do in Advanced Placement classes. PDF files are free to download if you register. 
  • Thought.Co Writing is the old About.com and offers a disorganized but intriguing mess of articles on language, literature, art, and more -- tips on grammar, sample paragraphs of every mode, suggestted topic lists, critical analyses, passages by well-known authors focusing on specific stylistic traits, and so on. The short introductions analyze each piece and help focus discussion.
  • TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing -- Based upon the regular TED Talks and a library of original animated videos, TedEd provides a platform for teachers to share lessons based on the videos.
  • CrackAP.com -- provides free access to 50+ practice multiple-choice exams on various passages, many of them from previous AP exams. A very awkward confusing site, but students get immediate assessment and explanations. Just IGNORE all the pop-ups & exterior clicks. AP Language Practices . AP Literature Practices .
  • PrepScholar -- One-stop location for every AP Literature Practice Test available, free & official, including many older ones not available at AP Central. AP Language . AP Literature .
  • $ Applied Practice -- Resource Guides for more than 100 titles. Each includes AP style multiple-choice and free response questions withy answers. With explanations of answers. Other stuff available, too.
  • $ Prestwick House -- Reasonably priced packages include Activity Packs , Response Journals , Literature Teaching Units , AP Teaching Units , and Multiple Critical Perspectives , Response Journals , and Activity Packs . Samples available to download to check them out. (Free Crossword Puzzles and free Posters .)

Links to My Pages with Handouts & URLs for Specific Major Works

“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.

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Every AP Literature Practice Test Available: Free and Official

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Advanced Placement (AP)

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When you're studying for your AP Literature Exam, you're going to want to use practice tests and questions to hone your skills. But where can you find AP literature practice tests? And are all practice exams equally useful for you?

The real exam has 55 multiple-choice questions and three free-response questions, but there are practice tests with every conceivable number and combination of question types.

In this article, you'll learn where to find every official College Board AP English Literature and Composition practice exam, free unofficial tests, and paid practice test resources. You'll also find out which tests are high-quality and how you can best use different practice exams to fulfill your studying needs.

Official Free AP Literature Practice Tests

The gold standard of AP English Literature practice tests and AP English Literature practice exam questions are College Board released materials . That's because the College Board administers the AP exams, so their practice questions are most like the actual AP questions you'll see on the test.

There are three different kinds of resources offered by the College Board: complete released exams from past years, released free-response questions from past years, and sample questions from the "AP Course And Exam Description."

Official Released College Board Exams

There are three official released College Board Exams. However, only the most recent one (from 2012) is complete. The 1999 and 1987 exams have the standard 55 multiple-choice questions, but both are missing parts of the three question free-response section. You can still use them as complete exams if you supplement them with released free-response questions from past years which we recommend since official multiple-choice problems are hard to come by.

2012 AP English Literature and Composition Exam

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 analysis questions of the free-response section and only has the student choice question. So, to take it as a complete exam, you'd need to supplement it with questions 1 and 2 from the released free-response questions below . You can actually get question 2 for the 1999 test from the official free-response questions bank, but the excerpt for question 1 can't be reprinted, so you'll need to supplement with another poetry analysis question.

1987 AP English Literature and Composition Exam For reasons that are not totally clear, this exam excludes the third essay question, the poetry analysis. If you want to take this as "complete" exam practice, use a free-response poetry analysis prompt from the bank of free response questions linked below.

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Or supplement with this tree-poem.

Official Free-Response Questions

There may not be very many complete released exams, but there are tons of free-response questions available from previous administrations of the test. These are great practice, not just for writing complete essays, but for practicing writing thesis statements, outlines, and so on.

What's also great about these is that most of them come with sample response and scoring guidelines, so you'll be able to see exactly what makes a high-quality AP essay by College Board standards. Be aware, though, that some of the prose and poetry excerpts can't be reprinted due to copyright concerns.

Below is the link to all the free-response questions available. The questions go all the way back to 1999, and since there haven't been many changes to the free-response part of the exam, all of these questions can be useful during your studying.

AP English Lit Free Response Questions 1999-2021

Sample Questions From the Course and Exam Description

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 questions, they are great for simple practice.

If you're looking for more questions like these, you can revisit the old exam description booklets as well . (Just keep in mind that some of the other information in the booklet may be out of date!)

Your Teacher

Your AP teacher may have access to copies of old AP exams that you can use for practice. They probably can't let you take them out of the classroom, but they may be allowed to loan them to you in a supervised setting. This is because teachers can purchase resources directly from the College Board that students can't. Asking your teacher may not bear fruit, but it's worth a try.

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Why are you asking me for AP Lit practice tests? I'm your Econ teacher!

Free Unofficial AP Literature Practice Tests

In addition to the free College Board resources, there are also several places online where you can get free, unofficial practice tests. Be aware that, because these resources aren't College-Board created or approved, they are of variable quality. For each of these resources we'll describe what's offered and how it compares to official College Board tests.

Varsity Tutors AP Literature Practice Tests

This site has multiple-choice practice quizzes divided by concept--things like "interpreting the passage," "claims and argument," and "interpreting excerpts." The questions aren't worded exactly the same way as AP test questions, but they are still okay for testing your passage-interpretation skills. Basically, the questions test for similar skills, but don't necessarily mimic AP test questions in style.

Also, the site provides the date, title, and author of each work, which is not something you'll receive on the AP exam. You can make a free account at the site to track your scores, but it's not necessary to be able to take the tests.

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Kittens not included with free practice tests, unfortunately.

Albert AP English Literature Quizzes

Albert offers multiple-choice quizzes divided into prose, poetry, and drama categories. You are given the title, date, and author of the work--which you will not receive on the real AP exam. Like the Varsity Tutors quizzes, Albert offers questions that test similar skills as the AP exam, but the questions are worded differently.

High School Test Prep Tests

This site offers three short multiple-choice practice tests. You're given the title and author of the work. The questions for these tests are fairly surface-level, so I would only use these if you are working on your reading comprehension skills.

CrackAP English Literature Quizzes

CrackAP has over 40 short AP Lit quizzes. Each quiz gives a passage then has 15 multiple-choice questions on it. The questions are somewhat easier than you'll find on the real AP exam, but if you need some quick practice, this can do the trick. This resource also has examples of past free response questions, which can be useful study tools, too!

Practice Quiz AP English Literature

This site offers a 20-question multiple-choice quiz on two passages--one poetry, and one prose. The passages are extremely basic, however, so I would only use this resource if you are working on your reading comprehension skills.

Looking for help studying for your AP exam? Our one-on-one online AP tutoring services can help you prepare for your AP exams. Get matched with a top tutor who got a high score on the exam you're studying for!

The queens of AP Lit practice give you their blessing.

Paid Unofficial Practice Tests

There are also several paid resources that offer unofficial practice questions.

This is a subscription service with questions for tons of different tests—SAT, ACT, and AP exams.They also have videos and other review resources. We can't really speak to the quality of the questions because the entire service is behind a paywall of about $25 a month.

The Princeton Review AP Literature Study Guide 2021

Published study guides are an excellent way to practice for the AP Literature exam. These books are put together by experts who have inside knowledge of the test, and The Princeton Review is one of the best out there.

This study guide has three practice tests, along with other types of sample questions and expert explanations to help you improve your analytical skills.

Barron's AP English Literature and Composition, 7th Edition

Like The Princeton Review study guide, the Barron's AP Literature study guide is another great resource for students looking for extra exam prep. This guide has four practice tests and sample essay questions , along with an expert walk-through of the AP Literature exam itself.

If you're looking for a guide that gives you practice and provides tips for mastering the exam, this would be a good pick!

This subscription service offers access to tons of test prep, including the SAT, ACT and lots of AP courses. Their AP Literature resources include two full-length practice tests, three sets of flashcards to help you study, and several instructional videos.

Prices for subscriptions start at $39 dollars per month, and some plans include live tutoring and writing instruction . If you choose to subscribe, you get access to all of their course and test-prep materials, so if you’re taking several AP classes, this could be a good source.

money-452624_640.jpg

I definitely advise paying for all of these resources with whatever loose foreign change you have lying around.

How to Use AP Literature Practice Tests

How to use a given practice test depends somewhat on the resource itself. We'll offer some recommendations here on how to best use different resources.

Complete Official Released Tests

The best way to use a complete official practice test is to do a practice-run for the exam . So find a quiet room, bring a timer or watch so you can time sections, and get to work! This will help you get familiar with the exam experience so you'll feel more comfortable on exam day!

Since there are two complete AP Lit practice tests, it makes sense to take one early on in your studying time, and one later. You can get a parent, tutor or teacher to grade the exams. The early test will help you figure out what you need to work on, and the later test will show you how you've improved! Since the AP English Literature test is more skills-heavy than content-heavy, you shouldn't feel totally lost taking a practice test even in the middle of the school year.

Official Released Free-Response and Sample Questions

Official resources that aren't complete tests are best for practicing individual sections of the test. The sample multiple-choice questions in the "Course and Exam Description" make for great AP English Literature multiple-choice practice--they'll help you get familiar with the style of the questions and practice close-reading.

The wealth of released free-response questions are great resources for building your timed essay-writing skills. You can practice complete essays or develop essay outlines.

Unofficial Practice Tests and Resources

Since unofficial practice tests aren't going to be quite as similar to the real AP exam as official College Board materials, they won't be quite as useful for preparing for the format of the exam or its questions. However, they can be very valuable close-reading practice. And since that's a critical skill for the exam, it's still worth it to use unofficial resources.

woman-945427_640.jpg

Be very quiet. She's close-reading.

Key Takeaways

Practice tests and questions are a hugely important resource as you prep for the AP Lit exam. The gold standard of practice resources are those that come from the College Board, but there are many other places where you can get practice questions that will help you hone your close-reading skills for the exam. Most of the resources listed in this article are free, but a few are paid.

Remember: official College Board practice tests are best for simulating the exam experience. Actual College Board questions are good for focused preparation for individual sections of the exam--especially the essays. Unofficial resources are best used for further honing your close-reading skills after you’ve practiced with the official materials.

Now that you know where to find these resources, you're ready to start studying for your AP Literature exam!

body-the-next-step

What's Next?

Wondering what you should be reading for AP Lit? Check out our list of 127 great books to help you prepare for the AP Literature exam.

Need more study guidance for your APs? See my five-step AP prep plan. Or see our guide on when to start studying for your APs.

If you're looking for practice tests for other AP exams, see our assembled practice tests for AP US History , AP Chemistry , AP Biology , AP World History , and AP Psychology .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?   We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download them for free now:

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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How to Write the AP Lit Prose Essay + Example

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What is the ap lit prose essay, how will ap scores affect my college chances.

AP Literature and Composition (AP Lit), not to be confused with AP English Language and Composition (AP Lang), teaches students how to develop the ability to critically read and analyze literary texts. These texts include poetry, prose, and drama. Analysis is an essential component of this course and critical for the educational development of all students when it comes to college preparation. In this course, you can expect to see an added difficulty of texts and concepts, similar to the material one would see in a college literature course.

While not as popular as AP Lang, over 380,136 students took the class in 2019. However, the course is significantly more challenging, with only 49.7% of students receiving a score of three or higher on the exam. A staggeringly low 6.2% of students received a five on the exam. 

The AP Lit exam is similar to the AP Lang exam in format, but covers different subject areas. The first section is multiple-choice questions based on five short passages. There are 55 questions to be answered in 1 hour. The passages will include at least two prose fiction passages and two poetry passages and will account for 45% of your total score. All possible answer choices can be found within the text, so you don’t need to come into the exam with prior knowledge of the passages to understand the work. 

The second section contains three free-response essays to be finished in under two hours. This section accounts for 55% of the final score and includes three essay questions: the poetry analysis essay, the prose analysis essay, and the thematic analysis essay. Typically, a five-paragraph format will suffice for this type of writing. These essays are scored holistically from one to six points.

Today we will take a look at the AP Lit prose essay and discuss tips and tricks to master this section of the exam. We will also provide an example of a well-written essay for review.  

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 depending on the quality of your thesis (0-1 points), evidence and commentary (0-4 points), and sophistication (0-1 points). 

While this exam seems extremely overwhelming, considering there are a total of three free-response essays to complete, with proper time management and practiced skills, this essay is manageable and straightforward. In order to enhance the time management aspect of the test to the best of your ability, it is essential to understand the following six key concepts.

1. Have a Clear Understanding of the Prompt and the Passage

Since the prose essay is testing your ability to analyze literature and construct an evidence-based argument, the most important thing you can do is make sure you understand the passage. That being said, you only have about 40 minutes for the whole essay so you can’t spend too much time reading the passage. Allot yourself 5-7 minutes to read the prompt and the passage and then another 3-5 minutes to plan your response.

As you read through the prompt and text, highlight, circle, and markup anything that stands out to you. Specifically, try to find lines in the passage that could bolster your argument since you will need to include in-text citations from the passage in your essay. Even if you don’t know exactly what your argument might be, it’s still helpful to have a variety of quotes to use depending on what direction you take your essay, so take note of whatever strikes you as important. Taking the time to annotate as you read will save you a lot of time later on because you won’t need to reread the passage to find examples when you are in the middle of writing. 

Once you have a good grasp on the passage and a solid array of quotes to choose from, you should develop a rough outline of your essay. The prompt will provide 4-5 bullets that remind you of what to include in your essay, so you can use these to structure your outline. Start with a thesis, come up with 2-3 concrete claims to support your thesis, back up each claim with 1-2 pieces of evidence from the text, and write a brief explanation of how the evidence supports the claim.

2. Start with a Brief Introduction that Includes a Clear Thesis Statement

Having a strong thesis can help you stay focused and avoid tangents while writing. By deciding the relevant information you want to hit upon in your essay up front, you can prevent wasting precious time later on. Clear theses are also important for the reader because they direct their focus to your essential arguments. 

In other words, it’s important to make the introduction brief and compact so your thesis statement shines through. The introduction should include details from the passage, like the author and title, but don’t waste too much time with extraneous details. Get to the heart of your essay as quick as possible. 

3. Use Clear Examples to Support Your Argument 

One of the requirements AP Lit readers are looking for is your use of evidence. In order to satisfy this aspect of the rubric, you should make sure each body paragraph has at least 1-2 pieces of evidence, directly from the text, that relate to the claim that paragraph is making. Since the prose essay tests your ability to recognize and analyze literary elements and techniques, it’s often better to include smaller quotes. For example, when writing about the author’s use of imagery or diction you might pick out specific words and quote each word separately rather than quoting a large block of text. Smaller quotes clarify exactly what stood out to you so your reader can better understand what are you saying.

Including smaller quotes also allows you to include more evidence in your essay. Be careful though—having more quotes is not necessarily better! You will showcase your strength as a writer not by the number of quotes you manage to jam into a paragraph, but by the relevance of the quotes to your argument and explanation you provide.  If the details don’t connect, they are merely just strings of details.

4. Discussion is Crucial to Connect Your Evidence to Your Argument 

As the previous tip explained, citing phrases and words from the passage won’t get you anywhere if you don’t provide an explanation as to how your examples support the claim you are making. After each new piece of evidence is introduced, you should have a sentence or two that explains the significance of this quote to the piece as a whole.

This part of the paragraph is the “So what?” You’ve already stated the point you are trying to get across in the topic sentence and shared the examples from the text, so now show the reader why or how this quote demonstrates an effective use of a literary technique by the author. Sometimes students can get bogged down by the discussion and lose sight of the point they are trying to make. If this happens to you while writing, take a step back and ask yourself “Why did I include this quote? What does it contribute to the piece as a whole?” Write down your answer and you will be good to go. 

5. Write a Brief Conclusion

While the critical part of the essay is to provide a substantive, organized, and clear argument throughout the body paragraphs, a conclusion provides a satisfying ending to the essay and the last opportunity to drive home your argument. If you run out of time for a conclusion because of extra time spent in the preceding paragraphs, do not worry, as that is not fatal to your score. 

Without repeating your thesis statement word for word, find a way to return to the thesis statement by summing up your main points. This recap reinforces the arguments stated in the previous paragraphs, while all of the preceding paragraphs successfully proved the thesis statement.

6. Don’t Forget About Your Grammar

Though you will undoubtedly be pressed for time, it’s still important your essay is well-written with correct punctuating and spelling. Many students are able to write a strong thesis and include good evidence and commentary, but the final point on the rubric is for sophistication. This criteria is more holistic than the former ones which means you should have elevated thoughts and writing—no grammatical errors. While a lack of grammatical mistakes alone won’t earn you the sophistication point, it will leave the reader with a more favorable impression of you. 

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Here are Nine Must-have Tips and Tricks to Get a Good Score on the Prose Essay:

  • Carefully read, review, and underline key instruction s in the prompt.
  • Briefly outlin e what you want to cover in your essay.
  • Be sure to have a clear thesis that includes the terms mentioned in the instructions, literary devices, tone, and meaning.
  • Include the author’s name and title  in your introduction. Refer to characters by name.
  • Quality over quantity when it comes to picking quotes! Better to have a smaller number of more detailed quotes than a large amount of vague ones.
  • Fully explain how each piece of evidence supports your thesis .  
  • Focus on the literary techniques in the passage and avoid summarizing the plot. 
  • Use transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs.
  • Keep your introduction and conclusion short, and don’t repeat your thesis verbatim in your conclusion.

Here is an example essay from 2020 that received a perfect 6:

[1] In this passage from a 1912 novel, the narrator wistfully details his childhood crush on a girl violinist. Through a motif of the allure of musical instruments, and abundant sensory details that summon a vivid image of the event of their meeting, the reader can infer that the narrator was utterly enraptured by his obsession in the moment, and upon later reflection cannot help but feel a combination of amusement and a resummoning of the moment’s passion. 

[2] The overwhelming abundance of hyper-specific sensory details reveals to the reader that meeting his crush must have been an intensely powerful experience to create such a vivid memory. The narrator can picture the “half-dim church”, can hear the “clear wail” of the girl’s violin, can see “her eyes almost closing”, can smell a “faint but distinct fragrance.” Clearly, this moment of discovery was very impactful on the boy, because even later he can remember the experience in minute detail. However, these details may also not be entirely faithful to the original experience; they all possess a somewhat mysterious quality that shows how the narrator may be employing hyperbole to accentuate the girl’s allure. The church is “half-dim”, the eyes “almost closing” – all the details are held within an ethereal state of halfway, which also serves to emphasize that this is all told through memory. The first paragraph also introduces the central conciet of music. The narrator was drawn to the “tones she called forth” from her violin and wanted desperately to play her “accompaniment.” This serves the double role of sensory imagery (with the added effect of music being a powerful aural image) and metaphor, as the accompaniment stands in for the narrator’s true desire to be coupled with his newfound crush. The musical juxtaposition between the “heaving tremor of the organ” and the “clear wail” of her violin serves to further accentuate how the narrator percieved the girl as above all other things, as high as an angel. Clearly, the memory of his meeting his crush is a powerful one that left an indelible impact on the narrator. 

[3] Upon reflecting on this memory and the period of obsession that followed, the narrator cannot help but feel amused at the lengths to which his younger self would go; this is communicated to the reader with some playful irony and bemused yet earnest tone. The narrator claims to have made his “first and last attempts at poetry” in devotion to his crush, and jokes that he did not know to be “ashamed” at the quality of his poetry. This playful tone pokes fun at his childhood self for being an inexperienced poet, yet also acknowledges the very real passion that the poetry stemmed from. The narrator goes on to mention his “successful” endeavor to conceal his crush from his friends and the girl; this holds an ironic tone because the narrator immediately admits that his attempts to hide it were ill-fated and all parties were very aware of his feelings. The narrator also recalls his younger self jumping to hyperbolic extremes when imagining what he would do if betrayed by his love, calling her a “heartless jade” to ironically play along with the memory. Despite all this irony, the narrator does also truly comprehend the depths of his past self’s infatuation and finds it moving. The narrator begins the second paragraph with a sentence that moves urgently, emphasizing the myriad ways the boy was obsessed. He also remarks, somewhat wistfully, that the experience of having this crush “moved [him] to a degree which now [he] can hardly think of as possible.” Clearly, upon reflection the narrator feels a combination of amusement at the silliness of his former self and wistful respect for the emotion that the crush stirred within him. 

[4] In this passage, the narrator has a multifaceted emotional response while remembering an experience that was very impactful on him. The meaning of the work is that when we look back on our memories (especially those of intense passion), added perspective can modify or augment how those experiences make us feel

More essay examples, score sheets, and commentaries can be found at College Board .

While AP Scores help to boost your weighted GPA, or give you the option to get college credit, AP Scores don’t have a strong effect on your admissions chances . However, colleges can still see your self-reported scores, so you might not want to automatically send scores to colleges if they are lower than a 3. That being said, admissions officers care far more about your grade in an AP class than your score on the exam.

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Learn all about the course and assessment. Already enrolled? Join your class in My AP.

Not a Student?

Go to AP Central for resources for teachers, administrators, and coordinators.

About the Assessment

The AP Seminar assessment has three parts: two performance tasks—which you’ll complete over the course of the year and submit online for scoring through the AP Digital Portfolio—and the end-of-course AP Exam. All measure your proficiency in the course skills, and all contribute to your final AP score on a scale of 1–5.

Updates to AP Seminar Performance Task

Given the implications of ChatGPT and other similar generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools on the AP Seminar performance task components, we’ve updated the guidance  regarding the use of these tools. These guidelines require your teacher to attest to the authenticity of your work in order for you to receive a score on the associated performance task. Review the AP Seminar Course and Exam Description for the full policy and details.

Assessment Dates

Wed, Apr 30, 2025

11:59 PM ET

AP Seminar Performance Tasks Due Date

Submit your AP Seminar performance tasks as final in the AP Digital Portfolio by this date.

Mon, May 12, 2025

12 PM Local

AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam 

This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam.

Assessment Components

Team project and presentation.

20% of Score

Work in teams of 3–5 to identify, investigate, analyze, and evaluate an academic or real-world problem, question, or issue. Your team will design and/or consider options, alternatives, or solutions and develop a multimedia presentation to communicate your conclusion or recommendations. The team project and presentation will be evaluated based on the following components:

  • Individual research report (1,200 words): scored by College Board
  • Team multimedia presentation and defense (8–10 minutes): scored by your teacher

Individual Research-Based Essay and Presentation

35% of Score

College Board will provide stimulus material (texts) representing a range of perspectives focused on a single theme or topic. You will use these texts to identify a research question of your own; research, analyze, evaluate, and select evidence to develop a written argument of your own that you will present; and then you will defend your conclusion. The individual research-based essay and presentation will be evaluated based on the following components:

  • Individual written argument (2,000 words): scored by College Board
  • Individual multimedia presentation (6–8 minutes): scored by your teacher
  • Oral defense (2 questions from the teacher): scored by your teacher

End-of-Course Exam

4 questions 45% of Score

During the AP Exam administration window, you will take a two-hour exam. The exam consists of four questions (three short-answer questions and one essay question). The exam will be scored by College Board–trained readers, similar to other AP Exams.

  • 3 short-answer questions: These questions will be based on a single source. You’ll be asked to explain and analyze an argument.
  • 1 essay question: This question will be based on 4 different sources, which give different perspectives on 1 theme. You’ll be asked to synthesize information and create an evidence-based argument.

How We Score Your Work

Teacher-Scored Components

The two AP Seminar in-class presentations and defenses are scored by your AP Seminar teacher. Your scores on these components contribute to your final AP score.

Here’s how we make sure that scoring by AP Seminar teachers is standardized:

  • AP Seminar teachers use a scoring rubric designed by the AP Program.
  • AP Seminar teachers also take part in mandatory training from the AP Program in how to score these components.

College Board–Scored Components

The individual research-based essay, the individual written argument, and the end-of-course exam given in May are scored by College Board. These scores also contribute to your final AP score. All these components are scored by trained, experienced educators called AP readers.

Assessment Essentials

Assessment preparation, ap daily videos.

Once you join your AP class section online, you’ll be able to access AP Daily videos in AP Classroom. AP Daily videos in AP Classroom. AP Daily videos cover every proficiency and skill outlined in the AP Seminar Course and Exam Description. Sign in to access them.

Online Performance Task Coaching

On-demand videos to walk you through performance task directions. These logistics-specific videos will be released throughout the school year on the AP YouTube channel. For in-depth videos to support your learning in AP Seminar, head to AP Daily in AP Classroom.

Exam Questions and Performance Tasks

Go to AP Central to review directions and stimulus materials for the performance tasks, free-response questions from the end-of course exam, and sample student responses and scoring information from previous years.

AP Seminar Course and Exam Description

This is the core document for the course. It clearly lays out the course content and describes the assessment and AP Program in general.

Services for Students with Disabilities

Students with documented disabilities may be eligible for accommodations for the through-course assessment and the end-of-course exam. If you’re using assistive technology and need help accessing the PDFs in this section in another format, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 212-713-8333 or by email at [email protected] . For information about taking AP Exams, or other College Board assessments, with accommodations, visit the Services for Students with Disabilities website.

Guidance for Artificial Intelligence Tools and Other Services

Learn more about the AP Program’s policy on generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT).

Credit and Placement

Search AP Credit Policies

Find colleges that grant credit and/or placement for AP Exam scores in this and other AP courses.

Additional Information

FiveThirtyEight

UPDATED Aug. 27, 2024, at 8:22 PM

Latest Polls

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Who’s Ahead in National Presidential Polls?

General election polling average

Do Voters Want Republicans Or Democrats In Congress?

Generic ballot polling average

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Favorability polling average

Do Americans Have A Favorable Opinion Of Donald Trump?

Who’s ahead in the national polls?

Updating average for each candidate in 2024 presidential polls, accounting for each poll's recency, sample size, methodology and house effects..

95% OF AVERAGES PROJECTED TO FALL IN THIS RANGE

Polling averages are adjusted based on state and national polls, which means candidates’ averages can shift even if no new polls have been added to this page. Read the full methodology here .

DatesSamplei

PollsterSponsorResultNet result
Datesi

PollsterResult

President: general election, 2024 AVG.

LVLVRVARVRV
LV Harris Trump +2
LV Harris Trump +3
RV Harris Trump +2
Harris Trump Kennedy Stein Oliver West
A Harris Trump +3
Harris Trump Kennedy West Stein Oliver
RV Harris Trump +1
RV Harris Trump +1
Harris Trump West Stein Oliver
RVLVRVLV Biden Biden

LVLVLV
RV Harris Trump +4
LV Harris Trump +5
RV Harris Trump +4
LV Biden Trump +4
LV Harris Trump Even
Harris Trump Stein West Oliver
LV Harris Trump +2
Harris Trump Kennedy Stein Oliver West
LV Harris Trump +1
LVRV
LV Harris Trump +7
RV Harris Trump +4
RVRVLV
RV Harris Trump +5
RV Harris Trump +5
Harris Trump Kennedy
LV Harris Trump +5
RVLVLVLVLV
RV Harris Trump +4
LV Harris Trump +2
Harris Trump Kennedy
LV Harris Trump Even
LV Harris Trump +6
Harris Trump Kennedy West Oliver Stein
LV Harris Trump +4

Indicates a polling average for this poll type

Candidate is an incumbent

Partisan types

Democratic-funded

Republican-funded

Other party-funded

Campaign poll

The position of the flag indicates whether the organization is partisan. Organizations are considered partisan if they operate on behalf of a candidate, party, campaign committee, PAC, super PAC, hybrid PAC , 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5) or 501(c)(6) organization that conducts a large majority of its political activity on behalf of one political party.

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Design and development by Ryan Best , Aaron Bycoffe , Holly Fuong , Christopher Groskopf , Ritchie King , Ella Koeze , Dhrumil Mehta , Jasmine Mithani , Mary Radcliffe , Anna Wiederkehr and Julia Wolfe . Polling averages by G. Elliott Morris . Cooper Burton , Holly Fuong , Andrea Jones-Rooy , Irena Li , Dhrumil Mehta , Mary Radcliffe , Nathaniel Rakich , Derek Shan , Geoffrey Skelley and Julia Wolfe contributed research. Editing by Sarah Frostenson , Nathaniel Rakich , Kaleigh Rogers and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux . Copy editing by Cooper Burton , Holly Fuong , Alex Kimball , Jennifer Mason , Andrew Mangan , Maya Sweedler and Curtis Yee .

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AP United States History

Review the free-response questions from the 2024 ap exam., exam overview.

Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information, download the  AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description  (CED).

Scoring rubrics – general scoring criteria for the document-based and long essay questions, regardless of specific question prompt – are available in the course and exam description (CED).

Encourage your students to visit the  AP U.S. History student page  for exam information.

Rubrics Updated for 2023-24

We’ve updated the AP U.S. History document-based question (DBQ) and long essay question (LEQ) rubrics for the 2023-24 school year. 

This change only affects the DBQ and LEQ scoring, with no change to the course or the exam: the exam format, course framework, and skills assessed on the exam all remain unchanged.

The course and exam description (CED) has been updated to include: 

  • Revised rubrics (general scoring criteria) for the DBQ and LEQ.
  • Revised scoring guidelines for the sample DBQ and LEQ within the CED.

Fri, May 9, 2025

AP U.S. History Exam

Exam format.

The AP U.S. History Exam has consistent question types, weighting, and scoring guidelines, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day.

Section I, Part A: Multiple Choice

55 Questions | 55 Minutes | 40% of Exam Score

  • Questions usually appear in sets of 3–4 questions.
  • Students analyze historical texts, interpretations, and evidence.
  • Primary and secondary sources, images, graphs, and maps are included.

Section I, Part B: Short Answer

3 Questions | 40 Minutes | 20% of Exam Score

  • Students analyze historians’ interpretations, historical sources, and propositions about history.
  • Questions provide opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know best.
  • Some questions include texts, images, graphs, or maps.
  • Question 1 is required, includes 1–2 secondary sources, and focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980.
  • Question 2 is required, includes 1 primary source, and focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980.
  • Students choose between Question 3 (which focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1491 and 1877) and Question 4 (which focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1865 and 2001) for the last question. No sources are included for either Question 3 or Question 4.

Section II: Document-Based Question and Long Essay

2 questions | 1 Hour, 40 minutes | 40% of Exam Score

Document-Based Question (DBQ)

Recommended Time: 1 Hour (includes 15-minute reading period) | 25% of Exam Score

  • Students are presented with 7 documents offering various perspectives on a historical development or process.
  • Students assess these written, quantitative, or visual materials as historical evidence.
  • Students develop an argument supported by an analysis of historical evidence.
  • The document-based question focuses on topics from 1754 to 1980.

Recommended time: 40 Minutes | 15% of Exam Score

  • Students explain and analyze significant issues in U.S. history.
  • The question choices focus on the same skills and the same reasoning process (e.g., comparison, causation, or continuity and change), but students choose from 3 options, each focusing on historical developments and processes from a different range of time periods—either 1491–1800 (option 1), 1800–1898 (option 2), or 1890–2001 (option 3).

Exam Questions and Scoring Information

Ap united states history exam questions and scoring information.

View free-response questions and scoring information from this year's exam and past exams.

Score Reporting

Ap score reports for educators.

Access your score reports.

COMMENTS

  1. AP English Language and Composition Exam Questions

    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 ...

  2. AP English Language and Composition

    The AP English Language and Composition Exam has question types and point values that stay consistent from year to year, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day. ... 20-22 Writing questions that ask students to "read like a writer" and consider revisions to stimulus texts. Section II: Free Response. 3 Questions | 2 hours ...

  3. AP English Literature and Composition Exam

    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. ... Students write essays that respond to 3 free-response prompts from the following categories: A literary analysis of a given poem;

  4. Every AP English Language and Composition Practice Exam

    The AP Language and Composition exam has two sections: a multiple-choice section with 45 questions, and a free-response section with three essay questions—one synthesis prompt, one analysis prompt, and one argument prompt. But not all AP Lang practice tests are like the real exam, and they aren't all of equal quality.

  5. AP English Language and Composition Exam

    45 questions 45% of Score. Excerpts from nonfiction texts are accompanied by several multiple-choice questions: 23-25 Reading questions: You'll be asked to read and analyze nonfiction texts. 20-22 Writing questions: You'll be asked to read like a writer and consider revisions to the text. Section 2: Free Response.

  6. Expert's Guide to the AP Literature Exam · PrepScholar

    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.

  7. PDF AP® English Language and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions

    This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.) The following passage is from Rights of Man, a book written by the pamphleteer Thomas Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a supporter of American independence from England. Read the passage carefully.

  8. Expert Guide to the AP Language and Composition Exam

    The AP English Language and Composition Multiple-Choice. The multiple-choice section tests you on two main areas. The first is how well you can read and understand nonfiction passages for their use of rhetorical devices and tools. The second is how well you can "think like a writer" and make revisions to texts in composition questions.

  9. College Board AP English Language and Composition: Past Exams

    Sample Response Question 2. Sample Response Question 3. Student Performance Q&A. Scoring Statistics. Score Distributions. Sample Response Question 1. Visit all of our College Board AP® Past Exams here. Exam paper questions organised by topic and difficulty. Our worksheets cover all topics from GCSE, IGCSE and A Level courses.

  10. PDF AP English Language and Composition

    AP English Language and Composition Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary Inside: Free Response Question 2 R Scoring Guideline R Student Samples ... Essays earning a score of 7 meet the criteria for the score of 6 but provide more complete explanation, more thorough development, or a more mature prose style. 6 - Adequate .

  11. The 2022 AP® Lit FRQ Questions Were Just Released: Now what?

    Keep reading for more on each released question! 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.

  12. How to Write the AP Lang Argument Essay + Examples

    2. Pick one side of the argument, but acknowledge the other side. When you write the essay, it's best if you pick one side of the debate and stick with it for the entire essay. All your evidence should be in support of that one side. However, in your introductory paragraph, as you introduce the debate, be sure to mention any merit the ...

  13. AP United States History Exam Questions

    Score Distributions. Introduction and Preface. Short Answer Question 1. Short Answer Question 2. Short Answer Question 3. Document-Based Question 1. Long Essay Question 2. Long Essay Question 3. Download free-response questions from past AP United States History exams, along with scoring guidelines, sample responses, and scoring distributions.

  14. Advanced Placement English

    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. Q3 Sample Essay List organized by Title, Year, and Score (Thanks to Brian Sztabnik), as PDF.. AP Language FRQs

  15. PDF AP English Language and Composition

    6 - Adequate. Essays earning a score of 6 adequately develop a position on the value of exploring the unknown. The evidence and explanations appropriately and sufficiently support the student's position, and the argument is coherent and adequately developed. The writing may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but generally the prose is clear.

  16. PDF AP Literature Open-ended Prompts (1970-2016)

    ature Open-ended Prompts (1970-2016) 1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is. ffected by and responds to those standards. In. your.

  17. Synthesis Essay Materials

    The two synthesis essay questions below are examples of the question type that has been one of the three free-response questions on the AP English Language and Composition Exam as of the May 2007 exam. The synthesis question asks students to synthesize information from a variety of sources to inform their own discussion of a topic. Students are given a 15-minute reading period to accommodate ...

  18. AP English Sample Essays

    9. Sample Informative Essay - "Great War". The Great War, more commonly known as World War I, influences F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel in many important ways. The War directly causes Gatsby to lose his lover Daisy and is responsible for his Montenegro medal and significant "Oxford education".

  19. Every AP Literature Practice Test Available: Free and Official

    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 ...

  20. How to Write the AP Lit Prose Essay + Example

    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 ...

  21. AP Seminar Assessment

    About the Assessment. The AP Seminar assessment has three parts: two performance tasks—which you'll complete over the course of the year and submit online for scoring through the AP Digital Portfolio—and the end-of-course AP Exam. All measure your proficiency in the course skills, and all contribute to your final AP score on a scale of 1-5.

  22. National : President: general election : 2024 Polls

    The position of the flag indicates whether the organization is partisan. Organizations are considered partisan if they operate on behalf of a candidate, party, campaign committee, PAC, super PAC, hybrid PAC, 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5) or 501(c)(6) organization that conducts a large majority of its political activity on behalf of one political party.

  23. AP United States History Exam

    Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information, download the AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description (CED).. Scoring rubrics - general scoring criteria for the document-based and long essay questions, regardless of specific question prompt - are available in the course and exam description (CED).