AP Literature and Composition Exam

1. AP Literature and Composition Exam “The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.”—A.A. Milne (1882-1956)

2. About the Exam The AP program was designed in 1955 to give high-school students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and prepare for college by engaging in rigorous and relevant college-level course work. The AP Literature and Composition Exam will be given the morning of Thursday, May 10, 2012; it will last approximately three and a half hours. Section I of the test consists of approximately fifty-five multiple-choice questions pertaining to poetry and prose analysis; this section will last sixty minutes. Section II of the test consists three essay prompts: one based on poetry, one based on a prose or drama passage, and one open-ended (usually focusing on theme); this section will last two hours, so you should take approximately forty minutes per question. While your essays will be graded as rough drafts, this section of the exam is designed to evaluate your ability to decipher a writing prompt and respond to it accurately, insightfully, and stylistically. Remember the three C’s: clarity, conciseness, and cogency. Also remember quality is more important than quantity. There will be a ten minute break between sections. You can have the College Board send your grades directly to the colleges of your choice, or you can have your grades “banked.”

3. About Scores and Grades The multiple-choice section accounts for forty-five percent of the overall exam grade. The essay section accounts for fifty-five percent of the overall exam grade; each essay is weighted equally. The total number of correct answers on the multiple-choice section is multiplied by a number (usually 1.23) found by dividing 67.5 possible points (45% of 150 total points) by the number of multiple choice questions on the test (usually 55). Each essay is scored using a rubric with a 1 to 9 point scale: a score of 1 through 4 is considered weak; a score of 5 through 9 is considered acceptable to excellent. You could look at it this way: 8-9 is an A, 6-7 is a B, 5 is a C, 3-4 is a D, and 0-1 is an F. Each essay is then multiplied by 3.05, a multiplier which is found by dividing 82.5 possible points (55% of 150 total points) by 3 (the total number of essays) by 9 (the total rubric point value for each essay). The College Board arrives at your final grade by adding each score together to get a composite score, ranging from 0 to 150 points, which is then cross-referenced with an AP grade on a 1 to 5 point scale: • 5 means exceptionally well qualified • 4 means well qualified • 3 means qualified • 2 means possibly qualified • 1 means no recommendation

4. Computing Your Grade Let’s say you have 32 correct answers on the multiple-choice section, which consists of 55 questions. You would then multiple 32 by 1.23, which would be approximately 39 points (32 x 1.23 = 39). You then scored 4, 6, and 7 on your essays. Each essay would by multiplied by 3.05 and then added together. The final score for the essay section would be approximately 52 points (4 + 6 + 7 = 17 x 3.05 = 52). Your final composite score would be approximately 91, which would be most likely convert to a 4 on the AP scale. Congratulations!

5. Formulas • Multiple-Choice Score _____ x 1.23 = Section I Score _____ • Essay 1 Score _____ + Essay 2 Score _____ + Essay 3 Score _____ = _____ x 3.05 = _____ Section II Score • Weighted Section 1 Score _____ + Weighted Section II Score _____ = Composite Score _____

6. Things to Remember • Highlight and annotate the text. • Experiment with reading the questions before reading the passage. • Try to answer the question in your head before looking at the responses. • Look up the answer in the text. • Eliminate wrong answers. • Take an educated guess. (You are no longer penalized for incorrect responses.) • Focus on what you know. • Diction, syntax, figurative language (e.g., analogy, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, paradox, personification, simile, and symbolism), characterization, conflict, plot, point of view, setting, theme, motif, mood, and tone are important literary concepts to be able to analyze and evaluate. • Consider the techniques and devices an author uses to express tone and theme. Also consider how tone affects meaning (theme). • When analyzing tone, remember DIDLS: diction (denotation and connotation), images, details (included and omitted), language (style of language and figures of speech), sentence structure (syntax). • When analyzing poetry, remember TPCASTT: title, paraphrase (and analyze), connotation, attitude (tone), shifts (in tone, structure, etc.), title, and theme. • The AP exam expects analysis (AP = analysis)! Use summary and paraphrasing only in support of your analysis! Analysis is explaining; summarizing and paraphrasing is telling. Analysis illustrates a deeper understanding of the text.

7. Poetry and Prose Analysis

8. Yes, poetry mining is hard work, but my friends and I have found many riches while mining poems. Join us and see what you can find! Mining a Poem for Meaning • Step #1: As you read the poem, circle unfamiliar and/or important words, look up the meaning of words you don’t know, and write the definition of the words in the margin. • Step #2: Locate examples of poetic devices (figurative language and musical devices) and label them according to a color-code key that you create. Look for figurative language (e.g., hyperbole, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, and symbolism) and musical devices (e.g., alliteration, assonance, consonance, meter, onomatopoeia, parallelism, and rhyme). • Step #3: Analyze each stanza or small parts of the poem. Write your observations and interpretations in the margin next to the stanza or the part of the poem you analyze. Consider how diction and poetic devices affect mood, tone, and theme. Look for shifts in tone and point of view as well. • Step #4: Summarize what you have discovered about the meaning of the poem. A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom! (Robert Frost) Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles! Nothing can bring you peace but yourself! (Ralph Waldo Emerson) The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common! (Ralph Waldo Emerson) I celebrate myself, and sing myself! (Walt Whitman) Here on the pulse of this new day You may have the grace to look up and out . . . And say simply Very Simply With hope— Good morning! (Maya Angelou) I am monarch of all I survey! (Henry David Thoreau) I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life! (Henry David Thoreau)

9. Whitman writes in free verse, which illustrates the freedom and liberty associated with the American experience. Whitman uses musical devices such as alliteration and parallelism to make his poem “melodious,” thus giving it a sense of unity despite its free-verse style. Walt Whitman One who works with stone or brick Diverse; different Carefree, amiable I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, 5 The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the plowboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, 10 The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. Each person sings his own unique song. Strong, healthy, vigorous At night, people come together to continue singing their songs, possibly to set aside differences. Color Code Alliteration (Bold) Parallelism (Bold) Vocabulary (Bold) Summary Whitman uses an extended metaphor to compare America to an orchestra. While each person, like each musician, sings his or her own song, plays his or her own instrument, a beautiful, melodious song is created in the end. In other words, each person contributes something unique to make America strong and keep America unified.

10. Walt Whitman When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, Look’dup in perfect silence at the stars.

11. Walt Whitman Sense of inactivity created by word choice (e.g., heard and sitting), parallel structure (like rows), and the use of passive voice (e.g., “were ranged” and “was shown”). WhenI heard the learn’dastronomer, Whenthe proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, WhenI was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, WhenI sittingheard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mysticalmoist night air, and from time to time, Look’dup in perfect silence at the stars. Sense of imprisonment Notice the shift in diction and syntax , which signals a shift in tone, which possibly affects meaning! Active voice (e.g., “I wander’d” and “look’d”) Sense of freedom and wonder This poem places an emphasis on learning through personal experience and taking time to think and reflect in “perfect silence.” While the first stanza emphasizes passive learning, the second stanza emphasizes active leaning. It also has a romantic tone, emphasizing intuition and emotion over reason and logic, what can be perceived emotionally through instinct and intuition (the sixth senses) rather than what can be perceived physically through the five senses. The speaker’s mind definitely appears to have evolved from “third-rate” to “first-rate”!