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AP Lit& Comp

Get essential strategies and tips for tackling the AP Literature and Composition multiple-choice section effectively. Maximize your chances of success by annotating, answering in the booklet, eliminating distractors, and more.

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AP Lit& Comp

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  1. AP Lit& Comp MULTIPLE CHOICE STRATEGIES

  2. The facts • Typically 4-5 passages (about one page in length) • 55 questions • 60 minute time limit • That means less than 1 minute per question due to reading time • 50% questions answered correctly gives you a chance to pass (AP PASS site)

  3. Strategy #1: annotate! • The author's purpose or goal • The author's universal message or belief • The author's rhetorical strategies or tactics • Unusual uses of language (***odds are roughly 100% that there will be questions on these four issues) Note: Quickly preview the questions first.

  4. Strategy #2: answer in booklet • “Thinking” and writing answers changes brainwaves (don’t be a victim) • Use a large grade “a” font when writing answers in your booklet (left hand margin) • Only when you get to bottom of page, turn full attention to transfer of answers (concentrate on question # and answer for that question….#13 is letter “A”, #14 is letter “B”, etc…) • Don’t worry about others “copying” off you; that isn’t your issue

  5. Strategy #3: terminate with extreme prejudice • There may be more than one “correct” answer. Choose the one that is the most correct. • Make a reasoned decision based on facts that you know about the piece and the question. • Don’t simply cross out an answer using process of elimination. • Cross it out with emphasis!!!!!! • Be certain that you are psychologically at peace with your answers by totally “eliminating” the distractors and “axe-ing” the less obvious wrong answers.

  6. Strategy #4: leave no blank behind • Never leave a blank on your answer document!!!! Never!!!! • There are no point deductions for guessing, so take advantage of it. • If you have 5 minutes left and haven’t answered 10 questions, pick your favorite letter between a-e and bubble all of the remaining blanks that one letter!!!

  7. Strategy #5: easy passages first • Answering question #1 to passage #1 and so on (#2, #3…) is not to your advantage on this exam. Break the rules and the habit! • For this exam, it is critical to think for yourself and in your best interest. •  It is not necessarily in your best interest to start with the first passage and first question. • Which are the easy passages? The ones you like best and are easiest for you to understand. Do them first.

  8. Strategy #6: do the easy questions first • Same rules apply as with strategy #5; get rid of habits! • All questions count same point value whether they are easy, medium, or hard • Rack up the easy points first!!! • Do the math for yourself…..easy questions about 20 sec, medium about 30, hard ones about one minute….you get the point (pun intended).

  9. Strategy #6: Which question first? • Easy – line reference (small in scope…no huge chunks to read); also, short questions. • Harder - huge chunks of text (large passages), roman numerals, Indication words (except, least, not). • Any question requiring you to read large chunks of text should be saved for dead last.  Same goes with questions having to do with the author's intent in the entire passage, the tone in the entire passage, and so on.

  10. Strategy #7: Five above, five below • When answering ANY question with ANY line references, read FIVE LINES ABOVE IT and FIVE LINES BELOW IT.  NOTE: Why?  Well, consider this.  Let's say you saw a line referring to a movie that said, "It is amazing."   Based only on this evidence, a reasonable person might conclude that the writer's opinion of the film was generally positive.  However, what if the full context was something like, "After seeing this film, which can only be described as the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies, one can only conclude that it is amazing that a film of this shoddy quality, with lame and laughable acting of an impenetrable script and starring not even Lindsay Lohan, but a poor Lindsay Lohan imitator, could ever have been green-lighted by a major studio." • That's why context matters. Blow off this step at your own risk, because for sure, one of the distractor answers will capitalize on the several ways a passage's lines could be misunderstood out of context.

  11. Strategy #8: create a compassTest your awareness • Do not look at answer choices as your primary source correct answers (4 out of 5 or 80% are actually incorrect/distractors) • Truth: wrong-answer answer choices are intentional distractors. • When we are “distracted”, we tend to miss the obvious, so don’t do it. • Instead look to write in the correct answer choice first and allow it to function as a “compass” that will point you in the right direction. Chances are, that you will give yourself a better opportunity at success.

  12. Strategy #9: Don’t take the bait • Teacher created tests aren’t like the ap exam. • this is basic setup:1. In which of the following _________________ could you expect to find _________ and _________?A. Duh answer for people who didn't studyB. Answer that has nothing to do with the question.C. Ha, ha, the teacher thinks she's being funny.D. MaybeE. RIGHT ONE

  13. On the AP, things are a little different:1. In which of the following ___________ could you expect to find __________and ___________?A. MaybeB. Maybe?C. Whut?D. Uhhh...maybe?E. I JUST DON'T KNOW!!  I DON'T KNOW!!  MAKE IT STOP. • We're so used to looking for the "right answer" that we tend to leap on ANY answer that contains right information.  The AP knows this, and this is one of their primary traps.  The thing is, ALL of the answer choices will have some kind of right-ness about them; ALL of them will be sorta-kinda justifiable; ALMOST ALL of them can be argued as right.  In short, they will all look like delicious chocolate cake. BEWARE!!!!! It’s roadkill cake!!!

  14. KEY: don’t look for the best answer…..look for the least worst one! •  Instead of looking for the RIGHT answer, you have to start looking for what's WRONG about it.  Instead of looking for cake, you have to look for roadkill. For example, let's say that you had a question set like this:1. The author's tone in the passage from 17-19 can best be described asa. Miserably joyfulb. Bitterly angryc. Gleefully depressedd. Ostentatiously borede. Reasonably angryLet's say you're inclined toward "A" because the author seemed sort of unhappy, and after all, the word "miserably" is in there.  However, was the author BOTH miserable AND ALSO joyful?  If the answer is no, then what you have is a lovely case of roadkill cake: it looks like cake, but it has a chunk of roadkill in there.  Stop trying to justify the cake part. If it's PARTLY BAD, that means it is ALL BAD.

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