Tanmayee Yenumula: Class Notes (10.1-108)

AP English Literature and Composition Exam
Test Day: Thursday May 5^th, 2011 (8:00 AM to 12:00ish)
Test Day Logistics:

Þ   Bring several sharpened number 2 pencils

Þ   Bring blue or black pens for free response

Þ   Bring a photo ID

Þ   Bring you concentration, focus, and energy!

AP Exam Format:
60 Minutes: Multiple Choice (50-55 questions)…45% of composite score
Covers the following topics:

• The main idea of the passage or poem
• The tone of a passage or poem
• Correct interpretation of details within the passage or poem
• Your ability to draw inferences from the reading¾including inferences about the author’s purpose
• Your understanding of form¾the structure of the passage or poem
• Your vocabulary

Do not waste your time trying to look for:

• Symbols
• Figures of speech
• Rhetorical devices
• Allusions, etc.

Strategy:

Þ   Choose a place to start (a passage)

Þ   Read quickly through a passage to get a general sense

Þ   Remember, only about 15 minutes per passage and the questions!

Þ   Don’t spend too much time making notes

Þ   Try to notice things like:

o      Titles

o      Main ideas

o      Pattern of organization

o      Significant Diction

Þ   Try to keep a running paraphrase reading the second time through

Þ   Don’t re-read a section more than 3 times…not enough time

Þ   Read all questions thoroughly and answer one you know immediately

Þ   Use process of elimination…It is to your advantage to guess!

Þ   Trust your gut

Þ   Sometimes the questions give you answers to other questions

120 Minutes: 3 Free Response questions…55% of composite score
2 closed readings (analyze prose and poetry)

• Do NOT summarize the passage
• Make a one or two sentence statement of the piece’s basic meaning and then connect this to whatever techniques that you need to write about in order to answer the prompt completely
• Areas you might want to note
  • Title
  • Narrative stance (point of view, characteristics of the narrator or speaker)
  • Significant (revealing of theme, character, tone, or author’s purpose)
    • Diction
    • Imagery
    • Details
    • Language
    • Syntax
  • Patterns of organization

1 open prompt (choose a work and analyze it in the context asked)

• Two main categories:
  • Critical theory questions
    • Make a statement about how a given element of literature sometimes functions and then ask you to show how this true of some piece you’ve already read
  • Content questions
    • More “theme focused”: present a common thematic element of literature and then ask you to show how this theme is developed in some piece you’ve already read
• Proceed exactly as you would for a close reading essay

Roughly 40 minutes per essay
Strategy for writing the essay (RAP WAR):

Þ   Read (the prompt)

Þ   Analyze (your goals)

Þ   Plan (a response)

Þ   Write (your essay)

Þ   Analyze (its effectiveness)

Þ   Revise (content, structure, and usage)

Strategy for Analyzing effectiveness (TAP ICE):

Þ   Thesis

Þ   Answers

Þ   Prompt

Þ   Identify (specific techniques, using brief quoted examples)

Þ   Claim (a purpose for these techniques)

Þ   Explain (how the techniques accomplish their purpose)

How to prepare for the Free-Response section of the AP Literature test:

• Read. Think. Discuss.
  • Keep thinking back to class discussions or look back at threads on the Forum
    • http://apelit-okemos.spruz.com/forums/
• Review terms.
  • Visit some websites that help with terms. Here are some:
    • http://quizlet.com/390627/ap-literature-terms-flash-cards/
    • http://teachers.sduhsd.net/ppennock/AP%20Resource%20Packet.pdf
    • http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/563535
    • http://www.scribd.com/doc/18171536/AP-Lit-Terms-very-comprehensive-list-with-definitions
• Review your book notes.
  • Visit the class notes journals.
    • http://apelit-okemos.spruz.com/blog.htm?b=1&pageindex=2
• Choose two works, one Shakespeare and one modern novel or novella, and re-read them. Make new annotations in light of your growth as a reader since you last read them. Read any supplementary materials that your editions of the play and the novel offer. Look over your Book Notes for these two pieces; are there any additions that you need to make? Are there one or two truly significant quotes from each that you might be able to memorize? Practice writing a few timed essays based on these two works.
• Practice answering Free Response questions
  • Look into online supplement. Here is one website:
    • http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/2002.html

General Tips:

• Bring a couple of blue or black pens
• Write neatly¾unless your cursive is beautiful, plan to write in print
• Clarity is essential
• Don’t forget stupid little things like indenting your paragraphs
• Make your first to sentences clear, engaging, and correct
• Review the handouts on verbs to use in AP writing
• Don’t think about the AP test for 24 hours before you take it. Go to a movie or play video games. Eat well. Gossip or shoot hoops with friends. Get lots of sleep. If you are stressed out and tired from last-minute cramming, you will increase our test anxiety and the chances of “blanking” at important moments. Relax. Trust yourself. You are prepared.

Speaking of prepared…you still need to learn more about poetry techniques, so here are some notes on Allusions and Meaning:
Allusions: reference in literature to something from history or other pieces of literature
Generally drawn from the Bible, classic Mythology, or Shakespeare.
Meaning of the Poem: Experience of the poem…what it leads the reader to experience
Connections: Thinking about the free-response, I find similarities to APUSH and WHAP free response questions in that we a set formula to write it although in English, you can get away with not knowing some stuff.