The AP Literature and Composition Exam
Tips prior to taking the Exam
1. Breakfast is key- Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day and you are going to need to feed your brain so that you can survive the entire extent of the test. 2. Study hard!!! But take a chill pill the night before- It is extremely important to study past materials and books that you have have analyzed throughout the year. Procrastinating and starting to study a day or two before the test is not going to be in your best interest. You are going to want to start studying for a short period of time everyday at least a month in advance and then review like crazy the week before the test. And after all of that studying and reviewing all of your practice tests you should take a night off the night before to make sure that you are well rested and ready to rock out that exam. 3. Be confident- The most important part of taking the test is to be confident in yourself. The entire school year has been focused on preparing you to take this exam and once the time comes to take it, you should be extremely confident in what you have learned and should know that you can get at least a 3 or better on the exam. Tips to succeed on the multiple choice section 1. Don't take too long on one question- When you are taking the multiple choice section of the exam there is bound to be a question that might stump you or you know will take a long time to find. If you realize this then you should skip this question and finish the rest of the test and then come back to it at the end so that you don't waste all of your time on one question. 2. Go with your gut- Second guessing yourself can sometimes be beneficial and also harmful. When trying to decide on an answer to a question that you may not completely know, you shouldn't spent the time debating on which of the two choices are correct and should just go with the one that you feel is correct and what the exam is looking for. 3. Read questions first- Most of the time the questions involve points or themes of the text that you have just read and therefore may give you a small preview as to what you are about to read. 4. Re-read prompt- Sometimes a portion of a passage may be confusing and instead of just guessing on the questions that involve that portion, you may find it beneficial to go back and re-read that part so that you can understand what is going on and what the question is wanting. 5. 100% vs. 99%- Many of the question in the exam will have answers that will seem similar or that they both could be correct. In these cases you should not only think about what you think is right but what the exam thinks is right. It's not necessarily about how you interpret it but more about which answer specifically fits that question. Tips to succeed on the writing potion 1. Annotate the prompt and directions- When starting the writing portion of the exam it is super curtail to read the directions so that you know what you are supposed to be writing about. After doing so you should underline or highlight the theme and any key points that the exam is asking you to include in your writing. Then when you are reading through the prompt you know what things you should be looking for and can underline specific parts of the prompt that match your theme or discussion points. 2. Plan claim and body paragraphs- Before actually starting your paper you should come up with a game plan. It doesn't really matter how you do this but it is very important to write out what you want your paper to be about and what you want included in it so that you can look back and already know where to go with your writing. 3. Connect back to claim- When you are wanting to end a body paragraph in your writing you always want to make sure to connect it back to your claim. This helps you stay on track and also adds evidence as to why your point of analysis supports your claim. 4. Use examples- In each of your body paragraphs you want to make sure to include at least one specific point of evidence that backs up what your paragraph is about. This is looked for in your papers and helps show that you read and understand the text. 5. Use real world example for conclusion and connect to claim- For a lot of people they have problems when it comes to writing a conclusion. A good tip is to try and apply your claim to a real world situation. This both connects back to your claim and give and interesting point for your readers to end on. |
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This is a mentor text that we went over in class that helped me figure out a plan to write better papers and will hopefully help you with writing your papers.
https://www.google.com/search q=failing+exams&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS633US634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE56KE1M3TAhVl_4MKHSV2BEUQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=928#tbm=isch&q=ap+lit+exam+meme
https://www.google.com/search?q=failing+exams&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS633US634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE56KE1M3TAhVl_4MKHSV2BEUQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=928#tbm=isch&q=exaMS+MEMES&chips=q:exams%20memes,g_1:struggle
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/pdfs/IN255168_99_EngLit_RE_for_web.pdf
https://www.google.com/search?q=failing+exams&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS633US634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE56KE1M3TAhVl_4MKHSV2BEUQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=928#tbm=isch&q=exaMS+MEMES&chips=q:exams%20memes,g_1:struggle
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/pdfs/IN255168_99_EngLit_RE_for_web.pdf