WHY YOU’RE HERE
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. We’re here to help you avoid repeating the mistakes of test takers just like you that completed the 2012 AP® English Literature FRQs. And not only that, we’re here to show you what you can learn from their successes as well. If you want a roadmap of the shortcuts, speed bumps, and twists and turns of the essay portion of the AP® Lit exam, you’re in the right place.
We’ll go through each question one at a time and break down for you what the test takers did well and what they could have improved on so you can take that knowledge to your own test. Looking at past examples is a great way to be prepared and confident on the day you take your test. We’d love for you to follow along with us as the CollegeBoard’s website.
2012 FREE RESPONSE QUESTION #1:
There are two ways of thinking about the poetry question on the AP® English Literature exam. Either it’s great, because you get to complete the hardest question first. Or it’s terrible, because you get struck right out of the gate with the hardest question. Whatever way you prefer to see it, one thing is certain: the first free response question is the hardest, meaning test-takers consistently score the lowest on this question throughout the years.
FRQ #1 on the 2012 exam was no different. The mean for all test takers in 2012 was a whopping 3.98. But we only tell you this so that you can prepare. With enough practice, study, and hard work you can score a 9, even on the hardest question. Let’s go through what the 2012 test takers did to score points of their own and what they did to lose them.
THE PROMPT
Many test takers are tempted to jump right into the excerpt for the first FRQ, but it is a mistake to read the poem before the prompt. We suggest viewing the prompt as a sort of tour guide as you read. It indicates what you should be looking for in the text.
The prompt for the 2012 FRQ #1 told students that they would be reading a contemporary poem by Li-Young Lee. We would immediately start to think of other contemporary poems we studied before and draw experience from them. Many test takers expect 18th or 19th century poetry, because that is what is most often taught. Don’t fall into that trap.
The prompt ends by directing test takers to use literary devices like point of view and structure. While your essay doesn’t have to take the suggestions for literary devices indicated in the prompt, it’s always a good place to start. We would then read the poem, marking it with either a POV for point of view or S for structure.
Remember, the prompt is an aid to you. Taking a couple of minutes to thoroughly and carefully read the prompt ensures you’ll answer the full question and often gives you a few hints on how to do so.
THE GOOD
The Good shows us what we should do to score 9s.
Begin with Confidence
Just like it’s important to make a good first impression in person, it’s important to make a good first impression in your essay. And just like you supposedly only have a few seconds to make your impression in real life, you only have a few sentences in your essay. So take advantage.
The above example is written clearly and succinctly without errors. It makes a strong argument that shows the test graders what to expect in the rest of the essay. If your first sentences have spelling errors, graders will expect more to come. If your first sentences fail to include a clear thesis, graders won’t have a lot of confidence in your ability to analyze the text. Make sure you spend a little extra time getting that first paragraph the best it can be.
Move Past the Literal
If your analysis is based on the literal meaning of a word or phrase in a piece of poetry, it’s likely that you haven’t dived deep enough. Graders want to see that you’ve recognized the complexities of an excerpt, not just the surface meaning. The above example earned points for arguing that the use of blind wasn’t literal. It showed a strong grasp of the material and strengthened the essay as a whole.
THE BAD
The Bad shows us what we can avoid doing to go from 6 to a 9.
Don’t Use Precise Language
Take a look at the above example. The grader of this test found the phrase “takes his own ease of temptation” as unclear and ill-phrased. Whatever point the test taker was trying to make with this sentence was completely lost and any points they may have earned from it were lost as well.
Having valid and fair points to argue is crucial. But so is precisely and accurately stating them in your essay. This mastery of language only comes with constant practice, so take the time to do some AP® English Literature practice exams. And then do some more.
Paraphrase, Paraphrase, Paraphrase
To put it simply: if you want to lose points, paraphrase. The test graders can sniff out paraphrasing from a mile away. When they spot it, like in the example above, they, either rightly or wrongly, assume that you are using it because you don’t know how specific literary devices are in work in a particular piece of literature.
As another point, in the above example the test graders noted how the student slipped into paraphrasing toward the end of the essay. This may have been a problem of time management. When we get rushed, we get lazy with quoting from the text and using specific examples. How can you solve time management issues?
You guessed it: more practice!
THE UGLY
The Ugly shows us what to avoid at all costs. The Ugly are point killers.
Make Unfulfilled Promises
We talked above about starting strong. You also have to continue well, though. This test taker starts out strongly, but then falls apart. The example above promises to discuss diction, repetition, and periodic structure. However, this promise is not fulfilled within the essay. The graders were looking for those specific pieces of evidence, because the thesis promised them. When they weren’t present, points were deducted.
Lesson: write what you say you’re going to write.
Ignore the Complexities
Consider the sentence from the example above: It can be seen as evil. If you had to paint that sentence, it would most certainly be in black and white. The literature you will be reading and analyzing for the AP® English Literature exam will never be black and white. There are always nuances. There are always complexities. Find them. Discuss them. Embrace them.
Simplifying a text will always lose you points. If it’s a simple explanation or answer, it’s wrong.
TIPS FROM THE GRADERS:
1. Study the distinction between summarizing a piece of poetry and analyzing its meaning. Summarizing involves simply reading comprehension, which is not what the first FRQ is asking of test takers. Analyzing requires learning poetic devices, how they are used, and how to explain their meaning thoroughly and convincingly.
2. Don’t just read and study poetry from one time period. It tends to get you stuck in one mind set, and you need flexibility for whatever poem your first FRQ will give you. The test-takers particularly emphasized not to forget contemporary free verse in your studies.
2012 FREE RESPONSE QUESTION #2:
Good news! You made it through poetry alive. Now you’re in the considerably less treacherous land of prose. On the 2012 exam the mean score among all test takers was 4.42. That’s almost a half a point increase between the two questions. This means that a lot of essays did a lot of right things to earn more points. We’re going to go through what they did and how you can do the same.
But just because the second prompt received a higher mean score doesn’t mean that there aren’t mistakes that we can learn from as well. After all, it’s often the errors that show us the most. Let’s go over them so we don’t fall into the same traps as some of the 2012 test takers.
THE PROMPT
Perhaps of all three FRQs, the prompt for the second one is the most important. This is because it is in the prompt that you will find any necessary information about the context of the excerpt, like the title, the author, the time period, or the geographical location.
The 2012 prompt gave context about both the real life author and the fictional characters in the excerpt. If a student hadn’t studied George Eliot before, they may have not known that it is actually the pen name for Mary Ann Evans. It was clear some test takers skimmed the prompt, because they referred to the author as a male in their essays. Don’t make a similar mistake! We learn in the prompt that she lived from 1819-1880, so we can start to remember the political, social, and religious context for the piece.
Further, the prompt informs the test takers that the couple in the passage were recently married. Many employed this information to strengthen their arguments because they took the extra time to read the prompt. It is never a waste of time to read (and even reread) the prompt. It can often be the difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly, as we’ll see below.
THE GOOD
The Good shows us what we should do to score 9s.
Don’t Be Afraid to go Past the Prompt
The grader of this exam was impressed with the use of both sentence structure and narrative structure analysis to further strengthen the argument. Neither of these literary devices were listed in the prompt, but it showed a wide range of knowledge.
The prompt is a great jumping-off point, and it is fine to just use the literary devices often suggested there, but it can really impress the graders when you move beyond that. The most important thing is to answer the question as fully as possible. So use the prompt to your advantage, but don’t feel limited by it.
Make Each Paragraph Build to Your Point
The organization of your essay can make a difference between scoring a 6 and scoring a 9. Don’t think of each paragraph as merely beads on a necklace, but building blocks in a tower. In other words, if your paragraphs can be moved around and everything would still make sense, that’s an indication that you are not building upon your argument.
This example scored well because each paragraph added more to the argument that was reached at the end that, ‘she becomes driven to literacy’ Each paragraph contained a piece of that argument and that organization was clear to the test grader, thus earning high points.
THE BAD
The Bad shows us what we can avoid doing to go from 6 to a 9.
Misapply Terms
If you can correctly spell and use terms like ekphrastic, by all means do so. But this test taker not only misspelled it in the above example, but also incorrectly applied it to the text and argument being made. This resulted in a loss of points. If you get to your own AP® English Literature exam and aren’t certain you’re using a term correctly, err on the side of caution. But in the meantime study literary terms and devices (and how they are spelled) to avoid such a situation in the first place.
Misuse Terms
An even greater sin for an AP® English Literature FRQ than misapplying a term is misusing one. The test graders noted that merely identifying or labeling a literary device serves no purpose. It will not earn you any points. The key is to argue how that device works in the excerpt and discuss it through analysis.
Think more of the why and how and less of the what.
THE UGLY
The Ugly shows us what to avoid at all costs. The Ugly are point killers.
Summarize the Plot
Read through the above example. If your essay sounds like something that would be found on a Wikipedia page describing what a piece of literature is about, then you’re summarizing. Assume that your test takers have read the same excerpt you read. You don’t need to waste your time (or theirs) summarizing. It will only lose you points.
Lack Organization in Your Essay:
While the ‘good’ essay displayed strong and clear structural organization within each paragraph of the essay, the ‘bad’ had “disjoined observations, repetitive ideas, a lack of focus”. Organization earns you points. Disorganization does just the opposite.
TIPS FROM THE GRADERS:
1. Practice working with texts that include contradictory details in the description of a character. This will help you see complexities and learn how to write about them for your FRQ on the AP® English Literature exam.
2. The test graders found that many students failed to show a comprehensive understanding of point of view. Go over various points of view and learn to distinguish what effect they have in a piece of prose.
2012 FREE RESPONSE QUESTION #3:
Just like the first FRQ, or the poetry question, is often the lowest scoring of the three, the third is usually the highest scoring. In the case of 2012 this was true as well, with a mean of 4.77. But you’re probably not looking to score a 4.77, are you?
As we’ve done for the last two free response questions, we’re going to go through the good, the bad, and the ugly to maximize the points you earn and minimize the points you lose. It’s easy to go into the third question and phone it in, as it is often seen as the ‘easy’ one, but this can lead to sloppy mistakes and lazy arguments. We want you to prepare for the open question just as you would the other two. So let’s get started.
THE PROMPT
The prompt for the third free response question of the AP® English Literature exam is often formatted in similar ways year to year and just as often includes the same words: the work as a whole.
The specific question will be different each time (in the case of 2012’s test it asked to analyze a character’s understanding of justice), but then it will usually ask to expand that to the work as a whole. When you take your test you can probably expect to be asked to do the same. This is where many test takers lose points. They answer the first part of the prompt, but then forget to expand it to the greater context of the work as whole.
Practice doing this in your essays now, because it is likely that on the day of your exam the third free response question will end with those same words: the work as whole. Let’s see how your peers in 2012 fared with this last question.
THE GOOD
The Good shows us what we should do to score 9s.
End Strong
We discussed earlier the importance of starting confidently and now we’re going to show you the importance of ending the same way. You’ve probably heard that the first and last lines of literature are particularly important. Well, the same is true of your AP® English Literature FRQ essay.
The graders found this conclusion to be particularly strong. Take a look.
Go Beyond Summarizing
Here is an example of not summarizing. The test taker doesn’t describe the rain or the confusion of the river, but rather argues how they work to “foreshadow the even deeper ambiguity and loss of moral clarity that later characterize his experience in Vietnam”. This is analysis. This is what earns you a 9 versus a 6, as we’ll see below.
THE BAD
The Bad shows us what we can avoid doing to go from 6 to a 9.
Display Uncertainty in Handling Techniques: the tone they give off, a foreshadow of love
While the above test taker may understand clearly what foreshadowing is and even how it is working in the text, the phrase, “… might be a foreshadow of love…”, sounded uncertain to the test grader. Compare how this test taker discusses foreshadowing to the ‘good’ above and you’ll see the difference. Another poor use of a literary term was found later in the essay when the test taker wrote, “the tone they give off”.
Practice writing about these literary terms so you come off as confident and masterful on your AP® English Literature FRQs.
Be Vague
We understand that it can be hard to reference specific examples while writing the open question, because you won’t have the text in front of you. But that is why it is important to study and review the texts before the exam so you can draw from your memory as many details as possible. The more detail, the more points.
THE UGLY
The Ugly shows us what to avoid at all costs. The Ugly are point killers.
Don’t Use Support from the Text
This is like what we just discussed, but on an even worse scale. The ‘bad’ used support, but not specific support. This ‘ugly’ failed to use any support at all, vague or otherwise. The test grader found the argument promising, but without any textual support points could not be awarded that otherwise would have been.
Be Formulaic
The test grader found that this essay equating totalitarianism with pessimism was rather formulaic. This is similar to our point about not oversimplifying a text. On your AP® English Literature FRQ practice tests, try to push the envelope, dig deeper, come up with something new. Your test grader will appreciate it and reward you with a much higher score.
TIPS FROM THE GRADERS:
1. The test graders for FRQ 3 in 2012 suggested that test takers create a rough outline as a form of prewrite before beginning their essays. Even a simple road map and a couple notes about what the prompt is asking can lead to a more organized and persuasive essay.
2. Read and analyze a wide range of literature to prepare for the last question on the exam. Don’t limit yourself to one time period or geographical region. A more varied group of texts you can select from for your open question ensures a better chance at answering the question thoroughly.
CONCLUSION: NOW IT’S YOUR TURN
So now that you have all this information from the 2012 AP® English Literature exam, what do you do with it? We recommend that you take the 2012 test yourself, use what you learned, and then grade yourself. See what you improved upon and remember how you did it. See what you can still work on and hone in on those weak areas.
We learned how to avoid the mistakes of past test takers, but if you practice you can learn to avoid your own mistakes as well. With time and practice you can avoid the bad and the ugly and earn yourself a 9.
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