<p>Ok, I've never been very good with English before ever in my life (I'm a math/science guy, hence why I'm going to major in engineering), but I am determined to do well on the AP English Lit test this year. I got a 2 on Language last year because I was stupid and did nothing outside of class and chose not to sleep well the night before, but I want to make sure I'm well prepared for English Lit this year. Obviously, reading and knowing stories for the essays is one of the most important things. I found all of my English-class related books over high school (all the ones I still have anyway) and was wondering which would be beneficial to me to reread and know the story of for the AP test (please no one tell me I should reread all of them for learning's sake, I have plenty of time to after the AP test but I want to focus my time these next couple months on the test so I can dominate it).</p>
<p>The list is:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1984 by George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway</p>
<p>Any books on here that I should definitely read? Any books on here I shouldn't bother with? Any books that you highly recommend I know the story of before the AP test? Thank you so much, Doing well on this test would be wonderful.</p>
<p>I am too doing AP Lit this year and am in the same boat! I’m also a math/science person, but still want to do well on this test.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would know the stories for:
1984
Kite Runner
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Not on your list:
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet; any Shakespeare, really. His works pose a lot of questions and can have multiple interpretations, so it should be easy to use one of the works for an essay.</p>
<p>Animal farm may also be helpful. I’m just now starting The Jungle, so I do not know how beneficial it would be to have for the exam.
I’ve never read any of the others, so I have no input on those. </p>
<p>Oh, and read The Canterbury Tales. Each tale has a specific moral which could be nice to have on hand. Plus, they’re short and a lot of them are funny.</p>
<p>I, as well, am taking AP English literature. My teacher gave my classmates an I a list (with at least 500+ books that showed up on every single AP Test. She made us read 3 books from the list and do a one period (45 mins) lesson to the class about it and we also had to read 3 short stories from any of the authors from the list (we had to annotate a key passage from each one) and we also had to find 25 poems: 6 from the 16th and 17th century, 6 from the 18th century, 6 from the 19th century, and 7 from the 20th century. To add to that, we have to annotate each poem. In the end, on April, a full anthology would be produced (including binding, introduction, index, page of contents, etc.)
To answer your question…OUT OF ALL THE BOOKS YOU LISTED PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ALSO A FAREWELL TO ARMS SHOWED UP MORE FREQUENTLY. If you want to know which books showed up the MOST frequently, let me know. I’ll be more than happy to help. Another tip, don’t stick to books, that’s only about 25% of the test. Do poems and short stories too. good luck.</p>
<p>It’s nice to have a large repertoire of books from which to choose when you get to that last essay. Read at least one type of book from the four types of literature: comedy, tragedy, quest, and irony. That way, you don’t have to waste time reading books that are very similar in plot, structure, and/or theme.</p>
<p>The Kite Runner is a quest, and Pride and Prejudice is a comedy. I have not read the other books on your list. Our class read a Greek tragedy (Antigone), but that’s probably because most of us already took a Shakespeare class. Hamlet and Othello are my favorite tragedies, though Macbeth is a good one to read because the tragic hero is the bad guy in that one. I’m not too familiar with ironies, but we’re currently reading “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” as an irony.</p>
<p>And, like others mentioned, make sure to practice writing about prose/poetry. :)</p>
<p>Dubliners
Hamlet
Heart of Darkness
Crime and Punishment (on second thought…don’t. This is a horribly depressing book. I dislike it immensely.)
Oedipus Rex
Paradise Lost</p>
<p>These are the books I had to read this year for my AP English class. Everyone gets VERY high test scores on this exam…like all 4-5s. EVERYONE passes, at any rate.</p>
<p>cendrillion, I read Crime and Punishment for a different English class, and I would consider it one of my favorite books. Yes, it’s depressing, but seeing Raskolnikov’s psychological turmoil and the way it isolates him is so interesting.</p>
<p>AP English Literature is confusing. I would advise reading a lot of Shakespeare and choosing three novels (your favorite ones) and concentrating on those.</p>
<p>You definitely need something from Shakespeare (either Hamlet, Macbeth, or Othello- those are the “deep” ones)</p>
<p>As for books:
Crime and Punishment(Doestevsky- sp?)- you can write almost any essay from that
The Stranger (Camus)
To Kill A Mockingbird (Lee)- good classic book with plenty of themes
A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams)
Waiting for Godot (Beckett)</p>
<p>The Scarlet Letter, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and 2 independent reading books which I chose to be Brave New World and The Great Gatsby. All of which I recommend! (Yes, I LOVED The Scarlet Letter). Macbeth and Othello are also really fantastic Shakespeare plays that should not take too long to read.</p>
<p>I have used it for practically EVERY essay I have written, including all of my SAT essays, NYS English Regents essay, and also last year’s AP Language essay.</p>
<p>All The King’s Men
Death of a Salesman
Heart of Darkness
Hamlet
The Handmaid’s Tale
Dubliners
Focus
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher In the Rye
Of Mice and Men
Frankenstein
Dracula
The Bluest Eye
The Poisonwood Bible
The Awakening
Into the Wild…</p>
<p>I’m missing a ton…but that’s most of what I read throughout high school</p>
good luck.</p>