How to succeed in AP Literature

<p>So I took AP Lang last year and am starting school in a week with AP lit being the first class of the day. I got a B in Language and a disgusting 2 on the exam. The multiple choice questions were really difficult and I got nervous on the essay portion. I normally got 6's on the essays with an occasional 7. Honestly, literature fascinates me. I can't wait to read Grendel, and Invisable man, maybe even Hamlet. Today I bought "How to read literature like a professor" and am loving it, it's giving me some valuable ideas. My question is, can I improve my writing and reading skills this year enough to push my score to at least a 4? I plan on buying Barrons AP Lit review book and work through it. Any good tips on how to succeed in the class?</p>

<p>I think you will be more successful in lit. The passages for the multiple choice are excerpts from poems and books, as opposed to rhetorical appeals. The essays are different as well. There is a poetry prompt, a prompt about an excerpt from a book, and an " open prompt" where you write about a book you’ve read and use it to support the question. To prepare, become familiar with poetic and literary terms. The only way you will improve your writing and reading comprehension skills is through practice. I recommend looking at past ap lit essay questions, writing essays for them, and then comparing your response with other student responses on the college board website. Hope this helped!</p>

<p>This was very helpful, thank you! I’d love it if some more people would contribute, please share your thoughts!</p>

<p>I wrote a little rant on AP Lit a while ago, so i’ll past it here.</p>

<p>Hey! I was in the same boat as you. I hate English with a passion and i cant write an essay to save my life. Also, i dont even understand anything about poetry really…the poems on the AP test were definitely my hardest part.</p>

<p>With that being said, i did 0 studying for this test and pulled a 4. Not bad, considering i only took the test to be exempt from my english final. Here’s some tips on the AP Lit exam:</p>

<p>1. At Least Try to Understand Poetry</p>

<p>This is a HUGE part of the exam, including half of the MC and an entire essay. I suggest reading up on the many different literary devices poets use in their poems (enjambment, alliteration, and all that jazz), as well as the different styles of poems (vignette, sonnet, and everything else invented before anyone cared about poetry) as well as some of the different main ideas of poetry (metaphysical, insert other example here, etc.). A review book should help with these (since you’re not taking the course and suffering like the rest of us)</p>

<p>2. Read Well-Written, Universal (and usually incredibly boring) Novels</p>

<p>By universal, I mean books that have complicated plots with great character development. This will definitely help you on the essay which requires you to answer a prompt USING A BOOK YOU’VE READ OF LITERARY MERIT (that means no 50 Shades of Grey). So obviously, you need a few books under your belt to make sure you’ve covered every prompt possible. Here’s 5 books that I think cover a HUGE span of ideas/possible questions on future AP Tests (at least the ones I read in my AP Lit class):</p>

<ul>
<li>Hamlet (this one was cool. WARNING: Shakespeare)</li>
<li>Crime and Punishment (also cool, long read though)</li>
<li>Wuthering Heights (good storyline, boring/slower than a glacier)</li>
<li>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (pretty good)</li>
<li>Tess of the d’Urbervilles (incredibly boring, but interesting characters/settings)</li>
<li>Special shoutout to “Heart of Darkness”, which i hear is a really good book</li>
</ul>

<p>3. Practice MC (and practice guessing, like I did on all the poetry stuff…yay…)</p>

<p>Nothing kills you more than reading a MC question and all 5 of the possible answers are LITERALLY possible answers. I mean seriously, sometimes even the weirdest answers seem logical after a couple minutes. They key, of course, is to pick the best one.</p>

<p>You’ll have 2 regular passages and 2 poems (i think…i’ve really done a good job blanking it all out apparently). So theres no time to waste.</p>

<p>Practice, practice, practice! This is really the only way to get a feel for the MC that you wont have enough time for when you have to read the same line of poetry 23592352 times because it looks like Arabic to you.</p>

<p>HINT: Take a look at the multiple choice questions/answers after you read the passage/poem, and then read it again. The answers might give you an idea of what to look for (or it could backlash and send you down the wrong path…but that didnt happen to me =D)</p>

<p>4. The Most Important Tip Besides Breathing: Perfect Those Essays</p>

<p>Obviously, since the essay portion comprises half of the exam, essays are important. There are literally several prompts available to you at Collegeboard, as well as rubrics and i assume you have English teachers to look over them for you (because who doesnt want to randomly read essays for fun? YAY).</p>

<p>Shake off that stupid 5 paragraph essay and find what suits you. If you find 5 paragraphs are what suit you…great! If you can only crank out 2 really good body paragraphs, then DO IT! 2 awesome body paragraphs are much better than 2 awesome BP’s and then a really mediocre BP that will make the reader go “Huh? HOW DARE THEY RUIN AN ESSAY WITH THIS ABOMINATION!!!”</p>

<p>And definitely practice the 3 different types. Obviously you need to write different kinds of essays for the poetry prompt and the “choose your own book” prompt.</p>

<p>The Bottom Line (this thing turned out way longer than I expected…the opposite was said for all 3 of my AP Lit essays)</p>

<p>If you can prepare for this exam in a month flat. Read those 5 books (6 if you want), look up/study those poetry terms/literary devices in general, and practice a couple of those essays. You will definitely need a teacher to help, because no one crushes your dreams better than an English teacher who tells you that you might be able to get a 3 on the AP exam based on their impossible midterm that you got the 2nd lowest grade in the class on.</p>

<p>Now if you’ll excuse me, i need to rub my 4 into a particular someone’s face. Hope i was able to help!</p>

<p>You’re one funny guy, thanks, this helped a bunch!</p>

<p>As far as the third essay (open prompt) goes, my teacher’s advice was pretty solid: “Have at least three books that you know forwards and backwards. Have at least one book that you know forwards, backwards, sideways, and upside down.”</p>

<p>In my case, I knew Brave New World and Hamlet the most because I was chosen to play a character from each of them in a mock trial. Besides that, I knew Frankenstein, Heart of Darkness, and Pride and Prejudice fairly well. As it turned out, I used BNW for my third essay (this was in 2012).</p>

<p>Kevintothe55 - </p>

<p>Your post is wonderful, so thank you. Sorry I don’t have anything to add!</p>

<p>What are some good examples for the free response essays?</p>