AP Lit Test Taking Tips

Keys to Success on the AP Lit

The Night Before

Relax! Don’t read for the test. Read for pleasure. Watch a movie. Have

dinner with your family. Drink some warm milk, get in your jammies, and

go to bed early!

The Morning Of

Get up early. Don’t roll out of bed and into the testing room. Take a shower. Wake up!

Breakfast will be set up in Cafeteria B at 7:30 a.m. (Please make sure you have something healthy to eat. Apples are best for waking up—better than caffeine.)

Morning Exams begin at 8 a.m.—doors open at 7:45. Go to the potty before the test.

In the testing room Dress in layers and wear socks. That way

you can adjust to the temperature of the room. Bring a watch and tissues. Bring two pens, two sharp pencils, and

highlighters (if you use them). Leave backpacks, purses, etc. in lockers Leave your cell phone in the car! Be in your seat at 7:45 a.m. Give yourself

time to relax, look around, find the clock, etc.

Multiple Choice

Multiple Choice Do the sections that are strongest for

you, whether prose or poetry, first. Look at the other two sections that are

weakest and choose the easiest. Do that one next.

Leave the hardest section until last. Use Process of Elimination to guess aggressively: Eliminate the obviously wrong, then the half wrong, and guess from what’s left.

The Seven-Minute Passage If you get to the last MC section and

have seven minutes or less, do not read the passage. Go directly to the questions and answer them. Some require no reading at all and some require only reading a few lines. Answer those and guess on the rest. Since this is your hardest and/or weakest passage, you’ll probably do about as well as if you had spent time on it.

For Poetry Passages

Read the poem twice unless it is your seven-minute passage.

Read for punctuation, not line readings. Use visualization to get the meaning.

Remember, it’s poetry. It’s word pictures. Try to make a mental image of what’s being said.

Essays

Make it easy for the Reader Neatness counts so print, if necessary. Use double indents for paragraphs.

When in doubt, create a new paragraph. Write perfectly for the first two and last

two sentences. Create an aura of perfection.

Try to use interesting words. Jazz up your paper. Words don’t have to be big, just interesting and/or vivid.

The essay questions Read the question. Read the whole

question. Answer the question. Answer the whole

question. If you write a great essay that doesn’t

answer the question, you’ll get a bad score. Don’t forget to extrapolate to the work as a

whole on the open question. That puts you ahead of 45% of the test taking population.

The essays Choose the type of essay you’re best at—

poetry or prose—and do that first. Do the open question second. Do the worst essay last.

Find the meaning. Find how the author gets the meaning across: images, specific words or phrases, opposition.

Take a position and have confidence in it. If you can prove it from the passage it is valid.

Intro—Universal to specific Conclusion—specific to Universal

And Remember…“Success is a consequence and must not be a

goal.” --Gustave Flaubert

“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around.”

--The Talking Heads

You know what to do so…“Just do it.” --Nike