If your student self-studied for AP Lit…

[crazyforlatin]

Dd wants to take the exam and has done some of Barron's multiple choice questions. If your student did well on the AP Lit exam, how did they go about that?

[kokotg]

Does she have a strong background in literary analysis? My oldest got a 5 on AP lit, and it was the one exam that I felt like I could just teach literature and didn't need to spend a ton of time on official test prep. But my background is in literature (I put in three years towards a PhD before I had kids), so it's the subject I'm the most comfortable teaching by far. It is, objectively, one of the hardest APs (lowest rate of 5s of any exam), and I think it would be tough for a kid without a strong background in literature (including poetry) to self study for it. On the other hand, I think it's probably one of the easier ones for a kid who DOES have that background to prepare for, because it doesn't call for the same kind of specialized skill set that the history exams do (and there's virtually no memorization required beyond basic literary terms). As far as preparation, I'd get access to AP classroom and go through those videos and questions. Beyond a basic comfort level with analysis (and with doing it fast and on the fly--for the most part I like the AP lit exam, but I do think coming up with an interpretation in 10 minutes and selling it is probably not a very transferable skill), she'll need to pick a couple of complex longer texts to be VERY familiar with so she can use one of them on the free response question at the end (they ask a very open ended question and you write an essay based on a work of your choice--they give examples, but you can pick anything with "literary merit.") Hamlet works for the vast majority of questions 🙂 The idea is that you want to have a couple of works in your head that are very rich and will work with a variety of questions. I think my son reviewed Huck Finn and Hamlet but ended up writing about Invisible Man, which he'd read very recently (his question was something about a character who has a specific worldview that's challenged. Huck Finn or Hamlet would also have worked very well in that case). 

[crazyforlatin]

Thank you very much for these suggestions! 

Are there books that you think are "better" for the free response questions? From any particular era or genre? Should it be widely known to make it easier on the exam reader? And where is the line between a childhood book versus one that is worthy to be on the exam?

We discussed the books this morning; she came up with The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, possibly To Kill a Mockingbird (but that was analyzed in 8th grade), or her all time favorite children's book, Swiss Family Robinson.

We could also choose one Shakespeare, maybe Hamlet, as she's somewhat familiar with it. And how familiar should she be with the book? Should she have written an analysis about it previously? Or just a favorite book?

And should the Odyssey or Iliad not be part of our consideration?

She had a year of analysis with Lange of Integritas but that was in 8th grade, then one in 9th grade, and for 10th and now, both classes are not lit analysis, unfortunately, so it's been awhile.  We'll have to work on that for the next several months. She does fine with the multiple questions from Barron's. So we'll put our energy into the writing. 

Is AP Lit considered one of the hardest because students can't do the analysis convincingly within the 10 minutes?

[kokotg]

42 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

Thank you very much for these suggestions! 

Are there books that you think are "better" for the free response questions? From any particular era or genre? Should it be widely known to make it easier on the exam reader? And where is the line between a childhood book versus one that is worthy to be on the exam?

We discussed the books this morning; she came up with The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, possibly To Kill a Mockingbird (but that was analyzed in 8th grade), or her all time favorite children's book, Swiss Family Robinson.

We could also choose one Shakespeare, maybe Hamlet, as she's somewhat familiar with it. And how familiar should she be with the book? Should she have written an analysis about it previously? Or just a favorite book?

And should the Odyssey or Iliad not be part of our consideration?

She had a year of analysis with Lange of Integritas but that was in 8th grade, then one in 9th grade, and for 10th and now, both classes are not lit analysis, unfortunately, so it's been awhile.  We'll have to work on that for the next several months. She does fine with the multiple questions from Barron's. So we'll put our energy into the writing. 

Is AP Lit considered one of the hardest because students can't do the analysis convincingly within the 10 minutes?

I joined the AP lit teachers facebook group this year, so I know from that that readers are instructed to grade any text the student chooses the same way....but most people who have been readers also say that good essays rarely come from poorly chosen books. I've actually read all three of the examples you give, and I think any of them would be good choices. The Iliad or the Odyssey are fine, too, and would likely work well. And most any Shakespeare is good, but you really would be hard pressed to find a prompt Hamlet wouldn't work well with. I'd have her go through the free choice question for the past several years and think through how she'd answer each question with the texts she has in mind (and, of course, actually writing the essays for practice would be a good idea, too); that will give her a good idea of if she's choosing works with themes complex and wide-ranging enough. I wouldn't say she needs to have written about the text previously as long as she's very familiar with it (remembers plot/characters/etc well) and has thought it through in terms of what arguments it's making/themes it's grappling with/etc. And thinking about those kinds of things can certainly be part of preparing for the exam. 

I'm not sure why the exam scores are relatively low (my 10 minutes was more how much time you might have to think through your answer and come up with a thesis before you start writing; I think you actually have 40 minutes total or maybe a bit more for the open choice essay. There's also an essay where they give you a poem to analyze and another about a short prose passage); if I had to guess I'd say that most students haven't encountered a lot of poetry before their actual AP lit class and probably not a lot of serious close reading of literature in general...and those aren't the kinds of skills you can develop easily in a single school year. 

[crazyforlatin]

Thank you very much! DD’s favorite Shakespeare is Hamlet so I just ordered the Norton Critical edition with Jude Law’s face on it. We’ll use Washington Black as the second book and figure out a possible 3rd book soon. 
 

 

[madteaparty]

As I recall, you need a book from every sort of genre, so a Bildungsroman, a biography, a play, and I forget what else. You want to be able to give her a depository of potential works with various themes in them to pull from for the third FRQ, which may be a very specific or general type of question (example: analyze a death or dream scene. Or general, like “conflict”). Hamlet is a good one as it covers various themes. My ds took an outsourced class for this and is now TA so I’ve stayed well out of it so I hope I’m not steering you wrong. 
Look into hiring a grader to grade an example of each essay on the rubric. This is not something you can get from a prep book IMO. 

Edited October 23, 2021 by madteaparty

[Lucy the Valiant]

Last year AP Lit changed their essay scoring rubric from a 9-point total to a 6-point total.

The test has a multiple choice literary analysis section (which DOES contain some subjectivity / worldview questions), followed by THREE 40-minute essays.

Last year was my first interaction with the exam, helping a student to self-study; it was a significant and at times opaque exercise. I don't regret doing it but will likely not do it again, for a variety of reasons.

[kokotg]

Here's a list of every open choice question through 2019: https://mseffie.com/iOpeners/Open_Questions.pdf the "pick a work from every genre" thing sounds like a strategy a teacher might suggest, but you won't ever be asked to write specifically about a play or whatever (there was a bildungsroman question a few years ago, but when you think about it that's really pretty broad, too. Hamlet--still works! And Washington Black would be perfect for that one, of course). 

Edited October 23, 2021 by kokotg

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What I did with my son was to go through a list of the most frequently referenced works to see which he had read and if it reminded him of any other works of a similar caliber. We still had most of the books he'd read, so we made a stack of them and he refreshed his recollection of character names and important details.

Then we went through a list of free response long essay prompt back to the 1970s. I made him come up with a work and a general thesis for every one of the prompts. Often he went back to the same books, because they were rich sources.

Odyssey and Iliad are definitely good options to include. In his year, the long essay prompt was about a character who was a trickster. He wrote about Odysseus.

Some of the works he reviewed:

• Odyssey
• Iliad
• Oedipus, Antigone
• The Frogs
• The Orestia
• Shakespeare: Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V
• Pride & Prejudice
• Jane Eyre
• Dracula
• The Master and Margarita
• Animal Farm
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Beloved
• Joy Luck Club

There is also a Major Works Data Sheet that a lot of AP English Lit instructors have students fill out. I didn't have much success convincing my son to use this, but it could be a good note taking format. PDF version  This one looks like a document you can edit. 

[crazyforlatin]

@Sebastian (a lady) thanks so much for the list and the pdf! She used to read so much prior to high school and has since only read books assigned by a teacher. 

Does Dd need to memorize any parts of the books to use as quotes?

[crazyforlatin]

On 10/23/2021 at 6:35 AM, kokotg said:

Here's a list of every open choice question through 2019: https://mseffie.com/iOpeners/Open_Questions.pdf the "pick a work from every genre" thing sounds like a strategy a teacher might suggest, but you won't ever be asked to write specifically about a play or whatever (there was a bildungsroman question a few years ago, but when you think about it that's really pretty broad, too. Hamlet--still works! And Washington Black would be perfect for that one, of course). 

Thank you for the pdf! This is so useful.

[Lucy the Valiant]

10 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

@Sebastian (a lady) thanks so much for the list and the pdf! She used to read so much prior to high school and has since only read books assigned by a teacher. 

Does Dd need to memorize any parts of the books to use as quotes?

No need to memorize any specific quotations, but the student SHOULD be able to cite evidence for attitudes / perspectives that support the student's assertions. 

I'm not usually a fan of the College Board's "preparatory material," but last year (our first year with AP Lit) we found the information on AP Central to be quite helpful in preparation for the exam. I was given access when I got my syllabus approved, and my students were given access to the student side when they registered for the exam (in Oct). I think the helpfulness is a post-pandemic upgrade. 😉

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, crazyforlatin said:

@Sebastian (a lady) thanks so much for the list and the pdf! She used to read so much prior to high school and has since only read books assigned by a teacher. 

Does Dd need to memorize any parts of the books to use as quotes?

She won't be expected to quote, but it can be helpful to have a few phrases in her head that she can use if needed; think "alright then, I'll go to hell" from Huck Finn or "borne back ceaselessly into the past" from Gatsby--the kinds of lines that are integral to the works as a whole. But in general, she'll need to be able to cite specific details about plot, characters, etc. to support her thesis but not have any passages committed to memory. 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

22 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

@Sebastian (a lady) thanks so much for the list and the pdf! She used to read so much prior to high school and has since only read books assigned by a teacher. 

Does Dd need to memorize any parts of the books to use as quotes?

Memorizing isn't necessary, though if there is a particular phrase she wanted to use in an essay she would be welcome to.

Let me give you one more resource I find helpful. Every AP exam has an archive of past free response questions with the scoring rubric, sample essays and explanations of why the samples earned the scores they got. The 2021 exam info is here and you can see past exams here. I would skip 2020 since it was not a typical exam year. I've found it useful to go over a few sample responses with students, having them score the response according to the rubric, then compare with the official score and explanation. I think this gives them a good feel for how much detail is necessary. I also like the Chief Reader Report (sometimes called Q&A in other exams) because that discusses trends in what they saw students get right and not include.

[JennyD]

3 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

I've found it useful to go over a few sample responses with students, having them score the response according to the rubric, then compare with the official score and explanation. I think this gives them a good feel for how much detail is necessary.

This is such a good suggestion, thanks.  We are doing APUSH at home and i think this will be very helpful to DS.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

1 hour ago, JennyD said:

This is such a good suggestion, thanks.  We are doing APUSH at home and i think this will be very helpful to DS.

Another tactic, which was really helpful for history exams, was to give them the prompt and 3-5 minutes to outline their response thesis and main arguments. I didn't make them write dozens of practice responses, because we didn't have time, but having to come up with their talking points was a good exercise.

I did something similar with the document based questions by printing document sets and having them group the documents and discuss how they would use them in their essay. (I haven't looked at the history rubrics in a few years, so I'm not sure if grouping documents is still a factor.)

 

[kokotg]

5 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

Another tactic, which was really helpful for history exams, was to give them the prompt and 3-5 minutes to outline their response thesis and main arguments. I didn't make them write dozens of practice responses, because we didn't have time, but having to come up with their talking points was a good exercise.

I did something similar with the document based questions by printing document sets and having them group the documents and discuss how they would use them in their essay. (I haven't looked at the history rubrics in a few years, so I'm not sure if grouping documents is still a factor.)

 

IIRC, grouping documents is no longer formally a thing, but it can still be a helpful technique to use when planning/organizing the essays. 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

1 minute ago, kokotg said:

IIRC, grouping documents is no longer formally a thing, but it can still be a helpful technique to use when planning/organizing the essays. 

That's good to know. I like the DBQ a lot, but scoring based on grouping sometimes felt artificial. Though as you point out, it can be a useful step in mentally organizing your thoughts.

[crazyforlatin]

OP here, can Dd add the novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad? She’s very familiar with this book, but it’s novella.

We noticed in the AP Lit open essay questions, this book was listed several times? But then I also noticed Alice in Wonderland as an example the writer may use.
 

May we assume that any book listed under a question can be used with any essay question, if even that book may not appear under that question? 

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by crazyforlatin
Misread one of the books

[madteaparty]

5 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

OP here, can Dd add the novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad? She’s very familiar with this book, but it’s novella.

We noticed in the AP Lit open essay questions, this book was listed several times? But then I also noticed Alice in Wonderland as an example the writer may use.
 

May we assume that any book listed under a question can be used with any essay question, if even that book may not appear under that question? 

 

It was one of the books DS covered in his outsourced class. He’s not a fan of it being included 🤣 but no one asked him, until he became TA 😉 

also I’m going to PM you, I realize now. 

[kokotg]

6 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

OP here, can Dd add the novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad? She’s very familiar with this book, but it’s novella.

We noticed in the AP Lit open essay questions, this book was listed several times? But then I also noticed Alice in Wonderland as an example the writer may use.
 

May we assume that any book listed under a question can be used with any essay question, if even that book may not appear under that question? 

 

yes, if it works with the prompt, it would be fine.