2020 ap english language composition free response questions sample essays
Advanced Placement AP. With the AP English Language and Composition exam approaching on Wednesday, May 20, it's time to make sure that you're familiar with all aspects of the exam. In this article, I'll give a brief overview of the test, do a deeper dive on each of the sections, discuss how the exam is scored, offer some strategies for studying, and finally wrap up with some essential exam day tips. Due to the COVID coronavirus pandemic, AP tests will now be held remotely, and information about how that will work is still evolving. The AP Language and Composition exam tests your rhetorical and composition skills.
AP English Language and Comp Past Exam Questions
Advanced Placement AP. With the AP English Language and Composition exam approaching on Wednesday, May 20, it's time to make sure that you're familiar with all aspects of the exam.
In this article, I'll give a brief overview of the test, do a deeper dive on each of the sections, discuss how the exam is scored, offer some strategies for studying, and finally wrap up with some essential exam day tips. Due to the COVID coronavirus pandemic, AP tests will now be held remotely, and information about how that will work is still evolving. The AP Language and Composition exam tests your rhetorical and composition skills.
Essentially, how do authors construct effective arguments in their writing? What tools do they use? How can you use those tools to craft effective writing yourself? That is the essence of rhetorical analysis. The exam has two parts: the first section is an hour-long, 45 question multiple-choice section.
It includes five sets of questions, each based on a passage or passages. In this section, there will be rhetorical analysis questions which test your rhetorical skills. There will also be composition questions which require you to consider revisions to the texts you're shown. The second section is free response. It starts with a minute reading period, and then you'll have minutes to write three analytical essays:.
You will have about 40 minutes to write each essay, but no one will prompt you to move from essay to essay—you can structure the minutes as you wish. In the next sections I'll go over each section of the exam more closely—first multiple choice, and then free response. The multiple-choice section tests you on two main areas.
The first is how well you can read and understand nonfiction passages for their use of rhetorical devices and tools. The second is how well you can "think like a writer" and make revisions to texts in composition questions.
You will be presented with five passages, about which you will receive a small amount of orienting information, e. There are, in general, eight question types you can expect to encounter on the multiple-choice section of the exam. I've taken my examples from the sample questions in the " Course and Exam Description. Magic eight-ball says there are eight types of multiple-choice questions!
These questions are focused on verifying that you understood what a certain part of the passage was saying on a concrete, literal level. You can identify these questions from phrases like "according to" "refers," etc. The best way to succeed on these questions is to go back and re-read the part of the passage referred to very carefully. These questions take reading comprehension one step further—they are primarily focused on what the author is implying without directly coming out and saying it.
These questions will have a correct answer, though, based on evidence from the passage. Which interpretation offered in the answers does the passage most support? These questions ask about overall elements of the passage or the author, such as the author's attitude on the issue discussed, the purpose of the passage, the passage's overarching style, the audience for the passage, and so on. You can identify these questions because they won't refer back to a specific moment in the text.
For these questions, you'll need to think of the passage from a "bird's-eye view" and consider what all of the small details together are combining to say.
Some questions will ask you to describe the relationship between two parts of the text, whether they are paragraphs or specific lines. You can identify these because they will usually explicitly ask about the relationship between two identified parts of the text, although sometimes they will instead ask about a relationship implicitly, by saying something like "compared to the rest of the passage.
These questions will ask you about the deeper meaning or implication of figurative language or imagery that is used in the text. Essentially, why did the author choose to use this simile or this metaphor? You can generally identify questions like this because the question will specifically reference a moment of figurative language in the text. However, it might not be immediately apparent that the phrase being referenced is figurative, so you may need to go back and look at it in the passage to be sure of what kind of question you are facing.
Still other questions will ask you to identify what purpose a particular part of the text serves in the author's larger argument. What is the author trying to accomplish with the particular moment in the text identified in the question?
You can identify these questions because they will generally explicitly ask what purpose a certain part of the text serves. You may also see words or phrases like "serves to" or "function. These questions will ask you to identify a rhetorical strategy used by the author. They will often specifically use the phrase "rhetorical strategy," although sometimes you will be able to identify them instead through the answer choices, which offer different rhetorical strategies as possibilities.
For these questions, the student will need to act as though they are the writer and think through different choices writers need to make when writing or revising text. These questions can involve changing the order of sentences or paragraphs, adding or omitting information to strengthen an argument or improve clarity, making changes to draw reader attention, and other composition-based choices. One of the single most important parts of your college application is what classes you choose to take in high school in conjunction with how well you do in those classes.
Our team of PrepScholar admissions experts have compiled their knowledge into this single guide to planning out your high school course schedule. The free response section has a minute reading period. After that time, you will have minutes to write three essays that address three distinct tasks. Because the first essay involves reading sources, it is suggested that you use the entire minute reading period to read the sources and plan the first essay.
However, you may want to glance at the other questions during the reading period so that ideas can percolate in the back of your mind as you work on the first essay.
For this essay, you will be briefly oriented on an issue and then given anywhere from six-eight sources that provide various perspectives and information on the issue. You will then need to write an argumentative essay with support from the documents.
However, this essay is much more argumentative in nature—your goal is to persuade, not merely interpret the documents. Example documents not included, see free response questions :. In the second essay, you'll be presented with an excerpt from a nonfiction piece that advances an argument and asked to write an essay analyzing the rhetorical strategies used to construct the passage's argument.
You will also be given some orienting information—where the passage was excerpted from, who wrote it, its approximate date, where it was published if at all , and to whom it was directed. Example excerpt not included, see free response questions :. In the third essay, you will be presented with an issue and asked to write a persuasive essay taking a position on the issue. You will need to support your position with evidence from your "reading, experience, and observations.
Example from free response questions :. As on other APs, your raw score will be converted to a scaled score of This exam has a relatively low 5 rate. Only 9. In terms of how the raw score is obtained, the multiple-choice section is similar to other AP multiple-choice sections: you receive a point for every question you answer correctly, and there is no penalty for guessing.
The grading rubrics for the free-response questions were revamped in They are scored using analytic rubrics instead of holistic rubrics. For each free-response question, you will be given a score from The rubrics assess three major areas:.
Each scoring rubric broadly assesses these three factors. However, each task is also different in nature, so the rubrics do have some differences. I'll go over each rubric—and what it really means—for you here. So some students used to more traditional English classes may be somewhat at a loss as to what to do to prepare.
A major thing you can do to prepare for the AP Lang and Comp exam is to read nonfiction— particularly nonfiction that argues a position , whether explicitly like an op-ed or implicitly like many memoirs and personal essays. Read a variety of non-fiction genres and topics, and pay attention to the following:.
Thinking about these questions with all the reading you do will help you hone your rhetorical analysis skills. Of course, if you're going to be analyzing the nonfiction works you read for their rhetorical techniques and strategies, you need to know what those are!
You should learn a robust stable of rhetorical terms from your teacher, but here's my guide to the most important AP Language and Composition terms. You also need to practice argumentative and persuasive writing. In particular, you should practice the writing styles that will be tested on the exam: synthesizing your own argument based on multiple outside sources, rhetorically analyzing another piece of writing in-depth, and creating a completely original argument based on your own evidence and experience.
You should be doing lots of writing assignments in your AP class to prepare, but thoughtful, additional writing will help. You don't necessarily need to turn all of the practice writing you do into polished pieces, either—just writing for yourself, while trying to address some of these tasks, will give you a low-pressure way to try out different rhetorical structures and argumentative moves, as well as practicing things like organization and developing your own writing style.
Finally, you'll need to practice specifically for the exam format. There are sample multiple-choice questions in the " AP Course and Exam Description ," and old free-response questions on the College Board website. Unfortunately, the College Board hasn't officially released any complete exams from previous years for the AP English Language and Composition exam, but you might be able to find some that teachers have uploaded to school websites and so on by Googling "AP Language complete released exams.
When you are reading passages, both on the multiple-choice section and for the first two free-response questions, interact with the text! Mark it up for things that seem important, devices you notice, the author's argument, and anything else that seems important to the rhetorical construction of the text. This will help you engage with the text and make it easier to answer questions or write an essay about the passage.
Similarly, with every passage you read, consider the author's overarching purpose and argument. If you can confidently figure out what the author's primary assertion is, it will be easier to trace how all of the other aspects of the text play into the author's main point.
The single most important thing you can do for yourself on the free-response section of the AP English Language exam is to spend a few minutes planning and outlining your essays before you start to write them. Unlike on some other exams, where the content is the most important aspect of the essay, on the AP Language Exam, organization, a well-developed argument, and strong evidence are all critical to strong essay scores.
An outline will help you with all of these things. You'll be able to make sure each part of your argument is logical, has sufficient evidence, and that your paragraphs are arranged in a way that is clear and flows well.
Another thing you can do to give your free responses an extra boost is to identify counterarguments to your position and address them within your essay. This not only helps shore up your own position, but it's also a fairly sophisticated move in a timed essay that will win you kudos with AP graders.
Address counterarguments properly or they might get returned to sender!
Free-Response Questions Download free-response questions from past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring. Read the passage carefully. Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Rice makes to convey her message to her audience. In your response you should.
Note that any related adjustments to AP Exams, such as length or content covered, may not be reflected on all AP Central pages. Get Real-Time Feedback from Personal Progress Checks Personal progress checks in AP Classroom are a great way to ensure your students are continuing to build mastery of content and skills. The real-time results can help you and your students prioritize additional practice before the AP Exam. Sign In to AP Classroom. Samples and Scoring Commentary Student samples from the and exams that have been re-scored using the rubrics that took effect in fall , along with specific scoring guidelines and commentaries that explain the assigned scores, are available on this page.
Use this list to practice!
Find out your chances, get recommendations for improvements to your profile, and see how your profile ranks among other students applying to the same schools. Do you know how to improve your profile for college applications? See how your profile ranks among thousands of other students using CollegeVine.
Using the New AP® English Rubric With Confidence
Download free-response questions from past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions. Be sure to review the Chief Reader Report versions available later this fall. In this invaluable resource, the chief reader of the AP Exam compiles feedback from members of the AP Reading leadership to describe how students performed on the FRQs, summarize typical student errors, and address specific concepts and content with which students have struggled the most that year. If you are using assistive technology and need help accessing these PDFs in another format, please contact us at ssd info. Note: versions of these PDFs with enhanced accessibility will be available in the upcoming academic year. Free-Response Questions.
AP Lang Free Response Questions (FRQ) – Past Prompts
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Thanks to the global pandemic, the College Board announced that exams will be held online in a shorter, minute format. The exam will be entirely free response i.
AP Lang Q2 Assignments. The practice test will also help you know The Kite Runner Quiz.
2020: Why Changes to the AP English Language Exam are Good for Students
You can follow this guide on your own with a free Fiveable account! Pick up your cram pass to join us. This year, the AP English Language exam will look different than you were expecting. You are already prepared for the exam! May 20 2p Eastern! Unless you have been approved for the make-up date in June, but only your school can request that. There will be a practice simulation posted by College Board within the next few weeks. With so many school closures and the stress of a global pandemic, this review season will be different than usual. If this is your first AP exam, welcome! This will cover all of the units and leave you time to practice questions before test day. Some classes may have done units out of chronological order throughout the year, which is ok. All of the required resources are free, including the cheat sheet PDF. Some of the suggested resources include paid products.
