Review Book Pointers for MC Passages:

Basic Principles of the Multiple-Choice Section (p. 29-39)

Have a Plan

  • Note the time and number of passages
  • Pick a passage to do first, and one to do last
  • Work the passage
  • Answer ALL of the questions

Time Management

  • Guess aggressively
  • Do your weakest passage last
  • Learn the Art of the Seven-Minute Passage (see below)
  • You can skip a passage and get a good score

Process of Elimination:

  • Guess aggressively
  • Look closely at the wording of each answer choice for what is wrong to eliminate responses

The Art of the 7-Minute Passage:When you get to the last passage, check your time.If you have seven minutes or fewer left, use the 7-Minute Passage technique:
Don’t read the passage
Answer the questions going from the questions that require no knowledge of the passage to those that require a complete knowledge.
If you're left with between seven and fifteen minutes for the last passage, it's your call.

CH 4: Reading the MC Passages, p. 41-50

  • Skim, then read more carefully
  • “Always read it at least twice before you go to the questions” (44)
  • Don’t Panic—“underneath it all will be a spine of good old-fashioned, straightforward meaning” (45)
  • Read poetry as prose—find the spine, the prose meaning of the poem—THEN read it as a poem, looking for structure, rhyme—try to visualize what you read:

Ignore line breaks

Read in sentences; emphasize punctuation

Ignore rhyme and rhyme scheme

Be prepared for long thoughts, ideas that develop over several lines

  • You SHOULD go back to the passage—expect to do so
  • Read for the main idea
  • It seems that students feel more comfortable previewing the questions before reading the passage of poetry or prose—do so IF it helps you.

CH 5: MC Questions: p. 51-56

  • Three basic types of questions:
  1. General Comprehension: questions where you don’t need a specific part of the passage, just the passage in general
  2. Detail: asks about specific parts of the passage
  3. Factual Knowledge: asks about literary terms, etc.
  • Don’t sweat grammar for the MC section—but sweat it for the essays
  • Do it your way. If you know the main idea; do the questions in order. If you are uncomfortable with the main idea, answer detail and factual questions first
  • Use consistency of answers. When in doubt, pick an answer that agrees with the main idea. Pick answers that agree with each other.

CH 6: Prose Passage Questions, p. 57-79

  • When a question seems unclear, the answer choices can help you make sense of it.
  • On every general question, you are looking for a choice that accurately describes some facet of the entire passage.
  • Learn to focus on key phrases in the answer choices in order to eliminate using the half bad equals all bad technique.
  • Use Consistency of Answers.
  • Pay close attention to the wording of questions. Put questions in your own words if that makes things easier for you. Be careful not to just ignore confusing parts, though.
  • Expect a weird question or two. ETS likes to get creative on the AP English Lit Exam. We can't prepare you for everything, just almost everything.
  • Don't be bummed out by I, II, III questions. POE works wonderfully on them
  • This is a public-service announcement: Our glossary of terms has many valuable definitions and will get you some points.
  • Grammar questions aren't worth studying for unless you’re really weak on the basic terms.
  • On line-reference questions:

Keep the main idea in mind and use Consistency of Answers whenever possible.

Go back to the passage and reread the lines in question, as well as one full sentence before and after the line reference.

CH 7: The Poetry Passage and Questions, pg. 81-94

  • Don't worry about scansion (iambic pentameter, dactyls, spondees, etc.). You probably won't see even one question regarding scansion.
  • Remember:

Read the poem as prose

Focus on the main idea

When answering the questions, use POE and Consistency of Answers

Be sure to read around line references.

  • On EXCEPT, NOT, and LEAST questions, cross out the negative word and eliminate any choice that fits the remaining question.
  • Remember that grammar questions on the exam aren't usually disguised comprehension questions--that is, the grammar part of the question isn't difficult, but comprehending the sentence well enough to answer the question is.
  • Metaphysical poetry is excellent practice for the kind of poetry you will see on the test. John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Thomas Carew, Abraham Cowley, and Richard Crashaw are all poets whose work provides excellent practice. The poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost is rich in intricate grammatical structures.

Remember that we have done MC all year—

you are smart and you are ready! 