The AP Multiple Choice Section

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The AP Multiple Choice Section

• 55 Qs in 1 hour, 4 or 5 separate passages
• 45 of total AP test grade
• 1 point per correct answer
• Thus, guessing is ALWAYS to your advantage
• Composition (generally)
• older passage (pre-20th-century)
• minority/womens passage
• love of arts passage
• science or history passage
• At least one passage with footnotes

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Multiple Choice Question Types

• Factual
• Words refer to, allusions, antecedents
• Most closely meanssynonyms
• Technical
• Grammar, style, organization
• Analytical
• Rhetorical features/strategies/function, PODs,
  transitions, overall purpose
• Inferential
• Suggests, implies, traits of author, tone,
  effects of devices

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Before and During Reading

• To preview or not to preview?
• If you pre-read the Qs, focus on quotes and DO
  NOT READ THE OPTIONS80 of them are incorrect!
• As you read, underline main points or key
  features
• Examples of parallelism, etc.
• Major section breaks or transitions
• Words or phrases that you know will be
  highlighted in a question (because you previewed
  the questions)

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Tips for Reading Old Texts

• Dont assume you know the meaning of a word if it
  seems its being used oddly.
• Watch out for semicolons their use wasnt
  regularized until well into the 20th century.
• Break long sentences into their component
  clauses. Be prepared to stop at semicolons,
  colons, and even some commas.
• Use context clues to determine meanings of words,
  even if you havent had to in a while.
• Had I, Should I, Could I, Were I, ?? If
  I had, If I should, If I could, If I were

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Tips for Reading Old Texts

• Let parallel structure help, not hinder, your
  understanding of sentences and paragraphs
• e.g., repetitive series of appositives that are
  really just saying the same thing over and over,
  or adding further description or color to a point
  already made (as old texts tend to do)
• My real purpose is to begin the task of
  reconciliation, to reach out to those wounded by
  my former policies and seek their hand, to plant
  a seed of kindness in ground whose rocky soil
  bears my bootprints.

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During Reading

• Ask yourself in each
• Do I know what the author SAYS here?
• Could you summarize/paraphrase the content of
  this section? Do you know what this part is
  about?
• Do I know what the author DOES here?
• Can you see the purpose of this section? Can you
  analyze what its contributing to the whole?

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Multiple Choice Strategies

• Process of Elimination
• Eliminate
• Choices that are too narrow/broad
• Choices that are synonymous/cancel each other out
• If 2 answers are close
• Find the one general enough to contain all
  aspects of the question OR limited enough to be
  the particular detail the question is seeking.

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Multiple Choice Strategies

• Watch for
• Right words, wrong idea
• Words that do appear in the passage, but are used
  here to say something incorrect
• Wrong words, right idea
• Statements that would be accurate, but use the
  wrong term or name from the text
• Fancy-sounding irrelevancies
• Location! Is the answer true of the indicated
  section of text?
• For questions that direct you to certain lines

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Additional Choice Strategies

• All parts of an answer must be correct
• Watch for individual words that wreck otherwise
  correct answers
• _______ but _______ tone questions
• Beware of answers that too harshly criticize the
  passage
• Don't mistake your conjecturingeven your
  intelligent conjecturingfor the evidence in the
  passage.
• If it seems like it could be true of the passage,
  but theres no evidence of it in the passage,
  its not the right answer!

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More Choice Strategies

• If youre short on time, look for
• Short questions
• Questions that point to a specific line
• Questions that highlight a specific detail
• Questions that contain a short quotation