AP Lit Test Taking Tips

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AP Lit Test Taking Tips

• Keys to Success on the AP Lit

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The Night Before

• Relax! Dont 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!

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The Morning Of

• Get up early. Dont roll out of bed and into the
  testing room. Take a shower. Wake up!
• Breakfast will be set up in Cafeteria B at 730
  a.m. (Please make sure you have something
  healthy to eat. Apples are best for waking
  upbetter than caffeine.)
• Morning Exams begin at 8 a.m.doors open at 745.
  Go to the potty before the test.

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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 745 a.m. Give yourself time
  to relax, look around, find the clock, etc.

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Multiple Choice
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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 whats left.

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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, youll probably do about as well
  as if you had spent time on it.

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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,
  its poetry. Its word pictures. Try to make a
  mental image of whats being said.

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Essays
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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 dont have to be big, just
  interesting and/or vivid.

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The essay questions

• Read the question. Read the whole question.
• Answer the question. Answer the whole question.
• If you write a great essay that doesnt answer
  the question, youll get a bad score.
• Dont forget to extrapolate to the work as a
  whole on the open question. That puts you ahead
  of 45 of the test taking population.

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The essays

• Choose the type of essay youre best atpoetry or
  proseand 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.
• IntroUniversal to specific
• Conclusionspecific to Universal

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And Remember

• Success is a consequence and must not be a
  goal. --Gustave Flaubert
• This aint no party, this aint no disco, this
  aint no foolin around.
• --The Talking Heads
• You know what to do so
• Just do it. --Nike