Cracking the AP Literature Exam
Multiple Choice
It is likely that at least passage is chosen
from each of the following periods:
Sixteenth or the early seventeenth century
Restoration or eighteenth century
Nineteenth century
Twentieth century
Within the Last 500 years!
Reading the Multiple Choice Passages
 Pay attention to punctuation and rhythms of the
lines or sentences.
 Read as if you were reading the passage aloud
to an audience emphasizing meaning and intent.
 Hear the words in your head.
 Pay attention to the title, author, date of
publication, and footnotes.
 Look for foreshadowing.
 Be aware of thematic lines and details.
 Pay attention to enjambment and end-stopped
lines in poetry.
The Straightforward Question
The poem is an example of
The word “smooth” refers to
The question that refers you to specific
lines and asks you to draw a conclusion
or to interpret.
Lines 52-57 serve to
The “all . . . except” question
These require extra time because they
demand you consider every possibility.
Make inferences or abstract a concept
that is not directly stated in the passage
In the poem “My Last Duchess,” the
reader can infer that the speaker is
Skip if you are short on time.
Roman Numerals
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In the poem, “night” refers to
I. The death of the maiden
II. A pun on Sir Lancelot’s title
III. The end of the affair
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Skip if you are short on time.
Dramatic Situation Questions
Speaker
Male or female
Where
When
Circumstances
Audience
Structure Questions
Punctuation
Repetitions
How are stanzas 1 and 2 related to stanza
3?
What word in line 20 refers back to an idea
used in lines 5, 10, and 15?
Which of the following divisions of the
poem best represents its structure?
Theme questions
Which of the following best sums up the
meaning of stanza 2?
With which of the following is the poem
centrally concerned?
The poet rejects the notion of an
indifferent universe because . . . .
Images and figures of speech questions
 Expect a large number of these.
 Sensory objects
 Similes and metaphors (What is compared?)
 Pattern in the images
 To which of the following does the poet compare
his love?
 The images in lines 3 and 8 come from what
area of science?
 The figure of the rope used in line 7 is used later
in the poem in line . . . .
Single word questions
Diction
Which of the following words is used to
suggest the poet’s dislike of winter?
The poet’s use of the word “air” in line 8 is
to indicate . . . .
The poet’s delight in the garden is
suggested by all of the following words
EXCEPT . . .
Tone questions
These do not appear frequently.
The tone of the poem can best be
described as . . . .
Literary devices questions
Rhetorical devices
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Which of the following literary techniques
is illustrated by the phrase “murmurous
hum an buzz of the hive”?
Grammar questions
 Look carefully at the context.
 The obvious meaning of the word is usually not
the one used in the poem.
 May exploit double meanings
 Which of the following best defines the word
“glass” as it is used in line 9?
 To which of the following does the word “which”
in line 7 refer?
 The verb “had done” may best be paraphrased
as . . . .
If no choice immediately strikes you as
correct, you can
Eliminate those that are obviously wrong.
Eliminate those choices that are too
narrow or too broad.
Eliminate illogical choices.
Eliminate answers that are synonymous.
Eliminate answers that cancel each other
out.
If two answers are close, do one or the
other of the following:
Find the one that is general enough to
cover all aspects of the question.
Find the one that is limited enough to be
the detail the question is looking for.
If time is running out and you haven’t
finished the fourth selection:
Scan the remaining questions and look for:
-the shortest questions
-the questions that direct you to a specific
line
Look for specific detail/definition
questions.
Look for self-contained/direct questions.
Poets
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Shakespeare
John Donne
Philip Larkin
Emily Dickinson
Sylvia Plath
Dylan Thomas
May Swenson
Theodore Roethke
Richard Wilbur
Adrienne Rich
Edmund Spencer
W. H. Auden
W. B. Yeats
Gwendolyn Brooks
Elizabeth Bishop
Langston Hughes
Prose Multiple Choice
Genre questions
From what kind of work is the selection
taken? (fiction or nonfiction)
Narrator questions
Speaker
Attitudes toward the characters or subject
Who
Where
When
Why
audience
Subject questions
Purpose
Structure questions
Determine how each part (paragraph)
advances the passage as a whole.
Style questions
Diction
Imagery
Figurative language
Syntax
Rhetoric (use of words to persuade or
influence a reader)
Situation and content questions
The main subject of the passage is . . . .
The primary distinction made in the first
paragraph is between . . . .
According to lines 3-7, which of the
following is the chief . . . .
In the third paragraph, the author is chiefly
concerned with . . . .
Meaning of words or phrases questions
As it is used in line 2, the word ---- can be
best understood to mean . . . .
In line 7, the word ---- employs all of the
following meanings EXCEPT . . .
The phrase ----- is best understood to
mean . . . .
Diction questions
The speaker’s choice of verbs in the
paragraph is to stress the . . . .
The speaker’s anger is suggested by all of
the following EXCEPT . . . .
Figurative language questions
The comparison in lines 1-3 compares . . .
The analogy of the second paragraph
compares . . . .
The phrase ----- is best read as a
metaphor relating to . . . .
The purpose of the astronomy metaphor in
line 9 is to . . . .
Structure questions
The transitions from the first to the second
and the second to the third paragraph are
dependent upon . . . .
The last paragraph of the passage is
related to the first chiefly by . . . .
Literary techniques questions
In the third paragraph, the description of
the cat on roller skates is an example
of . . . .
All of the following phrases are paradoxes
EXCEPT . . . .
The phrase “silent scream” is an example
of . . . .
Rhetoric questions
The rhetorical purpose of lines 1-6 is to . . .
The argument of the passage can be best
described as progressing from . . . .
Which of the following best describes the
function of the last sentence?
The effect of shifting from the past to the
present tense in the third paragraph is . . .
The happiness of the speaker is conveyed
primarily by the use of . . . .
Tone questions
The tone of the passage may be described
as . . . .
In discussing ------ in the second
paragraph, the speaker adopts a tone
of . . . .