I learned this year that students skip the poetry question more frequently than the other two. (One other essay is based on a prose selection, and the third is based on a work that the student selects.) It has nothing to do with the topic or time period. Students skip sixteenth century poems as frequently as those by poets who are still living. Apparently some students do not have much experience or comfort with poems, even those students taking the AP test.

From reading AP essays this year, I would give some advice to would-be AP test takers. First and foremost, have a thesis that answers the question.

Ask yourself, “So what?” Why is this topic significant or important? Make sure everything in the essay directs the reader toward the thesis.

Beware of lists of rhetorical devices or figures of speech in the essay. From the AP perspective, the main reason that you ought to learn common literary terms and figures of speech is for the multiple choice questions. We were told there are typically five to seven multiple-choice questions that have specific literary terms that students ought to know.

The purpose of the essay is to make a discovery or get the reader thinking. That fact that a passage has a simile in line 4, alliteration in line 15, and an overall ironic tone is probably already obvious to the reader. They are, after all, teachers and professors trained in the subject!

What you need to do is make a discovery. If you note those three things, for example, then ask how do that simile, alliteration, or irony help answer the question being asked. That is what is important. If the simile does not help you support your thesis, do not do anything with it. The reader is not going to be too impressed that you know what a simile is.

What will impress the reader is showing how the simile itself points to an ironic tone, the alliteration suggests a sound given by a two-faced person, and the irony is a clue to understanding the question asked and a life lesson the author is trying to get across!

Take a look at sample essays. AP Central posts some every year. We were told by the College Board that the average (mean) for each essay in last year’s English Literature AP test was around 4.1 or 4.2. Look at the sample 4 and 5 essays. If you are an AP student, you should be able to handle those and see how they are done.

Then check out some sample 6s and 7s. Again, you can get them from AP Central, from your teacher, or from AP review books. What do you need to do to raise or sustain your writing at that level? Look at the question, the thesis, and the way the examples support the thesis.

Then, when you have the courage, check out the 8s and 9s. If necessary, ask your teacher about them. What makes them superior? What theses do they have? How do they handle evidence? What discovery do they make?

Always remember this: The AP English Literature test is made for students who read. If you read a lot of good writing, you are going to be more likely to write well. Avoid the lists, and get to the heart of the matter. Be sure to include some poetry in your reading so you don’t feel obliged to skip the poetry questions.

Beware of telling us that the writer uses, utilizes, or employs something. That includes cognates like the nouns use, utilization, and employment. Remember, too, that usage means something that does not normally apply to writing unless you are noting something about the grammar! Hey, sometimes you have to use those words. I just did. But if you start off by saying something like “the author uses” and then follow it with your list of two or three things, you probably already have the reader saying to himself or herself, “This sounds like another three or four.”

Ask yourself, “So what?” And read, read, read.

Notes from our 2014 AP Reading Experience

Notes from our 2015 AP Reading Experience

Click here to get to the AP Central web page which has previous test questions, scoring guidelines, and sample scored essays posted

Click here for a set of essay scoring guidelines (from 2015)