Here are some tips for your AP English Language and Composition exam.
1. Improve your reading comprehension with these tricks
The act of reading is actually a super power. Whenever you read, you are interpreting sticks and circles that represent sounds which you hear in your own head, and you then create meaning alongside your own reflections on what you have already learned in your experiences in your life.
“Thinking While Reading.” This is done across time and space -- from reading about Ancient Greece, to modern day China. All reading is, in a sense, an act of teleportation and advanced communication. Cool, isn’t it?? It almost makes me want to take an AP English test!!
I’m not going to lie to you. The multiple choice action of the AP English exam is a bit challenging! The good news is that if you can do these passages, then the SAT should be a piece of cake. The other good news is, you need only get about half the questions correct in order to pass.
One of the things that makes the reading passages in the multi choice section difficult is the antiquity of the language. You will benefit greatly by employing concentration strategies -- even if you don’t have A.D.D.
You will also do better if you can learn to love the older styles of English. Pro tip: most passages from England between 1800 and 1940 are related to social class and women's suffrage. If you can handle these passages and not be intimidated by the vocab, you’re on your way to rockin’ the test!
Again, please don’t be intimidated by the vocabulary or sentence structure of the passages. They can feel like lifting heavy weights, but you can understand them within the general contexts of themes of English literature. Proceed with confidence! You’ve been in school for a while, so you probably know stuff about stuff!
Here are our 3 favorite tricks for quickly improving reading comprehension
— gathered from two decades of test prep experience.
Remember the “sticks and circles” I mentioned above? All reading is visual processing -- it goes in through your eyeballs. So if you want to improve your comprehension, you need to improve your visual acuity. A great tool for this is the classic trick of using your pencil while you’re reading. If you’re taking the test on a computer, you can instead use your cursor to track your placement as you read.
We further recommend using your pencil above the line of text rather than below it. The reason for this is that this technique is unusual -- you’re probably used to placing the pan below the line of text you are reading -- and any new experience or trick will heighten the effect.
The second technique is based on auditory processing. This is the phenomenon of hearing the voices (I mean “the text”) in your head. All transcriptions of writing -- this “sticks and circles” -- were designed to create a system of sounds that mimics language as you read/input/process the text. I know this sounds abstract, but you literally hear the words as you read.
And because reading is tied to auditory processing, one way to heighten your concentration and comprehension in reading is to read out loud, mumble read (moving your lips as you read), or imagine the text louder in your head (like, for example, hear it screaming in your head).
Fun fact: People who are deaf read on average twice as fast as people who can hear, because they are not limited by subvocalization (i.e. hearing the words in your head as you read them).
The third technique is based on the fact that as you read (or, for that matter, as you input any kind of information), you are subconsciously contextualizing that data within the context of your own lived life -- what you’ve learned, experienced, read, etc. Do you remember the study skill called “chunking”? This is when you chunk groups of info together as you’re trying to learn something. Your brain can’t handle it all at once, so you do little bits (or chunks) at a time.
If you read an entire, difficult passage all at once, you probably won’t remember much of anything. It will go in one eye and out the other. So it is best to take it in bite sized pieces.
After each paragraph, summarizing (or chunking) what you just read.
2. Learn this list of key terms
The AP English Language and Composition Exam requires you to understand various grammar rules and rhetorical and literary devices. It is expected that you can identify these techniques in other people’s writing and that you can use them in your own writing.
Here’s a link to a list of English terms: thoughtco.com/ap-english-language-exam-terms-1692365
3. Improve your vocab quickly
It’s not too late to memorize some more words! While it’s difficult to tell exactly what words will appear on the test (AND you can always guess the word based on context clues), it’s definitely helpful to increase your vocabulary knowledge. This is a great two-for-one as it will help you with your SAT and ACT tests as well.
You can ask your AP English teacher for a vocab list, or you can search a site like Quizlet for a list of AP/SAT/ACT English words. To get you started, here’s a word list we found: https://www.albert.io/blog/15-must-know-rhetorical-terms-for-ap-english-literature/
And here’s a longer list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/26759
4. Know the different question types
Speaking of “two-for-one”, this trick also will help you with the SAT and ACT, if you decide to take them. Questions can generally be broken down into “in the text” or “not in the text”.
“In the text” questions
First, there are questions about “details”. These are specific details regarding Who did What, Where, When and How. These details are explicit. They generally involve actions of a character or other specific information given by the author.
Then, there are questions about “vocabulary in context” of the text. Sometimes there’s a word that has slightly different meanings depending on how it’s being used in that sentence. For example, did they “cleave” brittle wood into separate pieces? Or did they “cleave” (or adhere) to their principles? It depends on the context, doesn’t it?
“Not in the text” questions
In contrast to specific details, there are also questions that require you to make “inferences”. For example, the author may state that the character walked slowly, with shoulders hunched, chin down, and a forlorn facial appearance. Is the character happy or sad? That’s up to you to decide, based on the information you read.
Another “not in the text” question type is “Main Idea”. The main idea of an entire passage generally is apparent throughout all the separate paragraphs. Don’t get tricked! Sometimes the “main idea” of a paragraph isn’t really the main idea of the entire passage.
5. Rhetorical strategies
Some questions on the exam will require you to analyze how the author uses language to convey their argument. You can think of this as the stuff your English teacher taught you. For example, did the author make use of an “allusion”? (Allusion: A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event—real or fictional.)
Many of these terms or concepts you are familiar with (see the vocab links above). Here’s a brief list of 15 important terms.
Alliteration, Allusion, Analogy, Antithesis, Consonance, Diction, Ellipsis, Ethos, Hyperbole, Imagery, Irony, Oxymoron, Pathos, Personification, Symbolism
How many do you recognize?? Go to the link for definitions and examples: https://www.albert.io/blog/15-must-know-rhetorical-terms-for-ap-english-literature/
Finally, you might be wondering, “But what about the Essay???” I’m glad you asked! That’s the topic of our next post…
Need some more tips? We’re here to help! Give us a call:
(786) 529-0509
MTASConsulting@gmail.com