AP Language MC Reading Test Overview of Strategies

OVERALL GOAL Aim for a 70%, not 100% Identify a strategy that will work best for you. We will practice three this week Mark up the text and the questions (process of elimination, etc.) Don’t be afraid to go out of order

OVERALL GOAL In order of priority: Answer as many questions correctly as possible. Do easy questions first; save difficult questions (especially Roman Numeral questions and “all of the following EXCEPT” questions) until last Use process of elimination whenever possible. Blind guess when necessary; fill in the same response every time.

Step 1 - Preview the Test How many passages? Remember readings are duplicated twice. Divide 60 minutes by number of passages. 4 passages means 15 minutes per reading 5 passages means 12 minutes per reading 6 passages means 10 minutes per reading Which passage is the OLDEST or appears the most challenging? Do this passage LAST. It will take you the longest, and you’re likely to get questions wrong.

Types of Readings Nonfiction - essays, speeches, articles, excerpts from books Questions concentrate on author’s use of rhetoric Expect minority or feminist perspectives Don’t forget about satire

Step 2 - Active Reading Read the entire passage, dramatically if possible, following the tip of your pencil Annotate tone (positive or negative), key ideas (summary notes in margin), and underline or circle words or terms from our packet

Step 3 – The questions Vocab/phrases in context, line item, main idea, rhetorical terms, antecedent questions are the easiest. Do them first. Watch your time. Do function/author’s purpose and organization/paragraph questions next. Watch your time. Do roman numeral and “EXCEPT” questions last, if time permits.

Answer options… Several types of answers 1 best (most defensible) correct answer 1 or 2 correct (but more superficial) answers 1 or 2 plausible but not correct 1 total misread

BLIND GUESSING: When skipping a difficult question, circle the question number on the test and fill in your standard response. Change it later if time permits. If your per-passage time limit runs out (12 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.), blind guess on the tough questions, circle the number, and move on to the next passage. Done with all passages and you still have time? Go back to your blind guess responses (which you’ve circled) and work some more (eliminate!)

Optional strategy #1 Overly difficult passage? Have no idea of what you just read? Scan the questions for the passage; ignore all line item or vocab questions Whole passage questions and author’s purpose questions may give you some insight

Optional strategy #2 Preview line item questions, mark the key word on the passage before reading. This goes against general advice of reading the passage first and tackling the easy and moderate questions first. The idea behind this strategy is that you’ll know what lines and words you’ll be asked about after reading. Potentially, this could be a more efficient way of maximizing your time.