1. AP Language Reminders and Tips
You can do it! ☺
AP Language Reminders and Tips

2. Schedule Reminders Multiple Choice
Argument Speed-Dating (or synthesis discussion)
AP Test Taking Tips
Predictions
Schedule

3. Test Taking Tips WEAR LAYERS: It might be sweltering or freezing.
Do not gulp down coffee or water. The clock does not stop for bathroom breaks!
BRING:
A jacket
Dark blue or black pens of varying thicknesses (to ward off cramps)
Pencils
A light snack (label)
A bottle of water (label)
TUESDAY NIGHT:
Sleep.
Do not study. If you do not know it by now, you will not know it tomorrow.
REMEMBER: You are prepared. If you become upset or frustrated with one passage or prompt, try to move along and start fresh. This is one time where you are not competing against each other. Each qualifying score makes KHS look academically stronger. We all want you to well, and, well, you will perform wonderfully!!
Test Taking Tips

4. What does the test look like?
The exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and has two sections — multiple choice and free-response.
The multiple choice section is worth 45% and the free-response section is worth 55% of the final Exam Score.
Section I: Multiple Choice | 52 to 55 questions | 1 hour | 45% of Exam Score
(Excerpts from non-fiction texts are accompanied by several multiple-choice questions.)
Section II: Free-response | 2 hours and 15 minutes (includes a 15-minute reading period) | 3 Free-Response Questions | 55% of Exam Score
What does the test look like?

5. A. When the question refers to a part of the sentence and asks for the meaning of a word or phrase in context, what a word refers to, or how a word functions, go back to the beginning of the sentence or even to the previous sentence and read completely to the end of the sentence to comprehend the meaning (ESPECIALLY important for “antecedent” questions).
B. Each time you see a zero on in item number (10, 20, 30, etc.), double-check to ensure you are on the right spot on your Scantron form.
C. The questions generally follow the chronology of the passage rather than transition from easiest to hardest or vice versa.
D. Since they all count the same, get credit for the easy and medium answers first! (in other words do not spend too much time on any one question)
E. DO NOT LEAVE ANY BLANK ANNNDDD MAKE SURE YOU FILL IN ANSWERS BEFORE TIME IS UP!
Multiple-
Choice
Tips

6. A. Make certain you understand how the passage fills out the rhetorical triangle. You do not necessarily need to write it out, but do think about it as you read. All questions relate back to it in some manner because this is really just rhetorical analysis in a multiple-choice form.
B. The questions are written in an order that is meant to help you. Try to answer them in that order, but do skip if needed → JUST DON’T MESS UP YOUR NUMBERING
C. Context clues are your friend. Gleaning the definition of words in context is a STARR skill. This test is just with much more difficult vocabulary.
Multiple Choice Tips #2

7. Footnotes

8. Footnotes

9. Footnotes

10. Essay Writing Tips from the Chief Reader
The Chief Reader, Marilyn Elkins, provided the following advice after the 2001 AP Reading:
Students should read essay prompts as texts, making certain that they have understood what they are being asked to do before they begin writing.
Tell your students that they must first decipher a text's meaning; then, and only then, can they go on a successful search for strategies and techniques. To begin without doing so leads to a list of parts that may be only tangentially related to the primary effect of the text. Such approaches generally lack insight about the relationship between the parts and the whole, and are often rather superficial in their observations.
Students need to understand the difference between "telling" details and details that merely pad arguments. Make sure they understand that more details are not necessarily better, and that three examples may or may not be better than two.
Don't require students to refer to novels or other literary texts to gain credence for their arguments. Instead, teach them to use evidence for which they can clearly articulate their rationale. This approach produces the best evidence, regardless of its source. No matter how high-minded some evidence may sound, it is simply not convincing if the writer cannot fully explain its relevance.
Essay Writing Tips from the Chief Reader

11. Rhetorical Analysis A. Read the passage carefully
B. Rhetorical Triangle!
C. Consider the best organizational strategy (device or sub-purpose)
D. You do NOT have to outline devices in thesis
E. Topic sentences are like mini rhetorical triangles
F. USE SNIPPETS – NOT long quotes!
G. The strongest essays understand how devices and sub-purposes work together
Also, consider if there is a BUILD to the piece.
Remember → AUDIENCE! Who is the audience, what is its relationship to the speaker, and how do these strategies/devices affect them?
H. COMMENTARY, COMMENTARY, COMMENTARY
The device/strategy/quote’s effect
How that helps the speaker’s overall/sub purpose aka convince the audience
I. TRICKY TRICKY:
Comparison prompt? OR satire (probably not)
Rhetorical Analysis

12. A. READ CAREFULLY!!!! Especially if it is a prompt that requires you to first decipher the speaker’s argument.
B. Evidence:
Contemporary/Historical/Non-fiction
Hypothetical/Literary
Personal [make it sound academic!]
C. Make certain to define any undefined terms (What is creativity exactly?)
D. If it says ‘America’ or ‘Contemporary,’ write about it! Aka READ CAREFULLY
E. ALWAYS qualify [concession or counterargument/rebuttal]
Enter the conversation. The world is painted in shades of gray. In other words, own your position, but qualify (because EVERY argument has limitations although some more than others) ← see what I did there? ☺
Argument

13. Synthesis A. Read the prompt carefully!
B. Double-check to see how many sources you MUST use
C. Qualify → Enter the conversation
D. Remember to cite sources
E. If possible, LAYER your sources (aka not just one source per paragraph)
F. Pit sources against each other or against you!
G. Do NOT merely summarize the sources! Bring in applicable evidence (choose CAREFULLY) and use sources as SUPPORT for your own argument – not the focal point!
(other notes on the additional slides from yesterday)
Synthesis

14. Term Questions Metonymy Synecdoche Loose sentence Periodic sentence
litotes
euphemism
Aphorism
caricature
Antithesis
Juxtaposition
antecedent
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
parody
Parallelism
epistrophe
anaphora
Imperative
Periodic
Interrogative
Term Questions

15. Argument?
Synthesis?
What do you think?