The AP Multiple Choice Section

1. The AP Multiple Choice Section • ~55 Qs in 1 hour, 4 or 5 separate passages • 45% of total AP test grade • +1 point per correct answer • Thus, guessing is ALWAYS to your advantage • Composition (generally): • older passage (pre-20th-century) • minority/women’s passage • “love of arts” passage • science or history passage • At least one passage with footnotes

2. Multiple Choice Question Types • Factual • “Words refer to,” allusions, antecedents • “Most closely means”—synonyms • Technical • Grammar, style, organization • Analytical • Rhetorical features/strategies/function, PODs, transitions, overall purpose • Inferential • “Suggests,”“implies,” traits of author, tone, effects of devices

3. Before and During Reading • To preview or not to preview? • If you pre-read the Qs, focus on quotes and DO NOT READ THE OPTIONS—80% of them are incorrect! • As you read, underline main points or key features • Examples of parallelism, etc. • Major section breaks or transitions • Words or phrases that you know will be highlighted in a question (because you previewed the questions)

4. Tips for Reading Old Texts • Don’t assume you know the meaning of a word if it seems it’s being used oddly. • Watch out for semicolons; their use wasn’t regularized until well into the 20th century. • Break long sentences into their component clauses. Be prepared to stop at semicolons, colons, and even some commas. • Use context clues to determine meanings of words, even if you haven’t had to in a while. • “Had I,”“Should I,”“Could I,”“Were I,”“If I had,”“If I should,”“If I could,”“If I were”

5. Tips for Reading Old Texts • Let parallel structure help, not hinder, your understanding of sentences and paragraphs • e.g., repetitive series of appositives that are really just saying the same thing over and over, or adding further description or color to a point already made (as old texts tend to do) • “My real purpose is to begin the task of reconciliation, to reach out to those wounded by my former policies and seek their hand, to plant a seed of kindness in ground whose rocky soil bears my bootprints.”

6. During Reading • Ask yourself in each ¶ • Do I know what the author SAYS here? • Could you summarize/paraphrase the content of this section? Do you know what this part is “about”? • Do I know what the author DOES here? • Can you see the purpose of this section? Can you analyze what it’s contributing to the whole?

7. Multiple Choice Strategies • Process of Elimination • Eliminate: • Choices that are too narrow/broad • Choices that are synonymous/cancel each other out • If 2 answers are close: • Find the one general enough to contain all aspects of the question OR limited enough to be the particular detail the question is seeking.

8. Multiple Choice Strategies • Watch for: • “Right words, wrong idea” • Words that do appear in the passage, but are used here to say something incorrect • “Wrong words, right idea” • Statements that would be accurate, but use the wrong term or name from the text • Fancy-sounding irrelevancies • Location! Is the answer true of the indicated section of text? • For questions that direct you to certain lines

9. Additional Choice Strategies • All parts of an answer must be correct • Watch for individual words that wreck otherwise correct answers • “_______ but _______” tone questions • Beware of answers that too harshly criticize the passage • Don't mistake your conjecturing—even your intelligent conjecturing—for the evidence in the passage. • If it seems like it couldbe true of the passage, but there’s no evidence of it in the passage, it’s not the right answer!

10. More Choice Strategies • If you’re short on time, look for: • Short questions • Questions that point to a specific line • Questions that highlight a specific detail • Questions that contain a short quotation