The practice AP English and Literature exam had many more similarities to the Composition exam than I expected. Both give samples of text, ask you to analyze writing techniques, and evaluate how they relate to the author's purpose. The questions feel similar and the wording is also familiar. The English and Literature exam, however, throws a curveball at the test taker in the form of poetry.
Analyzing the other pieces of writing was not overwhelmingly difficult and the I could use the same test taking strategies used on the Composition exam. I had a fundamental understanding of the types of questions that were on the exam based on keywords within the question. For example, questions 37 and 39 were examples of determining the author's meaning because of key phrases like "According to Shelley". Because of my previous knowledge of writing techniques, when close reading the selections, I was able to mark these devices and easily find them when needed. The general questions, asking author's meaning or purpose, I found easier than questions that asked specific details or characteristics of the writing.
As I stated previously, the most difficult part of the exam was the poetry. Multiple times questions were asked regarding what type of poem was presented. A "Spenserian sonnet", "Petrarchan sonnet", and "sestina" don't currently have any meaning to me and I was not able to differentiate between these answer choices. In addition to the types of poem, I was unfamiliar with some of the literary devices as well (ex: "caesura"). Even though we learned these terms during Language and Composition, I definitely need to relearn these concepts and their application not only in prose writing, which I am somewhat familiar, but also poetry. Since I don't have a full understanding of some of these terms, I could not find them during the first close reading of the piece. When asked later about their function, I neither understood what was being asked nor knew where to find it within the piece.
To perform my absolute best on this exam come May, there are numerous things I need to learn and do. First, I need to expand my knowledge of literary devices. I can accomplish this in two ways. By memorizing the definitions of these terms and by finding examples within literature. In addition to marking devices I already know when reading, I need to seek out those that I don't know so that I can understand the application of these literary devices and strategies. Second, I need to study more poetry. My current knowledge of this type of writing is no where near sufficient to excel on the exam. Specifically, I need to learn the different types of poetry and how to sift through the metaphors and allusions to determine the author's purpose. Third, I need to read more literature. Like it says in How to Read like a Professor, the more you expose yourself to text, the easier it is for patterns to be seen and connections to be made. With this knowledge, I can find connections between the text on the test and the text read in class. From there, the author's purpose and meaning will become more clear and some of the allusions made will also make more sense.
I completely agree with you! We did learn a lot in AP Comp, such as how to close read, certain literary devices, and how to take these tests quickly and effectively, that will help with the AP Literature exams. The setup of the test was easy to follow because it is so similar to the AP Comp exam. I too struggle with reading and comprehending the poetry passages. There are so many different types of poetry that we have never learned before (ex. Petrarchan sonnet). I agree that bettering your knowledge of literary devices will help increase test scores; they are very important in answering the questions and understanding the passages in full. Studying more poetry is something that I need to work on as well because half of this exam is poetry instead of prose! During this class, we will be exposed to a lot more literature, including poetry, which will make us better readers and writers, and in turn, increase our test scores.
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