AP MC Analysis for Lit Exam

2017 Released Exam

Poem (14 lines) “November Cotton Flower” by Jean Toomer 1929 9
Prose A Modern Comedy by John Gatsworthy 1929 13
Poem (36 lines) “The Forerunner” by George Herbert 1633 10
Prose Impressions of Theophrastus Such by George Eliot 1819 12
Poem (36 lines) “The Female Philospher” by Charlotte Dacre 1805 11

2016 Released Exam

Prose Virginia Wolf from Night and Day 1920 11
Poem (30 lines) “The North Star” by James M. Whitfield 1853 10
Poem (16 lines) “Their Lonely Betters” by W.H. Auden 1951 12
Prose Harriet Beecher Stowe from Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 11
Poem (22 lines) “The Triple Fool” by John Donne 1696 11
55

2015 Released Exam

Poem (1807) 13
Prose (1941) 11
Poem (1681) 8
Prose (1811) 13
Poem (1916) 10
TOTAL 55

2014 Released Exam

Poem (1633) 11
Prose (1818) 12
Poem (1970) 9
Prose (1711) 13
Poem (1961) 10
TOTAL 55

2013 Released Exam

Poem (1609) 11
Prose (1881) 11
Poem (1855) 13
Poem (1922) 9
Prose (2008) 11
TOTAL 55

2017
Prose 25 Questions 2015
Poetry 30 Questions Prose 24 Questions
20th/21th Century 22 Questions Poetry 31 Questions
Pre-20th Century 33 Questions 20th/21st Century 21 Questions
Pre-20th Century 34 Questions
2016
Prose 22 Questions
Poetry 33 Questions
20th/21st Century 23 Questions
Pre-20th Century 32 Questions
 Breakdown of 2015, 2016, 2017
Released AP English Language and Composition Exams
Number of Author Title Year Published Word Length of
Questions Passage
14 Harriet Martineau “Household 1848 765
Education”
15 David Carrasco Quetzalcoatl and 1982 505
Irony of Empire
12 Max Beerbolm “Going out for a 1818 630
Walk”
14 Salman Rushdie Imaginary 1982 510
Homelands
11 Mark Rutherford From a Journal 1900 518
14 Barbara Well-Read Lives: 2010 497
Sicherman How Books
Inspired a
Generation of
American Women
14 Bell Hook Talking Back: 2015 707
Thinking Feminist,
Thinking Black
16 Louis Menand The Metaphysical 2001 665
Club: A Story of
Ideas in America
15 Shiva Naipaul Essay 1984 378
15 Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast and 2011 492
Slow
12 Arthur Krystal The Half-Life of an 2007 522
American Essayist
12 Jonathan Swift “The Art of 1710 462
Political Lying”

Guidelines for Writing Questions

Passages: Poetry 11-22 lines/Prose 400-600 words

Format:
There are five answer choices.
Use parenthesis around letter of answer choices: (A).
Do not use periods on answer choices unless answer is a complete sentence or question stem ends with question mark.
Answers aren’t capitalized unless a complete sentence or stem ends with question mark.

General Recommendations:
Number lines in poetry and passages by multiples of five.
All answers are plausible.
Answers are of equal length.
Answers are similar in structure.
Grammar is consistent with the stem.
Avoid Roman numeral questions.
Avoid “all of the above” and “none of the above.”