Final Exam Review Guide
The AP Literature/Composition final exam will be given on Thursday, December 18. The test counts as 20% of your course grade and will be mostly multiple-choice questions with a few short responses, and one extended response. As the test will be paper/pencil, you will need a blue or black pen or a pencil.
The exam will be divided into five parts, reflecting the topics and skills we have studied this semester.
Part 1 - Short Story Analysis. Multiple-choice questions dealing with comprehension and analysis. Short response questions
focusing on analysis of plot structure.
Part 2 - Poetry Response. Short response questions dealing with speaker, diction, syntax, tone, theme, and use of metaphor.
An AP exam style multiple-choice questions with poem provided. The terms included in the AP style question are familiar
ones.
Part 3 - Shakespearean Drama Analysis. Brief excerpt from a well-known Shakespeare play (not Othello). Multiple-choice
questions about vocabulary in context and reading comprehension with one short response.
Part 4 - Language Study. Multiple-choice questions identifying parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, clauses, and
sentence structures. Multiple-choice questions identifying correct use of commas, semicolons, and colons.
Part 5 - Inter-textual Analysis Extended Response. Your choice of several pairs of short stories we have read with a prompt
for comparison/analysis. You will choose one of the following prompts and write an extended response of roughly two
paragraphs.
These literary terms will be the basis for many of the questions. Page numbers refer to the Bedford text.
The exam will be divided into five parts, reflecting the topics and skills we have studied this semester.
Part 1 - Short Story Analysis. Multiple-choice questions dealing with comprehension and analysis. Short response questions
focusing on analysis of plot structure.
Part 2 - Poetry Response. Short response questions dealing with speaker, diction, syntax, tone, theme, and use of metaphor.
An AP exam style multiple-choice questions with poem provided. The terms included in the AP style question are familiar
ones.
Part 3 - Shakespearean Drama Analysis. Brief excerpt from a well-known Shakespeare play (not Othello). Multiple-choice
questions about vocabulary in context and reading comprehension with one short response.
Part 4 - Language Study. Multiple-choice questions identifying parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, clauses, and
sentence structures. Multiple-choice questions identifying correct use of commas, semicolons, and colons.
Part 5 - Inter-textual Analysis Extended Response. Your choice of several pairs of short stories we have read with a prompt
for comparison/analysis. You will choose one of the following prompts and write an extended response of roughly two
paragraphs.
- Contrast Faulkner’s ordering of events in "A Rose for Emily" (p. 99) with Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” (p. 340). How does each author’s arrangement of incidents create different effects on the reader?
- Compare and contrast Matt’s motivation for murder in "Killings" with Emily’s in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (p. 99). Which character made you feel more empathy and sympathy for his or her actions? Why?
- Compare and contrast attitudes toward love and romance in Díaz’s “How to Date” story and in David Updike’s “Summer” (p. 359).
- Contrast the attitudes toward patriotism implicit in Hemingway's “Soldier’s Home” with those in Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” (p. 340). How do the stories’ settings help to account for the differences between them?
- Explain how symbolism is central to understanding the resolution of the conflicts in “The Paring Knife” and in Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” (p. 328).
- Compare Miss Brill’s recognition with that of the narrator in Fay Weldon’s “IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo” (p. 205).
These literary terms will be the basis for many of the questions. Page numbers refer to the Bedford text.
Plot (pg 77)Plot
In medias res Flashback Exposition Rising Action Conflict Foreshadowing Protagonist Antagonist Suspense Climax Resolution Denouement |
Character (pg 129)Characterization
Dynamic character Static character Foil Flat character Round character Stock character Setting (pg 184)Setting
Time Place Social condition |
Point of View (pg 215)Point of view
Narrator Omniscient narrator editorial omniscient neutral omniscient limited omniscient stream of consciousness objective point of view first person narrator unreliable narrator naive narrator Symbolism (pg 265)symbol
conventional symbol literary symbol allegory |
Theme (pg 296)Strategies for determining theme
Word Choice, Word Order, Tone (pg 323)diction
poetic diction formal diction middle diction informal diction colloquial dialect jargon denotation connotation syntax tone dramatic monologue carpe diem allusion |