We have done multiple choice questions of many types throughout our years of school. From math to science to history to literature, what makes this multiple choice different from the others?
To start out, it's not easy. That was one of the first things we've learned. The multiple choice section of the AP English test is confusing and difficult, and is separated into different types of multiple choice. Given a passage, test takers will be instructed to understand and analyze the passage of literature and answer questions about it. The passage may be a poem or an excerpt from a novel, play, etc. Some of the questions will be direct (such as 'What happened in this part of this passage?'), some will be inferencing (like 'what can be inferred from the author's word choice in this passage?'), while others will be more conceptual (such as 'The use of this literary technique can be attributed to what symbolism?').
The first type of question is rather simple, and can be directly found in the text. They don't require as much work as the other two.
The second type of question requires a bit more work. Readers must understand the text, and be able to see behind the surface meaning of things (Annotations have helped us develop this skill! See Part 2 of Synthesis of Course Materials). Although this type of question is a bit more tricky than the first, it requires no previous knowledge about the subject, unlike the third type of question.
The third type of question is the trickiest of them all. It requires readers to be knowledgeable about literary techniques, terms, symbols, and such. (This is the type of question the AP Class needs to prepares us for the most!) We've read the bible, as well as the Greek mythology, which all help with these questions. We've also studied literary terms that are commonly used, and how to spot them within a text. These questions are arguably the most important multiple choice questions on the AP test, as they probably make up for the majority of the multiple choice portion!
Well there you have it, the final portion of the Synthesis of Course Material for AP English!
Since multiple choice is half of the exam, I think it's really good you spent a lot of time reviewing it. The different types of questions and answers will be helpful to know when we approach the multiple choice portion.
ReplyDeleteA few other important topics you might want to include are how to read poetry and critical lenses. It's possible that one of the closed prompts is about a poem, and critical lenses are always good to remember when analyzing a work for an open prompt. Great job overall, Erin!
I agree with Ginger, you spent a really nice amount of time on multiple choice questions. I have a feeling that I would be able to fumble my way through an AP multiple choice question. (I'd probobly still get it wrong)
ReplyDeleteGinger's comments are really helpful. I also think some test-taking tips for multiple choice would be a good addition, here.
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