Practice Exam

Practice the AP Exam - MC

Multiple Choice Question test taking tips

1. Read the question before you look at the answer.




2. Come up with the answer in your head before looking at the possible answers, this way the choices given on the test won't throw you off or trick you.



3. Eliminate answers you know aren't right.
   
   



4. Read all the choices before choosing your answer.



5. If there is no guessing penalty, always take an educated guess and select an answer.



6. Don't keep on changing your answer, usually your first choice is the right one, unless you misread the question.



7. In "All of the above" and "None of the above" choices, if you are certain one of the statements is true don't choose "None of the above" or one of the statements are false don't choose "All of the above".



8. In a question with an "All of the above" choice, if you see that at least two correct statements, then "All of the above" is probably the answer.



9. A positive choice is more likely to be true than a negative one.



10. Usually the correct answer is the choice with the most information.
    

-Read each question carefully. Be aware of the capital letters indicating the focus 

and the most important part of the question.

Ex: The tone of the poem can be described as all of the following EXCEPT...

-It will help if you knew some extensive vocabulary words. 

Some multiple choice questions as well as the answers may have vocabulary that you need to know in order to understand the question and answer the question correctly.

If any of the questions refer you back to the story or poem, it is 
important that you go back and re-read the lines referred to. This   will help you to answer the question to the best of your ability. Do   not try to depend on your memory. 
Ex: in lines 13-15 "walked by the way" means...
 
Make sure you are familiar with the literary elements and figurative language. There will be questions based on them. Ex: Which of the following literary techniques most significantly   contributes to the work as a whole...

Literary Elements

Helpful Literary Elements

• Protagonist - Major character at the center of the story.
• Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
• Minor character - 0ften provides support and illuminates the protagonist.
• Static character - A character who remains the same.
• Dynamic character - A character who changes in some important way.
• Characterization - The means by which writers reveal character.
• Explicit Judgment - Narrator gives facts and interpretive comment.
• Implied Judgment - Narrator gives description; reader make the judgment.

• Foreshadowing - A suggestion of what is going to happen.
• Suspense - A sense of worry established by the author.
• Conflict - Struggle between opposing forces.
• Exposition - Background information regarding the setting, characters, plot.
• Complication or Rising Action - Intensification of conflict.
• Crisis - Turning point; moment of great tension that fixes the action.
• Resolution/Denouement - The way the story turns out.

Structure - The design or form of the completed action. Often provides clues to character and action. Can even philosophically mirror the author's intentions, especially if it is unusual.

Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue, description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.

Setting - The place or location of the action, the setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters.

Point of View - Again, the point of view can sometimes indirectly establish the author's intentions. Point of view pertains to who tells the story and how it is told.

• Narrator - The person telling the story.
• First-person - Narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.
• Objective - Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.
• Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The narrator takes us into the character and can evaluate a character for the reader (editorial omniscience). When a narrator allows the reader to make his or her own judgments from the action of the characters themselves, it is called neutral omniscience.
• Limited omniscient - All-knowing narrator about one or two characters, but not all.

Language and Style - Style is the verbal identity of a writer, oftentimes based on the author's use of diction (word choice) and syntax (the order of words in a sentence). A writer's use of language reveals his or her tone, or the attitude toward the subject matter.

Irony - A contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another.

• Verbal irony - We understand the opposite of what the speaker says.
• Irony of Circumstance or Situational Irony - When one event is expected to occur but the opposite happens. A discrepancy between what seems to be and what is.
• Dramatic Irony - Discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know.
• Ironic Vision - An overall tone of irony that pervades a work, suggesting how the writer views the characters.

Poetry

Allegory - A form of narrative in which people, places, and events seem to have hidden meanings. Often a retelling of an older story.

Connotation - The implied meaning of a word.

Denotation - The dictionary definition of a word.

Diction - Word choice and usage (for example, formal vs. informal), as determined by considerations of audience and purpose.

Figurative Language - The use of words to suggest meanings beyond the literal. There are a number of figures of speech. Some of the more common ones are:

• Metaphor - Making a comparison between unlike things without the use of a verbal clue (such as "like" or "as").
• Simile - Making a comparison between unlike things, using "like" or "as".
• Hyperbole - Exaggeration
• Personification - Endowing inanimate objects with human characteristics

Imagery - A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea which appeals to one or more of our senses. Look for a pattern of imagery.

• Tactile imagery - sense of touch.
• Aural imagery - sense of hearing.
• Olfactory imagery - sense of smell.
• Visual imagery - sense of sight.
• Gustatory imagery - sense of taste.

Rhythm and Meter - Rhythm is the pulse or beat in a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of an accent or stress. Meter is the measure or patterned count of a poetry line (a count of the stresses we feel in a poem's rhythm). The unit of poetic meter in English is called a "foot," a unit of measure consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables. Ask yourself how the rhythm and meter affects the tone and meaning.

Sound - Do the words rhyme? Is there alliteration (repetition of consonants) or assonance (repetition of vowels)? How does this affect the tone?

Structure - The pattern of organization of a poem. For example, a sonnet is a 14-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter. Because the sonnet is strictly constrained, it is considered a closed or fixed form. An open or free form is a poem in which the author uses a looser form, or perhaps one of his or her own invention. It is not necessarily formless.

Symbolism - When objects or actions mean more than themselves.

Syntax - Sentence structure and word order.

Voice: Speaker and Tone - The voice that conveys the poem's tone; its implied attitude toward its subject.