AP® English Literature and Composition Review Course

The most cramworthy cram course.

  • Course Length: 3 weeks
  • Course Type: Short Course
  • Category:
    • College Prep
    • English
    • Test Prep
    • High School

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You've pondered Jane Eyre, suffered through The Sound and the Fury, and you've picked apart the themes of Heart of Darkness. Your last step toward qualifying as a literary whiz kid (and getting your weight in college credit) is getting a 5 on your AP English Literature and Composition Exam. 

Shmoop's here to help with the ultimate cram course. Our AP English Literature Review Course is like a personal tutor that takes you step-by-step through the structure of the AP exam and shows you all the secret passageways to multiple-choice success and hidden stairways to free-response glory. We'll also review the biggie concepts you need to know, like imagery and figurative language, diction and syntax, and voice and tone.

This course also contains

  • dozens of drills to help you ace those multiple-choice questions. 
  • a slew of practice essays to help you transform your AP English book smarts into penned perfection. 
  • tips and strategies for tackling (and taming) the exam. 
  • 2 practice exams so you get the full game-day experience. 
  • a virtual classroom where you can talk to your teacher and record your work.

AP® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.


Unit Breakdown

1 AP English Literature and Composition Review Course

2 Practice Exams


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.07: Form and Structure Questions

a disco ball
If it was far-out once, it'll eventually be back in.
(Source)

Fashion is a fickle thing. Clothes come into style; they fade out of style. Then they come right back again. We have a closet full of bell bottoms to prove it. This test goes through phases, too. Some questions may go out of style, but they never completely fade away.

In recent years, structural questions on the exam have been growing rarer and rarer. They're (almost) exclusively about poetic formats. While there may only be one or two of these on the exam, knowing the various forms of poetry aids in racking up one or two more correct answers.

Form and structure questions may ask about meter or rhythm, or they may ask about the type of poem. (We can hope for a haiku, but it's unlikely.) Most poetic forms have at least a few characteristics that differentiate it from the other types, but process of elimination is frequently useful.

In prose, a form and structure question may ask about plot. Plot is notoriously difficult to pin down on these types of exams, though, because we don't have the entire novel in front of us—just a tiny piece. Regardless, knowing basic plot elements can't hurt, unless you hit yourself in the head with Freytag's Pyramid. That probably isn't super likely, though.

Big Issues

There's a famous song that goes "every rose has its thorns, just like every piece of literature has its structure." No, that's not right. We're not huge Poison fans. Forget we brought it up.

  • Identifying overall structures. Structural questions on the exam are most likely to ask about poetry. For these questions, know the various forms (free verse, blank verse, sonnet, epic, lyric, and so on) as well as the basic concepts of line breaks, stanzas, margins, and the occasional enjambment. Structural questions about prose may cover some aspect of plot of conflict. It may also potentially ask about some aspect of drama, like identifying speakers or stage action, but the chances are slim.
     
  • Identifying functions and effects of certain parts of the structure. Just like when building a house, the overall structure is important, but so are the rooms, furniture, and Pokémon that will go inside it. These questions focus on smaller structural elements and how they affect specific parts of the writing.

There's no defense like a good offense, so the key for these questions is preparation. Be confident with the poetic terms outlined earlier and practice, practice, practice to find your structural groove. The less time you have to spend counting syllables or racking your brain for the difference between free and blank verse, the more time you have to bubble maniacally. Try not to cackle while you do it, but we understand it can be hard.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.07a: Identifying Structures in Poetry and Prose Questions

The way a building looks, its general structure, can say a lot about it. Its mere appearance can reveal its age and the influences of its time. It can even tell us who the architect was or who hired him.


Cafeterias of the future are significantly more terrifying than we realized.
(Source)

The trick to finding all that is first knowing a little something about architecture, which we don't. It's a good thing this is a metaphor for how to approach structures in literature instead. With that in mind, we should spend some time figuring out how to spot and label literary structures.

Identifying Poetic Structures

By far the most common structural question on the exam is the question about poetic form. These are always simply phrased as some variation of "What is the structure/format of this poem?"

Poetry is the sad panda of the AP English Literature exam. Almost nobody wants to see poetry appear, and even fewer people actually want to talk about pentameters, stanzas, or whatever it is that enjambment means.

That's bunk. Honestly, we feel bad for poetry, because it rocks. Poetry structures are like wonderful games of Jenga in which everything has its place, unless someone wanders by and knocks it all over. Don't be that guy.

Instead of memorizing long lists of every type of structure imaginable, we've kept our list of poem forms down to the usual suspects. Of the many various types of poem structures, a few appear more than others. Check out the ultra-abbreviated descriptions below, or check out the Shmoop Poetry glossary for serious details.

  • Sonnet: 14 lines, set rhyme scheme
  • Elegy: Sad topic, functions as commemoration at times
  • Ode: Same idea as a lyric poem; serious in nature and written to a set structure
  • Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter
  • Free verse: No rhyme or syllable scheme at all, almost always modern
  • Epic: Long, usually book-length narrative (story) poem about a hero
  • Lyric: About "feelings"; also usually long; contains the subgenres of ode and sonnet
  • Ballad: A narrative (story) poem, not as long as an epic, and not always about a hero

Unfortunately, arguments can be made for many of the poem forms, especially when "lyric" is involved, because its definition is so nebulous. "Lyric" originally meant that a poem was set to the music of a lyre and addressed personal feelings. Of course, we have no way of knowing if a poem has musical accompaniment by just reading it, and being "about feelings" is as unclear as a mud pie. At times, "lyric" functions as more of a descriptor than a specific type of poem.

Other form and structure questions are about the structural features within a poem or piece of prose. In poetry, this covers vocabulary like stanza, quatrain, tercet, couplet, enjambment, and caesura—all of which are discussed in the Terms of Literary Analysis section of this guide. Enjambment and caesura are sometimes referred to as poetic devices, but they absolutely refer to the way a poem is structured. Specifically, they refer to how it's punctuated with regard to the line breaks.

In prose, we know that whether lines are aligned on the left or justified has no bearing on the text. The story of a pig in the city doesn't change if the lines are moved. In poetry, that's not always the case. E.E Cummings was famous for his poem formatting. He did crazy stuff like get rid of punctuation completely and throw capitals around loosely or not at all. This can and usually does affect the reading of the poem, including sometimes giving us a headache.

Artists. Go figure.

Indenting certain lines and ignoring grammar rules are all things to address in the poem analysis. Like figurative language, everything means something. A question on this topic essentially asks what effect this choice has on the reader's experience. Even if it has no effect on you at all personally, one of the answers probably makes more sense than the others. Browse the possible answers and re-read the poem with them in mind to help.

Recognizing Prose Structures

Although it is incredibly unlikely, there may appear structural questions on a prose passage. In this case, readers most likely need to know the elements of plot discussed in the prose terms section. The passages on the exam are only excerpts of much larger works, and there's almost no way to get an entire plot analysis out of a few paragraphs, but it would be possible to point out a conflict or resolution.

In an ultra-compact plot nutshell, the exposition is descriptive and dense on background information, the rising action reveals the major conflict, the climax is the highest point of tension, and the falling action and resolution reveal how everything pans out in the end. Don't expend a ton of energy on plot structure, but know the basics, and you'll be covered if one of these questions appears. The AP English Literature exam loves surprises.

Also, have a gander at our ShmoopTube video on Freytag's Pyramid. It's tops.

Sample Question

Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

       Thy cheek is pale with thought, but not from woe,
       And yet so lovely, that if Mirth could flush
       Its rose of whiteness with the brightest blush,
       My heart would wish away that ruder glow:
5     And dazzle not thy deep-blue eyes—but, oh!
       While gazing on them sterner eyes will gush,
       And into mine my mother's weakness rush,
       Soft as the last drops round Heaven's airy bow.
       For, though thy long dark lashes low depending,
10   The soul of melancholy Gentleness
       Gleams like a Seraph from the sky descending,
       Above all pain, yet pitying all distress;
       At once such majesty with sweetness blending,
       I worship more, but cannot love thee less.
       (Source)

1. The poetic structure of this passage is best described as

A. blank verse
B. sonnet
C. villanelle
D. ballad
E. epic

The correct answer is (B).

Yes, this is a sonnet. Shakespeare wrote a lot of sonnets, but he wasn't the only one doing it. Lord Byron happened to enjoy them as well, and this is a great example of British Romantic poetry. To identify this as a sonnet, notice that it has fourteen lines and a structured rhyme scheme, both of which are consistent features of sonnets.

Blank verse is unrhymed, and there's definitely rhyming happening here (A). A villanelle requires nineteen lines, not fourteen (C). Ballads tend to be longer and tell a story (D). Finally, fourteen lines does not The Odyssey make (E). It's too short.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.07b: Identifying Functions and Effects of Certain Parts of the Structure Questions

We know what's what with structures, so now we're good, right? Wrong. When Mama Shmoop tells us to clean our room, shoving all the laundry in the bottom of the closet doesn't quite cut it.

We need to put every piece of clothing where it's supposed to go. The shirts go on hangers in the closets; pants should be folded neatly in the dresser. Then, of course, we still need to make the bed and sweep and…well, the list goes on. "Clean your room" is a broad term, but there's no denying that the details matter.


This is clean enough for us, but apparently we missed some things.
(Source)

Identifying the effect of specific paragraphs or other structural components is often more difficult than identifying the effect of, say, a literary device. In the case of literary devices like similes and metaphors, the list of possible answers is comparatively short.

With organization, the list can go on forever. Questions like these on the exam ask things like "What is the effect of the fourth stanza of the poem?" or "The chief effect of paragraph 3 is…" Unfortunately for us, there are a gazillion possible answers.

Paragraphs, stanzas, or any other structural choice made by the author can

  • set the scene
  • give background
  • give characterization
  • establish conflict
  • describe
  • mark a shift
  • set up a contrast

There's no single correct answer here, because the questions can take any form. The best strategy for identifying the function or purpose of anything—a device, a paragraph, a stanza—is to remove it and see what's missing. Does the passage suddenly lack a conflict? Does a character suddenly seem flat and less loveable? Removing the piece in question from the scope of the passage provides a hole in the reader's experience.

From there, identify the hole and see in what way the cited piece fills it. All the world's a stage, and all the literary devices and paragraphs merely players. An example is the way to go here, so let's crack open one of those now.

Sample Question

Read the passage below and answer the question that follows.

              It would be a weariness to follow in detail the leaps and
       bounds the Foster fictitious finances took from this time forth.
       It was marvelous, it was dizzying, it was dazzling. Everything
       Aleck touched turned to fairy gold, and heaped itself glittering
5     toward the firmament. Millions upon millions poured in, and
       still the mighty stream flowed thundering along, still its vast
       volume increased. Five millions—ten millions—twenty—
       thirty—was there never to be an end?
              Two years swept by in a splendid delirium, the intoxicated
10
   Fosters scarcely noticing the flight of time. They were now
       worth three hundred million dollars; they were in every board
       of directors of every prodigious combine in the country;
       and still as time drifted along, the millions went on piling up,
       five at a time, ten at a time, as fast as they could tally them
15   off, almost. The three  hundred double itself—then doubled
       again—and yet again—and yet once more.
              Twenty-four hundred millions!
              The business was getting a little confused. It was necessary
       to take an account of stock, and straighten it out. The Fosters
20   knew it, they felt it, they realized that it was imperative; but
       they also knew that to do it properly and perfectly the task must
       be carried to a finish without a break when once it was begun.
       A ten-hours' job; and where could they find ten leisure hours
      
in a bunch? The Fosters knew there was one way to get the ten
25   hours, and only one. Both were ashamed to name it; each waited
       for the other to do it.
       (Source)

1. Which of the following best describes the purpose of the last paragraph?

A. It develops the Fosters in a negative way.
B. It introduces an unexpected problem to the story.
C. It suggests that the money earned is imaginary.
D. It reveals the secret to the Fosters' success.
E. It implies that the Fosters have used illegal means.

The correct answer is (B).

This is one of those "establishing conflict" scenarios. In the first three paragraphs, everything is going well for the Fosters. Their accumulation of money is "marvelous" and "dizzying." It doubles and doubles and doubles again. The thing about a good story, though, is that success is boring. Watching a character get everything she wants might be a little satisfying, but it isn't moving in the way that great literature should be. Some complication or bump in the road needs to occur, and that's where the last paragraph comes in.

Despite all the money the Fosters have made, they still have responsibilities to the business, to "take account of stock and straighten it out." However, they can't find the time to do it. Not only that, but they also both know of a solution that they're "ashamed to name," further suggesting that the twenty-four hundred millions (?!?!) isn't a fairy tale ending.

Though the text says that they're both ashamed to admit it, the solution is never revealed. It's only mentioned that the business needs attending to and the Fosters are too busy to do it, which is not a negative development (A). The money is very much real (C)—real enough that the business needs a ten-hour tune up. How the Fosters have earned such an enormous amount of money isn't revealed (D), which also means it's impossible to know if it's legal or illegal (E).