5 Best AP Literature Review Books (2024's Top-Rated List) 

AP English Literature exam consists of 2 sections: Multiple choice and free response section.

• Section 1: Total 55 multiple choice questions and the section lasts for the 60 minutes. You can expect 45% of your exam score in this section.
• Section 2: Total 3 prompts and you have 120 minutes to complete this free response section. You have to write analysis of the poems, passage, and problems selected by you.

Practice Tests

One of the best ways to study for the AP English Literature exam is to work on practice tests. We recommend buying a prep book that includes at least 2 practice tests. The reason they work so well for increasing your score is that they allow you to time yourself and get an accurate picture of exam pacing. Practice tests also help you to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie, so you can focus your studying efforts.

Practice tests give you a clear picture of the full exam. We recommend taking one before you begin studying to get a baseline of what you need to work on. You should take one at the halfway point and end of your studying to see the progress you made.

Answer Explanations

How can you learn from your mistakes if you don’t know why you made them? It is critical to invest in an AP English Literature prep book that has in-depth answer explanations. It will help you understand why you missed certain questions. You will also have a better picture of the reason you get certain questions right.

Content Review

Since the AP exams cover a lot of detailed content, whichever exam prep book you choose must offer a comprehensive review of the relevant topics. It should go over each critical piece of literature and offer explanations and analysis of each work. The exam will cover 3 sections each of short fiction, poetry, and longer fiction or drama.

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Character

For this skill, the AP exam will test your ability to understand and explain the function of characters within literary works. You should be able to explain how characters function to help readers understand values, beliefs, assumptions, cultural norms, and biases. You should understand how a character changes throughout a story or remains unchanged for a specific reason.

Setting

The AP exam will test your knowledge of story setting and how it functions to depict a certain time or place. You will also need to know how the setting conveys values, moods, and tones associated with the story. You should be able to explain the relationship between the setting and a specific character of the story. You will have to identify certain contextual details that help describe or reveal the setting.

Structure

This is a critical part of the AP exam where you will need to understand the structural patterns found within the literature. You should understand sections of a text and how they relate to each other. You need to understand the relationship between the parts of a text and how they convey meaning to a reader. You should be able to easily pick out the plot details and structure from a text.

Narration

You should understand how a narrator’s depiction of the events in a story affects how a reader interprets the text. You should be able to identify and explain the point of view of a story or poem. You should understand key terms such as syntax, diction, and details. It is important to identify and determine the narrator’s reliability.

Figurative Language

This section will invite readers to think more abstractly about literary symbols, representations, and associations. You should understand how the author’s word choice, imagery, and symbolism affect the reader’s experience. You should be able to understand the difference between figurative and literal language. You should understand key phrases such as simile, metaphor, personification, and allusion. Students need to identify those key terms and their use within a story.

Literary Argumentation

This skill on the exam will be tested on the writing portion where students will be expected to convey their interpretations of literature using textual evidence. You should be able to make a claim and pick out specific details of a story to support your claim. You will not be expected to interpret texts in the same way that everyone else does, but you should be able to back up your claim with evidence. You can open a line of reasoning to interpret stories in unique ways using critical analysis and evidence from the text. You should be able to use all of the previous topics such as character, setting, structure, narration, and figurative language to explain your theory and interpretation.