Thematic Focus

Tips and Strategies:

· Read essay question before reading the passage

It’s best to read the essay question before reading the passage because you now know beforehand what to look for. This is one of the most effective things you can do to maximize your essay score because knowing beforehand will give you the advantage when you actually read the passage.

· Timing

Time is obviously the hardest part of the AP exam. The limited time that is given to you should make you get a different perspective in terms of how you should approach it. The suggested time is 40 minutes so you can break that down into your own preference. I would suggest 20 minutes of reading and annotating, then 20 minutes to write the essay.

· Read the Prompt/Blurb

The blurb is a brief announcement or preview telling you what you are about to read. It’s best to read that before actually reading the whole passage because it will give you a base for understanding the passage. Many times a lot of these passages are hard to initially follow through and understand, but when you read the blurb it makes it less complicated.

· Annotate, Annotate and Annotate.

By now annotating should be embedded in your brain, but it’s important to know how to use it in the prose passage of the AP exam. Since you already read the essay question, just annotate in accordance with the question. Annotate literary elements and write brief purpose. Of course the main idea as well, but best to limit yourself to annotating only focusing on the essay question because it’ll save you a lot of time.

· Literary Techniques, Figurative Language, and the “So What?”

As I said when you annotate make you sure you find literary elements in accordance to your essay question. You can also find as many literary elements as you want but the catch is that you need to relate it to the essay question and at the same time you must also find the purpose for it. The “So What?” technique is effective, but if you want to be simple you can just ask yourself why. When addressing why? You should look at it in a whole passage standpoint of the story, not the general idea. Many define it, but defining is giving the general idea of why and that can be directed to any literary work. You need to limit yourself to the story. Tell yourself this. How does it affect the characters, setting, plot, etc.