How to use this exam
Practice Exam 2 follows the same digital structure as Practice Exam 1, with entirely different sources. You will answer 45 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, divided into five sets. Take it in one sitting, with a timer and no notes, and compare the result with Practice Exam 1 by skill category rather than by raw score alone.
The five sets
- Questions 1 to 12: a nonfiction reading set built on George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address.
- Questions 13 to 24: a nonfiction reading set built on a passage from Henry David Thoreau's Walden.
- Questions 25 to 32: a writing set on a county health department article about cooling centers, with numbered sentences.
- Questions 33 to 40: a writing set on a student editorial about extended library hours, with numbered sentences.
- Questions 41 to 45: a writing set on an email announcing a change to a writing-center appointment system, with numbered sentences.
Timing
Sixty minutes for 45 questions gives you about 80 seconds per question. Plan roughly 17 minutes for each of the two long reading sets and about 26 minutes for the three writing sets together, adjusting as you learn where you are fastest.
Strategy reminders
- In the reading sets, identify the claim of each paragraph and how the paragraphs relate (extension, contrast, example, concession) before answering.
- Test every choice against the text. Wrong choices commonly overstate the passage's claim, reverse a relationship, or describe something the passage never does.
- In the writing sets, ask what the sentence must do for its reader: state a conditional policy precisely, limit a claim to what the evidence supports, place information where the reader needs it, or tell the audience what action to take.
- Use Mark for Review on questions where two choices survive, and return to them if time remains.
After you finish
Read the explanation for every question, not only the ones you missed. Record your number correct out of 45 and mark the skill category of each miss. Compare Exam 1 with Exam 2 by category, and note that AP score cut points vary by exam form and year, so these practice scores do not convert to an official 1 to 5 score. The free-response half of this exam is in the next unit.