Practice Exam 1: Section II (Free Response)
Section II has three free-response tasks in 120 minutes, presented in the standard order: Poetry Analysis, Prose Fiction Analysis, and Literary Argument. Use one continuous 120-minute clock. About 40 minutes per task is a useful pacing reference, but the section is scored on the completed responses, not on equal time blocks.
How to run the section
- Write all three responses before you look at any scoring guidance for this exam.
- Spend the first few minutes of each task reading the prompt and the text, marking evidence, and committing to a defensible thesis, then write.
- For Poetry Analysis and Prose Fiction Analysis, the upper Row B levels require analysis of literary elements or techniques. Literary Argument does not impose a device quota, but it does need specific scenes from a work you can recall without invented quotation.
- Question 3 names no text. Choose a work you know well, ideally from your prepared list of four to six works.
What this exam asks
Poetry: Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent." Prose and drama: a scene from King Lear. Literary Argument: a character who must live with an irreversible choice.
How the responses are scored
Each response is scored on the three-row AP rubric, six points in all: Row A, Thesis (1 point), Row B, Evidence and Commentary (4 points), and Row C, Sophistication (1 point). After you finish, read the scoring guidance shown with each task: an example defensible thesis, evidence targets, and what Row B and Row C look for. Compare thesis, evidence, commentary, and the complexity of your reasoning to those criteria. Do not assign quality from polish alone. A task by itself cannot receive a row score, so be honest about each row.