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Download free-response questions from past AP English Language & Composition exams, along with scoring guidelines, sample responses, and scoring distributions.
- 2007 Scoring Statistics
Scoring statistics for the 2007 AP English Language and...
- Grade Distributions
Grade distributions for the 2003 AP English Language and...
- 2007 Scoring Statistics
- 6 points
- Question 3
- Thesis (0–1) points: 1
- Thesis (0–1 points): 1
- Evidence and Commentary (0–4 points): 1
Many people spend long hours trying to achieve perfection in their personal or professional lives. Similarly, people often demand perfection from others, creating expectations that may be challenging to live up to. In contrast, some people think perfection is not attainable or desirable. Write an essay that argues your position on the value of stri...
Note: Student samples are quoted verbatim and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.
The thesis, which is stated at the end of paragraph 1, takes a nuanced position on the value of striving for perfection: “While there are drawbacks to being encouraged to be perfect from a young age, perfection is something to strive for especially in one’s professional life, although there should be more room for mistakes in one’s personal life.” ...
The response makes a defensible claim in the second and third sentences of paragraph 1. This multisentence thesis distinguishes between perfection itself and the act of striving for it: “The value of perfection is none because it simply doesn’t exist. However, the act of striving for perfection holds much value.”
The evidence provided in the response is mostly general, with references to a “‘perfect person’” and the “perfect student” but with very little explanation or commentary to link the evidence to the argument (e.g., “my whole life I wanted to be the perfect student, soccer player, and daughter. Life, however, does not work that way”). Much of the com...
Students had only 40 minutes to read and write; the essay, therefore, is not a finished product and should not be judged by standards appropriate for an out-of-class assignment. Evaluate the essay as a draft, making certain to reward students for what they do well.
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AP English Language and Composition Course Description, Effective Fall 2014 Questions 12–24. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.
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AP English Language and Composition Question 1: Synthesis (2019) Sample Student Responses 1 The student responses in this packet were selected from the 2019 Reading and have been rescored using the new rubrics for 2020. Commentaries for each sample are provided in a separate document.
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Sep 5, 2023 · On the exam, students write the AP Lang synthesis essay to demonstrate their learned abilities. In this article, we’ll look at what the AP Lang synthesis essay requires and show an example to provide better understanding of what to expect on the exam. The AP Lang exam is separated into two sections.
Although this essay takes Hazlitt at his word rather than as perhaps a wry humorist, it is a full and sophisticated exploration of the link between strategies and meaning and earned a score of 8. Sample: 2B Score: 6 A fully adequate response, this 6 essay identifies several rhetorical strategies and links them to Hazlitt’s position about money.
