Important Updates
Accessing Practice Materials
We’ve introduced a suite of new resources and a daily support tool called AP Classroom for teachers and students to use throughout the year. Designed and tested in collaboration with AP teachers, these resources include unit guides that cover the content and skills assessed on the exam, personal progress checks, and a dashboard to highlight strengths and opportunities for growth.
Learn more about the new resources
Preparing Students for the Exam
Create personalized practice with a library of multiple-choice and free-response AP questions you can assign to students online or on paper using the question bank in AP Classroom.
2019 Score Reports Now Available
Access 2019 AP score reports.
Exam Overview
Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information on exam weighting, download the AP English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description (CED). Scoring guidelines for each of the sample free-response questions in the CED are also available, along with scoring rubrics that apply to the free-response questions, regardless of specific question prompts.
Encourage your students to visit the AP English Language and Composition student page for exam information and exam practice.
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- Wed, May 13, 2020
AP English Language and Composition Exam Day
Exam Format
Starting in the 2019-20 school year, the AP English Language and Composition Exam will have question types and point values that will remain stable and consistent from year to year, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day.
| Exam Updates | |
| 2019 Exam | Starting with the 2020 Exam |
|
Section I: Multiple Choice 52–55 Questions | 1 Hour | 45% of Exam Score
|
Section I: Multiple Choice 45 Questions | 1 Hour | 45% of Exam Score
|
|
Section II: Free Response 3 Free-Response Questions | 2 Hours 15 Minutes (includes a 15-minute reading period) | 55% of Exam Score
The free-response questions are scored using holistic rubrics. |
Section II: Free Response 3 Free-Response Questions | 2 Hours 15 Minutes (includes a 15-minute reading period) | 55% of Exam Score
The free-response questions will now be scored using analytic rubrics. |
Exam Tasks and Content
Section 1: Multiple Choice
- Includes 5 sets of questions.
- 23–25 Reading questions that ask students to read and analyze nonfiction texts.
- 20–22 Writing questions, a new type of question, that ask students to “read like a writer” and consider revisions to stimulus texts.
Section 2: Free Response
- Students write essays that respond to 3 free-response prompts from the following categories.
- Synthesis Question: After reading 6–7 texts about a topic (including visual and quantitative sources), students will compose an argument that combines and cites at least 3 of the sources to support their thesis.
- Rhetorical Analysis: Students will read a nonfiction text and analyze how the writer’s language choices contribute to the intended meaning and purpose of the text.
- Argument: Students will create an evidence-based argument that responds to a given topic.
Exam Questions and Scoring Information
For free-response questions (FRQs) from the 2019 exam, along with scoring information, check out the table below.
Be sure to review the Chief Reader Report (available this fall). In this invaluable resource, the chief reader of the AP Exam compiles feedback from members of the AP Reading leadership to explain how students performed on the FRQs, summarize typical student errors, and address specific concepts and content with which students have struggled the most that year.
| Questions | Scoring | Samples and Commentary | Score Distributions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coming Soon |
Coming Soon |