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MAKING GOOD CHOICES ON LANGUAGE MULTIPLE CHOICE 2014

OBJECTIVES

To acquire specific strategies for making good choices on AP Language Multiple Choice Questions

To work collaboratively to understand why answers are correct or incorrect

To foster “equitable preparation and access” for students enrolled in AP courses

CONTENTS

Give Me a Hint: Getting Started on AP Language Multiple Choice 2

Practice # 1 3Group Debriefing: Practice # 1 8Individual Debriefing: Practice # 1 9

Practice # 2 12Individual or Group Debriefing: Practice # 2 17

The Multiple Choice Trail 18

Footnote Review 20

Answer Keys 22

APMC Practice Test Instructions 22

Active Reading Reminders 22

Measuring Your Success 23

Playing the “What if?” Game 24

APMC Individual and Collaborative Debriefing: Individual and Group “Retests” 25

Beth Priem: Making Good Choices on Lang Multiple Choice 2014 1

Give Me a Hint: Getting Started on AP Language Multiple Choice

(1) MULTIPLE CHOICE __________ MINUTES

(2) BREAK __________ MINUTES

(3) FREE RESPONSE __________ MINUTES (2 HOURS, 15 MINUTES)

(4) TOTAL TESTING TIME _________ HOURS AND __________ MINUTES

TIME LIMIT: ____________ # OF QUESTIONS: _______________ # OF PASSAGES: ___________

ORDER OF QUESTIONS: _____________________________________________________________________

DIFFICULTY OF QUESTIONS: ___________________________

CONTENT OF PASSAGES:

1. ___________________________ prose excerpts.

2. _________________ century as well as 20th century material.

3. Representative of ___________________________________________________

VALUE: _________________

SCORING: 1. Multiple-choice scores are based on the _____________________________________________________.

2. Points are not deducted for __________________________________________ answers. 3. No points are awarded for ___________________________________________ questions.

4. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, students are encouraged to answer ___________all the multiple choice questions.

5. If students do not know the answer to a question, they should ___________________________________as many choices as they can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices

6. The test is ____________-referenced rather than ________________________ referenced meaning that your performance is compared to the performance of others taking the same test.


OVERALL TEST FORMAT

MULTIPLE CHOICE FORMAT

YOUR GOAL: Answer _____________ % of the questions correctly.PRACTICE #1 (from AP Language and Composition Workshop Handbook 2010-2011)

Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers. In the space provided at the end of each paragraph, jot down the main idea.This passage is taken from a twentieth-century book about China.

Throughout her history China has believed herself the center of civilization, surrounded by barbarians. She was the Middle Kingdom, the center of the universe, whose Emperor was the Son of Heaven, ruling by the Mandate of Heaven. Convinced of their superior values, the Chinese considered that China’s greatness was owed to principles of social order over a harmonious whole. All outsiders were “barbarians” and necessarily inferiors who were expected, and indeed required, to make their approach if they insisted on coming, bearing tribute and performing the kowtow in token of humble submission.

MAIN IDEA: China considered herself ____________________________________________.

From the time of Marco Polo to the eighteenth century, visiting Westerners, amazed and admiring, were inclined to take China at her own valuation. Her recorded history began in the third millennium B.C., her bronzes were as old as the pyramids, her classical age was contemporary with that of Greece, her Confucian canon of ethics predated the New Testament if not the Old. She was the inventor of paper, porcelain, silk, gunpowder, the clock, and movable type, the builder of the Great Wall, one of the wonders of the world, the creator of fabrics and ceramics of exquisite beauty and of an art of painting that was sophisticated and expressive when Europe’s was still primitive and flat . . .

MAIN IDEA:_________________________________________________________________

When at the end of the eighteenth century Western ships and merchants surged against China’s shores, eager for tea and silk and cotton, they found no reciprocal enthusiasm. Enclosed in the isolation of superiority, Imperial China wanted no influx of strangers from primitive islands called Britain or France or Holland who came to live off the riches of the Middle Kingdom bearing only worthless articles for exchange. They had ugly noses and coarse manners and wore ridiculous clothes with constricting sleeves and trousers, tight collars and coats that had tails down the back but failed to close in the front. These were not the garments of reasonable men.

MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________

A past-oriented society, safe only in seclusion, sensed a threat from the importunate West. The Imperial Government raised every barrier possible by refusals, evasions, postponements, and prohibitions to foreign entry or settlement or the opening of formal relations. Splendidly remote in the “Great Within” of the Forbidden City of Peking, the court refused to concern itself with the knocking on its doors. It would admit foreign embassies who came to plead for trade treaties only if they performed the ritual of three genuflections and nine prostrations in approaching the Son of Heaven. British envoys, after surmounting innumerable obstacles to reach Peking, balked at the kowtow and turned back empty-handed.


MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE PASSAGE: China is characterized as a

_______________kingdom with no interest in ________________ with the ______________

West unless Westerners________________________________________________________

DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE: Underline, circle, or otherwise mark key words in the questions and the answer choices. Doing so helps you

fight the fatigue factor and make educated guesses. Read the HINTS that appear after each question Strike through the choices you have eliminated. (We call these distractors.) You will need to see this process

when we debrief the activity. Then, make an educated (rather than random) guess. Write your answers in the left margin. Save the space to the right of the answer choices for notes. Use all of the allotted time.

START: STOP:

1. The principal contrast employed by the author in the passage is between

(a) past and present(b) wisdom and foolishness(c) Imperial China and Europe(d) civilization and barbarism(e) technology and art

2. In paragraph 2, which of the following rhetorical devices is most in evidence?

(a) Appeals to authority(b) The massing of factual information(c) The use of abstract generalizations(d) Impressionistic descriptive writing(e) The use of anecdote

3. The primary rhetorical function of lines 9-14 is to

(a) provide support for a thesis supplied in lines 1-2(b) provide evidence to contrast with that supplied in the first paragraph(c) present a thesis that will be challenged in paragraph 3(d) introduce a series of generalizations that are supported in the last two paragraphs


# 1 HINT: Eliminate any answer choices that include topics not mentioned in the excerpt (e.g., technology).

# 2 HINT: An anecdote is a short account of an interesting or humorous incident included in order to illustrate a point.

(e) anticipate objections raised by the ideas presented in lines 9-11

4. Lines 8-11 contain which of the following?

(a) Elaborate metaphor(b) Parallel syntax(c) A single periodic sentence(d) A compound subject(e) Subordinate clauses

5. In the last sentence of paragraph 2 (lines 10-13), which of the following words is parallel in function to “inventor” (line 11)?

(a) “clock” (line 12)(b) “one” (line 12)(c) “creator” (line 13)(d) “art” (line 13)(e) “Europe’s” (line14)


# 3 HINT: In approaching a “function” question such as # 3, it may be helpful to think of function keys on a computer keyboard. Such keys activate a function (create an effect) when pressed, either alone or in various combinations.

# 4 HINTS: Parallel syntax refers to making two or more words, phrases, or clauses equivalent

in part of speech, grammatical structure, and concept. Sharon Hamilton offers these examples in Introduction to Literary Terms With Exercises:

Edgar Allen Poe modifies the noun “day” with three successive adjectives in “The Fall of the House of Usher” > “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day . . .”

In the following example from one of Julius Caesar’s speeches, the three independent clauses (clauses that could stand alone as sentences in their own right) consist of the same pronoun, followed by a verb in the past tense > “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

A periodic sentence creates emphasis and suspense by saving the most important information for the end of the sentence. Hamilton cites this example from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis which begins with this sentence > “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”

SEE HINT ON NEXT PAGE.

6. In line 20, “bearing” modifies

(a) “Imperial China” (line 17)(b) “strangers” (line 17)(c) “primitive islands” (line 17)(d) “riches” (line 18)(e) “Middle Kingdom” (line 18)

7. The point of view expressed in “They . . . men” (lines 20-21) is that of

(a) the author(b) present-day historians(c) eighteenth-century British merchants(d) eighteenth-century Chinese(e) present-day Chinese

8. The word “importunate” (line 24) is reinforced by the author’s later reference to

(a) “prohibitions to foreign entry” (lines23-24)(b) “formal relations” (line 24)(c) “knocking on its doors” (line 25)(d) “the ritual of three genuflections” (lines 26-27)(e) “empty-handed” (lines 28-29)

9. Which of the following best describes the first sentence of paragraph 4 (lines 22-29)?

(a) The author’s interpretation of China’s situation in the late eighteenth century(b) An objective summary of eighteenth-century Europe’s view of China(c) A challenge to the opinions in paragraph 3(d) A restatement of the ideas in paragraph 2(e) A conclusion rebutted by the information in paragraph 4


# 5 HINT: Review the hints for questions # 3 and # 4.

# 6 HINT: A “modifier” is a word, phrase, or clause that describes or qualifies another word or words. Who is “bearing only worthless articles for exchange”?

# 7 HINT: Whose point of view or opinion is being expressed?

# 8 HINT: “Importunate” is defined as persistent, sometimes annoyingly so, in one’s demands.

10. Which of the following characteristics of Imperial China or Britain is most emphasized in paragraph 4?

(a) Britain’s adaptability to foreign customs(b) Imperial China’s aloof and insular attitude toward Europeans(c) Imperial China’s wisdom in relying on tradition and ceremony(d) Britain’s desperate need for foreign trade(e) The splendor of the Imperial Chinese court

11. The tone of the passage is best described as

(a) scornful and unsympathetic(b) reverent and respectful(c) acerbic and cynical(d) serious but faintly condescending(e) irate but carefully judicious


# 9 HINTS:

Number the paragraphs for easy reference. To “rebut” is to contradict or oppose with evidence

# 10 HINT:

Note that Britain is mentioned only once in this paragraph. Therefore, you can eliminate choices A and D.

Consider the remaining choices. Does the paragraph deal with China’s attitude toward Europeans, with the wisdom of its reliance on tradition, or with the splendor of its courts?

# 11 HINT: When presented with two-term answer choices, consider each of the terms individually. Immediately strike through inappropriate choices. If one of the two terms is wrong, that choice is wrong. Many distractors include one correct and one incorrect term.

GROUP DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #1

Enter your answers in the “My answer” column. As a group, come to a consensus on what you believe to be the correct answer and enter it in

the “Group consensus” column. As a group, write an explanation for your “Group Consensus” and provide evidence from the

passage to support that explanation. Your goal is to explain why you eliminated at least one distractor. #1 has been done as an example for you.

Correct answers will be announced at the conclusion of the activity.

Item #

My answer

Group Consensus

Correct answer

Explanation and Evidence

1 C C C Choice A (past and present) is incorrect because the passage stops at the end of the 18th century and does not deal with the “present.”

2 Choice _____ is incorrect because











INDIVIDUAL DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #1

1. The Forest and the Trees*

A. Forest questions ask you to see the big picture. To answer them, you must read and understand the entire passage.

Identify forest questions (F) and answer the questions below.

Where did the forest questions appear? __________________________________________________________________________________

What did they ask you? Copy the key words you underlined or circled in the question stem.

__________________________________________________________________________________

B. Tree questions point to specific parts of the passage. Typically they will include line or paragraph identifiers. To answer them, you must accurately read those lines or paragraphs. And, you will often need to read the lines before and after the line identifiers to determine the correct response.

Identify tree (T) questions and answer the questions below.

In what order did the tree questions appear? _________________________________________________________________________________

*concept developed by Patricia Cain, AP Consultant and Pasadena ISD teacher* Thanks also to AP Consultant Jennifer Troy for her explanations of forest, tree, and root questions.

2. Item Analysis and Scoring


Total # of questions # correct

% correct #/% of forest questions correct

#/% of tree questions correct

11

3. Timing and Strategies

Answer the following questions.

A. Did you finish within the allotted time? _____________________

B. If you had time to spare, how did you use it? ___________________________________

C. What multiple choice strategies did you acquire as you worked on this practice passage? Refer to a minimum of two of the HINTS. Include the question numbers.

EXAMPLE: When presented with two-term answer choices, consider each of the terms individually. Immediately strike through inappropriate choices. If one of the two terms is wrong, that choice is wrong. Many distractors include one correct and one incorrect term.(#11)

STRATEGY #1: _________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

STRATEGY # 2: _________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

4. Vocabulary. List 5 vocabulary words and/or rhetorical terms from the question and answer choices for review. Words and terms that appear in the questions and answer


Remember that points are NOT deducted for wrong answers. The multiple-choice section counts as 45% of the composite (1-5) score. Although the range changes yearly depending on the total number of multiple-choice questions, the approximate range below gives you a general idea of how you’re performing. Use your “% correct” above to “predict” the score you would earn if you took the test today.

50-65% = 366-79% = 4

80-100% = 5

choices are part of the Test Development Committee’s lexicon and may appear again. Therefore, also list the denotations of these words based on their use in the questions or answer choices when you have access to a dictionary.

Word/Term and Question #

Definition

Insular (# 10) Concerned only with local matters and not interested in new ideas or different cultures

5. A Note on Tone

AP prompts often ask students to identify the author’s tone. AP gurus will tell you that to misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning. Therefore, it is crucial that you develop a “tone vocabulary.” The tone of a text may be articulated in several ways. The examples below are drawn from College Board-released AP English exams multiple choice questions.

With a single adjective (Use with a part of a text.) ambivalent, ironic, hopeful, hysterical, insistent (AP Lit 2009)

With an adjective-conjunction- adjective-construction : callous and reckless, petulant and critical, resigned and reconciled, detached but hopeful, civil

but angry(AP Lang 2007)

With an adjective-noun construction: guarded optimism, stoic determination, grim despair, bewildering chaos, violent retribution (AP Lit 2009)

With an adverb- adjective construction: grudgingly appreciative, cleverly nonjudgmental, bitterly disillusioned, viciously sarcastic,

essentially negative (AP Lang 2007)


PRACTICE # 2 (from AP Language and Composition Workshop Handbook 2010-2011)

Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers. In the space provided at the end of each paragraph, jot down the main idea.This passage is taken from a contemporary book about engineering and technology.

START TIME: STOP TIME:

A major attraction at the Paris Exposition of 1867 was the locomotive America. Its cab was crafted of ash, maple, black walnut, mahogany, and cherry. Its boiler, smokestack, valve boxes, and cylinders were covered with glistening silvery material. The tender was decorated with the arms of the Republic, a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, and a number of elaborate scrolls. Other machinery of the day exhibited similar characteristics. Steam engines were built in “Greek revival” style, featuring fluted columns and decorated pedestals. On a printing press called The Columbian each pillar was a caduceus – the serpent-entwined staff of the universal messenger, Hermes – and atop the machine perched an eagle with extended wings, grasping in its talons Jove’s thunderbolts, an olive branch of peace, and a cornucopia of plenty, all bronzed and gilt. 1

MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________

It is little remembered today that well into the late nineteenth century most American machine manufacturers embellished their creations. While this practice pleased the public, some observers considered it anomalous. A writer in the British periodical Engineering found it “extremely difficult to understand how among a people so practical in most things, there is maintained a tolerance of the grotesque ornaments and gaudy colors, which as a rule rather than the exception distinguish American machines.”2 An exasperated critic for Scientific American asserted that “ a highly colored and fancifully ornamented piece of machinery is good in the inverse ratio of the degree of color and ornament.”3

MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________

By the beginning of the twentieth century, machine ornamentation yielded to clean lines, economy, and restriction to the essential. “Form follows function” became the precept of a new machine aesthetic. Creators of exotic contraptions like the locomotive America were accused of being sentimentalists, hypocrites, and worse. Yet in their reluctance to give up adornment – ridiculous as it might have seemed – these designers were in fact expressing a discomfort we all share, an uneasiness in the face of mathematical severity.

MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________


HINTS:

The author of the passage refers to aesthetics and ornamentation.

Ornamentation is the act of decorating, adorning, or embellishing.

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste

The new machine aesthetic, the admiration of slickness and purity of line, spread from factories and power plants into every area of society. The term “industrial design” was first used in 1913, and by 1927 the famed Norman Bel Geddes was calling himself an “industrial designer.”4 During the twenties and thirties practically every human artifact was repatterned in the new mode. Lamps, tables, and chairs; toasters, refrigerators, and clocks, plates, goblets, and flatware – all were simplified, trimmed, and reshaped. Even the humble pencil sharpener did not escape; Raymond Loewy created a streamlined, chrome model in 1933.

MAIN IDEA:______________________________________________________________________

Along with the revolution in style, came many theories about why it was happening – admiration and emulation of the machine being only one. The new simplicity, it was claimed, was democratic at heart, a rebellion against the baroque ornateness of older, autocratic societies. A more jaundiced view held that the new vogue was intended to distract the masses in hard times, or simply to help promote the sale of products by giving the machine a good name.

MAIN IDEA:_________________________________________________________________________

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE PASSAGE: _______________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

1 John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America 1776-1900 (New York: Grossman Publishers, The Viking Press, 1976), Chapter 4, “The Aesthetics of Machinery,” pp. 139-180.2 “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition,” Engineering (26 May 1876), p. 427 cited by Kasson, see note 1 above.3 “The International Exhibition of 1876,” Scientific American Supplement (17 June 1876), p. 386, cited by Kasson, see note 1 above.4 Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, Dickran Tashjian, The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New York: The Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986), p.85.

1. Which of the following best states the subject of the passage?

(A) The senselessness of ornamentation(B) The development of modern machinery(C) A popular revolt against methods of industrial production(D) A change in the aesthetics of machine design(E) The historical development of aesthetics



# 1 HINT: This is what I call a FOREST question. Answering it requires an understanding of the passage as a whole. It may be a “speed bump” for you right now. You may choose to mark it for further consideration later. When you get ready to answer, eliminate any choices that are too broad.

2. In context, which of the following changes to the sentence in lines 3-4, reproduced below, would make it more parallel to the preceding sentences?

The tender was decorated with the arms of the Republic, a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, and an number of elaborate scrolls.

(A) Change “The tender” to “Its tender”(B) Begin with “And thus”(C) Change “The tender was decorated with” to “The decoration on the tender was”(D) Begin with “Also Noteworthy”(E) Change “The tender was” to The tender, in addition, was”

3. Which of the following is being referred to by the abstract term “characteristics” (line 5)?

(A) “boiler, smokestack, valve boxes” (line 2)(B) “The tender” (line 3)(C) “a number of elaborate scrolls” (line 4)(D) “Steam engines” (line 5)(E) “a printing press” (line 6)

4. The tone of lines 10-11 (“It is . . . creations”) can best be described as

(A) disbelieving(B) uncertain(C) objective(D) exasperated(E) relieved

5. Which of the following is an accurate reading of footnote 2?

(A) An article by John F. Kasson appears on page 427 of Engineering.


# 2 HINT: Look back at the HINT for question # 4 in the first practice passage. Then, look at the beginning of sentences two and three in this passage.

# 4 HINT: Is the tone best described as positive, negative, or neutral? Mark the answer choices with positive (+) and negative (-) signs.

(B) “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” was published in New York.(C) The article “Engineering” can be found on page 427 of “Machine Tools at the

Philadelphia Exhibition.”(D) “Machine Tools at the Philadelphia Exhibition” is an article published in the May 26,

1876, issue of Engineering.(E) Engineering is an article cited by John F. Kasson.

6. Both of the writers quoted in paragraph 2 (lines 10-16) view elaborately decorated machinery as

(A) amusingly imaginative(B) inherently impractical(C) typical of European inventions(D) reflective of the complexity of machines(E) likely to prove too costly to reproduce

7. Lines 20-22 (“Yet . . .severity”) imply that human beings share which of the following?

(A) A preference for some sort of embellishment(B) A natural curiosity about ideas(C) An innate indifference toward designers and design(D) A fear of shifts in cultural styles and taste(E) A rejection of the principle of symmetry

8. The reference to the first appearance of the phrase “industrial design” (line 24) serves to

(A) note how a new expression can be mocked by experts(B) explore the ways in which form is determined by function(C) support the authenticity of the movement toward ornamentation(D) detail the ways in which simplicity of form became overdone and outdated(E) highlight how two seemingly unrelated terms became popularly linked



# 5 HINTS:

Make sure you’re looking at footnote 2. To “cite” a source is to attribute where it came from. The title of an “article” is placed in quotation marks. The title of a book is italicized.

# 6 HINT: Eliminate answer choices that include topics not mentioned in the passage.

# 8 HINT: Underline the “author’s purpose” verb (e.g., note in Choice A) in each answer choice. Then, ask yourself what is the author’s purpose in referring to the phrase “industrial design”? Which verb best describes his/her purpose?

9. The purpose of footnote 4 is to inform the reader that the quotation in line 25

(A) has been attributed to three different designers(B) was first cited in 1918(C) was the inspiration for an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum(D) is in an article in The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 written by Harry N. Abrams,

Inc.(E) appears in a book written by Wilson, Pilgrim, and Tashjian and published in 1986

10. The structure of lines 25-29 (“During . . .1933”) can best be described as

(A) an exaggeration followed by a series of qualifying statements(B) a movement from the particular to the general(C) a historical example followed by contemporary examples(D) a generalization followed by other generalizations(E) a claim followed by supporting details

11. The development of the passage can best be described as the

(A) presentation of two conflicting ideas followed by a resolution(B) explanation of an historical issue leading to the examination of the same issue in

contemporary society(C) chronological examination of an aspect of design during a particular time period(D) movement from European to United States views of the topic(E) examination of technological advances at a particular point in time

12. Taken as a whole, the footnotes suggest that

(A) the author of the passage wants the text to present highly technical material


# 9 HINTS:

Make sure you’re looking at footnote 4. To “attribute” is to give credit to the author of the material. The title of an “article” is placed in quotation marks. The title of a book is

italicized.

# 11 HINT: Think of “development of the passage” as the progression, movement, or organization of the passage. Pay special attention to words and phrases in the answer choices such as followed by, leading to, during, from . . . to, at a particular point in time.

(B) the author of the passage relies heavily on Kasson’s book(C) very little was written about the topic of machinery and ornamentation prior to 1976(D) engineering magazines are an essential source for technical writers(E) except in rare cases, it is best to use the latest published work when documenting an

idea or concept

GROUP or INDIVIDUAL DEBRIEFING: PRACTICE #2

Question # Forest, Tree, or Root Question My Answer Correct Answer

Strategy Notes

1 forest D Eliminate any choices that are too broad.

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

THE MULTIPLE CHOICE TRAIL*


When you are working your way through the multiple choice section, imagine yourself hiking on a trail through a forest.

A. Forest questions ask you to see the big picture. To answer them, you must read and

understand the entire passage. Examples:

The author’s tone in the passage is . . . The style of the passage as a whole is most accurately characterized as . . . The principal contrast employed by the author in the passage is between . . .

B. Tree questions point to specific parts of the passage. Typically they will include line or paragraph identifiers. To answer them, you must accurately read those lines or paragraphs.Examples:

The primary rhetorical function of lines 14-22 is . . . Both of the writers quoted in paragraph 2 (lines 18-32) view elaborately decorated

machinery as . . . The speaker’s reference to Hernando de Soto’s visit to the springs in 1541 (lines 10-12)

serves primarily to . . .

C. Root questions ask you to interpret information in the footnotes or to correctly read the footnotes. We identify them as Root questions because the footnotes provide information about the foundation reading that helped the writer of the passage draw conclusions about his/her subject material. There are 3 kinds of roots questions:

Following the traiL


BEFORE READING THE PASSAGE

1. Read the italicized information preceding the PASSAGE.2. Scan the questions.3. Mark the forest questions with an F.4. Mark the footnote (roots ) questions with an R.5. The remaining questions are trees . Mark them with a T. Note that they proceed in the order

of the passage.

CHOOSING A ROUTE

Answer the footnote (roots ) questions first (before reading the passage). Some students (hikers) prefer this route because nearly all the footnote questions can be answered without reading the passage.

OR

Read the passage first. Concentrate on the forest questions as you read. Mark the passage for main ideas and/or shifts in tone, focus, or argument.

AFTER READING THE PASSAGE

1. Answer the tree questions . OR

Answer the roots questions .

2. Answer the forest questions.

3. Don’t lag behind on the trail. Allow 15 minutes per passage. Then, smile and move on to the next passage.

*concept developed by Patricia Cain, AP Consultant and Pasadena ISD teacher*explanations developed by AP Consultant Jennifer Troy* cool clip art contributed by Beth Priem


Footnote REVIEW

In addition to forest and tree questions, a third basic category of multiple choice questions is footnote questions.

Footnote (citation) questions will ask you to do one of the following:

*comment on the reading content of the footnotes (more common)

*compare/contrast, draw conclusions about two or more footnotes (common)

*demonstrate your understanding of basic footnote rules (least common).

UNDERSTANDING BASIC FOOTNOTE RULES

Although the following information covers the rules for the LEAST COMMON citation questions on the multiple choice exam, knowing this information is very important to a researcher who must list or investigate sources.

Books, journals, and magazines (LONG works) are italicized or underlined. Articles, essays, and chapters (SHORT works) are put in "quotation marks."

Ibid: If you cite the same source and page number(s) from a single source two or more times consecutively, the corresponding note should use the word ‘Ibid.,’ an abbreviated form of the Latin ‘ibidem,’ which means ‘in the same place.’ If you use the same source but a different page number, the corresponding note should use ‘Ibid.’ followed by a comma and the new page number(s).

The information in footnotes can be expressed in a sentence or two. You are told these facts about works in this order:

Author(s), editors > Title of work > City where published > Publishing Company > Date of publication >Page number where quotation appears in the work.

See the footnote in the next box.


Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New York: The Brooklyn Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986), p. 85.

Sample sentence: Wilson and Pilgrim wrote a book entitled The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 which was published in New York by the Brooklyn Museum in 1986. The quote appears on page 85 of that book.

Your Turn: Read the footnote in the box and then write the information in a sentence or two.

Your sentence: ______________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

MORE COMPLICATED FOOTNOTES

Sometimes footnotes get more complicated--you are reading a book and within the book the writer quotes from another book. Here's how that footnote looks:

The documented quotation was originally written by John Peterson in the book Cars and Trucks in America. But, the writer who is citing this information actually found the quote in Wilson and Pilgrim's book, The Machine Age in America 1918-1914, on page 101-5.

Remember that a footnote may take the form of a citation (a reference footnote), or it may provide further explanation (a content footnote). Sometimes it may do both.

Footnote review created by Jennifer Troy.


John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America 1776-1900 (New York: Grossman Publishers, The Viking Press, 1976), Chapter 4, “The Aesthetics of Memory,” pp.139-180.

John Peterson, Cars and Trucks in America (Boston: Scribner Publishing, 1944) in Wilson, Pilgrim, The Machine Age in America 1918-1941 (New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1986), p. 101-5.

Passage 1 (China) Answer Key Passage 2 (Machinery) Answer Key

1. c 1. d2. b 2. a3. a 3. c4. b 4. c5. c 5. d6. b 6. b7. d 7. a8. c 8. e9. a 9. e10. b 10. e11. d 11. c

12. b

APMC PRACTICE TEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. You are encouraged to mark on your test. Judicious notating of the questions is an effective strategy for making educated guesses and for fighting the fatigue factor.

2. Mark your answers on the test as well as on the answer sheet for retest purposes.3. Scoring: Each correct answer earns one point. Because there is no penalty for guessing, you are

encouraged to use a process of elimination and answer all the questions.4. This is a norm-referenced test which will count as a product grade. Your goal is to answer

approximately 50% of the questions correctly.5. You will have 60 minutes for the test. Record the START and STOP times and make a plan so

that you do not run out of time.6. Remember that pacing is not only a matter of finishing. It is also a matter of using all of the

allocated time effectively.7. Out of courtesy to others, please remain seated until time is called.

ACTIVE READING REMINDERS

Read the italicized information that appears at the beginning of the passage. Scan the questions. Make notes above the passage on what the forest questions are asking. See

the sample forest questions and suggested notes below. The notes will be the focus of your reading.

o The speaker’s central rhetorical strategy in the passage is . . . > central rhetorical strategyo The tone of the passage is best described as . . . > tone

Underline every other sentence in order to break up long chunks of material (especially pre-20 th

century passages). Mark main ideas and shifts in tone, focus, or argument.


Measuring Your Success

Directions: Compare your answers with the correct answers on the answer key and fill in the blank spaces on

the charts below. Use the space below the charts to comment on patterns you perceive in your performance.

Passage 1: John Stuart Mill (19th century British writer)

# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17Correct/incorrect

% of students answering correctly

40 66 80 55 70 43 84 70 50

Passage 2: W.E.B. Du Bois (excerpted from a 1940 autobiographical essay)

# 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31Correct/incorrect

% of students answering correctly

80 78 85 85

Passage 3: Walter Isaacson (excerpted from a recent work that examines Benjamin Franklin)

# 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45Correct/incorrect

-----% of students answering correctly

77 * 22 78 74

Passage 4: Joyce Carol Oates (contemporary American writer)

# 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53Correct/incorrect& of students answering correctly

60 60 59 36


Directions: Compare your answers by passage to the 2007 national statistics. Enter your number correct per passage and calculate your percent by dividing your number

correct by the number of questions for that passage. For example, the average number correct on the John Stuart Mill passage was 11.2 out of 17. Dividing the number correct (11.2) by the total number of questions (17) yields a percentage correct of 65.9%.

Use the space below the charts to comment on patterns you perceive in your performance. Remember that your goal is to answer 50% of the questions correctly.

John Stuart Mill W.E.B. Du Bois Walter Issacson Joyce Carol Oates

Number of questions

17 14 13 8

Average number correct

11.2(65.9%)

8.5(60.7%)

8.565.4%

3.9(48.8%)

My Number CorrectAnd Percentage

Playing the “What if?” Game*

1. Assume that each multiple choice question answered correctly is worth 1.298 points.

2. Multiply the number of questions you answered correctly by 1.298: _____________

3. Play the “What if?” game. What if you could improve your score on the multiple choice section by 5 questions, adding 6.49 points to your score?: ________________

4. What if you could improve your score on the multiple choice section by 10 questions, adding 12.98 points to your score?: _________________

5. Remember that the multiple choice section is worth 45% of your composite score.

6. Check below the improvements you can make before the REAL AP EXAM in May.

_______ I can make a plan for time allotment.

_______ I can read the introductory material (in italics).

_______ I can maintain my focus and fight the “fatigue factor” by writing a brief summary in the margin next to each paragraph of the passage. (Even just a word or two will help!)


_______ I can underline, circle, or otherwise mark key words in the questions and in the answer choices.

_______ I can strike through “distractors” and make an educated guess from the remaining choices.

_______ I can mark the line(s) where I found the answer to each question with a > in the margin in order to keep my place and save time.

7. Use the space below to write goals specific to your own needs on the multiple choice section.

_______ I can _________________________________________________________________

_______ I can _________________________________________________________________

8. REVIEW THIS PAGE THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM.

*Many thanks to the Kentucky NMSI teachers for the “What if?” strategy.

APMC INDIVIDUAL AND COLLABORATIVE DEBRIEFING: INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP “RETESTS”MATERIALS VALUE AND SCORING DIRECTIONS

IND. DICTIONARIES TESTS ANSWER

SHEETS

ANOTHER PRODUCTGRADE (DOES NOT REPLACE ORIGINAL GRADE)

EACH CORRECT ANSWER EARNS ONE POINT

1. Locate incorrect answers (marked with a check) on the answer sheet.2. Try again now that you have definitely eliminated one of the distractors.3. Erase wrong answers and enter new answers on the answer sheet.3. Enter an answer for any question you did not answer originally.

GROUP

DICTIONARIES TESTS ONE ANSWER

SHEET PER GROUP

ANOTHER PRODUCTGRADE (DOES NOT REPLACE ORIGINAL GRADE)

YOU WILL BE RANKED BY TIME* AND SCORE FROM 80 to 100 (80, 84, 88, 92, 96, 100).

ORIGINAL SCORES WILL PREVAIL IF HIGHER.*

1. Move your desks together to create a table surface.2. Write everyone’s first & last names on the answer sheet.3. Review/discuss all test questions and come to a group consensus on the correct answer.4. Make notes on your individual test of the group’s answer choices.5. Talk only to the people in your group.


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