AP English final exam leaked early?

AP English language and composition m crawford

Final Exam: December 2011

This final exam is made up of four parts:

1. Content questions on “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” (handout)
2. Essay question on content of “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
3. Essay question on rhetorical strategies in Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
4. Self-evaluation and reflection. Remember agreement to be a genuine AP student?

Please make sure to write neatly and to provide clear headings for each section of the exam. Specific instructions for each section follow. You will have two hours to complete this exam. You are encouraged to use your notes and textbook. Please budget your time carefully by devoting 25-30 minutes to each section of the exam. Do not turn in your work early. We will spend the final 10 minutes of the exam preparing your work for submission.

Section 1: Short Answer On Dr. King’s Letter

Answer the questions provided with two or three clear sentences. (handout)

Section 2: Content Essay Question

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”� is a response to a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen who were criticizing King’s course of action. His letter is so well organized that the reader can easily determine the concerns of King’s critics. What points of critique are answered in King’s letter? Explain—using evidence from the text—both the points of the critique by the eight clergymen and the powerful answers King crafts in response to his critics. For an excellent score find and explain an example in which King not only defends himself against the criticism but turns it around in a way that challenges his critics and persuades his readers to take action.


Section 3: Rhetorical Strategies

Write a brief essay in which you do an analysis of the rhetorical strategies used by Dr. King. It’s a long letter; you don’t have time to deal with all of it. So choose two or three powerful examples of King’s rhetoric. Identify the strategy in the terms used by our textbook or our rhetorical terms glossary. Then use evidence from the letter to explain how that strategy is employed. You may also want to speculate why each strategy was used in its particular place in the argument. (For example, why did he use that particular analogy to answer criticism x? Why was this strategy effective?)


Section 4: Reflection, Self-Evaluation (Know Thyself.)

Clearly and honestly describe your participation in this class. Did you simply do what was required? What about your attendance? Did you rush through the required work with little concern for how well it was done? Did you approach each assignment as an opportunity to learn something new or sharpen your skills? Did you arrive prepared, ready to discuss the assigned reading? What about independent reading? Did you choose books for the challenge or for their relative thinness? Did you read all you claimed to read? Did you do other homework or put your head down during USSR? Play with your phone? What about your behavior in class? Were you consistently polite and respectful? How can you improve your participation as we move into the second semester? Should you continue in this course?


“Hmmm. Did I study enough? Did I take my English class seriously? I mean I do go to class, and I’m not one of those annoying girls who plays with her phone rather than reading, but could I have worked harder? Shouldn’t I be working harder? Have I read enough? Have I challenged myself? Have I wrestled with books that ask me to think in ways I haven’t before?”