Important Updates
New AP Course Pacing Guide
This pacing guide (.pdf/201.65 KB), designed for classrooms that have only completed approximately 25% of typical course content by January, can help students develop their knowledge and skills by May. If your students are ahead of this pace, you’ll be able to incorporate additional days or weeks to spend more time on challenging topics, practice course skills, or begin reviewing for the exam.
AP Daily and AP Classroom
Short, searchable AP Daily videos can be assigned alongside topic questions to help you cover all course content, skills, and task models, and check student understanding. Unlock personal progress checks so students can demonstrate their knowledge and skills unit by unit and use the progress dashboard to highlight progress and additional areas for support. As the exam approaches, assign AP practice exams in the AP Classroom question bank and encourage students to take advantage of AP Daily: Live Review sessions April 19–29.
Course Overview
AP English Literature and Composition is an introductory college-level literary analysis course. Students cultivate their understanding of literature through reading and analyzing texts as they explore concepts like character, setting, structure, perspective, figurative language, and literary analysis in the context of literary works.
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AP English Literature and Composition Course Overview
This resource provides a succinct description of the course and exam.
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AP English Literature and Composition Course at a Glance
Excerpted from the AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description, the Course at a Glance document outlines the topics and skills covered in the AP English Literature and Composition course, along with suggestions for sequencing.
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AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description
This is the core document for this course. Unit guides clearly lay out the course content and skills and recommend sequencing and pacing for them throughout the year. The CED was updated in the summer of 2020 to include scoring guidelines for the example questions.
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AP English Literature and Composition CED Errata Sheet
This document details the updates made to the course and exam description (CED) in September 2019. It includes printable copies of the updated pages, which can be used as replacement sheets in your CED binder. Note: It does not include the scoring guidelines, which were added to the online CED in the summer of 2020.
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AP English Literature and Composition CED Scoring Guidelines
This document details how each of the sample free-response questions in the CED would be scored. This information is now in the online CED but was not included in the binders teachers received in 2019.
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Excerpt from the novel Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
Excerpt for free-response question 2 (prose fiction analysis) from the sample exam in the CED. This information is now in the online CED but was not included in the binders teachers received in 2019.
Course Content
The course content is organized into units that have been arranged in a logical sequence. This sequence has been developed through feedback from educators as well as analysis of high school and college courses and textbooks. The units in AP English Literature and Composition scaffold skills and knowledge through three genre-based, recurring units. This course framework provides a description of what students should know and be able to do to qualify for college credit or placement.
The AP English Literature and Composition curriculum is made up of nine units. As always, you have the flexibility to organize the course content as you like.
| Units | Exam Weighting (Multiple-Choice Section) |
| Units 1, 4, and 7: Short Fiction | 42%–49% |
| Units 2, 5, and 8: Poetry | 36%–45% |
| Units 3, 6, and 9: Longer Fiction or Drama | 15%–18% |
Course Skills
The AP English Literature and Composition framework included in the course and exam description outlines distinct skills that students should practice throughout the year—skills that will help them learn to read texts critically.
| Skill Categories | Exam Weighting (Multiple- Choice Section) |
| Explain the function of character. | 16%–20% |
| Explain the function of setting. | 3%–6% |
| Explain the function of plot and structure. | 16%–20% |
| Explain the function of the narrator or speaker. | 21%–26% |
| Explain the function of word choice, imagery, and symbols. | 10%–13% |
| Explain the function of comparison. | 10%–13% |
| Develop textually substantiated arguments about interpretations of a part or all of a text. | 10%–13% |
AP and Higher Education
Higher education professionals play a key role developing AP courses and exams, setting credit and placement policies, and scoring student work. The AP Higher Education site features information on recruitment and admission, advising and placement, and more.
This chart shows recommended scores for granting credit, and how much credit should be awarded, for each AP course. Your students can look up credit and placement policies for colleges and universities on the AP Credit Policy Search.
Meet the Development Committee for AP English Literature and Composition.