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Exam Tips: Spanish Literature
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| | Observations of the Chief Reader
The following information about the free-response section was provided by Reynaldo Jimenez, the Chief Reader for AP Spanish, after the 2001 AP Reading.
Question 1 (Poetry Analysis) - Students must have sufficient exposure to different examples of poetic discourse. Experience in reading poetry, in recognizing main themes and their development throughout the poem, and in identifying technical devices and their function is imperative to attain high scores in this part of the exam.
- The essays must demonstrate insight and analytical ability. A careful analysis (poetic devices, tone, language, themes) of short segments or stanzas of different poems should be part of every classroom practice before proceeding to analyze complete poems.
- The language component in the students' essays is important and constitutes 30 percent of the score of the whole essay. In addition to control of grammatical structures and command of the conventions of the written language (organization: premise/thesis > elaboration > conclusion) precise and accurate language (including technical or literary terminology) should predominate in these essays. Have students become as familiar as possible with literary terminology, and practice writing and rewriting short essays as part of a refining process.
Question 2 (Single Author)
- Students are advised to use plot descriptions sparsely and mainly to illustrate or clarify a particular point in the question or the theme represented in the works selected, not simply to demonstrate that they know the plot line. They should concentrate more on text analysis, including language and tone, characterizations, and symbolic representations to support a given premise. In the case of Question 2 on the 2001 exam, the different ways in which violence is represented in Borges' works -- ranging from the local or regional (e.g., "El Sur") to the universal (e.g., "La muerte y la brújula" and "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") to even the biblical -- using different symbolic representations to suggest that history is permeated by violence in a repetitive, never-ending fashion, may have been one possible approach to this question.
- A well-developed essay includes not only thorough analysis of appropriate examples but coherence and language to support content. A premise or series of premises, followed by support of the premise(s) and an overall conclusion are essential elements in the organization of a well-rounded essay.
Question 3 (Critical Excerpt Analysis)
- Students must strive to demonstrate insight and analytical ability in a well-focused and thorough essay. Analysis must outweigh description and plot summary.
- Practice with critical excerpts, where students analyze the quotes, extract the main idea or ideas, and apply it (or them) in practice essays with reference to the works of a given author, could be helpful.
Call for Submissions
AP Central welcomes submissions of exam tips. If you have tips you would like to submit, please e-mail them to ExamTips@collegeboard.org.
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