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[Music]
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let's take a look at a sample reading
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passage on the ap english language
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multiple choice
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so here it is in front of me i always
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skip these instructions because they're
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the same
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i skip this reminder because i keep my
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eyes open for not and least and accept
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and now i'm going to get right to this
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little italicized blurb at the front now
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this doesn't give me a lot of
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information but it says the following
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passage is excerpted from a book so it's
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from this longer work
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by helen keller published in 1903.
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this is a slightly older source i'm
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expecting more antiquated language
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and i'm expecting that helen keller who
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i'm familiar with will be writing
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about uh something related maybe to her
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own life or
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or to another broader subject so
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here i have let's see i'm going to
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scroll down i see 88
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lines i also see a bunch of these
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questions now i can
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i can preview the questions and mark up
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the passage some people like to do that
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i don't necessarily think that's going
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to help me i see a lot of line
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references so i'm going to go right to
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the passage
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and now i'm going to skim read and i
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want you to watch me as i do this
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because i'm not reading and you're not
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watching me read you're watching me cut
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through the passage
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to find big picture things so i see most
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people measure their happiness in terms
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of physical pleasure
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question blah blah or exclamation
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lacking this gift they would be
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miserable
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uh blah blah blah i who cannot hear or
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see have every reason to sit in a corner
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with folded hands and weep
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wow and now i'm going to skip to the end
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of this paragraph once i knew the depth
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where no hope was and darkness lay on
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the face of all things
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then love came and set my soul free so
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people are focused on their material
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happiness
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i'm blind and deaf so i should have none
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but actually i'm happy that's kind of
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what i got out of this paragraph
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once i knew only darkness and stillness
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now i know hope and joy so that's a nice
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structure that helps me
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set this up once i fretted and beat
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myself now i rejoice
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my life was without past or future death
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the pessimist would say etc quotes i'm
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skipping over all that
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can anyone who has escaped such
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captivity who has felt the thrill and
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glory of freedom be a pessimist she asks
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if i tried i could so she's asking all
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these questions about
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this kind of repeating the same point
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used to be really bad now things are
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good
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i couldn't check the momentum etc
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darkness cannot shut me in again lots of
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ellipses which means that they're
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they're excerpting the passage here um
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notice i'm focusing on the first and
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last sentences of the paragraphs this is
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kind of helping me get a better sense of
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the main idea
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once by contact with evil could i have
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learned to feel by contrast the beauty
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of truth
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and love and goodness it's a mistake to
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always contemplate the good and ignore
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the evil
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because by making people neglectful it
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lets in disaster
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there's a dangerous optimism optimism
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that does this etc etc this is a little
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faster than i would actually read on the
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test
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but you see what i'm doing i'm letting
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go of the details i'm letting go of the
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quotes
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i don't need them right now i can get
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them when i do the individual questions
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i know what evil is wow okay tell me
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about it
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once or twice i've wrestled with it and
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for a time it felt its chilling touch in
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my life
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so i speak with knowledge so she's
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appealing to her own
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credibility um she's an optimist
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more ellipses more the world is sown
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with good
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two generations ago carlisle i don't
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know who that is
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flung forth his gospel of work to the
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dreamers of the revolution etc and
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demians all these references notice
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these notes i'm going to skip all those
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chaos the world all kinds of capital
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letters okay then i'm going to focus on
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the last paragraph sometimes that can
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really give me something substantial
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some have said carlisle was taking
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refuge from a hard world
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by bidding men grind and toil eyes to
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the earth etc etc skip skip skip
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it is plain what he says that work
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production
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okay all of this members of this chamber
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are practical people and i know you
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won't resent some practical advice when
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people put their party's fortunes
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whatever the party whatever side of the
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aisle before the public good
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they court defeat not only for their
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country but for themselves and they will
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certainly deserve it
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so this is some political or some appeal
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at the end
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to crossing the party divides whatever
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those are i can get into the
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nitty-gritty of this so
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you could probably say i skimmed over
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that too quickly and now of course i'm
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talking out loud which i can't do on the
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test
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but i'm talking to myself i'm
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interrogating what is this about
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what is it not about um and and not
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trying to over
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analyze it i'm not getting any points
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for reading
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all the points i'm about to earn as i do
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the questions
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so here i go i see in question one about
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lines
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eight through twelve so i can go back
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there and read that again lines 12
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through 15.
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and these line references are really
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convenient because they give me a
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structure for
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what will be my second and much deeper
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read of the passage
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let's just take an example of a question
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let's take number two for example it
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says the writer draws a parallel
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between herself and sinners in lines
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12-15
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in order to so notice that this is a
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question without a question mark
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i'm going to convert it into a question
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and she draws this in order to
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so why does she draw a parallel between
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herself
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and sinners so let's go back and see if
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we can find why she draws
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a parallel between herself and sinners
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and my line references here
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so i'll read a few lines above and a few
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lines below
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i'll start here if i am happy in spite
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of my deprivations
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if my happiness is so deep that it is a
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faith so thoughtful that it becomes a
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philosophy of life
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if in short i am an optimist my
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testimony to the creed of optimism
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is worth hearing so she believes in
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optimism
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notice of my skimming i kind of miss
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that point
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as sinners stand up in meeting and
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testified at the goodness of god
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so one who is called afflicted may rise
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up in gladness of conviction
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and testify to the goodness of life once
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i knew the depth where no hope was
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and darkness lay on the face of all
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things then love came and set my soul
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free
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so as sinners stand up in the meeting
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so one who is called afflicted may rise
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up in gladness
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and testify to the goodness of life so
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why does she compare herself to sinners
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here
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i don't know sometimes i'd say about
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half the time i can come up with an
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answer and that's useful
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because then i'm going to go to the
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answer choices and see what's there and
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see if i can
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almost in a sense find my answer so
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let's just see
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why does she do this i'm not sure does
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she do it to appeal to readers
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experiences
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with rebounding from adversity maybe
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does she do it to encourage readers to
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attend church meetings and seek relief
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now that's a problem that's
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way too literal of an explanation she's
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not literally saying
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in this section right here you should go
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to church
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she's referencing sinners in a church
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but she's not suggesting as a command
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that they do that we don't know what her
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religious view
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is um c allude to reader's exposure to
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god's punishment
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well that's not really the theme this is
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about sinners talking about the goodness
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of god she's an optimist talking about
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the goodness of the world so
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that doesn't seem on topic then d engage
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readers who express themselves with
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conviction
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maybe i don't know what that means so
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i'll just leave it and then notice
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because notice
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what i'm doing i'm looking for wrong
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answers i'm not looking for right
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answers
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so something could be right it's not
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necessarily wrong so i might leave it
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and that's my goal i'm always looking
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for wrong answers
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then i go to e to persuade readers that
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the origin of happiness
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lies within sin so if i sin a lot then
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i'll be happy that's definitely not what
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she's saying so notice what they did
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a couple of these recycled some of the
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religious language
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they misinterpreted this in an overly
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literal way and now it's either a or e
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why does she draw a parallel between
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herself and the sinners
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does she do to do it to appeal the
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reader's experiences with adversity
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or engage with readers who express
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themselves with conviction
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i don't see any example of expressing
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herself with conviction so i'm going to
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go with
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a and i'm going to move on
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and that's really important i want to
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make sure that i'm being
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decisive here i've got 45 questions i
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have these five passages to get through
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i've got to move quickly
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to get these right let's try another one
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let's say i went to
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this one here number three actually in
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the first four sentences of power
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of the second paragraph the primary
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reason the writer's sentence structure
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is effective is because it so why is the
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author's
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sentence structure effective so i'm
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going to go back up to the passage
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in the second paragraph here once i knew
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only darkness and stillness
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now this once i fretted and beat myself
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now i rejoice
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my life was without past or future death
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the pessimist would say etc
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so with the sentence structure is this
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once
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now once i was this now i am this once i
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was lost now i am found so what's the
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effectiveness of this
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well it does set up a nice contrast it
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breaks down complex ideas with short
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sentences
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that seems to make sense to me they seem
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short repeats
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words to produce a lyrical tone maybe
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employs first-person narration to draw
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comparison
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maybe indicates the sequence of events
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with clarity
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maybe emphasizes the contrast between
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the writers past and present
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maybe okay now i'm in trouble i couldn't
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eliminate any of the choices so
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i need to do a deeper read this is why i
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did a kind of a quicker read originally
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was to set up something that i can use
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as a more specific and more intentional
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reading later
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so the first four sentences of the
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second paragraph
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the reader's sentence structure the
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writer's sentence structure is effective
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because
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it so why is this effective once i knew
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only darkness and stillness
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now i know hope and joy once i fretted
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and beat myself against the wall that
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shut me in
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now i rejoice in the consciousness that
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i can think act and attain heaven
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why is this effective
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well i noticed this last one's pretty
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the sentence is pretty long so it's not
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that it's
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so short
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repeats words it's only repeating the
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initial phrases
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so once now once now that's not really
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setting up
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a kind of a poem here employs
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first-person narration
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to draw comparisons
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is that what really sets this off or is
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it this
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once and now thing right with this
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really it's about contrast
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so and it's not about sequence of events
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so now i can see it more clearly it's
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ease
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this is really really important i want
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you to know this that as you're going
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through these reading multiple choice
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questions
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it's perfectly natural to let's say
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eliminate all five choices
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or eliminate none it's perfectly natural
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to be stuck between two choices
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the key is that you need to be decisive
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you need to take control of the whole
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testing environment
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and pick the best answer you can and
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move on
