Test Structure
This is the start time for the exam.
What is 8:00am?
This is the overall weight of the free-response/essay section by percentage.
What is 55%?
This is another name of the main character of a text and the driver of the plot.
Who is the protagonist?
Identify the figurative language example: "Nanny’s words made Janie’s kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain."
What is a simile?
In The Awakening and Their Eyes Were Watching God, the authors use this point of view in order to delve into the thoughts and feelings of many different characters in the text.
What is third-person omniscient point of view?
This is the amount of time that you have to complete the three essays in the second section of the test.
What is 120 minutes or two hours?
In order to earn this point on any of the three essays, you must answer the prompt with a defensible claim. However, this can appear anywhere in your essay.
What is the thesis point?
This is what drives a plot and creates tension throughout a text. It can be connected to the main character, another character, a force of nature, or society.
What is conflict?
Identify the figurative language example: "The sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark"
What is personification?
The pear tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God is an example of this literary device, representing Janie's feelings of love and freedom.
What is a symbol or motif?
You will have this long to complete the 55 questions in the first section of the test.
What is 60 minutes or one hour?
These are the three essay types you will be required to write in the second section of the exam.
What is poetry, prose/short fiction, and open-ended/literary analysis?
This part of the plot is often at the end of the text and is the result of the conflict. Not every text reaches this part of the plot.
What is the resolution?
Identify the figurative language example: "They made burning statements with questions and killing tools out of laughs."
What is a metaphor?
This literary technique is often used to describe settings in order to develop a clear image of the setting and to infuse a mood in the text.
What is imagery?
Questions on this section of the exam account for 45% of your overall score.
What is the multiple-choice or first section?
In order to earn a 4 in this category, you need to provide clear text details or quotes in support of a line of reasoning and explanations that connect those details and quotes to the thesis consistently through your essay.
What is Evidence & Commentary?
In some texts, this is where the plot ends but in all texts, it is the turning point for the conflict.
What is the climax?
Identify the figurative language example: "The others threw in whatever they could chance upon, but it seemed as if Sam and Lige and Walter could hear and see more about that mule than the whole county put together."
What is hyperbole?
Tea Cake & Joe in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Edna & Madame Ratignolle in The Awakening are examples of this form of character contrast.
What are foils?
This is the first part of the exam and consists of five readings (a mix of poetry and prose) with 8-13 questions for each reading.
What is the multiple-choice section?
This essay provides a quote or background information about a idea, literary technique, or topic and then asks you to consider how this element impacts the meaning of a text of your choice.
What is the literary argument/open ended essay?
This marks the moment when the conflict starts in the text and is revealed to the reader.
What is the inciting incident?
Identify the figurative language example: "Mr. Ratignolle was one of those men who are called the salt of the earth."
What is an idiom?
You can find this literary technique in poems, short stories, novels, and more. It can be used to illuminate important ideas in a text through differences.
What is contrast or juxtaposition?