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Full-length practice exam modeled on the official College Board AP English Language & Composition exam. 45 multiple-choice questions across five passages (3 reading sets analyzing rhetorical choices in nonfiction, 2 writing/composition sets revising student drafts), plus 3 free-response essays: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument.
Section I — Multiple Choice
45 questions · 60 minutes
45 questions across five passages. Sets 1–3 are nonfiction reading passages (commencement address, urban-design essay, postwar journalist's letter) testing rhetorical analysis. Sets 4–5 are student composition drafts testing revision and editing skills. 60 minutes.
Section II — Free Response
3 items · 135 minutes
3 essays (Synthesis, Rhetorical Analysis, Argument). Suggested 40 minutes per essay, plus a 15-minute reading period. Each essay is scored on a 6-point AP rubric: Thesis (0–1), Evidence & Commentary (0–4), Sophistication (0–1).
Total time: 3h 15m. Each section has its own timer; sections are completed back-to-back. Free-response sections use a self-grading rubric checklist after you write your response.
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This full-length practice exam mirrors the real test’s sections, timing, and question mix so you can rehearse pacing and stamina before exam day. Every question is scored instantly with an explanation, and your results feed into your score prediction. For the most realistic read on where you stand, take it in one timed sitting.
AP English Language and Composition trains you to read nonfiction critically and write evidence-based arguments. Unlike a literature course, the focus is rhetoric: how authors use diction, syntax, tone, appeals, and structure to achieve a purpose for a specific audience. You analyze speeches, essays, letters, op-eds, advertisements, and visual texts, then turn that analytical lens toward your own writing. The course is built around three skill categories the College Board calls rhetorical situation, claims and evidence, and reasoning and organization. By exam day you should be able to identify a writer's argument, evaluate how rhetorical choices advance it, synthesize multiple sources into a coherent position, and write fluent timed prose. The exam is fully digital, administered in the Bluebook app, so practicing on-screen reading and typed essays matters. The multiple-choice section blends reading questions (analyzing a passage's rhetoric) with writing questions that ask you to revise a stimulus text, evaluating sentence-level choices the way an editor would. The three essays each test a distinct task. Strong scores come from a defensible thesis, well-chosen and explained evidence, clear line-of-reasoning, and the harder-to-earn sophistication point that rewards nuance, tension, and a complex understanding of the rhetorical situation. Students who succeed read widely in nonfiction, practice annotating for rhetorical moves rather than summary, and write enough timed essays to build pacing. The course rewards analysis of how writing works, not plot recall, so train yourself to always ask what a choice accomplishes and why a writer made it for that audience.
Two sections in 3 hours 15 minutes: Section I is 45 multiple-choice questions (45 minutes, four answer choices, mixing reading and writing/revision items) worth 45 percent; Section II is three free-response essays (synthesis, rhetorical analysis, argument) in 2 hours 15 minutes including a 15-minute reading period, worth 55 percent.
Each essay is scored 0-6 on analytic rubrics (1 thesis point, up to 4 evidence-and-commentary points, 1 sophistication point); the multiple-choice (no guessing penalty) and essay sections are combined and scaled to the final AP score of 1-5.