Structure of AP Latin Literature Exam

Multiple Choice – 40% of total grade

50 questions in 60 minutes

3 sight passages, at least one poetry and at least one prose, one from a previous

exam

1 syllabus-based passage (you have already translated it)

10-15 questions on grammar, syntax, lexicology

17-23 questions on translation or interpretation of words, phrases, and sentences

10-15 questions on the ability to draw inferences from the passage; may require

students to recognize allusions to specific people, places, or events

mentioned in the passage; tests ability to know what words must be

understood from context, and ability to identify to whom or what such

words as reflexive, relative and demonstrative pronouns and adjectives refet

1-3 questions on scansion of dactylic hexameter or the first line of an elegiac

couplet. Students must know the metrical pattern and how to elide syllables

1-3 questions on figures of speech

1-3 questions on background information relevant to the passage; similar to

"spot" questions. Will appear only among the questions on the syllabus-

based passage

Free Response (Essay) – 60% of total grade

Two hours including a 15 minute reading period (no pink books)

Catullus Question LL1: a 10-minute translation, about 8-10 lines (worth 15% of the

essay exam)

Question LL2: a 30-minute long essay (worth 20% of the essay exam)

Question LL3: a 20-minute short essay (worth 15% of the essay exam)

Horace (skip/ignore the Cicero and Ovid selections)

Question LL4, 7 or 10: a 10-minute short identification (worth 15%)

Question LL5, 8, or 11: a 15 minute translation, two stanzas/8 lines (worth

15%)

Question LL6, 9, or 12: a 20-minute short essay