Structure of the AP Vergil 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)

Question V1: two 10-minute translations (worth 30% of the essay grade)

Question V2: one 45-minute long essay (worth 35% of the essay grade)

Question V3: one 20-minute short essay (worth 20% of the essay grade)

Question V4: one 20-minute essay based on the Aeneid in English and, when

appropriate, on the selections read in Latin (worth 15% of essay grade)