EMILY VALAITIS: Welcome to AP Daily Practice Sessions
for AP English language.
My name is Emily Valaitis.
I'm a teacher at Naperville North High school.
And today we're going to be discussing
the reading multiple choice questions
that you will see on your exam in May.
If you want to work through the passage and the questions we're
using today, click on the link you see over the video now.
And you can download a PDF of the questions
you'll see in this session.
All right.
So as I said, today, we're going to be looking
at the multiple choice test.
As you know there are two types of questions
you'll see, reading, and writing.
Today's focus is going to be on the reading questions.
They're the rhetorical analysis, more like the style questions.
You should expect to see two passages and around 11
to 14 questions per passage.
When I think about these types of questions,
I think that there are four steps
that I would recommend you taking
to approach this section.
The first two are what you would do when you get your passage.
I would encourage you to first trace the main idea
from beginning to end trying to notice shifts throughout.
And then when it gets to the questions themselves,
I would encourage you to try to group options
or categorize them into like words.
And then mark out any words that do
or do not answer part of the question.
We're going to go over these four in more depth.
We're going to start with how should you
read a passage for the multiple choice portion of the test.
First, try to trace the main idea.
Out in the margins, in one to three words,
summarize the main idea of each paragraph, sometimes a section.
If you're taking the exam digitally
you might just do this on a separate piece of paper.
Then you're going to want to notice
any shifts that appear from one paragraph or one section
to the next.
One tip, if you're starting to recognize words that
are repeated, that will help you recognize the main idea,
and notice any shifts, or highlight a central conflict,
or a main argument the writer is trying to espouse.
All right, so let's practice.
I have a passage for you here that I've
divided up into three sections.
I want you to pause now for a few moments, maybe
three to five minutes, and read the first third of the passage
trying to trace the main idea.
Look for any repeating words, and that will hopefully
signal any shifts you see.
All right.
So let me give you what I would have put down
if I were annotating this passage on the exam.
When it comes to the first paragraph,
I would have summarized it as though it's
the writer describing her experiences versus others.
Specifically, everyone was so excited
about the first Chinese McDonald's opening in Beijing,
but I never got to eat there.
In the second paragraph, the writer keeps going back to this
notion of how her family viewed McDonald's.
And I love that last line of how they would eat their fast food
as slowly as they could, which is a big difference from
the opening and looking at the Western attitude toward
McDonald's.
And then in the third paragraph, I
would have summarized that as her talking
about how the filet-o-fish, her favorite sandwich,
reminds her of her Chinese upbringing.
And I think that that's going to help
us start to uncover a little bit of what the writer is trying
to espouse.
If you look, she repeats the word "Chinese"
or "China" frequently.
Also "mother," "father," "our own," "my upbringing."
So a central idea is starting to emerge in this first portion.
Something about her family--
her and her family and her Chinese upbringing.
Now, read the second third.
Again, pause the recording three to five minutes.
Just do a quick skim trying to summarize in the margins
or on a separate piece of paper what
you think the writer is trying to communicate
in each of these paragraphs.
All right.
In this portion, we see that the paragraphs themselves
start to move away from that familial content
of the opening.
In this first paragraph, the writer
is talking mostly about the background of McDonald's
and how it came about, especially the filet-o-fish.
And then the second paragraph, the writer
is describing almost like the basic nature or the composition
of the filet-o-fish itself.
If we were to trace some of these ideas
and these repeating words, you'll
see filet-o-fish used a lot.
Flaky, fish patties.
I'm not seeing anything about her family
or her Chinese upbringing, which is signaling a shift to me.
She's moving away from her family
and into giving us some more specific factual details.
And now the conclusion of the piece.
There are two paragraphs.
Again, pause it for a few moments.
Read through each and think, is she
going to continue in that line of factual information
or a return to her family and her Chinese upbringing?
Pause the recording looking for repeating
words and how you might summarize the main idea
of each paragraph.
At this point, I'm hoping that her main idea is
starting to come clear to you.
The first paragraph she's talking
a lot about how she has this proclivity
for the filet-o-fish, and it was unusual.
But then the paragraph takes a very nostalgic sentimental tone
toward the end where she's talking about how
her parents sacrificed.
That they too love the filet-o-fish,
but couldn't afford to buy it for themselves, only for her.
So while she opens about how she's different from others,
the point that's really to highlight what
her parents sacrificed for her.
And then in the second paragraph,
she's looking at how the filet-o-fish has changed.
The language we see being repeated, things
about the past and her present, which is going to help us
see that she's returning to this nostalgic background.
And that there is a central conflict between what
she had with her family and what we understand
about the sandwich itself.
All right.
So now that we know the passage, let's look at some questions.
When it comes to the questions themselves,
the two main tips I have for you is to first, start to group
common options for a process of elimination,
looking at how might I see some common or repeating words
or ideas that might help me categorize these options.
So let me give you a sample.
In the third paragraph, the author
describes the filet-o-fish primarily
to argue why McDonald's is her favorite fast food,
justify why it is more expensive than other menu items,
convey her cultural familiarity with the sandwich,
and explain its rise in popularity in China,
and describe the taste to those unfamiliar.
If I had to start to group and say,
I see one topic covered in a few of these, another topic covered
in another, I might say A, B, and E are similar.
They're all about either the sandwich or the fast food
restaurant, which is different than option B and E, which
uses the words "cultural" and "China."
I'm going to think back in the third paragraph
and see what words are being repeated
mostly things that refer to her Chinese upbringing.
So I automatically know I'm going
to be between option C and D. When I look at these options
more closely, I think that option D does use
the word "China," but the entire paragraph is not
about the rise in popularity, which
means the correct answer here is C.
It's going to convey her cultural familiarity
with the sandwich.
The next tip when it comes to looking at the options
is to mark out words that do and do not answer
every part of the question.
I like to do this with a check and an X.
Put a check next to anything that is true,
and X next to anything that is incorrect
or makes the option incorrect.
Try to take every word at face value.
I know a lot of the times when my students miss a question,
it's because they put too much of an interpretive spin
on the option.
Instead, try to look at the words in a very
denotative manner, and think, does this fit or not?
Again, let's look at an example.
"Which of the following statements
best encapsulates the author's line
of reasoning in the passage?"
I think it's important to pay attention
to line of reasoning, that's going to speak
to what is the writer's thesis.
That means go back and look at your annotations
for each paragraph and it will guide you, hopefully,
to the answer.
Pause the recording and read through each
of these options, which are quotations directly
from the passage.
So essentially, the question is asking,
which of these quotations best helps to reflect the writer's
argument or thesis?
If I were to go through and use that check and X method,
I might start with option A and say,
I know that she does talk a lot about the comfort
that McDonald's provides her and her family.
So I'm going to put a check above comfort and family.
Both of those words align to our main idea.
For option B, I'm going to throw out the word "national"
because that's not really one of her main ideas.
It does appear in the passage, but it's not prolific.
Option C is a tricky one for me because I
guess I can kind of see its appeal as inscrutable,
which means that it's memorable, it's striking to her.
But I don't think that speaks to her main argument
when we look at that word "paltry."
This option starts to shift more into the quality
of the sandwich than why she likes it.
So it's going to deter an detract from her main idea.
Option D, I'm going to cross out the word "expensive"
because that's not one of the main arguments she's
bringing up, nor is that it's also less beautiful.
That really only appears toward the end of the passage.
And then lastly, that it's hard to find.
So when I'm looking at these five options,
I really only have check marks over the word "comfort"
and "family" because that's what I had in my notes.
That's what's going to lead us to the correct answer.
All right, now it's your turn.
I'm going to give you a question that's
asking you look at how in the sixth paragraph,
the writer's contributing to the reasoning of the author's
argument primarily by--
I'm going to give you five options.
I'm going to ask for you to pause the recording
and apply both of these strategies.
Looking at A through E, can you group or categorize
some of them together?
Hint, there are two categories.
Then looking at the options, put a check above anything
that you think makes it correct or an X through anything
that makes it incorrect.
All right.
When you look at this particular question,
I think the focus is on what contributes to the argument.
When you look at that, option D is what is correct here.
That emphasizes the sacrifices the author's parents
have made for her.
Well, let's go through the strategies.
First, if we were to mark through and highlight
any of the categories, I see two types of categories emerging.
A, B, and D reference something with the family,
which I know is one of our main ideas
that we kept tracing throughout the passage itself.
C and E is talking about the author.
And I think that E is tricky for me
because I see in the opening, the writer
is talking about how her order is unique.
But I'm going back to my notes and I
remember for this paragraph, I wrote down
something about how her parents sacrificed for her, which
appears in one of the options.
So I'm going to be torn between A, B, or D.
And then with that, I'm going to look at the X's and the checks.
I'm going to cross out trip in option A
because that was not a main argument.
For B, I do see family and affection, but not
as closely as I would see the sacrifices.
So I think that that's what's really capturing
the essence of paragraph six.
So I'm leaning more toward that.
Just to rule out all possibilities,
I'm going to look at C and E. And say it's
not about her refusal.
It's not about her being unique.
So between B and D, D is the more accurate answer given
how this paragraph concludes.
All right, so your final reminders.
When it comes to the reading section of the multiple choice
test, when you first get the passage
trace the main idea either on the passage itself,
or if you're taking it digitally in your notes.
Write down how the paragraphs move
and how you might summarize them in one to three words that
will help you look at any shifts or central arguments emerging.
Then for your options try to group them two or three
at a time to see if there's anything that's emerging.
And then mark out any words that do
and do not answer each part of the question.
All right, thank you for watching today.
Good luck on your exam.
Hopefully, these tips will help you be more successful.