An AP Lang Inspired Reading List to Help You on the Exam

ACT & AP Prep

Apr 12

To ace the AP Language & Composition exam, you won’t get away with reading a couple required nonfiction novels and persuasive essays. Much like the writing section on the SAT, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with College Board's grammar rules and expectations, and strange testing questions you’ll never encounter after you're freed from College Board’s claws. Once you’re finished crafting persuasive essays of all shapes and sizes, drilling multiple choice questions that will give you SAT flashbacks, and dissecting inauguration speeches, keep these rhetorical lenses in handy whenever you're reading for pleasure. The secret of rhetoric lies underneath the flesh and organs of language. It is the femur, the joint, the tendon; the oil that greases the mechanisms of literature, orations, and all things in the between. While you’re reading the recommended texts below, remember to read like a writer; watch how the author uses imagery, syntax, and diction–you know the drill–to curate the perfect tonal atmosphere.