Step One: ATSQ
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One of the biggest obstacles students often face on the AP is the failure to ATSQ: Answer the Stinkin' Question. Students answer part of the question but not all, or (more often) fail to understand that the prompt itself needs to be "unpacked" and decoded before it can be answered effectively.
Therefore, students need a method of breaking down the prompt BEFORE they begin reading the selection or writing their essays. The reason why I have them break down the prompt the way I do is so they can create a purpose for reading the essay—besides having to write about it—and so that they can be empowered to write about what they know, as opposed to what they don’t. |
Step Two: Find the "Command" and "Conquer"
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How to Find the "Command" and Conquer"
Consider the following prompt from 2009:
The "Command"
Find the Word that Means "Analyze" and Underline to the End of the Sentence
The "Conquer": The Most Important Part
Writing the What and How Questions Ask yourself, “While only looking at the double underlined text, what can’t I know until I have actually read this text?”
Examples for the 2009 Prompt
IN ORDER TO GET FULL CREDIT FOR YOUR THESIS, YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. |
Sample FRQ #3 Prompts
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Practice Finding the Command and Conquer and Asking "What" Questions
2021. In many works of fiction houses take on symbolic importance. Such houses may be literal houses or unconventional ones (e.g., hotels, monasteries, or boats). Either from your own reading or from the list below, choose a work of fiction in which a literal or unconventional house serves as a significant symbol. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how this house contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole. 2018. Many works of literature feature characters who have been given a literal or figurative gift. Then gift may be an object, or it may be a quality such as uncommon beauty, significant social position, great mental or imaginative faculties, or extraordinary physical powers. Yet this gift is often also a burden or a handicap. Select a character from a novel, epic, or play who has been given a gift that is both an advantage and a problem. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing the complex nature of the gift and how the gift contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. 2017. Select a novel, play, or epic poem that features a character whose origins are unusual or mysterious. Then write an essay in which you analyze how these origins shape the character and that character’s relationships, and how the origins contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole. |