Are you hoping to find answers to the most commonly asked questions about the 2025 AP® English Literature exam? You’ve come to the right place!
In this article, we’ll cover how difficult the AP® English Literature exam is, how the exam is scored, strategies for passing the exam, and much more. Let’s get started!
What We Review
Is AP® English Literature Easy? What Can Make It Hard?
The AP® English Literature exam is not considered easy. A review of passing rates over the last few years has shown it to be one of the more difficult tests to pass. That level of difficulty will be increased if reading, writing, and analyzing texts are not academic strengths for you or if you cannot succeed in a class designed to teach at a college level.
In 2021, the AP® English Literature exam had a passing rate of 43.9% and a mean score of 2.47. Both of these statistics showed that, in 2021, the AP® English Literature exam was harder than the average AP® exam for students to pass.
However, the 2022 AP® English Literature exam results showed a major jump in passing rate!
In 2022, the AP® English Literature and Composition exam had a passing rate of 77.9% and a mean score of 3.31. These are both significant improvements over previous years! This growth likely results from hard work from students and improved instructional focus from teachers.
The passing rate percentages for the 2022 AP® English Literature exam are based on an average total of 339,401 test takers. That number makes the AP® English Literature exam the third most popular AP® exam, behind AP® US History and AP® English Language. The high number of test takers provides a higher level of reliability to the passing percentages for this exam.
In order to do your best on the AP® English Literature exam, you will want to know how the content units are weighted in the exam. For the AP® English Literature exam, the units are divided into three categories: short fiction, poetry, and longer fiction or drama.
Of these sections, short fiction makes up 42-49% of the exam. Poetry accounts for 36-45%, and longer fiction or drama makes up 15-18% of the exam questions. Understanding these weightings can help you create a study plan to prepare for the AP® English Literature exam.
You can increase your chances of passing by knowing how many questions you need to answer correctly on the exam in order to pass. This can help you to know if you need to devote valuable time to tough questions or if it is safe to skip them.
Albert provides an AP® English Literature score calculator that can provide information on how many questions you need to get right to achieve the score you want. For example, if you want to score a 3, you need something like the score breakdown shown below:
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Is AP® English Literature Worth It?
The AP® English Literature exam is worth taking for a variety of reasons, from academic to financial. When you successfully complete an AP® course, you can know that you are prepared for the increased pace and academic rigor that is required of college-level courses. This knowledge will increase your confidence as you move into this new phase of academic life.
Passing the AP® English Literature exam can also help you with the college admissions process. AP® courses send a signal to admissions counselors that you are prepared for college and that you approached your high school education with ambition and determination.
Perhaps the most important benefit of AP® courses is in their ability to save you money. Graduating from high school with college credits means that those are classes you won’t need to pay for in college. You can either bank those savings or use the freed-up credit hours to explore earning a minor or other classes outside your major.
This chart shows just a few of the hundreds of colleges that typically accept the AP® English Literature exam for college credit, along with the number of credit hours they award for a passing grade.
| School | Minimum Score Required | Number of Credits |
| American University | 4 | 6 |
| University of CA- Berkeley | 4 | 5.3 |
| Syracuse University | 4 | 6 |
| Texas A & M | 3 | 3 |
| San Diego State University | 3 | 6 |
| Auburn University | 4 | 3 |
| University of WI: Madison | 4 | 3 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 5 | 9 |
Given that the average cost per credit hour ranges anywhere from $406 (for in-state residents at a public 4-year college) and up to $1,469 (for a private 4-year university) or greater, this can result in a savings of at least $1,218 to nearly $4,000. As you can see, the academic benefits combined with the financial benefits make taking the AP® English Language exam worth your time and effort.
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When is the 2025 AP® English Literature Exam?
The 2025 AP® English Literature exam will be given as a Fully Digital exam. The AP® English Literature and Composition exam will take place on:
Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 8am local time
Curious about when other AP® exams are happening in 2025? View or download the complete AP® exam schedule here.
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When do AP® English Literature scores typically come out?
According to the latest update from the College Board exam season timeline, students will receive their AP® scores in July 2025. Historically, the College Board typically releases AP® scores early in the month of July.
You’ll be able to access your AP® scores online with your College Board account username and password.
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How is AP® English Literature Scored? What’s the Weighting of Different Questions?
The chart below outlines the scoring breakdown for the AP® English Literature exam:
| Section | Questions | Time | % of Exam Score |
| 1: Multiple Choice | 55 questions | 1 hour | 45% |
| 2: Free Response | 3 questions | 2 hours | 55% |
This breakdown is somewhat unusual among AP® courses. Most AP® courses put at least half, and often over half, of the scoring percentage in the multiple choice question. Over half of the points in the AP® English Literature course will come from the free response questions.
- The multiple-choice portion of the AP® English Literature exam consists of 55 questions that will need to be answered within 60 minutes.
- The questions will be grouped in 5 sets with 8 – 13 questions per set. Each of the sets will relate to a supplied passage of prose fiction, drama or poetry. There will be a minimum of 2 prose fiction and two poetry passages.
- The free-response section consists of three questions. You will have 2 hours to answer these questions. Two of the questions will cover the literary analysis of a poem and a passage from prose fiction (both supplied). The third question will require an analysis of a concept, issue, or element in a literary work.
Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to let your own belief system show in your essays. These can add weight and personality to your argument.
You can view the chart below to see how the individual units from the course are reflected in the exam questions. You can see how these weightings translate to the overall exam score with Albert’s free AP® English Literature score calculator.
| Units | Exam Weighting |
| Short Fiction (Units 1, 4, 7) | 42-49% |
| Poetry (Units 2, 5, 8) | 36-45% |
| Longer Fiction or Drama (Units 3, 6, 9) | 15-18% |
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What Happens If You Fail AP® English Literature Exam?
If you happen to fail the AP® English Literature exam, don’t panic! It’s not the end of the world, and you can minimize the impact on your academic future in several ways.
As far as your high school grades go, failing the AP® English Literature exam won’t have any impact on your GPA. Your school will use your academic year coursework to determine your grade in AP® English Literature. Your AP® exam grade is separate and not factored into your course grade.
If you want to use the AP® English Literature exam for college credit, you will need to retake the exam. Most colleges won’t award credit for any score lower than 3. Some schools require a 4 or even a 5 for college credit.
Luckily, you can retake the AP® English Literature exam as often as you want. You can retake it to achieve a passing score or reach a higher score. You will need to pay the exam fee each time you take the exam, but there are no penalties for retaking it.
You also get to choose who sees your AP® exam scores. If you scored lower than you want on the AP® English Literature exam, you could choose not to share that score with colleges. If you send in a score and then score higher at a retake, you can also ask the college to substitute your higher score for the earlier lower score.
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When Do Students Typically Take AP® English Literature? When is Best?
AP® English Literature is typically taken during your junior or senior year in high school. Technically, the course has no prerequisites, so you could theoretically take it earlier.
However, this course is considered one of the more time-consuming AP® courses, so students typically wait until they have more time management experience before taking it.
AP® English Literature is an extremely reading and writing-intensive course. You should wait to take this course until you feel confident you can spend long periods of time reading complex texts.
You should also have enough writing experience to feel comfortable crafting a written argument about the assigned texts and meeting the page requirements.
If you want to take AP® English Literature, you should consider all of these factors and decide when it feels right for you to take it. You will want to be sure to balance AP® English Literature with any other AP® courses you may want to take.
As with all academic decisions, you may want to consult your guidance counselor and get advice from some of the AP® teachers before deciding when to take AP® English Literature.
Where Can I Find Past AP® English Literature Exams?
Reviewing past AP® exam questions can be a very useful study strategy. The College Board has made the FRQs from the last 20 years of AP® English Literature exams available to you via the AP® Central website.
While this year’s test won’t be likely to reuse questions from past exams, the questions will likely cover the same general concepts and require the same skills to answer. You should review the past free-response exam questions from the last 5 years to get an idea of the types of questions they will ask to test your knowledge of the material covered in the course.
You can access those past free-response questions using the links below:
- 2024 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions (Set 1)
- 2024 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions (Set 2)
- 2023 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2022 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2021 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2019 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2018 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2017 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2016 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
- 2015 AP® English Literature Free-Response Questions
You’ll also want to spend some time studying for the multiple-choice portion of the exam. The College Board has also provided a few sample multiple choice questions on the AP® English Literature Course and Exam Description. The number of questions is pretty limited, so you’ll want to add in more practice questions.
You can find additional multiple-choice practice questions on Albert’s AP® English Literature website. Albert’s team has designed these questions to ensure that they cover the units as they are weighted on the exam.
The College Board’s AP® English Literature website offers some really useful information from past exams. You should really take the time to look over the resources they have provided. Reviewing the links below will make you more prepared and confident going into this year’s exam.
- AP® English Literature Scoring Guidelines: 2024 (Set 1) / 2024 (Set 2) / 2023 / 2022 / 2021 / 2019
- AP® English Literature Chief Reader Reports: 2024 (Set 1) / 2024 (Set 2) / 2023 / 2022 / 2021 / 2019
- AP® English Literature Scoring Reports: 2024 (Set 1) / 2024 (Set 2) / 2023 / 2022 / 2021 / 2019
The Scoring Guidelines report lets you view previous free-response questions along with a detailed breakdown of the rubric used to determine the points awarded for each question. Your questions might be different, but you may find some common elements in past questions that would be useful for this year’s exam.
The Chief Reader report is one you should not ignore when preparing for this year’s AP® English Literature exam. Chief Readers are experts in the field of the AP® exam and provide their expert analysis of past exam answers. These reports detail what elements were included in a strong answer and where weak answers went wrong.
Understanding the weaknesses and strengths of past answers can ensure that you focus your study in those areas and are prepared to address often overlooked concepts and arguments.
For example, in the 2019 Chief Reader report, the reader noted that some of the best essays incorporated the student’s beliefs about concepts such as “idealism” and allowed those beliefs to permeate their discussion of the work and the concept.
The sample responses can also provide useful information from past exams. The College Board provides three sample responses for each past exam question: a strong answer, an average answer, and a weak answer. Each response is graded, and an explanation of that grade is included.
While the free-response portion takes most of the exam time and accounts for over half of your score, don’t forget to prepare for the multiple-choice section. It makes up 45% of your score and can’t be your downfall if you aren’t prepared. Check out Albert’s AP® English Literature practice page for multiple-choice practice before the exam.
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Who Should Take AP® English Literature? What Sort of Students May Like It More Than Others?
Not everyone will excel at AP® English Literature, so you should consider how the course aligns with your academic strengths before deciding to take it. The decision should also be based on your academic goals after high school.
If you plan to major in English in college, taking AP® English Literature is an easy choice. If you enjoy reading, AP® English Literature could be a good choice, as long as you are equally comfortable with analyzing what you read and writing a cohesive essay about that analysis.
Unlike AP® English Language, AP® English Literature focuses primarily on poetry and fiction. There is a significant amount of reading, so you will also need to possess the ability to read for large stretches of time. The course overview can shed more light on what to expect from the course.
Non-English majors can also benefit from taking AP® English Literature. The course teaches how to read texts critically, which can be useful for various disciplines. It also relies heavily on classroom discussion, which can benefit future college classes.
The passing rate for the AP® English Literature exam is fairly low, at 49.7% for 2019. This factor should be considered if you plan to use the course for college credit. If your goal is to score a 4 or 5 on this exam, you’ll want to devote extra study time to accomplish that goal. In 2019, only 21.9% of students scored a 4 or 5 on the AP® English Literature exam.
Taking AP® English Literature is a personal decision only you can make. You’ll want to review the course overview and decide if this course is a good fit for your academic talents and if it is a course that would interest you. You might also want to consult with your guidance counselor and your parents before making this decision.
How Do Students Typically Score On AP® English Literature? What’s the Score Distribution?
The AP® English Literature exam is one that has a wide variety in score distribution. As one of the most popular AP® exams, past scores reflect a variety of factors, such as how well students studied for the exam, their writing aptitude and their ability to do well at the advanced placement level. The score distributions for the AP® English Literature exam for the last three years are below.
| Year | % of 5s | % of 4s | % of 3s | % of 2s | % of 1s | Pass Rate % |
| 2024 | 13.7% | 26.9% | 31.8% | 16.5% | 11.1% | 72.4% |
| 2023 | 14.9% | 27.8% | 34.5% | 29.5% | 14.4% | 77.2% |
| 2022 | 16.9% | 27.3% | 33.7 | 14.1% | 7.9% | 77.9% |
| 2021 | 4.9% | 12.0% | 26.9% | 37.3% | 18.8% | 43.9% |
| 2019 | 6.2% | 15.7% | 27.8% | 34.3% | 16.0% | 49.2% |
| 2018 | 5.6% | 14.5% | 27.2% | 36.0% | 16.7% | 47.3% |
| 2017 | 6.8% | 16.1% | 29.7% | 33.9% | 13.5% | 52.6% |
Until the 2022 exam cycle, the AP® English Literature exam had averaged a passing rate of slightly below 50%. In 2022, there was a significant jump in the pass rate for the exam — nearly 78% passing!
The exam typically attracts around 400,000 exam takers each year.
In 2024, the mean score among all 389,272 AP® English Literature exam test takers was 3.16.
Need Help Preparing For Your AP® English Literature Exam?
Albert has hundreds of AP® English Literature multiple-choice practice questions, free-response questions, and full-length practice tests to try out.
