Designated for motivated students with a command of standard English, an interest in exploring and analyzing challenging classical and contemporary literature, and a desire to analyze and interpret dominant literary genres and themes, it is often offered to high school seniors and the other AP English course, AP English Language and Composition, to juniors.
Students learn and apply methods of literary analysis and write with a variety of purposes to increase precision in expression.
Students in AP English Literature and Composition typically sit for the national AP examination administered each May for the College Board by the Educational Testing Service.
The College Board publishes changing information about all AP courses and examinations on its web site.
Since those scoring guides do not exist before the Reading, instructors cannot teach to them but focus instead on encouraging text-based analysis.