How are the AP English Literature Exams scored?
The multiple-choice section is machine scored. Students receive one point for each correct answer and are penalized a quarter point for each incorrect response. Each essay is read by a different Reader. Readers attend a weeklong scoring session, at the beginning of which they are trained to evaluate student essays. The Readers are a balanced mixture of college English professors and secondary school AP English Literature and Composition teachers. They score the essays using a 0-9 point scale. The scores for the multiple-choice section (which counts for 45 percent of the total AP grade) are then combined with the three essay scores. AP final grades of 1 to 5 are then derived from this composite score.
