Diagnostic Test

What Happened To Creative Interpretation?

Mary Edgington

While taking the practice exam for AP Lit in Peterson's AP English I encountered a problem that is typical of all AP exams, regardless of the subject. That is that there are often several answers that are extremely similar, and one must resort to a guessing game to choose one. For example, question 36 asks what is meant by "over strained and out sung themselves" in a poem; answer options include both "Tired out" and "Worked too hard". With the context of the poem, I think they both could convey the same thing! The answer ended up being "Lost creativity" anyways, but it seems like one could argue that any one of those answers is correct.

That brings me to my question about individual interpretation. Many of these questions ask "What does the author mean..?" and propose answers to choose from. Sometimes I think one could argue that a different answer was correct! I always considered literature to be like any art form in that it's never really the same for every person; people can interpret things differently, especially in these overly-figurative poems, and they can each be right. Question 48 asks the meaning of a sentence about the Brahmins and their poetry. Language is imperfect, and I think a person could insist an answer other than the "correct" one is correct. 

Despite these small difficulties, I scored about an 80%! Granted, I guessed a lot. But I'm pleasantly surprised with that score considering we haven't begun the class yet. I think my biggest obstacle will be reading the passages quickly enough to get thoughtfully through each question.