AP English Language and Composition
The AP English Language and Composition exam is 3 hours 15 minutes and fully digital: 45 multiple-choice questions worth 45% of your score, and 3 essays worth 55%. The multiple choice splits into 23–25 reading questions and 20–22 writing questions. The essays are synthesis, rhetorical analysis and argument, and you get 2 hours 15 minutes for all three, including a 15-minute reading period.
Nuros gives you AP Lang where it counts: the rhetorical moves the analysis essay rewards, the source handling the synthesis essay expects, and essay practice marked against the 6-point rubric — thesis, evidence and commentary, sophistication — so the feedback names the row you lost rather than a grade.
Free to start · No credit card · 4 units · 10 topics
The AP English Language and Composition exam format
Exam length
3 hours 15 minutes
2027 exam date
Wed, May 12, 2027
Course size
4 units
Fully digital — both sections are completed in College Board's Bluebook app, with responses submitted automatically at the end.
Section I — Multiple choice
45 questions · 45% of score
Nonfiction excerpts with question sets: 23–25 reading questions analysing the text, and 20–22 writing questions asking you to consider revisions like a writer.
Section II — Free response
3 questions · 2hr 15min · 55% of score
Synthesis: build an argument citing at least 3 of 6 provided sources. Rhetorical analysis: analyse how a writer makes their case. Argument: defend a position of your own. The time includes a 15-minute reading period.
Exam format, timings and date from College Board's official AP English Language and Composition exam page, last checked September 17, 2026. Nuros is not affiliated with or endorsed by College Board. Always confirm exam-day details with your AP coordinator.
What the Nuros AP English Language and Composition course covers
4 units and 10 topics, each written as a structured note with practice attached — not a summary of the syllabus.
- Exam Foundations1 topics
- Analyzing Rhetoric5 topics
- The Free-Response Essays3 topics
- The Multiple-Choice Section1 topics
Study AP Lang in a loop, not a straight line
1. Learn it
A structured note for every topic in the course, with worked examples and diagrams rather than a wall of bullet points.
2. Test it
Unit quizzes and full-length practice exams in the real paper format, with written answers marked against the rubric rows rather than checked for a keyword.
3. See the gaps
Every attempt updates a mastery score per concept, so the feedback names the concept costing you marks instead of handing you a percentage.
4. Close them
ARC — the Adaptive Review Cycle — re-explains the weak concepts and brings them back on a spaced schedule, with fresh questions, until they hold.
AP English Language and Composition questions students ask
Synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument. The synthesis essay gives you 6 sources and asks you to cite at least 3; the rhetorical analysis essay asks how a writer builds their case; the argument essay asks you to defend your own position.
Out of 6 points each, on three rows: thesis (1), evidence and commentary (4), and sophistication (1). The sophistication point is the rarest — it rewards genuine complexity, not longer words.
They test different things. Lang is nonfiction, rhetoric and argument; Lit is poetry, prose fiction and drama with close reading. Students who prefer building arguments usually find Lang easier, and the reverse for close reading.
Taking more than one AP?
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