Pre-AP English II: EOC Reading Retest Tips

Remember: for the Short-Answer responses, your answer (idea) must be expressed differently than what text evidence you use to support it. If you repeat the information in the supporting text, you run the risk (likelihood) of scoring a zero (0) rather than a one or two (1 or 2).

Your text evidence needs to be embedded in your own words. At least start off with a citation from the text: As Clarence says in paragraph 14, "blah blah blah."

Better yet, follow up the quote with analysis that clarifies an explanation of your original answer: When the author says "yadda yadda yadda," it makes it clear that .... (Your clarification should be expressed in different words than your original answer and the supporting text.)

Crossover: For a graphic organizer to help you with the crossover (or "multiple selection" short-answer), click the graphic, above. Essentially, it's two single-selection responses with an "umbrella" response covering both.

Multiple Choice tips
On questions asking for definitions, make sure that the definition you pick fits the context of the sentence/paragraph where it is being used. It is likely that multiple answers will match definitions given in the dictionary.

On questions that ask "what word/phrase helps you understand the meaning of" a phrase in the text, what they're looking for is what word is a synonym for the word/phrase in question or which answer best matches the definition of the word/phrase in question. Again, it is likely that all the answers appear in the portion of the text being looke at.