Putting it simply, the AP English Language and Composition exam tests your reading and writing skills. Understanding the words in five passages doesn’t guarantee success, however. Rather, top scores are awarded to anyone who can do two additional things: To succeed in both these tasks, you need to know something about rhetoric, such as how an author’s choice of details contributes to the meaning of the passage or in what ways the structure of a passage relates to its content. You’ll also need to...