If you plan to enroll in AP® English classes, you may be confused when choosing between AP English Literature and AP English Language. While these two courses sound similar to each other, they are, in fact, vastly different in their content and end-of-course assessment.

Most students usually take either AP Language in 11th grade or AP Literature in 12th grade, but you can also take both. It's crucial to understand their differences and how they'll help you decide between the courses or whether they complement each other in college. Let's help you pick the right one by understanding how the exams are structured, what you'll learn, and how you'll be assessed.

AP English Language vs. AP English Literature

Selecting one AP English course over the other hinges on various factors, including course content, acquired skills, and, most importantly, your study habits and academic aptitude. To aid you in making an informed choice, let's examine the difference between AP English Language and AP Literature in terms of their content, assessment methods, format, and scoring criteria.

1. Course Content and Objectives

   In the AP English Literature course, you will delve into the world of fiction, including novels, short stories, poetry, and plays. Your exploration will involve in-depth study and analysis of elements such as plot, characterization, theme, and how the narrator or author constructs mise-en-scene. In addition, you’ll learn about literary devices like allegories, analogies, and metaphors to understand how they are used to convey deeper meaning in the text.

   AP English Language, however, is a whole different story. This course aims to teach you the usage of grammar and rhetoric in standard written and oral English. You’ll study non-fictional texts like historical documents, biographies, memoirs, research articles, and speeches to analyze how language is used to argue or convey a point of view by the author. As you journey through the course, you’ll also learn about the author's strategies to persuade and inform their audience.

2. Skills Tested

   The AP English Lit exam will test your analytical skills and critical interpretation of fictional literature. You'll be asked to demonstrate your understanding of how the author uses literary devices, characters, setting, plot, and narrative structure to establish a specific point of view and give the text a deeper meaning. Our page on the AP English Literature and Composition course is here to help you learn about the course topics and skills.

   The AP English Lang exam is similar to the AP Lit exam, but the former focuses on different things. The AP English Language and Composition exam assesses how well you can analyze and understand the techniques used in nonfiction writing. You'll need to use evidence and research to evaluate and explain your ideas and/or substantiate the claims made by the author. Learn more about the AP Lang course skills and topics on our AP Language and Composition Course page.

3. Exam Structure and Evaluation

   The AP Language exam is slightly longer than the AP Literature exam. The AP Lang exam lasts 3 hours and 15 minutes, while the AP Lit exam lasts 3 hours. You will have one hour to finish the MCQ section of both exams. However, the difference comes in Section II, where you will get an extra 15 minutes to complete the FRQs on the AP Language exam as compared to the AP Lit exam.

   The AP Lit exam also gives you less time per question in the MCQ section than the AP Lang exam. That's because the AP Lit exam requires you to answer 55 MCQs in 1 hour, compared to the 45 MCQs on the AP Lang exam.

   The scoring structure for both exams is similar, with more weight given to the MCQ section of the AP Lang and AP Lit exams. Looking at the actual prompts from both exams can also help you understand how they differ. Check out AP English Lit's past FRQs and compare them with recent AP English Lang's FRQs to gauge their exam format.

Did you know?
Unlike the AP Lit exam, the AP Language exam offers a 15-minute reading period before diving into your essays. This gives you ample time to gather your thoughts and formulate your argument for the synthesis question in Section II.

4. Difficulty Levels

   You may wonder which of the two AP English courses is more difficult. While the answer to this question depends on a number of factors, you should be aware that any AP course is challenging because it is equivalent to college-level courses.

   While you can consider the overall likelihood of scoring a 3 or higher on these two exams to understand their difficulty, these success rates are not the ultimate marker of an exam's difficulty. Whether you’ll do better in AP Lit or AP Lang depends on various factors. You should consider your career goals, study habits, and academic strengths and weaknesses before opting for either.

   During the years 2022 and 2023, AP Lit's success rate averaged 77%. AP Lit is considered ideal for the senior year of high school. With fewer students taking it than AP Lang, this may indicate that students spend more time prepping for it and have a higher success rate than in AP Lang. On the other hand, AP Lang has an average success rate of 56% on the 2022 and 2023 AP exams. AP Lang has consistently been among the most popular AP exams, with about 520,700 students taking it in 2022. With popular exams, the success rates may be lower due to the larger quantity of students taking them.