CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature case studies
CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature exam is a credit-by-examination test covering material usually taught in a general undergraduate literature course. It is aimed at students who have read widely and perceptively in poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction and who want to demonstrate college-level literary competence without enrolling in the course. The CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature case studies are 5 cases and about 2,216 words.
1Two Readings of a Frost-Style Sonnet
A student reads a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter that ends with the couplet: "And so I kept the road that seemed less worn, / and told myself the choice was mine alone." Earlier lines describe a fork in a path and admit that "both that morning equally lay / in leaves no step had trodden black." The student's essay claims the speaker is a confident individualist who deliberately chose the harder, more original path. The teacher notes that the poem's fourth stanza confesses the paths were actually worn "about the same" and that the final line uses the word "sigh" when recounting the story "ages and ages hence." The essay is otherwise strong but earns partial credit on interpretation.
437 words, about 2 min2Unreliable Narrator in a Short Story Excerpt
A short story is narrated by a man who describes his late brother as "generous to a fault, the sort of man who never once raised his voice." Midway through, the narrator mentions that the brother "smashed the good china the night of the argument and shouted until the neighbors knocked." The narrator does not remark on the contradiction. Near the end, he says, "I have always been the calm one, the one who remembers accurately." A student argues the story is simply about a grieving brother idealizing the dead, and that the china detail is a minor slip the author should have caught.
436 words, about 2 min3Persuasive Essay: Distinguishing Claim from Evidence
An op-ed argues that a city should ban cars from its downtown core. Its paragraphs include: (1) "Downtown air quality is a public-health emergency"; (2) a cited study finding particulate levels 40% above the regional average on the main commercial street; (3) "Merchants who fear lost sales should look at cities that pedestrianized and saw foot traffic rise"; (4) an anecdote about the author's asthmatic daughter; (5) "Anyone who cares about children cannot oppose this plan." A student summarizing the essay writes: "The author proves that banning cars will improve air quality and boost business." The teacher marks the summary as misreading the argument's structure.
451 words, about 2 min4Stage Direction and Subtext in a Dramatic Scene
In a one-act play, a mother and adult son sit at a table. The dialogue reads: MOTHER: You've cut your hair.
449 words, about 2 min5Line Breaks and Meaning in a Free-Verse Poem
A student compares two versions of the same sentence in a free-verse poem. Version A runs as a single line: "She left the door open all winter for the cat that never came back." Version B breaks it: "She left the door open all winter for the cat that never came back." The student says the break changes nothing because "the words and the order are identical, so the meaning is the same." The teacher asks the student to consider why a poet would choose B, given that free verse has no meter to justify line length.
443 words, about 2 min