Ap22 FRQ English Language

2022
AP English Language
®
and Composition
Free-Response Questions
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AP® English Language and Composition 2022 Free-Response Questions
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II
Total time—2 hours and 15 minutes
3 Questions
Question 1
Suggested reading and writing time—55 minutes

It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the question, analyzing and evaluating the sources,
and 40 minutes writing your response.
Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.
(This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
Since the early 2000s, the United States government and a number of corporations have sponsored initiatives to
improve education in the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The emphasis
on STEM subjects in elementary, secondary, and higher education reflects concerns that United States students
are less proficient in these areas than are students in other countries. Additionally, there is a belief that mastery
in STEM fields is now essential in order to join a highly technical and specialized workforce. However, not
everyone is convinced that a STEM-focused curriculum is necessary and/or effective.
Carefully read the following six sources, including the introductory information for each source. Write an essay
that synthesizes material from at least three of the sources and develops your position on the value, if any, of
initiatives to improve STEM education and increase the number of students interested in the STEM disciplines.
Source A (Ossola)
Source B (graph)
Source C (editors)
Source D (survey)
Source E (Fitzgerald)
Source F (May)
In your response you should do the following:

• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position.
• Select and use evidence from at least three of the provided sources to support your line of
reasoning. Indicate clearly the sources used through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary.
Sources may be cited as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the description in parentheses.
• Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
• Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.
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2 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

Source A
Ossola, Alexandra. “Is the U.S. Focusing Too Much on STEM?” The Atlantic, 3 Dec. 2014,
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/is-the-us-focusing-too-much-on-stem/
383353/.
The following is excerpted from an article published in a national American magazine.
The [STEM] acronym was a timely change for a series of subject areas that were rapidly moving into the
national conversation. According to David Drew, an education professor at Claremont Graduate University in
California and author of the book STEM the Tide: Reforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
Education In America, three forces sparked the national discussion about STEM education.
The first is a profound shift in the way the country’s economy functions, he said. Since the 1960s the U.S.
economy has moved closer to becoming a true service economy, with more members of the workforce devoting
their time to customers and less time to the product itself, like they did in the earlier part of the 20th century
when the economy was more focused on manufacturing. U.S. technology companies like Apple and IBM have
been a big part of this shift, wrote Natalie McCullough, then the chief marketing officer at a renewal-focused
firm called ServiceSource, in a 2012 article in Forbes. “There’s a much more interesting domestic phenomenon
here: the rise of high growth and high-value technicians who deliver a new world of advanced services for
businesses and consumers alike,” she wrote. While some economists and policy makers have predicted a
growth in STEM careers by 2018, the notion that the country will experience a shortage of scientists has more
recently been discredited by education experts and academics.
The second force that brought STEM to the forefront, Drew said, is “the recognition and frustration that we are
setting up unnecessary unfair barriers for people.” By this he refers to the unequal access to quality STEM
education throughout the country, as well as the discrimination and discouragement faced by students who do
try to pursue further education in these fields. This work has been covered extensively in the popular and
scholarly media . . . and has inspired numerous initiatives, from mobile DIY [do it yourself]–engineering
spaces to government programs that highlight departments’ diverse technical workforce, all of which are meant
to level the playing field for students interested in STEM.
Finally, Drew said, the U.S. cares about STEM now because it realized “that we’re not doing as well in STEM
in K-12 education.” Much of this fear stems from the biennial findings of the Program for International Student
Assessment, an organization that issues a test to 15-year-olds all over the world to rank their competence in
reading, math, and science. Those scary 2012 statistics—that out of 65 education systems American students
rank 27th in math and 20th in science—have generated headlines such as “U.S. Students Slide In Global
Ranking On Math, Reading, Science” from NPR and “U.S. teens lag in global education rankings as Asian
countries rise to the top” on NBC.
From The Atlantic. © 2014 The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license.


Source B
United States Department of Education. “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math:
Education for Global Leadership.” n.d., www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/stem-overview.pdf.
The following is a graph from a 2010 report about United States STEM initiatives published by the Department
of Education.


Source C
Editors. “Stem Education is Vital—but Not at the Expense of the Humanities.” Scientific
American, 1 Oct. 2016, www.scientificamerican.com/article/stem-education-
is-vital-but-not-at-the-expense-of-the-humanities/.
The following is excerpted from an article by the editors of a science-oriented magazine.
Kentucky governor Matt Bevin wants students majoring in electrical engineering to receive state subsidies for
their education but doesn’t want to support those who study subjects such as French literature. Bevin is not
alone in trying to nudge higher education toward course work that promotes better future job prospects. Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida, a former presidential candidate, put it bluntly last year by calling for more welders and
fewer philosophers.
Promoting science and technology education to the exclusion of the humanities may seem like a good idea, but
it is deeply misguided. Scientific American has always been an ardent supporter of teaching STEM: science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. But studying the interaction of genes or engaging in a graduate-level
project to develop software for self-driving cars should not edge out majoring in the classics or art history.
The need to teach both music theory and string theory is a necessity for the U.S. economy to continue as the
preeminent leader in technological innovation. The unparalleled dynamism of Silicon Valley and Hollywood
requires intimate ties that unite what scientist and novelist C. P. Snow called the “two cultures” of the arts and
sciences.
Steve Jobs, who reigned for decades as a tech hero, was neither a coder nor a hardware engineer. He stood out
among the tech elite because he brought an artistic sensibility to the redesign of clunky mobile phones and
desktop computers. Jobs once declared: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—that it’s
technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts
sing.”
A seeming link between innovation and the liberal arts now intrigues countries where broad-based education is
less prevalent. In most of the world, university curricula still emphasize learning skills oriented toward a
specific profession or trade. The ebullience of the U.S. economy, which boasted in 2014 the highest percentage
of high-tech outfits among all its public companies—has spurred countries such as Singapore to create schools
fashioned after the U.S. liberal arts model. . . .
The undergraduate able to cobble together a course schedule integrating STEM and the humanities may be able
to reap rich rewards. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg became an avid student of Greek and Latin when
he was only in high school, in addition to setting about learning programming languages. And the same
government officials who call for a shift in educational priorities should know better than to trash the liberal
arts. Take Bevin’s call to eschew French literature: Bevin is someone with his own debt to the humanities. He
graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies.


The way to encourage high-tech industry to move to Kentucky—or any other state—is not to disparage Voltaire
and Camus. 1 Rather the goal should be to build a topflight state educational system and ease the way
financially for students from even the most humble backgrounds to attend. The jobs will follow—whether they
be in state government or in social media start-ups.
1
famous French authors
Copyright © 2016 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.


Source D
Hart Research Associates. “It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College
Learning and Student Success.” 10 April 2013, www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/
LEAP/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf.
The following graphic is excerpted from a survey of employer priorities conducted for The Association of
American Colleges and Universities.


Source E
Fitzgerald, Deborah. “At MIT, the Humanities Are Just as Important as STEM.” The Boston
Globe, 30 April 2014, www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/04/30/mit-humanities-are-
just-important-stem/ZOArg1PgEFy2wm4ptue56I/story.html.
The following is excerpted from an article published in a national American newspaper.
The role of the humanities in American education has been the subject of much recent debate amid concerns
that the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) are eclipsing the humanities fields in
relevance and career prospects.
So some may be surprised, and, I hope, reassured, to learn that here at MIT—a bastion of STEM
education—we view the humanities, arts, and social sciences as essential, both for educating great engineers
and scientists, and for sustaining our capacity for innovation.
Why? Because the Institute’s mission is to advance knowledge and educate students who are prepared to help
solve the world’s most challenging problems—in energy, health care, transportation, and many other fields. To
do this, our graduates naturally need advanced technical knowledge and skills—the deep, original thinking
about the physical universe that is the genius of the science and engineering fields.
But the world’s problems are never tidily confined to the laboratory or spreadsheet. From climate change to
poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale, and engineering and
science issues are always embedded in broader human realities, from deeply felt cultural traditions to building
codes to political tensions. So our students also need an in-depth understanding of human complexities—the
political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence—as well as fluency in the powerful forms of
thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
MIT’s curriculum has evolved significantly over the past 50 years to require all undergraduates to spend
substantial time on subjects like literature, languages, economics, music, and history. In fact, every MIT
undergraduate takes a minimum of eight such classes—nearly 25 percent of their total class time.
In these classes, our students learn how individuals, organizations, and nations act on their desires and
concerns. They gain historical and cultural perspectives, and critical thinking skills that help them collaborate
with people across the globe, as well as communication skills that enable them to listen, explain, and inspire.
They learn that most human situations defy a single correct answer, that life itself is rarely, if ever, as precise as
a math problem, as clear as an elegant equation.
Some of the best testimony about the value of such an education comes from our science and engineering
alumni. One recent graduate who went on to medical school wrote about how her practice as a physician
requires not only medical knowledge, but also the ability to interpret her patients’ accounts and stories—a skill
she gained reading literature, studying the various forms of narrative, the many ways humans share vital
information. “MIT biology prepared me for medicine,” she says. “Literature prepared me to be a doctor.” . . .
As educators, we know we cannot anticipate all the forms our students’ future challenges will take, but we can
provide them with some fundamentals that will be guides for the ongoing process of exploration and discovery.
We can help shape their resilience, and prepare them to analyze and problem-solve in both familiar and
unfamiliar situations. Calling on both STEM and humanities disciplines—as mutually informing modes of


knowledge—we aim to give students a toolbox brimming over with tools to support them throughout their
careers and lives.
Used by permission.


Source F
May, Gary S. “STEM, Not STEAM.” Inside Higher Ed, 30 Mar. 2015,
www.insidehighered.com/views/2015/03/30/essay-criticizes-idea-adding-
arts-push-stem-education.
The following is excerpted from an article published on a higher-education-oriented news Web site. The author
was then dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering.
The last few years have brought a call from some quarters to update the STEM acronym—for science,
technology, engineering and mathematics—to STEAM, with the A standing for arts. On the surface, such a
move seems harmless. What’s another letter, right? But in my view, STEM should stay just as it is, because
education policy has yet to fully embrace the concept it represents—and that concept is more important than
ever.
No one—least of all me—is suggesting that STEM majors should not study the arts. The arts are a source of
enlightenment and inspiration, and exposure to the arts broadens one’s perspective. Such a broad perspective is
crucial to the creativity and critical thinking that is required for effective engineering design and innovation.
The humanities fuel inquisitiveness and expansive thinking, providing the scientific mind with larger context
and the potential to communicate better.
The clear value of the arts would seem to make adding A to STEM a no-brainer. But when taken too far, this
leads to the generic idea of a well-rounded education, which dilutes the essential need and focus for STEM.
STEM is the connecting of four separate, but similar, dots. The acronym was born in the early 2000s, when the
National Science Foundation sought to promote a national conversation about the merits of pulling related areas
out of their silos and teaching them in a more multidisciplinary way. Math and science were already well
established in education. The thinking was that technology and engineering instruction was far less prevalent in
public schools, despite society being dependent on both.
Over time, the four letters have served as the spark to rekindle America’s commitment to an innovation
economy. The basis of that commitment is a larger, more skilled workforce in STEM areas. Policy from the
Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations has emphasized the importance of preparing and encouraging more
youth to pursue these fields at a time when they were less inclined to do so, and to provide more support and
training for teachers in the subjects.
We cannot afford to be distracted from that strategy. A survey of executives by Business Roundtable last year
revealed that 4 out of 10 companies still find that at least half of their entry-level job applicants don’t even have
the basic skills in STEM. Yet these companies will have to replace nearly 1 million U.S. employees with basic
STEM literacy (and 635,000 with advanced skills in STEM) in the next five years. This means that STEM
education needs ongoing commitment and resources.
Used by permission.
__________________________________________________________
Begin your response to this question at the top of a new page in the separate Free Response booklet
and fill in the appropriate circle at the top of each page to indicate the question number.


Question 2
Suggested time—40 minutes.

Born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, Sonia Sotomayor was appointed a United States Supreme Court
Justice in 2009, becoming the first Latina justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She delivered the speech “A Latina
Judge’s Voice” at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2001 when she was an appeals-court
judge. The following passage is an excerpt from that speech. Read the passage carefully. Write an essay that analyzes
the rhetorical choices Sotomayor makes to convey her message about her identity.

• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that analyzes the writer’s rhetorical choices.
• Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical situation.
Who am I? I am a “Newyorkrican.” For those of 30 aunt and cousins watching Cantinflas, who is not
you on the West Coast who do not know what that Puerto Rican, but who was an icon Spanish comedian
term means: I am a born and bred New Yorker of on par with Abbot and Costello 2 of my generation.
Line Puerto Rican-born parents who came to the states My Latina soul was nourished as I visited and played
5 during World War II. at my grandmother’s house with my cousins and
Like many other immigrants 1 to this great land, my 35 extended family. They were my friends as I grew up.
parents came because of poverty and to attempt to Being a Latina child was watching the adults playing
find and secure a better life for themselves and the dominos on Saturday night and us kids playing
family that they hoped to have. They largely loteria, bingo, with my grandmother calling out the
10 succeeded. For that, my brother and I are very numbers which we marked on our cards with chick
grateful. The story of that success is what made me 40 peas.
and what makes me the Latina that I am. The Latina Now, does any one of these things make me a
side of my identity was forged and closely nurtured Latina? Obviously not because each of our Caribbean
by my family through our shared experiences and and Latin American communities has their own
15 traditions. unique food and different traditions at the holidays. I
For me, a very special part of my being Latina is 45 only learned about tacos in college from my
the mucho platos de arroz, gandules y pernil—rice, Mexican-American roommate. Being a Latina in
beans and pork—that I have eaten at countless family America also does not mean speaking Spanish. I
holidays and special events. My Latina identity also happen to speak it fairly well. But my brother, only
20 includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste three years younger, like too many of us educated
buds, morcilla,—pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con 50 here, barely speaks it. Most of us born and bred here,
garbanzo—pigs’ feet with beans, and la lengua y speak it very poorly.
orejas de cuchifrito, pigs’ tongue and ears. I bet the If I had pursued my career in my undergraduate
Mexican-Americans in this room are thinking that history major, I would likely provide you with a very
25 Puerto Ricans have unusual food tastes. Some of us, academic description of what being a Latino or Latina
like me, do. Part of my Latina identity is the sound of 55 means. For example, I could define Latinos as those
merengue at all our family parties and the heart peoples and cultures populated or colonized by Spain
wrenching Spanish love songs that we enjoy. It is the who maintained or adopted Spanish or Spanish Creole
memory of Saturday afternoon at the movies with my as their language of communication. You can tell that


I have been very well educated. That antiseptic struggle with this tension and attempt to maintain and
60 description however, does not really explain the 80 promote our cultural and ethnic identities in a society
appeal of morcilla—pig’s intestine—to an American that is often ambivalent about how to deal with its
born child. It does not provide an adequate differences. In this time of great debate we must
explanation of why individuals like us, many of whom remember that it is not political struggles that create a
are born in this completely different American culture, Latino or Latina identity. I became a Latina by the
65 still identify so strongly with those communities in 85 way I love and the way I live my life. My family
which our parents were born and raised. showed me by their example how wonderful and
America has a deeply confused image of itself that vibrant life is and how wonderful and magical it is to
is in perpetual tension. We are a nation that takes have a Latina soul. They taught me to love being a
pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its Puertorriqueña and to love America and value its
70 importance in shaping our society and in adding 90 lesson that great things could be achieved if one
richness to its existence. Yet, we simultaneously insist works hard for it.
that we can and must function and live in a race and
1
color-blind way that ignores these very differences Puerto Ricans have been United States citizens since 1917.
2
that in other contexts we laud. That tension between a popular American comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s
75 “the melting pot and the salad bowl” 3—a recently 3
a contrast, respectively, between a homogeneous society, where
popular metaphor used to describe New York’s distinctive cultural identities merge into one cultural identity, and a
heterogeneous society, where distinctive cultural identities mingle with
diversity—is being hotly debated today in national one another without losing their distinctiveness
discussions about affirmative action. Many of us
__________________________________________________________


Question 3
Suggested time—40 minutes.

Colin Powell, a four-star general and former United States secretary of state, wrote in his 1995 autobiography:
“[W]e do not have the luxury of collecting information indefinitely. At some point, before we can have every
possible fact in hand, we have to decide. The key is not to make quick decisions, but to make timely decisions.”
Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Powell’s claim about making decisions is valid.

• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position.
• Provide evidence to support your line of reasoning.
__________________________________________________________


STOP
END OF EXAM

14
Third party trademarks IBM®, NPR®, Apple®, and Facebook® were used in these testing materials.
Acknowledgments
© 2002 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted from the La Raza Law Journal 13 Berkeley La
Raza L.J. 87 (2002) by permission of the Regents of the University of California.

15

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

Suggested reading and writing time—55 minutes

(This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

In your response you should do the following:

© 2022 College Board.

2 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

The following is excerpted from an article published in a national American magazine.

© 2022 College Board.

3 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

4 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

The following is excerpted from an article by the editors of a science-oriented magazine.

© 2022 College Board.

5 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

6 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

7 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

The following is excerpted from an article published in a national American newspaper.

© 2022 College Board.

8 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

9 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

10 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

Suggested time—40 minutes.

In your response you should do the following:

© 2022 College Board.

11 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

12 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

Suggested time—40 minutes.

In your response you should do the following:

© 2022 College Board.

13 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

© 2022 College Board.

© 2022 College Board.

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