The classics US students are assigned, counted across seven lists: length, reading time and level

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On this page: Two or more lists · One list · Download · The seven lists · How we measured · Limits · Cite

Named by two or more lists

A classic's place is the number of the seven lists that name it, nothing else; titles with the same count share a place and stand in alphabetical order. Every title opens its edition page. Where a play or poem is part of a larger book with us, it is not measured alone: the row names the book and gives no time or level.

Named by one list

These are on one list only, most of them from the AP Literature exam or the first-year college lists.

Also among the most assigned

These books are named by three or more of the lists but are not in our library, so they have no row here: Of Mice and Men (4 of 7); The Crucible (4 of 7); To Kill a Mockingbird (4 of 7); A Raisin in the Sun (3 of 7); Fahrenheit 451 (3 of 7); Lord of the Flies (3 of 7); Night (3 of 7); Things Fall Apart (3 of 7).

The seven lists

The lists measure different things: what teachers say they teach (NCTE, ALSCW, Applebee), what teachers set on one platform (Vocabulary.com), what an exam suggested (AP Lit), what college syllabi name (Open Syllabus) and what one college requires (St. John's). Each counts once, with equal weight.

Full references are in the sources file below. Lists we tried and could not read are named in the limits.

How we measured

• Counting. A work counts once per list, however many grades or years the list names it in. The place in the table is the count; we add no weights and no judgment of our own.
• Matching. A list's title counts for our edition only when the title and the author agree. Different printed names of one work are joined (for example 'Oedipus' and 'Oedipus Rex'). A translation counts as the work.
• Words and time. Words are counted in the text of our edition, measured on the editions of 21 October 2026, the house introduction left out. Reading time is the words divided by 238 words a minute, the average adult speed for silent reading of non-fiction in a 2019 review of 190 studies (Brysbaert, Journal of Memory and Language). The file also gives the time to read aloud at 150 words a minute.
• Reading grade. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level: 0.39 × words per sentence + 11.8 × syllables per word − 15.59. Easy means grade 6.5 or lower, no more than 60,000 words, and not verse or a play; challenging means grade 9.5 or higher, or 150,000 words or more; medium is everything between. A formula grade describes sentence and word length; it is not a recommended school grade or age.
• Summaries and study guides. A link is shown only where that page is open on our site today (checked on 28 October 2026).

Limits

• The lists differ in year (1989 to 2026), in method and in size. A count says how many lists name a work, not how many students read it.
• The AP Literature list counts titles the exam suggested for its open question; the College Board sets no required reading.
• The college side rests on two lists: a count of college syllabi and one college's first-year seminar, which leans to Greek works.
• Many of the most assigned books are modern and not in our library; they are named above but have no row.
• We could not read the Common Core text exemplars, the Columbia Literature Humanities list or the current Open Syllabus rankings on 28 October 2026, so they are not counted.
• The grade formula reads sentence and word length only, so plays and verse, made of short lines, score lower than they read.

Questions

Cita questa risorsa

Library of Alexandria Press (2026). The classics US students are assigned, counted across seven lists: length, reading time and level [Data set]. Version 2026-10-28. https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/classics-assigned-in-us-schools. CC BY 4.0.