ktlynnjoy

I was miserably sick when I took the lit GRE...the proctor took pity on me and brought me a box of tissues. XD Hope you feel better quickly >_<

repentwalpurgis, I can totally sympathize. I double-majored in English and Spanish, minored in French, and have been in Korea for the past year on a Fulbright (and will be here until summer 2014). I'd love to find a program that will allow me flexible/interdisciplinary possibilities, but I don't feel confident enough in any of my foreign languages to apply for a straight Spanish/French/Korean or Asian studies program. Never studying abroad for Spanish or French was a mistake - I'm good, but not fluent. And Korean is much more difficult than Romance languages, so I'm doubtful that I'll be anywhere near fluency even by the end of my second year in Korea, unfortunately... Anyway, the point is, we're in at least sort of the same boat. Perhaps we can compare notes as the application cycle goes on. Lady Rowena, thanks for bringing up the literary translation programs. I'm more inclined toward completing an MA before a PhD, and literary translation would be fascinating.

One of my professors (who is well-published and well-respected) instructed me to completely ignore any guidelines that any school gives about SoPs and to just "write something interesting." I can't say that I've looked at this template for Berkeley, but I doubt you need to worry about following it, nor are you likely to need to note that you've seen it/why you've gone against it/etc in your SoP. Unless you're WAYYY out in left field (and maybe not even then), you probably (like 99% probably) don't need to worry. Just my $.02

Beginning Theory by Peter Barry might be a good choice. Personally, I've only briefly worked with a few chapters for an extracurricular thing, but one of my professors uses it in his literary theory course (which I unfortunately did not get to take), and he recommended it as an accessible intro to lit theory. From what I read, it seemed pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Theory-Introduction-Literary-Cultural/dp/0719079276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338763379&sr=8-1

Ah, so we probably won't hear anything more until after our official transcripts go in, then? I've been fretting the same way...sent in my all my forms (except transcript, since I have a week until graduation yet) and have been paranoid that I'm not doing something I should be. But we can't apply for visas until we have like an official thing from Fulbright, correct? (Or am I delusional in thinking that? Ack.)

I ended up cancelling my scores. It was pretty horrendous. Admittedly, I didn't study much either (not out of cockiness, I can assure you - rather lack of time, both as in I didn't have much time to study because I registered last-minute, and because I didn't have much free time to study). I'm also still pretty ill - came down with a pretty vicious bug yesterday - and my brain was only functioning at half capacity. That REALLY hurt me - time was never an issue for me on practice tests and is usually never an issue for me on *any* test, but I worked through this one SO slowly, both on my first "quick/answer questions you know for sure" runthrough, and my second "slow/work out answers that you can at least guess on" runthrough. In short, I didn't stand a chance. I'll be abroad for the next year, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll logistically be able to make it to the testing center abroad to retake the test in the fall. If I can't, well, I guess I'll just have to apply to English programs that don't require it, and maybe apply for Comparative Lit to schools that require the subject test for English. I actually probably wouldn't mind that anyway - I've been toying with the idea of Comp Lit but figured I'd apply to English over Comp Lit, if given the choice. If I don't take the English subject GRE, that will make the choice for me In the meantime, I just registered for the general GRE for the end of June. Thank goodness I have no worries about that one, plus I'll have plenty of time to study.

Thanks, all, for your input. This may be a stupid question, but: If you cancel your scores, do you still find out what you got (even though the score is not sent to your chosen schools)? I know it's possible to reinstate cancelled scores; if you request to reinstate your scores, do you find out what you got, or do you have to reinstate them "blindly" without knowing what your scores are?

Really? I figured I wouldn't cancel even if I did bomb it; if I retake it, they'll see the new score even though the old one will be on the record too, right? On the practice test, I left answers blank not due to time, but because I didn't want to hazard a guess on questions I had no hope of knowing (e.g. the sections where they will have 5 passages and then 3-4 questions saying "Which one is by (author)?" when I didn't recognize any of them). So is it really better to cancel if it doesn't go well? Like, if I don't answer more than half of the questions, even if I'm confident on most of them, should I still cancel? To make matters worse, I've fallen really ill - woke up this morning with a fever, headache, sore throat, upset stomach....awesome.

Okay, so I know we could go back and forth all day on the importance of the Lit GRE, but... Here's the deal: I'm a creative writing major who didn't really figure out until senior year that I'd rather do a lit PhD after undergrad. I'll be abroad for a gap year with Fulbright for 2012-2013, so I'm looking to apply for grad school this fall. I'm taking the Lit GRE on Saturday - I signed up a few weeks ago and decided to take it in April just in case it's not possible for me to take it while I'm abroad (there's a testing center in my host country but I've no idea where my placement is and if it'll be possible for me to get to the testing center/take time off from teaching to do so, etc). I've been studying when I can, but it admittedly hasn't been much. I took the practice exam and, well, let's just say I bombed it. Like well-below-50th-percentile bombed it. Mostly because I left a lot of questions blank (I got almost all of the questions that I answered correct). My professors have been urging me to apply to the top schools, but with the prospect of seriously failing the lit GRE looming, I'm starting to feel anxious. Thoughts?

There's a Facebook group for us! Not many people have joined it yet...so you should join it. (You, too, other Korea lurkers!)

Accepted for South Korea ETA 2012-2013!