GRE Lit Subject Test

[orinincandenza]

Hey everybody. An apology up front if this question has been answered already, but what can I expect w/r/t the subject test? I've heard that it's pretty impossible to do well on if you haven't studied for longer than a few months, and I've been trying to cram for the past three or four weeks. I take it on Nov 8, and I'm pretty worried.

This is my second time applying, after 4 rejections and 1 acceptance last year. This year I'm applying to 9 or 10 schools, which range from mildly to very competitive. I retook the general GRE and ended up with a 720 verbal score (way better than last year). I guess I feel like the subject test (along with a still under construction personal statement) is the last thing I have control over, and I'm wondering how much I can expect it to strengthen or hurt my chances, depending on how well I do.

My other stats are this: a 3.56 overall and a 3.79 major GPA. Some honors and one big writing award. It's not the greatest record in the world, I realize, and so I'm extremely nervous that this will be another a big round of rejections, with all those app fees right down the drain. Even though it's my second time around, I still feel somewhat inadequately prepared. But anyway: the GRE Lit Subject test. Any advice?

[dowjonesindustrial]

Two points, which I'm sure most everyone will start from.

1st: The subject test is not nearly as important as your SOP or your writing sample. Don't have a breakdown worrying about whether the test will get you in or keep you out of that dream school. Chances are it will do neither, but will only be one of many general variables in your app.

2nd: That said, when preparing for the test, the choice metaphor is usually that of learning "cocktail party information." You've got to know the superficial basics to tons and tons of material, some of which is virtually guaranteed to be on your test. Unless you have pristine retention of names and dates and periods, as well as the lines of a new poem, and given that you don't have months to study at this point, you're going to want to make a concerted effort to spend the most time with the most "important" material. While you may already have these sites, they're bound to be posted anyway. Nearly everyone on here has probably seen at least one of them.

http://www.duke.edu/~tmw15/

http://lasr.cs.ucla.edu/alison/hapaxleg ... eList.html

http://academic.reed.edu/english/gre/Wo ... ature.html

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/ (an oddball link of my own, but can be useful for when your 75 vol masterplots edition isn't handy)

Take the practice tests (look around for the Princeton review test, the new ETS sample test and the old one; if you really want, you can scare yourself with REAs but you don't really have the time for that) to get a feel for what 240 questions straight is like. Realize that it's a situation where you just have to do your best, and try and squeeze the most return out of your time from now until test day as you can.

Hope that helps.

Good luck.

[orinincandenza]

Thanks, Dow. That does help a lot. My SOP is finally becoming something that's almost not cringe-inducing, and I'm content with my writing sample. Initiating cram sequence now; here's hoping for some substantial cocktail knowledge.

[lauras]

It's probably a bit late to post this insight, but I've heard that departments pick a cut off for GREs, some minimum score, and if you pass that cut off, the rest of your application gets reviewed.

So, perfect scores on the GRE are not really what's necessary-- that's the good news for most of us.

I don't want to start a panic by suggesting what the cut-off might be, because each school does it differently, but I've heard that BC will cut off around 600 and not look too closely at applicants with lower scores than that.

On the other hand, some schools, Columbia for example, don't even look at the GRE lit subject test and don't require it for your application.

[Minnesotan]

It's probably a bit late to post this insight, but I've heard that departments pick a cut off for GREs, some minimum score, and if you pass that cut off, the rest of your application gets reviewed.

So, perfect scores on the GRE are not really what's necessary-- that's the good news for most of us.

I think that's mainly for the score in your general gre test. I can't imagine there would be a very high cutoff point, if any, for the insanely random questions they ask in the subject test.

[lotf629]

Harvard's website says they want a 650 or above. Indiana's website says they want a 600 or above. I am not sure, however, whether those numbers are cutoffs or guidelines.

I felt like my score went up about 1 point per hour of studying. The websites available (mostly written by prior test-takers) are really helpful, or so I found. I also found it helpful to get a recording of poems (I bought "81 Famous Poems," which is supposedly the audio companion to the Norton), and listen to it constantly. When I actually took the test, I felt that listening to that recording in particular had helped me with several questions.

A lot of people tell you that you need to use a huge anthology, which is ideal, but at the same time I think that it's just as important (and much less time consuming) to know the major works cold: say, to have read and re-read major poems and to know major characters and plot synopses of major novels. When I took the test, I felt like often the truly, madly, deeply obscure material could be worked out by process of elimination.