English Subject Test Questions

[finagain]

I was wondering if some people could give me an idea of how long I should study for the English subject test.

Also, what is the best way to study? I've been told by a professor to just read (or reread) the entire Norton English and American anthologies. What about theory/lit criticism? I have the Norton anthology of that, but is there anything else/better. And what about the world literature questions? I have a pretty good grasp of "the classics," but I've heard some ridiculous examples of questions that were supposedly on the English subject test. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[truckbasket]

In the past the test was geared toward general knowledge of the field, meaning that the Nortons were very useful. For the last two seasons or so, it's been more like 80%+ reading comprehension with far less identification. So rather than cramming the huge amounts of tidbits the ETS suggests, developing your ability to speed-read and comprehend several paragraphs of text in 15 seconds or less would be more beneficial.

As far as theory goes, the ETS website and practice tests suggest a cursory knowledge -- enough to "spot the theorist" from terms such as "difference" or "cultural hybridity" etc. This is no longer the case as the theory questions appear to have been significantly ramped up. So here you'd be well suited to cram tidbits of knowledge from the Norton text, and get a sense of the main figures in various fields.

If you look at the postings about it this year, some people did very well. It might be worth hitting them up to learn their strategies, but I'd wait until app season is over (January?) as they're all super busy right now. Good luck!

In other words, what the testing service says is on the test is not really what's on the test. Learning test-taking strategies and corner-cutting skills will serve you well.

[fredngeorge]

Truckbasket's info may be more current than mine (I took the GRE Lit. in 2009 and 2007), but when I took it there were still a lot of identification questions (That said, it certainly won't hurt to practice speed-reading for comprehension). My advice for identification questions, though, rather than reading complete works out of the Norton is something that may sound a little silly (and pretty much goes against everything that I enjoy about studying literature), but it's advice that one of my advisors gave me, and it actually worked quite well. Go through online Clif Notes or Spark Notes to familiarize yourself with character names, plot lines, and themes from as many "important" works of literature as you can. For those same works, read a few pages of the beginning, middle, and end of the novels to familiarize yourself with writing style. I know this sounds like a terrible way to familiarize yourself with great literature, but it will provide you with the kind of broad knowledge base you need to score well on this exam. That said, certain works merit more time (based upon the ratio of the time it takes to read them and the number of questions that show up on the exam). The GRE Lit. Princeton Review book provides a good list of works you should read start-to-finish (many of them poems). You should also have a working knowledge of several "major" works/authors (e.g. Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare). One major drawback to the Princeton Review text is that it really emphasizes ETS's attempt to remain, as much as possible, within an accepted canon, and I found a much higher proportion of African American literature questions and World Literature questions than what I expected based upon the Princeton Review. You can't really eliminate much -- except extremely recent writing.

You should have, as Truckbasket suggests, a good understanding of the thinking and terminology of each theoretical movement (including major theorists). In terms of the Norton Anthology of Critical Theory, however, I would stick to the introductions for major theorists. There's always quite good info in there -- enough to generally familiarize yourself with the selection being prefaced.

For what it's worth, I scored a 660 on the exam, so it seems to have worked out all right for me in the end.

[wintergirl]

1. Use the Princeton Review book: http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Literature-English-Graduate-Preparation/dp/0375429719.
   
2. Skim the Norton British lit anthologies. (I wouldn't even bother with the American, there's so little of it.)
   
3. For theory, try something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Literary-Theory-Basics-Hans-Bertens/dp/0415396719/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322530228&sr=1-2-fkmr0
   
4. Read previous posts about this fall's torture session test.
   
5. Pray.
   
6. Sharpen your pencils.
   
7. Trust no one.
   

[wintergirl]

Go through online Clif Notes or Spark Notes to familiarize yourself with character names, plot lines, and themes from as many "important" works of literature as you can. For those same works, read a few pages of the beginning, middle, and end of the novels to familiarize yourself with writing style. I know this sounds like a terrible way to familiarize yourself with great literature, but it will provide you with the kind of broad knowledge base you need to score well on this exam. That said, certain works merit more time (based upon the ratio of the time it takes to read them and the number of questions that show up on the exam).

This is exactly why so many of us were furious about the October test: with 65% of the test as long reading passages with 6-8 questions attached, there were NO identifying character or place names to help you out. I did all of that prep work you suggest, and more, yet a majority of the lit on the test seemed completely obscure to me.

On top of the obscurity and lack of identifying details, many of the questions seemed to depend on an understanding of how that passage fit into the meaning of the entire work--or even the author's entire oeuvre.

For what it's worth, I ended up with a 630 (better than I thought I'd done, worse than I hoped to do). Luck of the draw as to which test you get, since I think some other people from that day or the November tests reported a much more expected format/content.

/My 2 cents.

Edited November 29, 2011 by bespeckled

[Timshel]

I'll just add that I completely and embarrassingly bombed the test. Thank god only two schools required it, but I stupidly sent the scores to 4 schools because I wanted to be able to send my general scores for free.

[LivePoetry123]

I will just chime in about the speed-reading thing. I took the test on Nov. 12th and left about 20 -30 questions unanswered, not even looked at, just because I ran out of TIME. It was so frustrating, because I actually feel like I did really well on the questions I had time to answer. I didn't get my score yet, but OP I'd really urge you to practice your speed reading and quick-comprehension skills! I went into the test thinking it would be mostly identification and I just wasn't prepared for the time-crammed comprehension. Studying general knowledge of the field also just seems iffy because who knows if the stuff you study will actually be on the test, right? it just seems like a crap shoot.

Timshel, is it possible to cancel the request to send subject test scores? I just realized I accidentally asked for subject test scores to be sent out to a couple of my schools that don't require them. Ugh, I totally sympathize. I haven't gotten my score back yet but I don't think it could possibly be good, with so many questions left unanswered.

[Timshel]

I don't know if you still can since you haven't gotten your scores back, but I can't. Boo.

[finagain]

So how long did most people study for the test? I can take it in either April or October. Also does anyone know off the top of their head if the subject test can be taken more than once like the regular GRE? I.e. if you don't like your first score can you take it again to have your initial score overwritten? Thanks again.

[poeteer]

I took the test last year and it was heavily, heavily skewed toward reading comp. And not just any reading comp: long, dense passages from texts I had not read. I would agree with those who say to focus less on memorization. Study ETS's notion of reading comp from old tests (since, let's face it, they want you think how they think, and out of five viable answers there are usually two that are plausible readings); try to gauge what kind of answer they consider "best." I ran out of time, too. I ran out of time and patience and energy and everything else. It was frustrating because I knew so much, canon or otherwise, and so little of what I studied appeared on the test.

[lyonessrampant]

You can take the test multiple times. All of your scores will show on your report (as they do for the GRE), but you count your highest score. I would probably encourage you to take the October test if you're still in school. I got a 680 and spent about a month or two studying putting in a few hours a week on average. That's just my experience though. Good luck!

Edited December 3, 2011 by lyonessrampant

[ecritdansleau]

For what it's worth, I saw a major improvement in my practice test scores (about 150 points) after taking classes in Renaissance literature. This basically just familiarized me with the Norton Anthology for that period. Many will say studying for the test is arbitrary, and--it kind of is--but if you have a lot of time before the more important application stuff, I do believe that you can raise your score significantly.

I have to say, I honestly think the most valuable studying you can do comes from spending time with the Norton Anthologies. This is not to say you should read them from cover to cover. But the more I went though each volume and took practice tests, I felt as if I was suddenly recognizing authors I didn't previously know over and over again, and it was like "big surprise, the Norton spends 70 pages on him/her). To the best of my knowledge, the Norton Anthologies are the most compacted forms of the texts you will see on the test. If someone else knows something better, perhaps they can share. If you are unfamiliar with authors that are heavily represented in the Nortons, it is worth your time and energy to prioritize on those writers. Based on my experience with the test, just doing this (making sure you recognize most everyone in the Norton and can identify some of their major works/style), you can get a decent score of between 630-660 and up.

But I should mention one major caveat: a *few* major authors (especially novelists) aren't as prominent in the Norton's because their work is not easy to anthologize. George Eliot, for instance, is a MAJOR author to know for the Subject Test, and you'd probably want to do additional reading outside the Norton (looking through her novels, major quotes, major characters) if you want to be "covered." Henry James is another author for which this non-Norton studying will be really helpful.

And, as others have said, The Princeton Review is a must. But at the same time, it will only give you bare basics to do *decent* on the test. It's not going to necessarily earn you a super-high score on its own (remember, percentiles are important, and a huge percentage of test takers will be as familiar with the Princeton Review as you are).

[wintergirl]

So how long did most people study for the test? I can take it in either April or October. Also does anyone know off the top of their head if the subject test can be taken more than once like the regular GRE? I.e. if you don't like your first score can you take it again to have your initial score overwritten? Thanks again.

TAKE IT IN APRIL. You'll thank me next fall when you're freaking out about getting your application materials together--and researching schools/POIs, and begging for LORs, etc. The last thing you're going to want to be doing is studying 17th century Restoration comedies for questions that will be obscure and random anyway.

Why, yes, I am still bitter about my test in October. For which I studied approximately 6 weeks, off and on.

[rawera]

My GRE timeline:

July 2010: "I should study for the GRE" I buy the Princeton Review, I read it once.

No further studying

September 1: I save the huge word document from vade mecum, I read it. I make notecards of every author, each work when necessary (it was not necessary for me to make a separate card for Gatsby, but I had to learn every james and eliot novel).

September 15: I put every poem from vade mecum in a separate document. I read this now and then.

I do notecards, I read poems.

October 10-14: study constantly. I crammed the night before. people say you can't, but you can.

October 15: score 690

15-17: video games, weed, sleep.

I am a delivery driver so it's pretty easy to study 5 notecards at a redlight. Or I'd take a stack of 20 for the day, carry them around, read them on elevators, absolutely learn that group for the day. It becomes easier to target groups (fuck james) the more you study. Also, I probably read the 180 page poetry document 6 times total. 2 of them the night of/morning of the exam.

As for theory, good luck. Use PR as a model but I suggest expanding it. It's helpful to know main works of theorists but when they give you 3 obviously cultural-marxist positions and you have to guess which is marxist A and which is marxist B, good luck.

I was studying up until the exam, though. I was in the exam room with 50 of my "must study" notecards. The proctor told us we were ready to begin, I got up and unceremoniously dumped 50 notecards in the trash can. It felt great.

[Medievalmaniac]

I second Poeeter and Bespeckled. I blogged about the changes to the test last November when I took it - check my gradcafe blog for the post. the prep materials on the subject test website were quite misleading - it WAS much more reading comprehension with full-page passages attached to 6-8 questions, and there were only a handful of identifications. ALSO, it was heavy on the socio-political connections (what major event was going on when the following passage was written"? - this type of question was very prevalent in the reading comp. sections. Reading the Norton Anthology introductory sections to each era would be helpful.

[ecritdansleau]

My GRE timeline:

July 2010: "I should study for the GRE" I buy the Princeton Review, I read it once.

No further studying

September 1: I save the huge word document from vade mecum, I read it. I make notecards of every author, each work when necessary (it was not necessary for me to make a separate card for Gatsby, but I had to learn every james and eliot novel).

September 15: I put every poem from vade mecum in a separate document. I read this now and then.

I do notecards, I read poems.

October 10-14: study constantly. I crammed the night before. people say you can't, but you can.

October 15: score 690

15-17: video games, weed, sleep.

I am a delivery driver so it's pretty easy to study 5 notecards at a redlight. Or I'd take a stack of 20 for the day, carry them around, read them on elevators, absolutely learn that group for the day. It becomes easier to target groups (fuck james) the more you study. Also, I probably read the 180 page poetry document 6 times total. 2 of them the night of/morning of the exam.

As for theory, good luck. Use PR as a model but I suggest expanding it. It's helpful to know main works of theorists but when they give you 3 obviously cultural-marxist positions and you have to guess which is marxist A and which is marxist B, good luck.

I was studying up until the exam, though. I was in the exam room with 50 of my "must study" notecards. The proctor told us we were ready to begin, I got up and unceremoniously dumped 50 notecards in the trash can. It felt great.

Ahh lucky! at my testing center they wouldn't let us bring anything in the test room. We even had to show them we didn't have any papers in our bag other than the test registration form. And then we had to sit there, in our seats, ready to go, with NOTHING to do from about 8:25 until 9:00. It was awful.

[ecritdansleau]

TAKE IT IN APRIL. You'll thank me next fall when you're freaking out about getting your application materials together--and researching schools/POIs, and begging for LORs, etc. The last thing you're going to want to be doing is studying 17th century Restoration comedies for questions that will be obscure and random anyway.

Why, yes, I am still bitter about my test in October. For which I studied approximately 6 weeks, off and on.

I totally agree. Remember, you're going to be asking your letter writers and whatnot for their advice (and they'll need your materials) just around the same time as the October and November tests are offered. I ended up sending them very preliminary SOPs at that time because I was too wrapped up in studying for the GRE--definitely not my best case scenario. If you're trying to do too many things at once, it can make it difficult to prioritize. If you're anything like me, you'll never really seriously study for the test until you're registered (which you have to basically do 3-4 months in advance anyway, which I think is a perfect amount of time).

[filmluv]

I took mine several years ago, pregnant at the time, and totally bombed. I studied a little before. Mine was almost 80% non-fiction essayists and people I'd never heard of. I was so nervous I even failed on the ones I knew.

My suggestion would be to study for 6 months before.

[xfgdfrmgpo332]

anybody else gonna give $ to evil ETS and find out their subject scores monday?