The Smart Student’s Guide to the GRE Literature in English Test

Most English majors who take the GRE Literature in English test do not do particularly well, usually near the 50th percentile. To increase their acceptance into a graduate program (MA or PhD), test takers need at least to be over the 80th percentile. This is hard to do since ETS deliberately designs the test to befuddle most test takers. Quite frankly, these test takers simply do not know enough literature to excel. Further, they do not have the test "psyched" out, and they are lacking effective test taking strategies. This latest in the Smart Student's Guide series will tell test takers exactly what authors and texts are likely to be covered. Included are comprehensive summaries of individual poems, novels, short stories, plays, myth, non-fiction prose, and detailed summaries of the major schools of literary theory. For those who feel weak in Shakespeare, Chaucer, African-American literature, and technical literary terms, there are separate chapters for each. There is also a detailed summary of the history of British and American literature. This book also contains a chapter that no other test prep book has--a Phrase Name Matching that immediately links a phrase to a specific author or text, thus freeing you from actually reading the passage; you simply know the correct answer. You also are given a strategy to score high. ETS does not even hint at this. Plan to spend three to six months of intensive prep time and you too can hit or exceed the 80th percentile.