Customer Reviews

CLEP American Literature (College Level Examination Series/CLEP Passbooks)

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I just took the clep test for engl. lit and Amer. lit. It was much easier than I expected, and I vastly overstudied, due in part to being psyched out by these study guides. I thought I needed to know every silly little obscure thing they covered . To prepare for these tests, I'd recommend instead that you buy the Barron's easy key (about 6 bucks), then look over the list of books covered by either Cliff notes or Barron's book notes ( Barron's is better written) and make a list of the titles they list. Now, armed with that list of commonly assigned books, go to your library and look at the "Magill" masterplots, for an excellent 2-3 page synopsis and critque of these titles. You will save alot of time and money this way -- Zero in on the pertinent stuff and don't get thrown by Rudman's --

The other review on this book by "a reader" is very helpful and I recomend you read it as well as this review. I have taken fifteen CLEP tests and am very familiar with how to study for the test. CLEP tests by their very nature a designed to see if the student has a sufficient grasp on the given subject. On tests like American literature or Humanities which cover a wide variety of different works/toppics, I've found that it's best to study the main points and key elements of the subject instead of spending a whole year trying to read a huge list of books. I would not recomend Rudman's book, however, I would recomend buying the Barron's EZ key's for American Literature. It will help you get a quick grasp on what this subject covers. Also, the Official Clep study guide is a great tool for preparing for the tests.

This book does cover alot of information not needed for CLEP, but it does give you a great guideline on who and what to study for clep and good examples on what questions will look like for the actual clep.
I wanted to ensure I was prepared for the clep, so I purchased this book and disregarded the other 2 comments. Although, they were right about the obscurity, this book still taught me alot.
You don't necessarily need it, but if you want to be prepared, this book will not hurt your bank account that much. I also recommend The Complete Itiots Guide to American Literature (5 stars, check out the reviews), and the Internet. That is all you need.