Customer Reviews

GRE: Practicing to Take the Literature in English Test, 3rd Edition

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Has it ever occured to anyone seeking to improve on his chances to pass the GRE in English test that it might not be wise to trust the very people who have a vested interest in keeping your score down to maintain their hard won bell-shaped curve? First, look at the copyright of the latest 3rd edition (1996). Between then and now the focus of the test has changed dramatically. The testers at ETS have vastly increased the numbers of questions dealing with 20th century feminist critics while decreasing the numbers of those that deal with DWEM (Dead White European Males). Further, the questions in the three tests that make up the text are in what I call the 'brute force' technique. Answers without explanations are provided. You should not be so foolish as to expect to see the very same questions on the real thing. Second, the cover touts 'Strategies and Tips From the Test Makers.' These 'tips' are phrased so vaguely as to be useless (study hard, work as rapidly as possible, buy this book, etc). Third, it would have been helpful if ETS had broken down the test into segments of question type. For example, I went through the three tests in the book and identified each question as belonging to one set or type. I found that the test consisted of previous knowledge questions (70%) and general reading comprehension (30%). If this ratio holds for future tests (post 2002/2003), then it would be wise for test takers to study other review guides that contain this latter type. One particularly hard kind of question that was used often in the text was identifying the gammatical use (subject/object) of a targeted word. There is no way to prepare for this except to practice. I further found that ETS likes to use what I call 'buzz words' such that if you can associate that buzz word with its correlative (e.g. sublime = Longinus), then you can spot the correct answer immediately. ETS said nothing about any of this. Finally there are other prep guides that do a much better job. The Princeton Review and REA are recommended. The danger of using only a 'brute force' approach such as used in this text is that you prepare yourself supremely well to know the answers only to the questions listed. The real thing, however, is far different.

My recommendations:
1) use the Princeton Review & REA guides
2) Know the general thrusts of each period of English and
American Lit
3) Study the Nortons to English & American Lit
4) Use the internet to bone up on feminist critics (Irigarry,
Cixious etc)
5) Memorize the beginnings and endings of novels typically
taught in novel courses
6) Know the definition of a Spenserian stanza (ETS loves this
one)

In short, this text gives you practice only on those questions least likely to appear. You have been warned.

If you're taking the GRE Literature in English test, you should buy this in conjunction with The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE Literature. Read The Princeton Review's book, ignore the ETS's babbling narratives in this book, and then take all the practice tests. By the time you finish, you should be in good shape for the real thing.

No, neither of the two tests included in this book are the test ETS mails/posts on their website at this time, Fall 2005, as another poster has said. Perhaps ETS releases a new practice test periodically? In which case, why isn't there a compendium of all the ETS practice tests since they started to offer the exam?

Buy this book and you'll have 2 tests, plus the one ETS gives you for free, AND you can by Princeton's excellent book for a fourth. I recommend you take one each weekend for a month before the exam, reviewing the answers on the weekdays. Then you'll have had a solid review AND adapted yourself to taking this grueling 2.5 hour test. But this doesn't substitute for careful review of poetry terms, lit crit terms, authors, and periods: rather, it SUPPLEMENTS and GUIDES such a review.

(...)

THis is the diagnostic testing book. Use one test to find out what you know before you study, then study, then take the next test to see how you have improved!