April 2009 GRE Literature Test

[alissaroot]

I plan to start studying in earnest for the GRE Literature beginning January 1st. I was hoping to find others who will be taking the exam on the same day so we could share resources and support. So...anyone else out there want to join a GRE Literature study/support group? I will be taking it for undergraduate credit, and my goal is to achieve a scaled score of 630 or better.

So far, I have ordered all the prep books out there, as well as some on learning Ye Olde and Middle English, the Bible as Literature, and as many Masterplots as I can get my hands on. What other books would be good for this? I would really love to find some good online lectures, as they were instrumental in another GRE subject exam I passed, so if anyone knows of any, please steer me in that direction.

Well, I hope to round up some people! If you have taken this exam recently, please share all you can about your study methods to help encourage and inspire us! Thank you in advance for any replies!

[alissaroot]

Still no replies, looks like I'll be going it alone for a bit. Perhaps as we get closer to the day of the test there will be others who will join me in my worrying. Until then, I will study hard on my own! I suppose I can update my progress here for future test takers who stumble on this page looking for info. Oh man, I feel so lonely! lmao, when I post this, it will be like I can hear the crickets chirping in response.

[crouton]

Have you seen this site for a reading list?

GRE Reading List

It may help you figure out where to start. Have you taken a practice test yet?

[alissaroot]

Update: My practice test scores are around the 120 mark, raw score, between 50-60th percentile. The REA book gives me lower scores. I dislike the REA book. Has anyone else been taking practice tests? How's it going? I hope to score above the 40th percentile on the real exam. I think I may just squeak by with the score I want. I'm feeling better about it now than I was after my first REA practice test. My raw score was only a 69 on that first one. Thankfully it has been steadily improving over the past few weeks!

Good luck everyone!

[alissaroot]

Anyone else taking the GRE Literature tomorrow? I took the second test out of the ETS practice book last night and got a 124 raw score. That put me at about the 58th percentile for that test.

Good luck to anyone taking the test tomorrow!

Check out this article about an English professor who took the practice GRE:
Testing the Test - ChronicleReview.com

[alissaroot]

Did anyone else take the exam Saturday?

I thought it was tough. I about died of laughter over one particular passage.

[THX.1138]

Not that i intend to take this exam, but when i took my subject test in mathematics this past april, i was intrigued when i noticed that save for 4 test takers, everyone else, about a dozen or so, were attempting the english literature subject test! Is this test a particular requirement for graduate programs?

[alissaroot]

I couldn't say for sure which schools require it for admission. Cornell maybe? Keep in mind that the GRE Subject tests award large amounts of undergrad credit at three schools in the U.S., and that there may have been several people at your exam using it for credit-by-examination. I was awarded 30 undergrad credits from Excelsior College for passing the GRE Psychology subject exam above the 80th percentile.

Interestingly, when I took the exam this past Saturday, there were only two of us there for the Literature in English test. Everyone else was there for Biology, Mathematics, and Comp. Sci.

[THX.1138]

I couldn't say for sure which schools require it for admission. Cornell maybe? Keep in mind that the GRE Subject tests award large amounts of undergrad credit at three schools in the U.S., and that there may have been several people at your exam using it for credit-by-examination. I was awarded 30 undergrad credits from Excelsior College for passing the GRE Psychology subject exam above the 80th percentile.

Interestingly, when I took the exam this past Saturday, there were only two of us there for the Literature in English test. Everyone else was there for Biology, Mathematics, and Comp. Sci.

darn! i wish i had known this ahead of the additional 21 credits i took just to avoid the predicament of most graduate students who have to take senior level credits ahead of their graduate coursework. if this one single examination would have substituted all that, i could have spent the money on drinking beer and rooting sl*ts.

[tinuvielf]

I did take this test last Saturday. I found it a bit challenging. Strangely enough, the most challenging questions seemed clustered together for some reason. That might have resulted from the test's psychological effect on me though--buckling under the pressure of one or two difficult questions, and then finding the next few difficult as a result.

Most of the schools I've looked at seem to want the GRE Lit test. Columbia didn't, but it was definitely atypical.