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Planning to take the test in October!


crouton

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Hi, all! I am so glad to find this site!

 

I am working towards a BA in English with a concentration in Literature and the GRE subject exam could count for 18 credits! That's a year of school for me, so I hope to take it this coming October. Unfortunately, my school doesn't share what is considered passing or what score is needed for that much credit.

 

I downloaded the first practice exam from the GRE site and was not happy with my score. I was at 10%! I did not skip any questions, however, so I'm sure that counted against me. My goal is to get 80% as time goes on.

 

My weakness was definitely poetry. I love literature but I hate poetry.

 

I have been looking at the study guides and made a plan. I plan to use the MIT courses and take 2 months for each section. I will include literary criticism and literary terminology in each section.

 

Jan & Feb - MIT's intro to Poetry. Includes some Virginia Wolf, Tennyson, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Auden, etc.

 

March & April - MIT Victorian Literature - British Lit during Queen Victoria's reign, including Bronte sisters, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, Tennyson, etc.

 

May & June - MIT Major English Novels - Includes Dafoe, Shelley, Jane Austen, George Eliot, James Joyce, HG Wells, etc.

 

July & August - MIT Major European Novels - Includes Don Quixote, Madame Bovary, etc.

 

Sept & Oct - Review Shakespeare and the Classics.

 

I had 3 Norton books and sold them after I took my World Literature class :doh:. I am familiar with Beowulf, Gilgamesh and other similar stories and I am also familiar with biblical analogies and Bible as Literature. I believe those were the questions I got correct most of the time.

 

So, what do ya'll think? I do work part-time as well as homeschool my son, so this is going to be a very busy 10 months!

 

Christina in GA

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Where are you enrolled? I'm at Excelsior, and they award all thirty credits for the major with a score above the 80th percentile on the GRE subject exams. I tested out of a psychology major this way, so yes it can be done! All I have left is a one credit research and writing requirement. If you are at Charter Oak, you need to score above the 40th percentile, if you are at Empire State, you will be awarded credits on a scale between 20th percentile and 96th percentile, with six credits toward the lower end going up to 36 credits at 96th percentile.

 

Anyways, I am taking this exam April 2009, and I would be happy to share resources and discuss it as much as you like. I work full-time and I am a single mother to a one-year-old son, so I know what it's like to busily cram steady for months to pass! I'm so happy to find someone else preparing! I've only just begun my studying, and I haven't taken any practice exams yet.

 

I've ordered nearly every book off the recommended reading list, or swapped for them on paperbackswap.com, and swapped for dvd versions on swapadvd.com. All I've really done so far is watch the dvds, my son's been keeping my hands too full to look at books. I have started making flashcards out of the Vade Mecum site, also.

 

I think your plan sounds very doable, I wish I were as organized as you are. I have piles of books all over, and I still have two other exams to complete in completely different subjects, but I went ahead and scheduled those so I will be able to focus solely on literature after January 8th.

 

Do you have any plans for grad school as of yet? I'd love to hear your plans. I am looking for something in humanities that I can do via distance learning.

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Thanks for responding. I am planning to enroll in Charter Oak. Thanks for letting me know the scoring. I know what to shoot for on my next practice test. I have not done enrolled yet, but I plan to do that within the next 2 months. I've already starting studying for the Lit test. I'm not very organized, it just looks that way! We'll see how much reading I actually do by October!

 

My master's goal is to become licensed as a Media Specialist in the state of Georgia. That requires an MLIS plus teacher certification as a media specialist. I found a program at Valdosta State Unversity that is primarily online but I may have to travel to a central location a few times. My goal is to then obtain a job as a media specialist in a DOD school and then apply for a job at one of the military posts in Europe. My dh was in the military and we spent 3 years in Germany. I want to go back and travel some more.

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Charter Oak is a good choice. I almost went with them, but the oral communication requirement scared me away.

 

There are a lot of resources out there for anyone studying literature. It was such a relief when I started researching! Looking for psychology stuff was a nightmare. The Vade Mecum site is a very good place to start, but I see you have discovered that already.

 

I haven't fully made it through the practice test ETS sent me, but I have gotten about half the answers correct that I have done so far. I feel good about it anyway, because I am an optimist!

 

A friend of mine (she passed) sent me some links for this:

 

http://www.dailylit.com/home--Daily Lit site, have bite-sized chunks of classic literature sent to you daily via email

 

Quotes Quotations a classic poem sent daily to your inbox as well!

 

And here's a link I found in an older thread in this forum:GRE Subject Exam--Literature in English--Approach and Resources (originally posted by phinlit)

 

I read all the posts in this section, plus you can glean some good advice by reading all the GRE Literature books reviews you can find. People drop hints by saying, "This prep book was good, but there was more Chauncer/Literary Theory/Bible as Lit. on this exam than this book said there would be." Then you know to study more of those things.

 

I predict that you will do well regardless, simply because you have a relatively decent level of prior knowledge, and because of the sheer amount of time you plan to spend studying. I only plan to study for half the time as you, and my study has been half-hearted thus far. Thankfully the good advice from my friend will make my remaining study a bit more efficient, with the GRE Psych I was rather awkwardly trying to study too many things, more than half of what I studied wasn't on the test.

 

As for poetry, I hate it too! I am going to use the Yale lectures for that one. I have ordered the Norton Poetry, I expect it any time, and I will just go along with that class as though I were taking it.

 

Hopefully I will have more to contribute after next week. I plan to take my first practice test by the end of this month. I will report to you my scores, no matter how terrible. I have no shame.

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Oh, I almost forgot, grad schools! Your plan sounds great, I have never been out of the U.S. That would be amazing to teach in Germany (or any part of Europe), I would love to go there someday.

 

Here's some of my grad school thoughts:

 

University of Wales, Lampeter: University of Wales Lampeter | Archaeology and Anthropology

 

Athabasca-Culteral Studies: Program Concentrations - Areas of Specialization - MAIS - Athabasca University

 

Humanities, California State University, Dominguez Hills:HUX Home

 

Salve Regina, Humanities:Salve Regina University - Graduate Studies - Humanities: Master of Arts

 

Dantes Online Catalog

 

I am having troubles narrowing it down, er...how did you narrow it down to one school? That's probably my biggest problem!

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I've already taken a communication class at a local college. I already have 62 credits, so I'm good there. It wasn't a bad class at all. I just wonder where they'll put my spanish classes and some other things. The B&M school wanted me to have 4 years of Spanish in order to get my English BA. I just decided I wanted to finish sooner and not have to take so many classes that didn't pertain to my major, but they required them.
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I read about Valdosta state on degree info and since it's the only online class for a Master's in Library Science that is approved by the ALA, so that's the one I went with. My aunt is a media specialist and she is encouraging me to do the media specialist certification. In Georgia, public school librarians have to be certified just like teachers.
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Well, hello from degreeinfo! Great forum, isn't it?

 

Well, if that's the only school approved, at least it made the decision easy. I have no idea. Grad school choices are going to be stressing me out for months, I can tell. I briefly considered a MLS, because I love looking stuff up and helping others, so it seemed a good match. Then I studied a bit of Cultural Anthropology, and decided that I needed to head more in that direction. I'm still a bit lost, though, and it's not unlikely that I will change my mind again. You are inspiring me to come up with a solid plan like you have. I need something more concrete to work towards.

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I have not bought any books. I sold the 3 Norton books I had after my World Lit class was over, but I have The Great Books from Encyclopedia Brittanica. Everything else I plan to read online or get from the library. I read the reviews on the GRE books on Amazon, but I don't think I'm going to buy them. I may see which ones the library has available and go over them.
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