Barron's SAT Subject Test in Literature

The Barron's book is very good and thorough in review of literature skills, but a lot of the information is unnecessary for one who simply wants to prepare for the SAT subject test. The book would have been perfect if I had had time weeks in advanced, but it was a bit much to handle looking at it the week of. What I do like about Barron's books is that they are much more difficult than the actual test, so that the real SAT is much easier than planned.

Apparently, nobody told Christina Myers what she was writing. See, this was supposed to be a shallow review book, which glossed over some basic literary terms, followed by half a dozen practice tests. Instead, Ms. Myers wrote a high-quality literature textbook that will actually still be helpful after the SAT. It has everything a normal SAT book has, if not more. 9 practice tests (including two "diagnostic" tests, which are a little harder), and tons of questions in each tpic. It also has a section of twenty-five questions on each of the book's seven topics for more focused testing (for those of you slow on math, this is the equivlent of almost another three tests). As for the actual topic review, it's superb. She explains even the most obscure terms in a simple way, and makes sure you can't finish the book without being able to analyze a poem of incredible difficulty (I learned alot, and I'm a literature major!). She also throws in a superb chapter on writing skills, supposedly to help on the SAT 1 writing test, but really because she decided that a proper literature textbook should have that. And that's exactly what this is - a proper literature textbook. Don't let the brand-name or the word "SAT" on the cover fool you - if you want to learn to understand literature for whatever reason, this book is for you. On the other hand, if you're just looking for a review book for the test and you're not aiming for the high grades, this book may be a bit too demanding. The tests are hard and the review is long, and it mixes the basic terms with the more sophisticated ones. If you're looking for the easy, mediocre book, this isn't it.