Cracking the GRE Literature in English Subject Test

If you are looking for a last minute study session, this is not the place to turn. They give you excellent advice on how the test is scored and methods of marking answers but there are few passages in it. They do provide an excellent list of authors you should know and quick overviews of some classic literature but nothing extreamely specific. I used this book in conjunction with my own study program and found the book really worth my while. It's a little light on Lit theory though, so you may want to brush up on that part of the test. Overall I would buy it again. It's written with a dry sense of humor and a drive to see the student do well

This book is great! It has wonderful strategy tips that really helped me on managing my time. The mythology chart and the historical chronology of literary periods are also excellent. The explanations of the practice test answers also explain what all the wrong answers are so you can better reference where to look up these authors and titles. I only wish that there was more than one practice test and that the book was longer. Buy this book for your test!

This book describes the way the test "feels" to a tee. The test feels like a cocktail party full of people who haven't actually _read_ any of the books mentioned but have read the Encyclopedia of Literature and know character names, places, titles and authors. I'm a comparative literature major and i blew the test (there's _very_ little of anything but British literature-- it's even skimpy on American literature. The only non-English language literature that you should really know is that Dostoyevsky wrote Crime and Punishment). Anyway, it's really not worth too much effort-- the test is like a serious of inside jokes that you have to pretend to understand. This review guide tells you the basic stuff you need to know to get the ETS' clever little jokes about Milton without ever having opened Paradise Lost. If you're going to review anything other than this guide, I'd suggest reviewing major Shakespearean plays and the more significant of the Canterbury Tales; also for some reason there were 2 questions on Vanity Fair (this is really a major piece of literature?). Get this book, the Norton Anthology, and perhaps an Encyclopedia of Literature (or look over a good time-line online) and you should be perfectly fine.

The "Cracking" series are valuable for whatever test you are taking. I've used this one and the GRE Cat, and they work without wasting your time like so many others. May I offer you all a suggestion? I came across the Magill series on Literature (usually found in reference sections of the library) and found them invaluable for getting a concise, well-written synopsis on the novels, poetry, drama etc. that will be covered on the test. I zeroed in on the suggested reading list offered by the "Cracking" book, studied for about 4 weeks, and got a 96% on the test. Good luck to you all, and let me know if you've used my sage advice,ok?

If you're signing up to take the notoriously awful GRE Literature in English test, invest the extra cash (a fraction of test registration costs) and buy this book. It will not only remind you how to distinguish a Shakespearean sonnet from a Petrarchan sonnet, but also outline test-taking strategies, explain the basics of literary theory, and list the surprisingly few works you should study to maximize your score. The author has a sense of humor that will make all of this seem more bearable, even while you're slogging through practice questions. You should also buy ETS's Practicing to take the GRE Literature in English Test and do the practice tests it contains, but if you're only going to buy one book, buy this one. Avoid having to pay those outrageous ETS fees more than once--study this book, and you should get a great score the first time you take the test.