Cracking the SAT Literature Subject Test

This is a good preparation for the SAT Literature Subject Test, and is shorter than the other prep books while still contianing a lot of good practice. There are only 3 practice tests, which is fine, becuase you dont need eight (who is really going to practice eight times?). In fact, you will probably force yourself to practice once, so three is plenty. It is easy enough to work through the week before the test, in fact, it is possible to read the whole thing in two sittings, if you are familiar with the way SATs work and don't need to read the general intructions at the beginnging. The "meat" of the preparation (the test strategies section) is only 62 pages long, and easy enough to read. Although, there are probably too few drills to practice on, and you need to take a practice test to get a real sense of what the questions are like. I noticed quite a few typos thoughout the book, which seems ironic for a book focused on Engligh Literature. I took practice test #2, and scored a 580 (which isn't great), and looking over the answer explainations, it seemed to me like a lot of the questions had two or more very legitimate, equally arguable answers. In other words, the topics questioned were too subjective, and open to interpretation, more so than on the actual, official, SAT Subject Test, which I just took and found to be easier than the practice test in this book. But I have not recieved my score back yet- so we will see. Also, the book talks about and tests a lot of what it calls "Roman Numeral questions", a question format where you are given three choices and must choose a combination of roman numerals as an answer. It heavily stressed these as confusing and prevalent... don't worry, I only encountered one of these on the actual test. Overall, I was satisfied with the preparation this book provided, although I think it was a little too subjective in the questions it asked, which may frustrate you when taking the practice tests. Recommended for someone who is fairly good at interpreting literature anyway (an "Enlgish" person), who wants to know what they are going to be tested on, and especially for people who have not done any specific preparation and are panicking on the Wednesday before the test (me.) Not recommended for someone who is not an "Enlgish" person, or has no familiarity with literary terms/devices (in that case, you probably shouldn't be trying this Subject Test), or anyone who wants a lot of preparation becuase they feel really uneasy about taking the SAT Literature Subject Test.

This was the only book I used to prepare for the December 3rd (2005) Literature SAT Subject test. Understand that, I am a Freshman in college and took AP Literature in high school, so most of the material in this book was fairly familiar to me, even though I hadn't had an English class for over 6 months when I took this test. This book is stipped down to the basics, which makes it very readable. Keeping with Princeton Review tradition, a percentage of the text is devoted to test taking strategies. Those who are not familiar with the SAT may find these helpful. I was fine with the amount of in chapter drills, but some may find them too few. The three included tests are more than enough for you to identify your weaknesses and improve. No book can just magically raise your score if you just read through it a few days before the tests-The key is to practice! This is especially true with this slim book because all the material is important. All in all I found this book to be very helpful, but I would not buy it if it was my only knowledge of literature-As College Board recommends (and is common sense), take this test after you have taken a similar high school test (and don't wait like I did!)-Use this book as a review and not a 'text book.' This book helped me acheive a 680 which I am pleased with.