<p>Hi, I have always done extremely well in english classes and I got a 4 on my AP language/composition exam. </p>
<p>I got 550 on my SAT II for literature though. Everytime I take a practice test, all I get is about 570 at the highest. </p>
<p>I don't know what to do!! Can someone help me out who has done really well or has some insight to share?! This score is really pulling me down. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Literary analysis is a skill that doesn't come instantly; it tends to develop throughout your scholastic career. If your stuck in the 550 range, it's not likely you're going to be able to dramatically increase your score by studying a lot, as you can with other SAT IIs. This is why Lit is generally regarded as one of the toughest SAT IIs; it depends more on ability than knowledge.</p>
<p>If you're set on retaking it, someone posted a guide earlier on how best to study. The only things I can recommend from personal experience is to brush up on literary terms and keep taking practice tests to try to pinpoint your weaknesses.</p>
<p>How's your grasp of poetry?</p>
<p>I find that really getting a handle on poetry is a great way to raise your score in a hurry.</p>
<p>Also, how was your SAT I V?</p>
<p>I got 670 on my critical reading on my sat I. so it wasnt too bad. </p>
<p>How can I get a quick grip on poetry? I am so lost.</p>
<p>"How can I get a quick grip on poetry? I am so lost."</p>
<p>You can't... like .illogic, I think Lit is one of the hardest sat II's in terms of preparation. Either you're good at this stuff or you're not, and if you're not, you can practice to improve reading comprehension, but the improvements will not be drastic.</p>
<p>I'd actually suggest that you start with a good edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. Go to the bookstore and find one with footnotes that you understand. Read them until you figure out what's going on. Then I'd buy Immortal Poems of the English Language (a cheap paperback anthology) and read the poems by Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Browning, Frost, Dickinson, Yeats, and Eliot. Make sure you understand the literal meaning of the text, and identify figures of speech as you go.</p>
<p>Get a good list of figures of speech and put them on flash cards and memorize them. SparkNotes sells a plastic binder insert about the SAT II Literature--you know the ones; they're sold in wire stands and they look like cheat sheets, two fold-out pages. It has a good list of figures of speech.</p>
<p>There are also two more real practice exams available. There's a new and an old book of SAT IIs from the CB. Both should be available on Amazon (although the old one will require some searching). I'd buy both books and do both tests.</p>
<p>This is more or less the program I followed recently with one student over two or three weeks and her score went from a 720 to an 800. That's a different case because she was in a different score range, but I imagine it would help you as well. I guess we also did a lot of problems from practice books like Barrons, PR, et al., but we found that those problems were often unreliable and ambiguous.</p>
<p>If you're really lost once you get your hands on some poems, see if you can get somebody to explain to you what they mean. Ditto the real SAT IIs: take them, then post questions here if you get confused or ask your English teacher.</p>
<p>It's possible that you should at least be able to raise your score so that it equals your SAT I CR score.</p>