<p>I'll be taking the SATII's in December. I'm trying to decide between US History, Literature and Biology. I'm fairly certain as to what the US His and Biology tests would entail, but what exactly is the Lit one on?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>it's like the SATI critical reading except with a wider array of works like poems, etc.</p>
<p>also, the questions are more in depth and you should review literary terms because they are mentioned in most of the questions.</p>
<p>Its kind of like a precursor to the AP English test.</p>
<p>reviewing literary terms is a good idea. if you're doing well in any kind of honors/advanced english course and found the CR section on the SAT I to be no problem then you're set. I barely prepared, just flipped through a prep book the night before and got a 730.</p>
<p>I have no idea what grade you're in, but I don't rec taking the U.S. History one until right after the course is over, just so that everything is fresh in your mind. I took the test in Oct, months after APUSH had ended, and I unfortunately scored a 620. If you're a senior, study! :)</p>
<p>To answer your original question, Literature is pretty much passages/poems that you have to answer questions for. The questions do require a fair mastery of literary techniques (you have to know what the options mean!). You don't really need to study for it unless you haven't had a good English course. Just flip through terms and such.</p>
<p>literature is a hit or miss.. If your pretty much a decent reader your guaranteed to get a score in 600s....its tough though to top 700.</p>
<p>if you're not a good reader and you don't prepare much, the lit test will kill you.</p>
<p>my buddy took it and got a 510...</p>
<p>i got 710, but i did prep for 2 weeks before the test.</p>
<p>You don't need to prepare at all assuming you have a good CR score on the SAT I and at least have taken an AP English class. I mean there really is little to prepare for other than a couple of literary terms.</p>
<p>yeah but i say you need at least a week to review the terms and get used to analyzing the poetry if you're not in AP english.</p>
<p>i took the sat lit back in the summer (june?) - i remember being unable to answer the seemingly endless and somewhat obscure term questions. scary! </p>
<p>i scored 660. so this time around, for the retake in May, i studied terms almost obsessively. much to my absolute delight, there were practically NO questions regarding terms. (or maybe i just didnt notice them as much?)
anyhow, i ended up with a 750.</p>
<p>i'd study terms just in case, that is, if you are planning to take it.
my advice is that if you are easily bored by reading, dont take lit. i'm personally kind of into that stuff so almost all the passages/poems were interesting for me to read and analyze, which makes it much easier.</p>
<p>What kind of terms should we know for the passage analysis? Can you guys list several?</p>
<p>mmm...i loved the lit test! I took it over a year ago, so my recollection of exactly what was on the test may not be 100%. It was mostly reading passages and responding: "what was the overall feeling of this passage?" "what did the author mean by this?" etc. But it did require you to know a few literary terms (i.e. diction, hyperbole, blah blah). I would advise looking at one of the SAT II Lit study books, it helped a lot.</p>
<p>wait...i don't agree with what nectarine said. I think you could very well top 700 if you're a decent reader. I didn't study that much at all (and no, I'm not a super test-taker either...640 on the Crit reading section of the SAT). I just looked through an SAT review book and looked at the list of terms, took one practice test and got 740. You really just need to read well and efficiently.</p>
<p>It seems to me to be essentially the same as CR or AP English Lit Multiple Choice, except between the two in difficulty.</p>
<p>I found it incredibly easy, but if you don't do well on CR (or AP Lit/Lang if you've taken them) then I don't know if I would recommend it.</p>
<p>But as can be seen from previous posts, you can do well on one and not the other, so it's really up to you. I suppose a practice book would help in that regard, though I did not study for it at all.</p>
<p>Jenz, buy a Barron's book - it really helped.</p>
<p>Some example terms would be: apostrophe, antithesis - I remember these two because they were on the test in Oct.</p>
<p>oh, I love such terms. I had to learn 81 of them for AP English last year, so I'll just review them.</p>
<p>hmm It really depends on just where ur skills lie? Are you normally good at literature in school? I got 780 in lit without studying...but at the same sitting 600 for math which I spent 2 weeks cramming for =P</p>
<p>once again, it's pretty similar to SAT I CR (I got a 720 on CR and 730 on lit with basically no prep except being in an AP lit class.) There's a fair amount of poetry...and obviously short passages from stories. if you are easily bored with reading or easily distracted then DO NOT take the test. I found I had to reread many of the passages to understand all the symbolism. I usually enjoy reading literature but by the end I was getting really tired. just stick it out and you'll be fine, though.</p>
<p>If you've taken the literature AP, it's no sweat. I took it the June after my AP and got an 800 with no prep other than having taken the class (I also read a lot, which I think was important.)</p>
<p>Do brush up on your literary terms. There were at least a few- I can't remember specifics, it was eighteen months ago- that I only got because my teacher had happened to mention them in the last few weeks of class. It's a combination of this sort of analysis (nothing deep, just identifying devices and things like that) and reading comprehension. The literature isn't great fun, and it is a lot like the CR, but I thought it was really easy, especially as compared to AP Lit.</p>