Woah..SAT II Lit is Hard

<p>i feel really stupid, becuase i've taken 2-3 practice tests for sat 2 lit, and they seem pretty hard. im pretty good at reading comp (got 800 on critical reading), but some of the poems on this test seem to be so obscure, and if you dont "get" them immediately, then you're screwed. maybe it's bc/ im taking the kaplan practice tests and theyre harders (i dont know if thats true), but im really nervous that i'm not ready for the test. does anyone have any tips/advice for the test? thanks</p>

<p>Take the one from the Real SAT IIs book. I got a 770 on CR on the SAT, and I found the Lit test to be only a little harder, but it has a much nicer curve. Then again, I am good with poetry.</p>

<p>Lol, I took the 10 questions on CB. I thought I did horrible, and I'm not that great with poetry. But hey, I got 7 out of 10 by half guessing:)</p>

<p>ml41588, your probably doing so bad because you had no help from your english teacher this year.</p>

<p>For those who have taken the test, or a practice test: Can you say how important it is to immediately "understand the passage"? I took the sample questions on the CB website and missed the first one... I thought there would be a new poem/selection for each one, but upon seeing the same poem selection repeated, it suddenly "clicked." Once I understood the passage, the rest of the questions were a breeze. However, I don't know if I can always rely on the passage clicking. Are there are any questions similar to the sentence completions on the Literature test? Is vocabulary building necessary? Is it mostly reading comprehension? I got a 720 on Critical Reading and I think I missed a sentence completion or two.. Without sentence completions and with a little nicer curve, should I be able to hit 750?</p>

<p>It's all reading comprehension. Actually, I used Kaplan's older edition, which has like 8 practice tests, to get a feel for the exam. Although Kaplan is usually one of the worst book-makers, my practice scores (720-760) were pretty in line with my final score (750). Good luck!</p>

<p>they were hard!? I took Lit because and didn't study for it one bit, in fact I didnt even know I was taking them. I signed up for W.History, but they didnt have that so I just take Lit for the heck of it (already pay for the test) I score a 700, you probably own that test.</p>

<p>syn,
I took the test in May, and there were several poems that I didn't understand at all the first time I read them, but they made since by the time I got through all the questions. After that, it was just a matter of going back and checking my answers to the earlier questions from before I really "got the point" of the passage. For me at least, there was enough time to go back over all my answers before the end of the test.</p>

<p>i took lit in may also,
it is hard. i got a 770 on the critical reading and a 700 on the literature with almost no added preparation (other than SATI stuff)
the poems are hard because they are so ambiguous and everything is contingent on one or two points, and if you don't interpret those points correctly immediately, then its easy to mess up an entire section.<br>
its not an easy test, the only consolation i can offer is that the curve is really nice at the top, but it does drop off pretty quickly after that</p>

<p>yeah collegeguy9 i agree with you 100% on both points..hopefully the nice curve at the top will help!</p>

<p>anyone else?</p>

<p>collegeguy, about what is the curve?
i did a barrons practice test, but they dont give samples curves</p>

<p>can anyone post a link of sat 2 curves (esp literature)?</p>

<p>you can miss about 5 or 6 and still get an 800.</p>

<p>wow, thats...pretty good</p>

<p>but just to be safe, how many can i miss for a 750?</p>

<p>~7-8?</p>

<p>as in, about how fast does the curve fall off past there?</p>

<p>collegeguy mentioned it falls down from the top fast, but what did he mean by 'the top'?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Out of a possible 61: (from Real SAT IIs)</p>

<p>56-61: 800
55: 790
53-54: 780
........And then it decreased by 10 points for each increment in raw score..............
44-45: 700
39: 650
33: 600</p>

<p>I just took the practice test out of the 22 Reals. I missed nine and made a 750. However, five of the nine were from one poem... Emily Dickinson. </p>

<p>I think on the real test if I don't get a poem immediately, I'm going to skip it and then come back. That's probably the best thing to do with the time constraint even though it really isn't as bad I thought. </p>

<p>You can also tell a lot about a poem by reading the answer choices.</p>

<p>i decided to take it yesterday and i picked up the kaplan book today. ive done 23 questions from one test and missed one so far so im hoping that will be very reflective of my score on the test. but, i doubt it.</p>

<p>I took the SAT Lit in Jan and got a 750. The one piece of advice I can give you is to read the questions and answers before you read the passage, and if you completely don't get the passage, you can usually pick up a common thread in the answers. So don't worry if you don't understand it immediately, the questions really do guide your understanding, a lot more than they do in the SAT CR. Either way, since you can't really study (I assure you, put away your books, studying is useless), get a really good night's rest, eat breakfast and read poems on your way to the SAT prep center. Good luck! :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
syn,
I took the test in May, and there were several poems that I didn't understand at all the first time I read them, but they made since by the time I got through all the questions. After that, it was just a matter of going back and checking my answers to the earlier questions from before I really "got the point" of the passage. For me at least, there was enough time to go back over all my answers before the end of the test.

[/quote]
Thanks for the response, it's encouraging. I was planning on reading some poetry collections (Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Plath's Ariel) anyway this summer, so hopefully that'll help me.</p>

<p>Honeyhazel02, i think thats a great idea. i practiced a little bit today, and did the whole reading the questions/answers before reading the poem thing and it helped a lot. thanks for the idea.</p>