Analyzing and Interpreting Lit.

[OE800_85]

Perhaps in your previous statement you weren't very clear...I seem to remember you saying...
"Familiarize yourself with a variety of literature - I actually knew a passage on the test from my American Lit studies - I didn't have to think about what it meant - I just knew it. "

That sounds like memorization to me. I suppose in a sense this test discourages creativity, as is the whole point with literature. I guess I mis-understood your post earlier. I think that's a good strategy; to see how others have interpreted literature, and extrapolate from there. Sure, there are many common literary devices and themes. However, if that's what you wanted to say, your method is not unique, that's how everyone studies for literature. The more you read (both original text and analysis), the better you get at it. I thought you were trying to just look up every possible author on the test and memorize what people have said about them.

[mtryon]

Thank you very much Cooperalex2004! I've passed my first CLEP, scoring a 64 on Analyzing and Interpreting Literature.

I do a lot of reading and writing so I decided to go into this exam with no study. I spent zero time trying to learn literary terms, recognizing that this was a small potion of the test. However, the Friday night before the test, I was randomly working practice questions from the College Boards CLEP book and missing way more than I was comfortable with. This left me quite panicked leading into the test.

I agree with the comments I've seen here...If you are well read, this exam is passable without study. If you are not a reader, you may find this exam challenging. Additionally, because you're not studying the same passages that your exam questions are based on, studying can add only marginal value.