Recommendations for American Literature Study Materials

[mstcrow5429]

I'm going to take AmLit next Friday, and I've noticed that there's no course listed in the InstantCert offerings. What materials do others that have taken the exam recommend for preparation?

[ShotoJuku]

[SIZE="3"][COLOR="Navy"]The Idiot's Guide to American Literature is all you need.

Use the SEARCH feature for more info too!!!!![/COLOR][/SIZE]

[mstcrow5429]

[SIZE="3"][COLOR="Navy"]The Idiot's Guide to American Literature is all you need.

Use the SEARCH feature for more info too!!!!![/COLOR][/SIZE]

And Amazon is out of stock and my local library doesn't carry it. :-(

Edit: Gurg, the Idiot's Guide section of Penguin USA only offers it in Adobe Reader or MS Reader format.

[Kiwi Lover]

mstcrow,

I personally found that taking the Petersons practice test for this one gave me a good idea of what to expect on this exam. That is ALL I did to prepare for the exam.

Also, if you haven't already done so, there is a thread on this exam in the "Specific Exam Feedback" section.

JoAnne

[mstcrow5429]

I chose MS Reader because it allowed notetaking and doodles, according to Wikipedia. Which you can, sort of, but it's embedded within the document, and you can't copy and paste anything from commercial works into a word processor. MS Reader itself is underdeveloped and somewhat unintuitive. It's mostly abandoned by Microsoft as far as development is concerned, as the most recent version for desktops is 2.1.1, from 2003, and no version was released for Windows Mobile 6.0. The help on activation refers to the old "Passport" naming, not the current "Windows Live ID." It is not designed for modern operating systems. You have to install it under an administrator account (which can be done via run as), but then you have to activate it to read commercial material, which makes heavy usage of ActiveX controls, which can only be done under Internet Explorer (or IE Tab in FireFox), under an administrative account. So you have to elevate your normal user account to an administrator account, log out, log back in, activate MS Reader in IE or IE Tab, close MS Reader (otherwise you'll get a complaint that it has to be updated when you try to open up the commercial material), open MS Reader, ensure it works as well as can be expected (it will crash the first time, you have to create an exception for it in DEP), de-elevate your normal user account to a user level account, log out, then log back in again. A very convoluted process that will trip up less experienced users. As for MS Reader, it's designed so you can't access anything from a central location, but you have to click through a few menus, which is very tedious when you don't have drop down menus (which is most of the time) so you can see every option at once. It will prompt you every single time if you want to open the eBook, even though Text-to-Speech is disabled. As the eBook is owner-exclusive licensed, and no owner-exclusive licensed books can use Text-to-Speech, this is an idiotic annoyance. The software itself is ugly and slow, with a control bar on the bottom that looks like it was pulled from Windows 95. I'd suggest others purchased the PDF version of "Idiot's Guide to American Literature," if it can work with FoxIt Reader (although you won't be able to take and save notes unless you use the Pro Pack, unsure if you will be able to copy and paste). If not, you have two bad options, Adobe Reader or MS Reader, and it's really up to you which is less annoying. For my money, MS Reader is preferable, as Adobe Reader has a tendency to hang up your computer and is very prone to crashing.

Note that, as with many eBooks, the table of contents is littered with euros, TMs and other odd characters.

[mstcrow5429]

mstcrow,

I personally found that taking the Petersons practice test for this one gave me a good idea of what to expect on this exam. That is ALL I did to prepare for the exam.

Also, if you haven't already done so, there is a thread on this exam in the "Specific Exam Feedback" section.

JoAnne

I don't see a thread on "America Literature" in the "Specific Exam Feedback ONLY" section. Is there a thread somewhere called "Specific Exam Feedback," sans "ONLY?"

Are you referring to the Peterson's practice tests listed at http://www.instantcertonline.com/forums/...read.html? The free CLEP mock exams are gone due to "funding constraints," but "Peterson's CLEP Success" is still accessible. Or if you register for Petersons.com, do you get a free practice test?

Edit: "Peterson's CLEP Success" doesn't cover "American Literature," only "English Composition," "College Mathematics," "Humanities" and "Social Sciences and History."

[Kiwi Lover]

I'm sorry - I goofed. I "heard" Literature mentioned, and I immediately thought you were talking about the "Analyzing & Interpreting Literature" exam. That is what Petersons test I was referring to.

When I used to take the Peterson practice exams, I always paid the $20 for the exam (because my employer reimbursed me), so I'm not exactly sure where (or if) you can still do the free exams. I'm sure someone in the forum will be able to say....

JoAnne

[mstcrow5429]

K, if you purchase the MS Reader version of "Idiot's Guide to American Literature," you can de-DRM the material with Convert LIT from here: Convert LIT.com. Of the four HTML documents you will see, you probably want to use the one that end with "toc." The images and HTML files are all present in a folder as individual files, not one centralized document from the view's perspective as with the .LIT file. Although this does mean you can copy and paste now, print it (422 pages) or just print out trouble sections. Obviously, I'm recommending this as a way to utilize your purchased material in a more efficient manner, not to de-DRM it and then freely disseminate it.

[ShotoJuku]

And Amazon is out of stock and my local library doesn't carry it. :-(

.

[SIZE="3"]Try Barnes & Noble or your local book store.[/SIZE]

[mstcrow5429]

[SIZE="3"]Try Barnes & Noble or your local book store.[/SIZE]

It wasn't at Borders' or Barnes and Noble's website. It is an out of print book, I think. Both B&N and Borders are literally my local book stores. I can walk to both of them in about equal time (5 minutes, maybe). I just didn't feel like going out, it's been dreary and cold all last week and into this one.