English Literature CLEP , Any experiences

[Dewm]

I just took it last Thursday and passed with a 62. I did a lot of study, especially on authors, memorizing figurative terms, etc. I found that the biggest help was taking a few practice tests (both official and tests I found online), and that pretty much told me the range of what was on my test. I expected a lot more to be on the test... I was memorizing more recent authors (Victorian and Modern), and as it was, there weren't a lot of questions about authors on the test. However when there were, it was primarily about people like Chaucer and Shakespeare (of course), and a few others like Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, etc., both of whom are Renaissance. If they're going to ask about authors, it's mainly going to be middle ages and renaissance, and romanticism. But don't rule out the others, after all there are only 5 (or 6 if you count the one we're currently in). It would be wise to memorize the literary periods, and their sub-periods (for example Jacobean took place during the Renaissance), and roughly when the authors lived, and at what end of the period.

I barely saw any questions using figurative language that didn't cover the basics, like irony, simile, metaphor, but there were a few others that I was lucky to have studied, like anastrophe, anaphora, etc.

I also expected there to be a lot more meter questions, or at least ones asking iambic, trochaic, spondaic, etc. but as it turns out, they only asked about blank verse, free verse, end rhyme, and other more basic types of rhythm and meter. But it's still good to know, and maybe I was "lucky" and my test happened to not include them, who knows.

Most of the test was interpreting literature, and imo that's pretty easy. Just read the question first, and then read the passage (you may need to do it multiple times). You CAN mark questions on the test and return later, which I found invaluable. I finished with 20 minutes to spare, and went back to the ones I had marked and finally felt confident (or at least more so considering I ONLY got a 62) and submitted it.


I relied on online tests, other people's experiences, shmoop and sparknotes, and making my own flashcards on Quizlet. I didn't buy the prep book and did just fine. But that's up to you. This is just my experience after all.