Princeton Review - Cracking the SAT Literature Subject Test, 2013-2014 Edition

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Copyright 2013 by TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC.

Cover art Jonathan Pozniak

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Excerpt from The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Copyright 2001 by Louise Erdrich.

Excerpt from Waiting reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright 1999 by Ha Jin.

Brass Spittoons reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Copyright 1927 by Alfred A. Knopf., Inc. Copyright renewed 1955 by Langston Hughes.

There Is No Frigate Like a Book reprinted from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, by permission of Little, Brown and Company.

Blue Girls copyright 1927 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and renewed 1955 by John Crowe Ransom. Reprinted from Selected Poems, Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged by John Crowe Ransom, by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Madmans Song copyright 1921 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and renewed 1949 by William Rose Bent. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Of Studies reprinted from Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry, 2nd ed., edited by Alexander M. Witherspoon and Frank J. Warnke, by permission of Harcourt Brace and Company.

The Mower to the Glowworms reprinted from Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry, 2nd ed., edited by Alexander M. Witherspoon and Frank J. Warnke, by permission of Harcourt Brace and Company.

Promises Like Pie-crust by Christina Rossetti reprinted from Poems and Prose, edited by Jan Marsh, by permission of J. M. Dent.

The Shoemakers Holiday by Thomas Dekker reprinted from Early Seventeenth Century Dramas, edited by Robert G. Lawrence, by permission of J. M. Dent.

The Supper at Elsinore reprinted from Seven Gothic Tales, by Isak Dinesen, by permission of the Rungstedlund Foundation.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-94573-0
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-307-94553-2

SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board.

The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Editor: Liz Rutzel
Production Editor: Koty Zelinka
Production Artist: John E. Stecyk

20132014 Edition

v3.1

I would like to thank the following people who assisted in the writing of this book: Suzanne Markert, Christine Parker, Lisa Liberati, Liz Buffa, and the New York City Public Library.

A special thanks to Adam Robinson, who conceived of and perfected the Joe Bloggs approach to standardized tests and many of the other successful techniques used by The Princeton Review.

If youve purchased this book, you are probably preparing to apply to college. Part of the long and arduous college admissions process will almost certainly include some standardized tests. For most of you, these tests will come from a company called the College Board. This company has hired the Educational Testing Service, or ETS, to administer and grade its exams.

The Princeton Review is a test-preparation company. We have branches all over the United States and abroad. Weve developed the techniques youll find our books, courses, and online resources by analyzing several years worth of actual exams. Weve seen the effectiveness of our techniques in action with thousands of our students.

Tick Tock

We dont waste your time.
We tell you what you
need to know and, more
importantly, what you
dont need to know.

Our approach is what makes our techniques unique. We base our principles on those used by the people who write the test. We dont want to waste your time with information that you dont need to know. We know youre busy. Were not going to teach you How to Appreciate Fine English Literature (although thats a wonderful thing to know), but rather the information youll need to get great score improvements on this test. Youll learn to recognize and comprehend the relatively small amount of information thats actually tested. Youll also learn to avoid common traps, to think like the test writers, to find answers to challenging questions.

You need to do only three things: trust the techniques, practice them, and then practice some more.

The SAT is a three-hour-and-forty-five-minute, multiple-choice exam used by colleges to provide a standard measure of high school students around the country. There are three separate scores generated by the SAT: a critical reading score (on a scale of 200800), a writing score (on a scale of 200800, which combines separate essay and grammar scores), and a math score (also on a 200800 scale).

Not an IQ Test

The SAT is not a measure
of your intelligence. It is a
measure only of your
ability to take a
standardized test.

Precious little: some vocabulary, some reading skills, some grammar, some basic math. What its designed to measuretaken in context with your high school gradesis what your college grades will be. Primarily, it measures your ability to take standardized tests.

These are a series of one-hour exams administered by ETS. Unlike the SAT, the SAT Subject Tests are designed to measure specific knowledge in specific areas. There are tests in many subject areas, such as biology, history, French, and math. They are each scored separately on the familiar 200800 scale.

According to the College Board (which, since it sells you the tests, really has an interest in inflating these numbers) only 160 institutions require or recommend that you take (usually two) SAT Subject Tests. Of course, these are widely considered to be the most selective institutions in the nation. Many schools will waive the requirement if a student takes the ACT with writing in lieu of the SAT Reasoning test. If you are applying to an engineering program, you will usually be asked to take two tests: Math (generally level 2) and a science (you usually have the option of Chemistry or Physics). Your first order of business is to visit the websites of the colleges youre interested in, which have the most up-to-date information about their individual policies.