When I was preparing to apply for graduate school, I took a practice Literature GRE and was appalled by my low score. I was determined to excel on the test, and by the time I took the real thing, I had raised my score from the 40th percentile to the 89th! I accomplished this feat not by spending ten hours a day for ten weeks in the library, but by focusing on particular aspects of the GRE. You too can master the literature GRE by focusing on these eight suggestions.

(1) Remember that the big picture is just as important as the details.

You don't need to know every character from every book, but you will need to have an overall concept of literary history. Familiarize yourself with the major events in English history that tend to define literary periods, such as the Battle of Hastings, the Peasant's Revolt, the Civil War, and the Restoration. Make yourself a chronological list of literary periods. One such list might divide the literary scene into eight major periods: Old English, Middle English, 16th Century, Restoration and 18th Century, Romantic, Victorian and 19th Century, and the 20th Century. For each literary period, learn the names of the major writers and acquaint yourself with the overarching themes and styles. For example, it will help to know that Romantic writers tended to deify people, while Restoration writers focused on their foibles. The Norton Anthologies Volumes One and Two are useful references for this task. You can read the introductions to each literary period to obtain the "big picture." And understanding the "big picture" will help you to use a process of elimination to identify passages from works you have never read. If you find yourself reading a satire that mocks humankind, it is more likely to have come from the pen of a neoclassical writer than that of a Romantic writer (always excepting Byron, of course).