The SAT Subject Test in Literature, formerly known as the SAT II Literature Exam, is one of the most popular Subject Tests. This might be because you don”t necessarily need specialized knowledge, such as foreign language fluency, to do well on it. However, it also has a reputation for being a fairly difficult test.
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Luckily, I—800-scoring sorceress of the SAT Literature Subject Test—am here to take you through all the particulars of the exam. We”ll go through whether the exam is right for you, its format and content, its question styles, study hacks, practice resources, and test-day tips. Let”s get the magic started!
UPDATE: SAT Subject Tests No Longer Offered or Required
In January 2021, the College Board announced that, effective immediately, no further SAT Subject Tests will be offered in the United States (and that SAT Subject Tests will only be offered internationally only through June 2021). It is now no longer possible to take SAT Subject Tests.
In the past several years, many schools have dropped their Subject Test requirements, and by the time the College Board made their announcement, nearly no schools required them. With this news, no colleges will require Subject Tests, even from students who could have hypothetically taken the exams a few years ago. Some schools may consider your Subject Test scores if you submit them, similar to how they consider AP scores, but you should contact the specific schools you”re interested in to learn their exact policies.
Many students were understandably confused about why this announcement happened midyear and what this means for college applications going forward. Read more about the details of what the end of SAT Subject Tests means for you and your college apps here
Here is a quick guide for those who”d prefer to skip around:
SAT Literature Subject Test Format
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Should You Take the SAT Literature Subject Test?
There are, in general, a few reasons why you might take one or more Subject Tests. You might take them because a school you are applying to requires or recommends them, or you might take them because you want to show mastery in a subject that you are particularly gifted in.
Beyond that, should you choose the SAT Literature Subject Test in particular? Ask yourself the following three questions to help you decide:
Burning questions.
#1: Do You Like (or at Least Not Hate) English?
Most people don”t love all subjects equally. You might feel as though you should take Literature if your other SAT Subject Tests are all math and science so that you can show a diverse set of skills—even if, in reality, English bores you to tears.
But trust me—it”s going to be much less painful for you, and better for your college applications, if you take SAT Subject Tests in things you are really interested in. This will give a truer picture of who you are as a student anyways.
#2: Will You Do Well on It?
Obviously, you aren”t an oracle and can”t know for sure whether the SAT Subject Test in Literature will be a home run for you. But before you register, you should think about whether or not you are positioned to do well on the exam.
The College Board recommends three to four years of literary study “at the college prep level.” I took the test in the fall of my junior year and was fine, but I wouldn”t advise taking it earlier than that.
If you”ve done well in your high school English classes, you can reasonably expect to do well on the Literature exam with the help of some preparation. That being said, you might still want to take a practice test before you register to get a ballpark idea of how much work you have to put in. Don”t expect to get an 800 right off the bat!
However, if you do really poorly on a practice test, consider going with a different Subject Test or postponing the Literature exam so you have more time to prepare for it.
#3: When Are You Applying to College?
When you”ll be applying to college can help determine how soon you should take the Literature Subject Test. If you take the exam too early in your high school career, you won”t necessarily have the skills base you need to do well. Take it too late, though, and you might not have time to retake it if you didn”t score as well as you wanted to.
I”d advise doing your first go-around sometime in your junior year. (You can take it later in the school year or over the summer if you think you need more time to prepare—see our guide to SAT Subject Test dates.)
If you decide to take the Literature exam, you”ll want to get familiar with the test format. Read on to learn more, noble scholars of literature!
So noble. Very scholarly. Wow.
SAT Literature Subject Test Format
Like the other Subject Tests, the SAT Literature Subject Test is one hour long.
Readmore: Bí Quyết Giúp Học Nhanh Các Môn Thuộc Lòng, Researchgate
You”ll answer about 60 multiple-choice questions, although the number varies slightly among administrations of the test. Each question has five answer choices.
Every correct answer is worth 1 point, and incorrect answers are worth -1/4 points as a way to discourage random guessing. Unanswered questions are worth 0 points.
On the test, your task will be to answer questions on six to eight passages of English literature. Passages will generally not include authors or titles, but you will be able to find the original date of publication (or estimated date of composition) at the end of each excerpt. Every fifth line will be marked so you can quickly find your way around the passage when answering questions.
Each passage has its own set of questions; it”s like six to eight little mini-tests ranging from four to 12 questions per passage. The first and last questions for each excerpt will generally be about the passage as a whole, while the ones in the middle will usually ask questions about specific parts of the passage.
Unsurprisingly, the questions on this exam will ask you to analyze elements of literary passages. This could be anything from identifying the overall theme, to dissecting the meaning of a phrase in context, to analyzing the use of figurative language. I”ll go over more specifics later on, but that”s the basic idea.
On the exam you could see prose, poetry, drama, etc., from as early as the Renaissance period to as recent as the 20th century. Expect to see literature from the US, England, and occasionally other English-speaking countries. Works have to be originally written in English to be included in the exam, so no excerpts from Les Miserables or One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Note that topics and genres are not randomly distributed. In the next section, we”ll go into what percentages of different sorts of material you can expect to see on the Literature test.
You might see an excerpt from one of these on the exam!
SAT Literature Passage Content
Passages will generally not come from highly recognizable works, but they will be chosen because they have some literary merit in the eyes of the College Board.
In general, the College Board takes pains to select passages that are pretty uncontroversial in their theme and content, avoiding anything that requires a deep level of specialized cultural or religious knowledge to interpret (so no drawn-out allegories about Christianity or anything like that).
The six to eight passages you”ll need to examine for the SAT Literature Test can be divided along three categorical lines:
Author”s nationality (American, English, or other)GenreTime period
It breaks down like this:
#1: Author”s Nationality
On the Literature Subject Test, 40-50% of passages will be written by an American author, 40-50% by a British author, and 0-10% by another author writing in English. So you can expect about half and half British and American authors, with maybe one passage written by an author from another country. As you might have noticed, this is very much a Western-lit centric test.
#2: Genre
In terms of genre, 40-50% of passages will be prose; these are mostly short excerpts from fiction or essays. Another 40-50% will be poetry; these are typically full-length poems, though sometimes the College Board will take a shorter section from a long work of verse.
Finally, about 0-10% will be drama or another genre, such as a folktale, myth, etc. Once again, you can expect about half and half between poetry and prose, with maybe one passage using a different form of writing.
#3: Time Period
This breakdown is a little different than the two above. You can expect 30% of passages to come from the Renaissance (late 15th century) through the 1600s. This equals about two passages. Another 30% will come from the 1700s-1800s, so expect another two passages or so there. The remaining 40%—around three passages—will come from the 20th and 21st centuries.
As you can see, the test is a little more heavily weighted toward the modern era, but you should be prepared for literature anywhere from the late 1400s to the 2000s.
Don”t worry—you won”t need to read Middle English or Old English for earlier works. Passages will be comprehensible. The language won”t be any older than Shakespearean English!
Categories: literature