I just read this book for 2 days and took the exam..which turned out to be quite easy as compared to the practise exams on this book. I got 55-58 in the practise tests while i scored 66 today in exam.The book especially the practise exams help one to get in the mood of reading literature. As for the terms they could be found anywhere online also.And there is no need to get much into meter and rhyme, (That is if you are willing to loose 1 question).
Thus according to me its the easiest clep to get 6 credits. The only thing is to manage time wisely and you should do fine.
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I bought this book 1 week before my exam. I am from a science background... I'm a very slow reader, and have not read all that much other than the force-fed stuff in high school...

I reviewed the terminology in the book (i.e., allusion, simile, etc.) and took both of the practice exams on the CD (and passed both on the first try)... thus, I felt prepared enough for this exam...

HOWEVER, it seems that the College Board may have made this test more difficult (than the other reviewers make it seem)... The passages on my exam were a bit longer in general, and as I said, I'm a slow reader, so that was a bit of a biatch... Also, at the actual testing center, the font on the screen was WAY TOO BIG, and several times, a question referred to a word on line x when the word was really on line y...yes, another biatch.

I found the actual exam a slight bit more challenging than the practice exams in the book and on the CD, and I ran out of time, started guessing at the end, and didn't even get to the last few questions...

But SOMEHOW, I got a scaled score of 61 out of 80 on the exam (you need a 50 or better to pass)...

My thinking is that the College Board has in fact made the exam more difficult, but at the same time allows a more generous scaling of the score. When I finished, I expected to receive a barely-passing score at best...

Anywho, if you're going to take this exam, DEFINITELY BUY THIS BOOK, REVIEW ALL OF THE BOLDFACE TERMS A COUPLE OF TIMES, AND TAKE THE PRACTICE EXAMS ON THE CD. If you consider yourself at least moderately intelligent, this should get you by...

GOOD LUCK!!

I agree with the previous reviewer who stated that the sample tests in this book are much harder than the actual exam.

Don't bother learning every last bit of terminology - just know the basics and you'll do fine.

I bought this book back in early March to study for the CLEP exam that I had scheduled for March 31st. When I received the book, I became a bit nervous that I had two weeks to study and the book recommends six weeks. I carried that book around for those two weeks reading it whenever I could and took the practice exams which I did pretty poorly on (I scored 38 out of 80 on the first practice test). By the time the day of my CLEP exam arrived, I figured I was going to fail it but I took it anyway (I was 3 units from my BS degree). Imagine my surprise when I scored 61 out of 80! I think that this book actually over prepares you for the actual CLEP test, making it that much easier to pass.

The book is great, and very enjoyable to read. There is a whole lot of great information here, and I am positive it helped me.

The weakness is the test exams. The highest score I could get no matter how hard I studied was 50/80. On the actual exam I scored 74/78.

The difference is that the answers to the questions on the test exam will contain a couple very similar answers. On the actual test things are a little more clear and the process of elimination works much better.

Good Luck!