<p>SAT II Lit barely has any rhetorical terms or vocab. AFAIK, there might have been one rhetorical term question on the exam I took this June. </p>
<p>What you need to do is:</p>
<p>1) be able to read and comprehend under pressure. You can’t be one of those readers that has to go back, reread several times, and then understand. It has to just click within 2 minutes of skimming the passage. Seriously. 2 minutes a passage - the Kaplan book has the time all calculated - and it better click. Otherwise, you can kiss your 800 goodbye. </p>
<p>2) be able to find the best answer. Don’t go jumping at the obvious answer choices. Often times, the answer choices will have two parts and you’ll need to verify that both parts are correct. And the Roman Numeral questions just suck because you have to really go back and re-read the passage and verify each answer option. </p>
<p>3) have a firm understanding of the purpose of rhetorical devices. You need to know more than “parallelism is used for emphasis; rhyme is used for a musical quality.” Remember, the purpose of rhetorical devices is not fixed in stone; it often depends on context and purpose. Also, the SAT II Lit exam won’t phrase the questions like this:</p>
<p>“The author uses parallel syntax in lines 22-44 for which of the following reasons?”</p>
<p>A) Emphasis
B) Musical quality
C) Rhythmic quality
D) Style
E) Tone </p>
<p>^No. The SAT II Lit exam tests your critical understanding of the passage by framing each of the answer choices in terms of the passage. In other words, if you don’t understand the passage, you’re screwed. For example, the answer choices would more realistically look like:</p>
<p>A) Convey more fully the experiences of being a lower-middle class immigrant in a foreign country
B) Imbue lines 22-44 with a lyrical quality to make the poem more suited for a vocal performance
C) Add rhythm to convey the sound of the drums referenced to in lines 18-23
D) Show his ability to write elegantly despite being an immigrant who migrated to America very late in life without knowing any Enligsh
E) To convey his vituperative tone toward the anti-immigrant sentiments of his boss</p>
<p>The best way to prepare is to use official material made by the College Board. Serious suggestion: first, consider your entire proposition of even taking the SAT II Lit exam. The exam is challenging. Literature literally has the lowest average score among all the SAT IIs - and by a good couple dozen points too. I got a 760 on CR on the SAT, first time, and a 2300 overall, and I consistently get 90%+ on AP Lang practice tests, yet I got my clock cleaned by the SAT II Lit exam. I’ll find out my score in about 3 days, but I almost don’t even want to know what my scores are. </p>
<p>So before you even buy any review books or cough up the registration fees for the Lit exam … try these two sample AP Lit tests:</p>
<p><a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board;
<p>These AP Lit tests are very close in difficulty and identical in format to the actual SAT II Lit test. Both are meant to be taken in an hour, and both have ~60 questions. Take them. Aim for ~90% right if you want an 800. According to the Kaplan book, a raw score ranging from 57 - 63 is an 800 (although the Kaplan book is somewhat idiosyncratic in that its practice tests have 63 questions, which is 1 or 2 more than what usual Lit exams have). </p>
<p>Kaplan Curve (use this as an approximation of the real curve):
56-55 - 790
54-52 - 780
51 - 770
50 - 760
49 - 750
48 - 740
47 - 730 … and we’ll stop there ;).</p>