LITERATURE CLEP EXAMS

American Literature CLEP

The American Literature CLEP exam covers chronologically organized material taught in a two-semester introductory level undergraduate American Literature course. This CLEP test deals with the prose and poetry written in the United States from the Colonial, Romantic, Realism and Naturalism, Modernist, and Contemporary Periods.



This CLEP exam emphasizes fiction and poetry more than essays, dramas, and autobiographies and assumes that students taking the exam have read a wide variety American Literature and know its basic periods and historical development. Specifically, this <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=http://www.speedyprep.com/clep-test-study-guides.aspx>CLEP tests</a> a student’s knowledge about specific literary works’ content such as characters, plots, setting, and themes. This CLEP exam also assesses a student’s ability to understand and interpret short poems or excerpts from longer poems and prose works. Students taking this <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=http://www.speedyprep.com/clep-test.aspx>CLEP test</a> need knowledge of the historical and social settings of literary works and their authors. The American Literature CLEP exam also requires students to demonstrate their familiarity with terminology used by literary critics and historians, while understanding critical theories, verse forms, and literary devices.



Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP

The Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP exam encompasses material presented in a two-semester general literature course. This CLEP exam assumes students have read a wide variety of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction primarily from American and British literature. Exam questions apply to selected passages and no previous experience with the passages is required. Passages in the CLEP test come from the Classical and pre-Renaissance, Renaissance and 17th century, 18th and 19th centuries, and 20th and 21st centuries time periods.



This CLEP test emphasizes comprehension, interpretation, and analysis of literary works and assumes students have an extensive and broad knowledge of literature and familiarity with basic terminology. Questions on this CLEP exam test students’ abilities to read prose, poetry, and drama with understanding, analyze the elements of a literary passage, and respond to meaning, tone, imagery, and style. This CLEP exam also requires students to interpret metaphors, recognize rhetorical and stylistic devices, perceive relationships between parts and wholes, and grasp a speaker or author's attitudes. In addition, students must demonstrate an understanding of achieved literary effects for CLEP success.

English Literature CLEP

The English Literature CLEP exam covers an historical organization of material received in a two-semester undergraduate course. This CLEP test covers authors’ work from Beowulf to the present, concentrating on major authors and literary works, but sometimes including questions about minor writers. This CLEP test assumes students have read a wide variety of English Literature and know basic literary periods and their historical development.  



This CLEP exam measures a student’s knowledge of literary background and metrical patterns, while assessing a student’s ability to analyze the elements of form in a literary passage, perceive meanings, follow patterns of imagery, comprehend reasoning of literary criticism, and identify tone, mood, and style characteristics. Some of the questions on the CLEP exam ask students to identify the author of a representative quotation or excerpt and recognize the quotation or excerpt’s time period. To ensure CLEP success, students should also know common literary terms, such as metaphor and personification, and basic literary forms, such as the sonnet and the ballad.  



CLEP Test Details

All of these multiple-choice CLEP exams allow for completion within 90 minutes.  The American Literature CLEP exam has about 100 questions, while the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP exam contains approximately 80 questions and the English Literature CLEP exam contains has 95 questions. These CLEP exams offer additional optional 90-minute essays with two components each, which are sometimes required by students’ higher learning institutions.



In the American Literature CLEP essays, students are given a common theme and list of major authors in order to write a well-organized essay discussing the way authors handle specific themes.  Another essay requires CLEP testers to provide a written analysis of a given poem or prose excerpt. Some Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP essay require testers to analyze a short poem while other essays ask testers to apply a given generalization about literature, such as the function of a theme to a novel, short story, or play. The English Literature CLEP essay evaluates a student’s ability to write clearly and effectively.  Students must first write a CLEP essay on the topic, such as a persuasive analysis of a poem, and then decide between two other essay topics that give a specific observation, position, or theme. For CLEP success, students should select work by a particular author to assist in appropriately supporting their claim.