English Literature / Unit 19 ENL 1828 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Knowledge Questions: Authors and Works
The idea
About thirty-five to forty percent of the exam tests knowledge: authors, works, periods, terms and critical ideas. Prepare in four steps. First, learn each period's major authors and two works each, using the matching entries in every unit. Second, learn the landmark dates: Beowulf's manuscript, Chaucer's Tales, the First Folio of sixteen twenty-three, Paradise Lost, Lyrical Ballads, Victoria's reign and The Waste Land. Third, learn the terms: conceit, heroic couplet, dramatic monologue, stream of consciousness, epiphany, objective correlative. Fourth, learn who said what in criticism, from Sidney to Said. On the exam, eliminate options from the wrong period first, then choose among the rest by genre and clue.
In practice
Authors, dates, terms, critics.
Where people slip
Wrong options are often from the right genre and the wrong period. Check the period first.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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