Hey is it that hard for foreigners to take English Literature for SAT2?

[Evirose_FunkyMonkey]

I am a chinese student, studying A-LEVEL course in China but would like to go to the States for college.

In my present wicked school, there are only subjects about Science, Businees, and Economics available. Which means that there is No humanity subjects! No literary ones! No social ones!

I got worried cuz I would like to focus on social, literature or humanity majors in college, neither those awful science nor maths. Then I decided to take English Literature and U.S History for my SAT2.

What bothers me, is that I cannot get any training for Literature and History from my present high school cuz theres no such subjects. Plus, I am a Chinese, surely cannot use English as well as my first language. Language isnt a problem in Science subjects but does become a truly existing problem when I take Literature and History subjects.

Now my friends and teachers are all persuading me not to take such decision but just take Maths II, Physics, Chemistry for SAT2 like what all other Chinese students did. Is being unique good?

Its kinda frustrating to me not to have their support. I was full of passion but right now I feel like I am exhausted and, confused.

IS THERE ANY FOREIGNER WHO TAKES LITERATURE OR HISTORY OR BOTH FOR SAT2 ?
Could u share some experience with me? <3 lets inspire each other

 

[R_i_:P]

Well FunkyMonkey, this decision depends totally upon you..Most people who chooses Eng Literature have an excellent base from reading to understanding to interpreting and finally evaluating texts in English...From my experience,few of my friends whom have taken Eng literature and got A/A*, never consulted with anyone about any decision making & made up their mind long ago.... but rather they were discouraged by their parents and teachers to not take them as many others unknowingly takes them and ends up with very bad grades.They from the very beginning had a bright idea about the subject and I noticed most of them have this poetic/philosophical-writer themed attitude wrapped in them and ultimately nails the subject..We have this saying here in my country,Bangladesh,either you get a A/A* in Lit. or a D/E/F in it
(note- in the world only about like 10-20% students gets above B in O/A Levels Eng Lit)...


Anyway what subjects did you give in ur O's? u did give Eng Lit amongst the others,right? If you did how was it? or if not I think maybe you need to give it for the sake of your field..A combination of like Math D,Eng Lang,Mandarin Chinese,EngLit,History,Economics,Sociology,
Arts.. something like this would have sufficed for you....

And also I recommend you to change school or go private for your A's as your current school have left you no options ...as for your A's choose between
Eng Lit,History,Economics,Philosophy,Sociology(minimum go for the 3 underlined)

If you're really serious about this,you have to go through tons of novels, poems and plays,have to write lengthy essays,also analyzing countless texts in minute details....You have to like creative writing & everything you write is based on the analysis of some other author's work..you have to do some really in-depth study of language and have a good range of vocabulary to make it all the more better..basically you have to turn yourself into a bookworm and make those books your soul mate LOL.... it'll take some considerable time and hard work

As for SAT ,I don't think your school has anything to do with this now do they? :/ They already do teach you for A levels..
& before SAT II,there is SAT I Reasoning Test which consists of three sections -Maths,Critical Reading and lastly Writing ...then comes the SAT II
Look for coaching centers that teaches SAT and you will be fine..
AFAIK Asian schools doesn't teach SAT...almost all of them follows the British council so expect only O & A's from them

Lastly if you're new to this English field,like you suddenly have an urge to go for this...I strongly recommend you to not go any further...but seeing this is what what you desire and you had your passion for this but now its gone & you're somewhat broken and confused and also saying your English is weaker than your mother tongue is not a good sign at all...Either you have to change this fact or make up your mind for something else..

So turn the tables around if you can ,start learning new stuffs,change your perspective and don't let anyone hold you back as this is what happens worse to us,this discouragement.... again you're totally in dependable for all of this....Regards! & sry for this huge reply

 

[Evirose_FunkyMonkey]

wowwww!!!!!! Thank u sooooooooooo much
I have never expected to get such a reply when I was posting this!!! It's very nice of ya!!! And I have read through it
THX sooooooooo much <3 Yes I will carry on putting effort into Literature and try not to be influenced by others
Could u also recommend some good novels to help improve Lit skills? At the moment I have found Jane Eyre, Gone With the Wind and some Shakespear's dramas.

Well FunkyMonkey, this decision depends totally upon you..Most people who chooses Eng Literature have an excellent base from reading to understanding to interpreting and finally evaluating texts in English...From my experience,few of my friends whom have taken Eng literature and got A/A*, never consulted with anyone about any decision making & made up their mind long ago.... but rather they were discouraged by their parents and teachers to not take them as many others unknowingly takes them and ends up with very bad grades.They from the very beginning had a bright idea about the subject and I noticed most of them have this poetic/philosophical-writer themed attitude wrapped in them and ultimately nails the subject..We have this saying here in my country,Bangladesh,either you get a A/A* in Lit. or a D/E/F in it
(note- in the world only about like 10-20% students gets above B in O/A Levels Eng Lit)...


Anyway what subjects did you give in ur O's? u did give Eng Lit amongst the others,right? If you did how was it? or if not I think maybe you need to give it for the sake of your field..A combination of like Math D,Eng Lang,Mandarin Chinese,EngLit,History,Economics,Sociology,
Arts.. something like this would have sufficed for you....

And also I recommend you to change school or go private for your A's as your current school have left you no options ...as for your A's choose between
Eng Lit,History,Economics,Philosophy,Sociology(minimum go for the 3 underlined)

If you're really serious about this,you have to go through tons of novels, poems and plays,have to write lengthy essays,also analyzing countless texts in minute details....You have to like creative writing & everything you write is based on the analysis of some other author's work..you have to do some really in-depth study of language and have a good range of vocabulary to make it all the more better..basically you have to turn yourself into a bookworm and make those books your soul mate LOL.... it'll take some considerable time and hard work

As for SAT ,I don't think your school has anything to do with this now do they? :/ They already do teach you for A levels..
& before SAT II,there is SAT I Reasoning Test which consists of three sections -Maths,Critical Reading and lastly Writing ...then comes the SAT II
Look for coaching centers that teaches SAT and you will be fine..
AFAIK Asian schools doesn't teach SAT...almost all of them follows the British council so expect only O & A's from them

Lastly if you're new to this English field,like you suddenly have an urge to go for this...I strongly recommend you to not go any further...but seeing this is what what you desire and you had your passion for this but now its gone & you're somewhat broken and confused and also saying your English is weaker than your mother tongue is not a good sign at all...Either you have to change this fact or make up your mind for something else..

So turn the tables around if you can ,start learning new stuffs,change your perspective and don't let anyone hold you back as this is what happens worse to us,this discouragement.... again you're totally in dependable for all of this....Regards! & sry for this huge reply

 

[R_i_:P]

wowwww!!!!!! Thank u sooooooooooo much
I have never expected to get such a reply when I was posting this!!! It's very nice of ya!!! And I have read through it
THX sooooooooo much <3 Yes I will carry on putting effort into Literature and try not to be influenced by others
Could u also recommend some good novels to help improve Lit skills? At the moment I have found Jane Eyre, Gone With the Wind and some Shakespear's dramas.

hehe anytime..
Glad I helped,and my pleasure

umm I'm not much of a novel geek but these are pretty famous-
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
How to kill a Mockingbird
Animal Firm
Lord of the Flies

Use this site to sort out more novels from here

Additional links
SAT -
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/newsat/
http://papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Subject%20Tests.pdf

SAT II Lit-
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Success%20Literature.pdf
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...test-i-scored-800-a.html?highlight=Literature

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/585615-how-ace-literature.html

SAT II History-
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Success%20History.pdf

Maybe go through some these too-
http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/english-literature
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/us-history

 

[Evirose_FunkyMonkey]

hehe anytime..
Glad I helped,and my pleasure

umm I'm not much of a novel geek but these are pretty famous-
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
How to kill a Mockingbird
Animal Firm
Lord of the Flies

Use this site to sort out more novels from here

Additional links
SAT -
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/newsat/
http://papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Subject%20Tests.pdf

SAT II Lit-
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Success%20Literature.pdf
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...test-i-scored-800-a.html?highlight=Literature

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/585615-how-ace-literature.html

SAT II History-
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/
papers.xtremepapers.com/SAT/SAT%20II%20Success%20History.pdf

Maybe go through some these too-
http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/english-literature
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/us-history

GOT IT!!! <3 lots of love~~!

 

[SATPrepGroup]

Taking SAT is totally depends on you. If you are good at English literature you can take the SAT Test. However its good to join any SAT Prep courses before taking SAT test.

 

[NIM]

u can also read novels like HAMLET and OTHELLO by Shakespeare, CASSANDRA by christa wolf, THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM by Paulo coelho, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by zora.

 

[Evirose_FunkyMonkey]

u can also read novels like HAMLET and OTHELLO by Shakespeare, CASSANDRA by christa wolf, THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM by Paulo coelho, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by zora.[/quote

So much thanks for the suggestions! Besides them, I also love reading Les Miserable by Hugo!