GRE Lit Subject test...when to sign up, and any tips?

[papergreen]

I'm an MA student planning to apply to Ph.D programs next fall. Based on your experience, how far in advance do I need to sign up for a GRE subject test (literature in English)? There are test dates in my area in October and November 2011. If I wait until September, when I'll know my schedule for the fall semester, will all the spots in October

Comments

[thegeneralx]

I'd register for it now--it is always Saturday testing isn't it? It is just one day that you'll have to work around, unless you have to travel to get to the test location.

To prepare, I:
-Read the Princeton Review book.
-Made flashcards of things I didn't know in the PR.
-Read a few introductions in the Norton anthology volumes that I'm not familiar with (not sure this helped very much because you could do this FOREVER).
-Combined the notes on Hapax Legomena and Vade Mecum into a work document, printed it out and then read through it while online and made notes on it from various sites when the topics seemed unfamiliar. This is what helped the most.
-Took the practice test in the PR and another old test. Timing is a big deal and I spent waaay too long the first time I took a practice test. You just have to breeze through the questions instead of really thinking them out-- which is maddening because you always have a nagging feeling that you'd get them all right if you could spend more time on it.