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Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful
Review: Alexander Pope was not of the Romantic period, and any book that thinks he was can be no guide to a GRE Subject Test. This alleged prep text splits hair in nanometers over interpretive questions, asks for identification of the most obscure passages, and frequently explains why B was the right answer, and why A, C, and D were wrong, but leaves that status of E wholly to the realm of mystery. The practice test sent out with the GRE registration is different in scope, clarity, and difficulty. I actually tore out a chunk of this book with my teeth in frustration. Don't buy this book. Don't even steal it. Spend the money on deluging the publisher with demands to remove it from the shelves and issue written apologies to anyone who ever suffered themselves to use it.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: As part of my preparation for taking the GRE Literature Subject Test, I bought this book, in addition to McMullen's "Cracking the GRE Literature" and the official ETS study guide. My advice: save your money and buy the latter two books, the "Best Test Prep" is nothing of the sort, providing no strategies for reviewing for the Test. Instead, the reader gets six exams that inaccurately reflect the questions most likely to appear on the test. Read the McMullen book or the ETS book for a better reflection of what the actual test will look like. The reading list, for all its prodigious length (seven pages) actually seems inadequate for reviewing for the test. I did, however, find the explanations for each question in the book useful and if nothing else, the book provides a wealth of questions and answers on English, American, and World Literature to supplement your study elsewhere. Borrow it from a friend rather than buying it.
Rating:
Summary: a more recent take
Review: It seems the flurry of GRE prep book reviews were in 2001, but since ETS hasn't updated the test since then, none of the major publishers have come out with a new book. I've tried both this one and McMullen's Princeton Review book, and Princeton's is far superior. I usually don't write reviews, but I feel morally compelled to prevent you from spending your money on this book. Comparisons aside, even if I had never laid eyes on any test prep book before, I would recognize REA's book for the shoddy and unprofessional publication it is. A good example is the exact same question that appeared twice in the same practice exam. Most publishers prefer to edit their books before publication, but clearly REA has their own awful way of doing things. Half of the practice exams more closely resemble the AP English Literature test than the GRE, with questions that test high school favorites, distracter choices that border on satire to the extent that they are incorrect, and (IMHO) more obvious references to Satan (in Paradise Lost) than an Ozzfest concert. Honestly, I half-expected to see a John Grisham quotation on their practice exams. The other half of the questions test material only specialists would be expected to know. Many questions focus on knowing obscure vocabulary (NOT literary terms) and plot details that would never appear on a real test. (Can you remember if King Arthur gave his sword to Sir Bedivere or Sir Galahad? You think ETS cares?) Also, in a surprising twist, these practice tests were even MORE Eurocentric than the ETS-authored sample tests I've taken. (One question asks you to identify Frederick Douglass not as a memoirist or author, but simply as "an escaped slave.") If you're like me, and you think maybe you'll just get the book for the practice exams because the ETS book is out of print, think again! Honestly, you'd be better off with Norton anthology flashcards. (If they made them.)
Rating:
Summary: a more recent take
Review: It seems the flurry of GRE prep book reviews were in 2001, but since ETS hasn't updated the test since then, none of the major publishers have come out with a new book. I've tried both this one and McMullen's Princeton Review book, and Princeton's is far superior. I usually don't write reviews, but I feel morally compelled to prevent you from spending your money on this book. Comparisons aside, even if I had never laid eyes on any test prep book before, I would recognize REA's book for the shoddy and unprofessional publication it is. A good example is the exact same question that appeared twice in the same practice exam. Most publishers prefer to edit their books before publication, but clearly REA has their own awful way of doing things. Half of the practice exams more closely resemble the AP English Literature test than the GRE, with questions that test high school favorites, distracter choices that border on satire to the extent that they are incorrect, and (IMHO) more obvious references to Satan (in Paradise Lost) than an Ozzfest concert. Honestly, I half-expected to see a John Grisham quotation on their practice exams. The other half of the questions test material only specialists would be expected to know. Many questions focus on knowing obscure vocabulary (NOT literary terms) and plot details that would never appear on a real test. (Can you remember if King Arthur gave his sword to Sir Bedivere or Sir Galahad? You think ETS cares?) Also, in a surprising twist, these practice tests were even MORE Eurocentric than the ETS-authored sample tests I've taken. (One question asks you to identify Frederick Douglass not as a memoirist or author, but simply as "an escaped slave.") If you're like me, and you think maybe you'll just get the book for the practice exams because the ETS book is out of print, think again! Honestly, you'd be better off with Norton anthology flashcards. (If they made them.)
Rating: 
Summary: Good preparation with timeline
Review: The best test preparation gives you some guidance in how to prepare. Simply having a sample test and a list of all the works of literature that you could be tested is not helpful. Although these tests were not created by ETS (the makers of the GRE), REA did base the tests on past subject tests. This also gives you some guidance on what, and when, to study. This book contains three samples tests and some drills. For the tests, the answers are explained so you know which answer is right as well as why the other answers are wrong. This is a big plus in studying. The drill questions are designed to see if you are learning the information from the study pages in the front. The study pages are helpful. They discuss the main ideas and writers for the different periods of literature. As most books, they recommend going to the work itself, but if you do not have time, this information is helpful. With the writer, you get what the person was famous for, and if that work was very influential, what the main ideas of it were. It also discusses the major theories of literary criticism. With the study pages and the tests is the timeline. I think this is the under-rated part of the book. It is designed for eight weeks of study, but it mentions that it could be condensed to two weeks. Although it is rather general, it still provides you with a guide to help calm you through the stress of studying. I would recommend getting this book to help practice and prepare for the GRE Subject Test in Literature.
Rating:
Summary: Good preparation with timeline
Review: The best test preparation gives you some guidance in how to prepare. Simply having a sample test and a list of all the works of literature that you could be tested is not helpful. Although these tests were not created by ETS (the makers of the GRE), REA did base the tests on past subject tests. This also gives you some guidance on what, and when, to study. This book contains three samples tests and some drills. For the tests, the answers are explained so you know which answer is right as well as why the other answers are wrong. This is a big plus in studying. The drill questions are designed to see if you are learning the information from the study pages in the front. The study pages are helpful. They discuss the main ideas and writers for the different periods of literature. As most books, they recommend going to the work itself, but if you do not have time, this information is helpful. With the writer, you get what the person was famous for, and if that work was very influential, what the main ideas of it were. It also discusses the major theories of literary criticism. With the study pages and the tests is the timeline. I think this is the under-rated part of the book. It is designed for eight weeks of study, but it mentions that it could be condensed to two weeks. Although it is rather general, it still provides you with a guide to help calm you through the stress of studying. I would recommend getting this book to help practice and prepare for the GRE Subject Test in Literature.
Rating:
Summary: A Revised Version of an Inferior Test Prep Guide
Review: When REA (Research & Education Association) released its initial version of GRE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH in 1989, I bought it to prepare myself for that test. I was not particularly impressed with the organization or the lack of suggestion as to how to best make use of the material presented. Still, authors Beard, Kennedy, Liftig, and Malek included six full length exams with explanations. That was 230 x 6 or 1,380 test prep questions. I took the test and scored middlingly. Years later, I learned to "psyche" out the test and was surprised to discover a new and supposedly updated version. In this newer version, Malek cuts down the number of tests from 6 to 3. Nearly every one of the regurgitated questions is a reprint from nearly 15 years ago, thus ensuring that this text does not reflect any of the major changes in test content during that time. What Malek does try is to emulate the far more successful paradign put out by the Princeton Review's CRACKING THE GRE LITERATURE by codifying the vast array of western literature: genres, timelines, book and author lists, literary terms, schools of literary criticism, etc. The problem is that Malek did not do half as thorough a job as the Princeton Review did. Malek does little more than to use an overly broad brush to skim a distressingly long list of required readings without giving any hint as how to best do that. True, neither did the Princeton Review, but at least the latter presented a methodology that was reasonable. This is not to say that Malek's updated text is useless. Anything, no matter how scant, that prepares you for a mind-numbing test has its uses, but if you insist on using Malek, you might prefer to go to the library to find the 1989 version that gives more preparation than its more recent cousin. By the way, Malek's test questions themselves: many of them are so outlandish that one is amazed that he thinks ETS will ask such trivia.
You have been warned.
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