Interviews | Erik Lorenz
April 29, 2021
English Matters: Erik, the department was pleased to see your score on the Major Fields
Test in Literature. You achieved the 99th percentile! Congratulations. Major Fields Tests are administered by hundreds of colleges
and universities across the country and are nationally normed. Tell us a bit about
your experience in taking this exam.
Erik: I was a bit nervous beginning the exam, as I felt underprepared. As I got into
the test, though, I was able to relax and trust my knowledge and skills. It was still
pretty grueling, as it has 50 questions over 2 hours, but it really was not so bad
as I expected.
English Matters: What surprised you about the test?
Erik: I was surprised at how quickly I made it through all the questions, and how
many I was confident about. I had heard and read that students are always racing against
the clock, that speed is essential, but I actually had enough extra time to go to
the bathroom during the middle of it without worrying. I was also surprised how little
pure identification questions were present. I was led to believe that a significant
portion of the exam was simply matching texts and authors, but there were very few
simple identification questions.
English Matters: You obviously didn’t have too many weaknesses in your knowledge of
English literature. That said, what sorts of questions had you thinking hard?
Erik: There were a few identification questions where I was presented with a list of authors I had never heard of before, and those were difficult. I also had a hard time with a question about an obscure poem form, something like a villanelle. I did have to stop and think and wrestle with a question about a theorist, who I had heard the name of but was really not sure what he wrote about. I also had to stop and read really closely for a couple of questions asking grammatical questions about passages from Middle English works, and I did not know my Shakespeare well enough for another question.
English Matters: What specific courses at Southern helped you on the test?
Erik: Survey of American and British Literature were invaluable, of course, for their breadth of introduction, mostly canonical focus, and focus on periods and timelines. Ancient Classics was another very helpful course, as there were questions I could breeze through having read Homer and Virgil and others. 20th Century Literature was helpful as well as there were questions pertaining to modern works. I also found Milton invaluable, as many of the questions required an ability to read and understand passages that involved word choice, sentence structure, grammatical form and general style similar to Milton's poetry and prose. Practice reading and understanding Milton made such questions simple.
English Matters: What courses would have helped you on the exam that Southern does not currently offer?
Erik: I am not sure if Southern does offer a course like this, but I felt my knowledge of poetry most lacking, both in familiarity with poetry and with poetic forms and devices. Perhaps a class that follows the course of English poetry would be helpful.
English Matters: Do you have any advice for future test takers?
Erik: I would advise getting a copy of a GRE English literature prep book and studying its section on common literary forms and devices, as that short list proved a big help on many questions.
English Matters: So Erik, what are your plans now?
Erik: If I can make it to graduation, my plan is to take a gap year or possibly two, and use that time to get some work experience that I hope will help me decide on a field for further education. I want to work in a law firm, to see if law school is the right route for me, but I am also considering graduate school in English or history.