by Theresa O'Riordan

Created on: April 16, 2008

Deciding what to focus on during the last few years before college can be daunting, since the student is already involved in high school classes with their own assignments. There are certain forms of literature students can benefit from more than others, though, which will inevitably help during their college career.

Many high schools offer Advanced Placement English and History classes, and some also offer Biology and other subjects at that level. These classes are typically for students who have been scoring grades of B- or better during their first three years of high school. If possible, take advantage of these advanced classes. You will have more work than if you were to take a standard level class, but you will be eligible to receive college credit if you do well. I was able to skip some basic English, English literature, and composition classes because I took this particular route. The classics I was reading while in high school Beowulf, The Once and Future King, and various works by Shakespeare, to name a few, were confusing during high school, but when I had to re-read them for classes like literary criticism, I found them easier to comprehend than others who did not have the previous experience of painstakingly analyzing them during high school.

I will recommend several different forms of media and literature the college-bound student would do well to focus on in this article. As far as books go, here are some suggestions I can make from my own experience. Obviously, for certain majors there will be other things students should read, but most students start college by taking required classes with more of a liberal arts base, such as English and History. Others will take a certain major and not realize there are so many required extra classes that need to be taken to supplement the basic classes. So any student in a four-year program should be able to benefit from the following points.

1.) Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare. This is like "location, location, location" for real estate pros. I know, it's predictable, it's been done to death..but if you take any literature classes at all, you will be expected to have some knowledge of the basic Shakespeare classics, including King Lear, MacBeth, Hamlet, and others. If you intend on being involved in theatre at all, a basic knowledge of these works and others can also come in handy. The good news is that if you are rolling your eyes already, don't despair. You can read literary review books, which often

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