The scrapping of the test for admission into English Hons. in DU has been creating quite a hulabaloo lately. And I am one of those who agrees that the test should not have been scrapped.
Many people think that English Hons. is a course based on the language. Rather it is a course based on the literature of the language. One is expected to have a firm command on the language before entering, since right from day one, you are faced with literary giants of the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens! The course is not for people who are not book "crazies"! Voracious readers are at the most advantage - because the reading never ceases in the course.
The course is not for the faint of heart. You will have to tackle everything from Homer to Gordimer; from Euripides to Atwood, from Aristophanes to Tendulkar. Those who think that literature is only about a few plays of Shakespeare and a few little poems by Blake, are sadly mistaken. Literature, especially at DU, is so vast that in three years you can just about touch 30% of what the literary world has to offer.
And literature unlike a few other courses is not about simply mugging up facts - it's about developing your own perspective. There are no textbook formulae that will get you a degree in English, you need to dive into the issues yourself. You need to know how and when to ask what questions with each novel, each poem, each play and each essay.
To anyone who is thinking up of taking English, my suggestion is that look up the course information in detail, talk to some people who are already doing the course, and get rid of the illusion that if you scored really high in your CBSE English paper, you are going to cruise through the English literature course as well!
