Unixman's CLEP Oddysey :)

I have been accepted into TESC, and will begin classes probably in the February semester. Going for my BSBA. I decided to make use of the time in between now and then to knock out some early credits via testing - notably, via CLEP. I only have one semester of actual college-time under my belt - and that was 15 years ago. And all I took then was a class on "Georgia History and Constitution". Thus, what follows is my "odd"ysey into the world o' CLEP.

I thought I would post my thoughts on the tests, in the hope that others may benefit.

The first one I took was the CLEP for Information Systems and Computer Applications. This was a 3 credit exam. I scored a 76 scaled score (out of 80). I have been working in the IT/computer industry as a programmer and manager for about 15 years, so I didn't really study at all for this. The questions were broad and covered everything from basic computer terminology (peripherals, devices, etc), to solving a few problems by evaluating pseudo-code, to answering VERY basic questions about the software development lifecycle. If you have more than a year or so of professional experience working in the IT industry, this is a freebie. Remember, all you need to do is obtain a scaled score of 50 or higher (an equivalent of a "C" letter grade). If you don't have any computer experience at all, you would probably be better served by actually taking a course or two on the basics.

The next week I took the oft-dreaded CLEP for Humanities. This test covered art, architecture, literature, film, etc. While I don't really have time to read much these days (save for professional and business journals), I do have some experience with art. Actually, I would say "art", in general, is a strong point of mine. I am an amateur oil painter, and have studied (as a hobby) art for about 5 years. Trying to "study" for this test is a difficult. The best strategy I found was to take a practice exam (I recommend the one in the Princeton Review's "Cracking the Clep" book - it seems to be pretty close to the real deal). Based on that, try to put together a basic study regimen covering those areas in which you scored poorly.

For art-related research, I highly recommend:

http://www.wetcanvas.com
http://www.artchive.com

For literature - go to www.usgamesinc.com. Buy the deck of cards for "American Authors" and "Famous Authors". They have some others, too, but these were the ones I used. Two nights of playing a few hands of "Go Fish" with my wife, and I could rattle off the authors like nobody's business. Note: you will still get some questions that would require you to have a "rough" knowledge (perhaps) of plots and characters in famous books/plays/etc, but the card game really helped a lot of my old high school coursework to float back up to the part of my brain where I could remember it - lol.

Overall, I scored a 66 out of 80 (scaled score). Yay - 6 more credits.

The next week, I took the Social Sciences & History CLEP. Again, I recommend the Princeton Review book. I found this test to be a bit more difficult than the practice exams, as it seemed to focus more on the Sociology side of things, rather than the History (which I am stronger in). If you watch the History Channel at all, or you have a love of all things historical, and have always found history to be interesting, you will probably be ok on the history side of the test. Any good CLEP review book should be able to at least get you up to speed on the basics of Sociology, introductory psychology, etc. BTW, you should know the major players in psych (Freud, Jung, Skinner, et al). Know what the espoused, at the conceptual level ...

I scored a 64 on this one - damn sociology probably killed me, but saved by the cast knowledge I've accumulated by watching the "Hitler" er... "History Channel".

Today, I took the English Comp with Essay. I probably shouldn't reveal the essay topic, as I'm not sure how often they change it, but it wasn't too bad. I was afraid I was going to get some theoretical bull****, like "write an essay describing why the phrase 'the grass is always greener on the other side' is either true or false'. Screw that - I wanted something grounded in reality, and I lucked out, because I got it.

This was the only test where I felt a bit "rushed". All of the other tests I completed with ample time to spare - this one went down to the wire. The first 45 minutes is multiple choice - I couldn't really get comfortable in the room I was in - that may have been a factor here - but I found myself re-reading passages again and again.

Not sure what my score is on this one, as the CLEP folks have to review my essay first, but I feel like I passed. I've written lots of papers and a few technical books, and used to be an technical instructor for a consulting company, so I feel like my vocabulary and english composition skills were adequate enough ...

If anyone has any questions on these CLEPs, feel free to post them here and I'll be happy to try and answer them.

Still in my CLEP queue are Management, Marketing, Business Law, Macro/Microeconomics, College Mathematics, and Accounting. Will post followups as I take each. All in all, my goal is 48 credits via CLEP:

• Humanities - 6
• Engish Composition with Essay - 6
• Social Sciences/History - 6
• Principles of Accounting - 6
• College Mathematics - 6
• Information Systems and Computer Applications - 3
• Microeconomics - 3
• Macroeconomics - 3
• Business Law - 3
• Principles of Management - 3
• Principles of Marketing - 3

As the College Math CLEP will not satisfy the math requirement for TESC's BSBA degree, I have decided to take it as an elective - thats 6 credits, and a good review for me before I take TESC's College Algebra w/ Trig Class (which will meet the BSBA math requirement).

Cheers and happy CLEP'ing.

 

Noooooooo. I just realized that there is a ten-minute window here for editing your posts. Ok, will try this again as a reply.

Additional info for the Humanities test

Get thee to ebay.com. Search for "CLEP humanities". Find the homemade guide sold for $5 by ebay seller xenia34. This is the best $5 you will spend if preparing for the "Hell-manities" CLEP. Short (25-ish pages), and a quick read. She hits the highlights and doesn't overwhelm you with things that get in the way. You can even download it via .PDF.

This gal makes a few other guides, too, but they are for courses I am not taking (Biology, Psych, etc).

Here is a link to one of her auctions, but I don't know how long these links last, so .....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3567800124&category=11449

Cheers.

 

excellent info unixman! and good luck with your further exams. I am planning to take Psychology exam soon.

Thanks...

 

Good Morning, Be sure and make use of the FEMA and US Fire Academy Courses that are accepted at TESC. I suggest you porfolio CPR for a quick and useful 2 credits. Please feel free to e-mail me about TESC. Hille [email protected] (Check the archives for posts of FEMA EMI)

 

Thanks for the tip, but I already have credits from ACE/AARTS - my military background qualified me for 15 ACE recommended credits, including first aid. I would venture to say that CPR would be an overlap. My degree is pretty much planned out completely at this point. After my CLEPs and portfolio assessments, I estimate I'll have around 6-8 classes to sit through.

Good advice for others, though - I hear that the FEMA credits are easy to pick up.

 

Good to hear that the gal selling on ebay has good review material because I ordered her guide on Analyzing and Interpreting Literature on Tuesday. Seems like a nice lady and was hoping this guide would be helpful. I should receive it next week and take the test in December or January. I'll let you know if it helped.

 

I am also looking into get that guide. do let us know your experience with that study material.
unixman if you have used that material tell us your experience as well.

 

Unfortunately, the only guide she makes that I could use in my credit plan was the one for Hell-manities.

I think she probably took the 4 or 5 classes that she offers study guides for, and is capitalizing on the results of her own studying. Good for her - capitalism at its best.

 

UPDATE:

Ok, just got back from taking the CLEP Principles of Management. Scored a 75 scaled score (based on the CLEP scaled 20-80 range). I am a fairly experienced manager, so that helped. The only review material I used was the Comex CLEP review for Management. If you can pass the practice tests in this book, you should be good-to-go.

Thoughts/advice:

1) Know the various phases of management and what they do (Planning, Organizing, et al)

2) You will be asked at least a few questions that cover famous management theorists and their respective theories (Drucker, Fayol, Taylor, McGregor, etc). But only a few - don't lose too much sleep over this. If you can remember a few of them, you can probably steal a few points.

3) Had one "break-even" question. Given a dollar figure for fixed costs and estimates for sales/variable costs, you have to pick the "break-even" point. Easy.

4) I saw a LOT of questions about organizational design/structure, departmentation, decentralization, line/staff organizations, etc.

5) A few questions were "situational". Given a certain situation, how should it be handled - common sense goes a long way here.

45 minutes total test time, and 3 more credits toward my goal. Had 45 minutes to spare.

Next up: Principles of Marketing

 

good work unixman. I will be attempting that after a few other exams.

 

UPDATE:

I took CLEP Principles of Marketing this morning. Scored a scaled 77. Cha ching - 3 more credits to the pot.

The only thing I can say here is "REA". Get the REA book. That book, along with my business experience was apparently more than enough to pass. The only thing not covered in the REA book were 5-7 questions about Internet-based marketing, although they were mostly common sense, IMHO.

Definitely know the following going in:

• Your 4 P's of marketing
• How distribution channels work, definitions, etc.
• Derived demand
• Demand elasticity/inelasticity
• Markups/markdowns based on BOTH cost and selling price

In other words, what is covered in the REA book.

Next up: American Government

 

This week's update:

I took the CLEP American Government exam this afternoon. Received a scaled score of 65 (out of 80). Cha-ching - 3 more credits to the pot.

As I regularly keep track of news and current events (both domestic and international), I only used the Cliff's QuickReview guide for American Government to brush up. A quick, easy read.

Some things to know:

• Know the basics about the framers of the constitution (the two main views - New Jersey plan vs. Virginia plan, federalists, anti-federalists, etc)
• The constitutional amendments (especially the Bill of Rights, the 1st 10 amendments)
• How political parties function and operate
• Checks and balances (specifics, not just learning the definition)
• How the supreme court operates

There were 6 or 7 questions where I had to analyze the data on a chart/graph and pick the most apropriate answer. These were pretty straightforward.

According to some statistics, only about 9% of the people who take this test actually pass it. After taking it personally, I now know why. You can actually have a good grasp of the fundamentals of American goverment, and not pass this test.

Some of the questions/answers were nebulous, and much thought should go into them before answering. Read each question carefully.

For example: The court case "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas" is covered in history books, as it was the court case which overturned "Plessy v. Ferguson", and led to the desegregation of the public school system. If I got a question on the test that said:

Q: What was the result of Brown v. Board of Education?

And I saw "desegretation of the schools" as one of the answers, I would get it right. However, this question appeared on my CLEP as:

Q: Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which was based upon what premise?

You would need to know that the premise was that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, as it violated the 14th amendment.

You get the idea ...

Next up: CLEP Business Law

Cheers.

 

unixman you are a source of motivation for me. your CLEP experience inspires me to study and get it done with. I am way behind on this yet but will catch up . Let us know about Business Law. It is on my plan as well.

Good work.

 

Thanks for the kind words, etech. Nice to know that my own efforts are in some way helping others here.

I'm actually becoming addicted to testing for credit - if it weren't for all the studying, I swear it would be fun.

Based upon my early successes with CLEP (I'm 6 for 6 now), I am considering adding a few DANTES and TECEP tests to my current degree plan. If I do that, the tests in my queue are (roughly in order of planned test-date):

• CLEP - Business Law - 3
• CLEP - Microeconomics - 3
• CLEP - Macroeconomics - 3
• DANTES - Statistics - 3
• DANTES - Management of Information Systems - 3
• TECEP - BASIC Programming (lol - a freebie for me) - 3
• TECEP - Database Management (wheee!) - 3
• CLEP - Principles of Accounting - 6
• CLEP - College Mathematics - 6
• CLEP - College Algebra/Trigonometry - 3
• DANTES - Finance - 3
• TECEP - Business in Society - 3

So far:

• I've earned 30 credits via CLEP testing.
• The tests above would give me another 45 credits.
• I am planning on doing 6 portfolios with TESC to pick up another 18 credits.
• I am picking up 3 credits for BYU's correspondence course in Written Business Communications (great way to take classes and not have them count against your TESC course load!)
• I picked up 1 credit for a FEMA class (hehe).
• I am transferring in 15 credits from ACE/AARTS (my Army experience)
• I am transferring in 8 credits from about a previous school

If I can hit all of the tests above and pass them, and I don't run into any snags with my portfolios (I doubt it), that would give me a total of 117 credits. Then I will take the Business Policy class at TESC to reach my goal of 120 and my BSBA.

My goal is to get this degree before my next birthday (which is in September). I would love it even more if I could finish it before July 15th, which I believe is the cutoff to apply for the October commencement ceremony. Don't wanna miss that.

Cheers.
Scott

 

This thread is great for those of us further down the educational food chain than many posters here. I am so pleased for you. I'll be taking my first 2 tests in January and am gathering study info now for about 8 tests. I need about 36 credits to finish a degree (still waiting for transcript evaluation from COSC) but I'm so excited to read in real time someone who is doing this. You and cmt are my heroes. I hope I do as well as you have done. Great job and keep us posted.

 

I'm a hero ! You and my wife should talk .

It was posts like unixman's that motivated me to jump right in. I passed Research Methods in Psych. today and scheduled a DANTES exam for next Monday and another ECE exam for the Tuesday after that. That will put me 6 credits away from completion. The best educational advice I have ever had came from Nike - Just do it. Seriously, as soon as one exam is over I sign up for the next (literally). Granted, I have not had a social life for 5 1/2 months, but the pay off will be exponential in many ways. It is surreal that in May of this year I was doubting that I would ever have the opportunity to get a degree. Less than a year later I will actually have one - thank God for DL!

 

Macro/Micro Economics ?

I wonder if Macro Economics exam/course is an extension to Micro Economics ? Is it necessary to take Micro Economics course/exam prior to Macro to increase chances of pass ?

The reason I ask this is at some colleges MicroEconomics is a pre-Req for Macro ? which of the two is more harder ? I was planning to enrol in a course rather than attempt CLEP exam.

 

Re: Macro/Micro Economics ?

Macro is the study of the economy as a whole, while micro focuses on the economics of a person, or company - a single entity.

I find that understanding the concepts of the economy as a whole (macro), helps me to put perspective to the economics of my company (micro). Others see it in the reverse.

I am personally taking the macro CLEP before micro ... and will study in that order as well.

Cheers.

 

For those of you studying to take cleps, dantes, etc. How do you decide where to concentrate your efforts when looking at a subject? There are guides available but for exams such as macroeconomics, how do you narrow down the materials and how do you study? Do you read an entire book and take notes, do you read only info in the highlighted areas of books, do you have a photographic memory that keeps it all straight? I've never done what I'm about to try. I'm a very linear, sequential thinker. I have to know the "why" in order to grasp a subject. I drove my chemistry profs nuts with the "how do you know" types of questions. Will this inhibit my abilities to test out of subjects? I think I'm bright, graduated 2nd in my nursing class (nursing tests all have 4 right answers to every question, it's a matter of picking the "most correct", it's extremely tough) but just really worried that I won't study the right information. I'm so proud of you guys that are accomplishing this and I don't even know you.

 

I think a lot can be attributed to the individual person - we all study differently. I can only offer up my own approach, but this takes into account that I have generally at least "some" experience in subject before taking the CLEP, and I consider myself to be a fairly quick learner.

Some more thoughts below:

I never read an entire book, because the CLEP test won't come close to giving you that thorough of an examination. I typically take a quick practice test or quiz (no more than 25-50 questions). I then identify areas where I'm weak vs. where I'm strong, and I begin with those areas.

I will then get a quick read through a Cliffs QuickReview guide, or an REA study guide (or whatever I have handy), concentrating on those weak areas. I do take the time to make sure I understand the fundamentals.

I then use additional practice tests to study further. Take the time to understand "why" you got certain answers wrong - that is the strongest study reinforcement an adult learner can experience.

Adult learning theory tells us that while kids learn by "observing", adults learn by "doing". Take my advice above, and you will be fine. I hate to plug individual study sites, but places like instantcert.com, istudysmart.com, etc have been very useful in allowing me to take practice tests and understand exactly WHY I missed certain questions.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Cheers.