Dantes Geology

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by Traci, May 24, 2001.

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  1. Traci

    Traci New Member

    Hi, I would love to find an outline or study guide that would help me pass this Geology exam!
    Has anyone taken this exam? I don't want to spend a lot of money on textbooks!! I also want to take Astronomy.

    Thanks
     
  2. bgossett

    bgossett New Member

    Traci, if you haven't already done so, get a copy of the fact sheet/study guide for the tests you want to take at the Chauncey website http://www.GetCollegeCredit.com/materials.htm

    Many of the recommended study references can be found fairly inexpensively at www.half.com or www.powells.com Another useful book would be the Cliff Notes volume, if one exists for the subject.

    More help can be found at the World Lecture Hall on the University of Texas website at http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/ For instance, looking under Earth Sciences, you'll find a link to Prof. Stephen Nelson's materials for the physical geology class he teaches at Tulane University, including his extensive lecture notes in both .html and .pdf formats. http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol111/

    Good luck

    ------------------
    Bill Gossett
     
  3. Traci

    Traci New Member

    The Tulane cite is great, thanks for the help!

    Traci
     
  4. Orson

    Orson New Member

    DANTES exam report

    Bill--

    The tulane.edu web page of professor Nelson (Geology 111) is very excellent. It would have helped had I visited it well before sitting for DANTES Physical Geology, which I did yesterday.

    As I suspected from a close reading of the DANTES outline, chapters 9 and 10 in Murck -- save for the section on glaciers -- can safely disregarded. (They concern meteorology and the natural history of life on earth, repectively.)
    Only one question required knowlege of the geological column; a question requiring calculation of specific gravity surprised me; detailed knowledge of Bowen's reaction series was needed on three questions, as the official DANTES sample questions implied; a 2-D illustration (of matters normally requiring 3-D (i.e., strike and dip) surprised me, and I thought of challenging, but since I'm so close to finishing out my program -- why bother?" thought I.

    Finally, I was surprised at the extent to which terms from physical geography were tested (which Murck did not prep me for fully). For example, "What is the desert equivalent of a river delta?" I answered "playa," although even reading Nelson's notes I'm not sure if this is the correct answer. I also expected more on soil typing, but the one I could not answer (but only guess) - "What is NOT a type of soil?" had "regolith" among the four answers which, of course, is soil - and therefore is wrong - had me scratching my head: vocab I've not been exposed to!!!? Knowing planetary geology and the origin of the moon was helpful on two or three, but no history of geological science was asked (again as the DANTES outline implied by its absence). And DO know the constituency of granite (again, as implied by DANTES, albeit the sample questions.)

    The exam does live up to its "difficult" rating based on military pass rates (23%), but armed with Murck, I knew answers to at least two out of three questions - not hugely comforting but not daunting either since POE ups one's chances on the remainder.

    I ought to score an 'A 'unless I somehow bombed.

    --Orson
    PS update resources for DANTES exam on Physical Geology

    "Geology: A Self-Teaching Guide"
    by Barbara Winifred Murck, 330 p. (2001)
    Easy, fill in the blanks quizes, study tables and
    list of chapter terms. The quizes also summarize chater content - do not skip them unless you have photographic recall. An excellent and even fun read - all you need to pass or excel; I studied it over one week to prepare (a bit over 220-50 pages). But chapters 9 and 10 may be safely skipped, and 11 only lightly read, save for a brief section on glaciers (in 9?). The first and last (12th) chapters on plate tectonics are clear standouts bringing it all together, well-worht re-reading, helping all the other detailed chapters "gell" conceptually. (I notice that many tables and illustrations on Prof. Nelson's tulane.edu geology survey pages are also in the book; reassuring redundancy for any dunces out there.)

    combined with a reference book:

    "The Field Guide to Geology"
    by David Lambert, 256p. (1997)
    To my surprise, I found the latter somewhat dated (originally published in 1988), and didn't much use it; however, those with a more visual learning style may well differ from my estmate of its usefulness.

    Now - on to historical geology for fun....
     
  5. Myoptimism

    Myoptimism New Member

    Orson,

    Thanks for the information. :)

    Tony
     
  6. Orson

    Orson New Member

    Sure Tony.

    One last thing: my exam had 114 items - more than any other DANTES I've
    taken...is somebody somewhere keeping a record of the most?

    --Orson
     

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