CLEP Western Civilizations1

Hello,

Has anyone taken CLEP Western Civilizations1? Could you please share your experience? What prep materials would you recommend for it? While I've been very fortunate with all clep exams I've taken so far, the more I study for this one, the more terrified I get.

Thank you!

 

Well I studied from REA general exam study guide and the encyclopedia. From the encyclopedia I studied the history of each European country,all major wars and bios of major people and any other related occurrence listed in test outline.

Harper Collins also has helpful paperbacks for Western Civilization I & II.

Really not that tough. Good luck!

Dan

 

I agree. The Harper Collins College Outline Series books are excellent preparation for a number of CLEP and DANTES exams.

I also recommend maximizing study time by listening to recorded sources while you drive. The Teaching Company programs, which are recordings of college professors lecturing on various college course subjects are useful. I used the Teaching Company course on Western Civ. to prepare for the Western Civ II CLEP. I also used an audiobook version of J.R. Robert's History of the World, which I also found very helpful and thorough (it can downloaded from Audible) or rented from its publisher. Audiobooks make use of commute time that might otherwise be wasted on shock jocks and pop music. Also, when your eyes become too tired to focus on a text, you can close them and continue to study. In short, you can continue to study for your test while you perform other duties (driving, mowing, cleaning, folding, excercising etc.)

 

From my site - this covers Western Civ I and II (in case you're thinking of taking that one as well). I took both exams last year and scored a 71 on Civ I and 62 on Civ II (I took them the same day and probably rushed it a bit).

Some thoughts to share:

Western Civilization I

- The period for Civ I is from the early Middle East through approx. 1650. This is a LOT of history, so you'll need to know a bit about Egypt, Greece, Sumeria/Babylon, Rome, the Middle Ages up to the Renaissance. There are 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes, so know something about everything and you'll be fine. For this exam extensive depth is not required.

- Definitely brush up on the major Roman leaders from 200BC through the end of the Empire.

- Rome is 15-17% of this exam, Medieval History 23-27%. If you know these well plus something about the Renaissance and Early Modern Europe you'll be OK.

- It helps if you understand all of the migrations throughout the history periods. For example, when one dynasty/empire crumbled, who took its place?

- Educated guesses work well in this exam for a lot of questions, but there were definitely some where I could only narrow it down to 2 or 3 out of 5.

Western Civilization II

- The period for Civ II is from 1650 through present day so with this shorter timescale you'll need to know more specifics.

- There are 12 specific topic areas with no area yielding more than 13%. This means that you'll need to cover a lot of ground. If you're short on time cut out the period before the Period of Enlightenment and guess on anything from 1650 through 1750. I probably should have focused less on 1650-1750 and spent more time from 1815-1914.

- If you're a bit of a war buff (WWI/WWII) then around 30% of the exam should be light review, but be sure to review the period between the wars! There'll be a question or two about Stalin, his purges and/or his first 5 year plan. Just remember that Stalin was all about industrialization and you'll be fine.

- Remember that England got ahead in the Industrial Revolution due to the steam engine, and that people then tended to migrate to urban areas for jobs.

- Questions about the French Revolution go from 1792 through 1830 (the 2nd revolution).

General Notes

- I used an Illustrated History of Europe as my guide, which covered a fair amount, but was insufficient by itself I think.

- I used Instantcert.com which helped a lot (and probably accounts for the 9 point difference in score). Instantcert doesn't give you any maps though, and you NEED to be able to visualize who is where because at least a few questions on each exam will be related to a map of Europe or the Middle East.

- If you have the time, don't take them on the same day - there is simply too much info to cram into a short period of time. However, I suspect that these scaled scores are heavily curved. Both exams are definitely passable, and between them you receive 6 Social Science/History credits.


Cheers,
Mark

 

Thank you ALL for your input! I am studying with instantcert.com and knowing that you, Mark, studied with them calms me down a lot. I also watched some videos from learner.org on western civilizations. Hopefully that will help as well. My exam is scheduled for this coming Monday, which leaves me with three full days left to study.

 

Oops I mentioned only Europe but as Mark said also includes Egypt ,Greece,Rome etc.

Great comments Mark!

Try to give yourself enough time to study prior to taking exam. That relieves a lot of stress. That is one reason I did not take so many tests in short amount of time.

 

I used the free videos from the Annenberg/Cpb folks to prepare for this exam.

The Western Tradition

That and a quick look over of one of those "notes" pages from the local book store.

 

I studied by watching Mel Brooks "History of the World, Part I" about 10 times. I'm still not sure why I failed the exam.

Ryan IV

 

I took parts 1 and 2 and I rented about 10-15 videos from the library (some were a set of three or five) and spent a weekend "cramming". As I passed merely by the skin of my teeth, I would not recommend only using video to study for the CLEP. But its a good primer for any additional reading you do. It gives you a visual perspective that will be easier to recall during the reading and subsequent test.


Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the helpful hint guys! Although I'm not the author of the original question, I was considering CLEPPING either Western Civilization or American History. Any little bit of info helps me. I tend to be a worry wart with standardized tests!

 

Try Barron's Am Hist EZ101 for CLEP American History.

 

Thank you again, everyone! Took the exam today and made 59 on it, which I'm pretty happy about. I studied for 4 days with instancert.com prior to exam. Watched a couple of videos on ancient egypt and roman empire. There were no suprises and I think instantcert provides all the info needed for this test. Mark was right about having some knowledge of the map. There were several questions dealing with the map.
Will be taking Western Civilizations 2 next Monday.

 

Congratulations and good luck on WC-2!

 

I'm going to start preparing for WC-1 and WC-2. I will be using instacert.com.
Someone recommended Jackson Spielvogel's Western Civ. book. Anyone have feedback on that?
thanks

 

I haven't taken the exam yet, but I'm using

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764133640/qid=1152635609/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0783577-8711140?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Let's Review Global History and Geography (Let's Review Series)




search inside
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0764133640/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-0783577-8711140#reader-link