CLEP American Government

What's up board?

Hope everyone is doing well. Will be taking the CLEP A.G. next week and wanted to see if anyone has taken this exam and could offer any tips on it as far as what areas the exams focuses on.


Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I took it and passed it years ago, but I think the same strategy would apply today. In addition to any CLEP study guides you may be using, I simply got ahold of a generic American Government textbook (Ebay should have them by the hundreds). Pretty much any college text should do.

At that point, the strategy is very basic - simply sit down and read it. Don't memorize it word for word, but familiarize yourself with the high points (constitution, amendments, Governmental branches, major decisions/turning points that influenced Governmental history, expansions and limitations of Governmental power, etc). Worked for me.

Dave

 

I took this 3 months ago and passed (barely) with a 50! I mostly studied Cliffs Notes- American Government and looked up additional information on the Internet. This is the only test I have taken that I got a C on. I studied for about 4 weeks for this too. You may have better luck though!

Rhonda

 

I failed first time and then read Cliff Notes guide and passed second time. Take it seriously and you should have no problem. Good luck!

 

Everyone,

Thank you all for the advice provided, i definitly appreciated. I have been able to schedule this exam for next week and will be posting my result then. Thanks again folks.

 

Thanks everyone

What’s up folks? Well, sat for this the exam today and passed with a 61 of which I was happy about. All was going well but at around question # 60 (my exam was 99 questions) I noticed that I was moving a bit slow and that my time was coming to an end (I think I had about 35 minutes remaining). I just cranked up the intensity and completed the exam with about 16 minutes remaining which I used to review all the questions that I had marked down for review until the time ran out (I usually finish my cleps with over half an hour to spare but this one was not one of them).

For this exam I studied for about a month and really enjoyed getting acquainted with the subject (no previous background or interest in the subject)

I first picked up “the complete idiots guide to American government” to lay down a foundation on the subject.

Being that the 1st book didn’t cover all the areas tested on the exam I also scooped up and read “Cliffs quick review American Government” and got the standard deviants 2 part DVD on the subject on eBay.

My test had about 20 questions covering the bill of rights alone. There were a good number of questions covering due process, judicial review, judicial case (roe v wade, marburry v Madison, Miranda v Arizona), the electoral college, senate and house of representative responsibilities the different powers of the legislative, executive and judicial branches etc.

Don’t know what the current pass rate for this exam is but I understand that it used to be only 9% before the implementation of the new cbt format

http://www.gordon.army.mil/aces/dantes_testinfo.htm#CLEP_SUBJECT

Overall it was a fun exam, now on the business law 1. Thanks again everyone and happy testing.

 

Way to go!

 

the trick about american govt

I have taken the exam almost a year ago ..I didnt pass it ..I recieved a 38 on it ....

I will tell you why ... I have read other posts on it and many other people had some negative feedback about the American Government while other ones thought it was easy .....

Everyone probably think the test is easy so they will study less the important details... THey will just use some of their knowledge from american history but the American Government exam is different from U.S History ..

They are related ...However , the American Government will ask more application type of multiple choice test questions...

As a matter of fact , one of the people who posted about American Govert is right .....

THe test will ask more about those laws like Miranda Rights and Roe Vs Wade and the different branches of the US govet ...

It will ask how they apply to a situation or identify a situation that corresponds with the laws or the constition or government branch .....

Unlike a US history CLEP ; they will ask you questions pertaining to events and time and place and etc.....

 

I am studying for this one and the mixed results are a little bit scary. I am a bit of a political junkie so I follow alot of this kind of stuff and have been for several years. I grabbed a book from our public library and It seems very lite. I also scored bout 85% on intstacerts Amer.Gov. Test. Alot of people have seemed to have a hard time with this test, and I want to make sure I take it seriously. Any of guideline or practice type test you would recommended would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

lspahn,

It’s been a bit so I don’t remember the specifics on what was on my test. A few things though, no matter the area of study, if you feel fairly comfortable with the subject matter you should be just fine. I had read of many folks having a hard time with both this exams and business law I but this was not the case for me, I just studied against the clep topic outlines until I felt I had a good grasp on the subject and it went well from there.

From reading my previous post my exam had lots of questions dealing with civil rights and the 10 amendments. I had a few cases which I also listed above. The cliff notes book on this subject has EVERYTHING you will need for this exam.