Uexcel College Writing Test

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by TMW2009, Feb 7, 2010.

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  1. TMW2009

    TMW2009 New Member

    I posted this over on the Instantcert forums but I figured I'd post it here as well for the members who do not frequent both boards.
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    I just got back from the 2 shortest hours of my life.

    If you're good with the written word and are looking to get an easy out for the Written English Requirement at Excelsior or English credit, I would advise you to take this test.

    It consists of two Essay questions, one is a proposal question and one is an Analysis/Response question. The test is set up so that you have two hours for both (not specifically an hour for each) and you can bounce back and forth between them if you wish.

    You don't get to see your grade until they hand you the printout. It also gives you a Detailed Score Report for each essay to identify any problem areas that led to your grade in the following -
    Focus & Meaning
    Content & Development
    Organization
    Language Use & Style
    Mechanics & Conventions

    I got the A/R essay as my first one and wasted a good 15 minutes thinking about what I wanted to say with it. It was kind of frustrating so I just went and did the Proposal and came back to the A/R. I didn't use my time wisely. At 7 minutes left, I still had two full paragraphs to compose and ended up fudging it down into one paragraph and calling the test done with about 30 seconds.

    I did a little reading up on the MLA citation style that's required for the test, but not much studying or planning. I had found out yesterday that I couldn't take my Research and Writing Class at Excelsior without getting my WER done, and the local Pearsons had a slot open, so I grabbed and basically spent last night and this morning doing everything but studying up on the test.

    If I had it to do over again, I would pay the $30 for the 90 days access to the practice software and work with that a lot. If you want to take this and get an A, you definitely will want to use the practice software, because its the same system that the actual test uses for the grading AI. (Yes, its computer, not human graded, except for 5% of the tests which they send to human graders to check it against the software's grading to make sure the software is grading as it should be.) This would be a definite advantage when preparing for the test because you'll know what areas you need to focus on and what areas have improved from your practice.
     
  2. memep

    memep New Member

    mla

    hi,

    do you need to know how to work cite for this exam?
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    So wait, did you pass?

    And was it able to grade essays automatically? I'd heard some tests have good enough AI to do that, but I hadn't realize that was in use for anything credit-bearing.

    -=Steve=-
     

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