DSST Principles of Physical Science

Wow. What a test. The only thread I can find is almost 3 years old so I will start anew.

In preparation for this test I studied pretty hard, probably harder than I studied for any CLEP. My mistake was that I focused on Physics and overlooked some of the Chemistry topics. I was well versed in chemistry theory from the high school level, so I could answer most of the theory/knowledge questions on chemistry. I was not remotely prepared to get slammed with seemingly endless chemistry questions that required not only in depth knowledge but also memorization of how to work through equations.

Having said that, I think this test would have been a breeze had I studied properly. So how should you study properly?
Know the physics, i.e., mechanics, thermodynamics, equations, all the tradition stuff, anything with the words "Newton" and/or "Joule" in it. Be able to feel comfortable working equations, since the ones on the test will not necessarily be identical to the ones you see in prep material.

Secondly, you must know how to work through all kinds of chemistry equations. Know about ratios, molarity, atomic bonding, equilibrium and balanced chemical reactions. Don't just know what those these are talking about, actually be able to work through equations because you know those things so well you can apply them to an equation that comes in a different form from something you've seen before.

So how did the test go for me? I've taken a lot of tests over my years and have a pretty good idea of how well I'm doing. I almost certainly got about 50% of the questions right and the rest wrong. I got nearly all of the chemistry questions wrong because I was not prepared for that level of in-depth equations.

It would seem you are allowed to get a LOT of questions wrong, since my ~50% netted me a final score of 442, so don't get too frustrated when you have to flat out guess on a large number of questions.

I hope this helps some testers. The info on study dot com was very good, and easy to work through at my own pace. If you are a glutton for punishment you could work through all of the material during the 5 day trial for free. If you are proficient in the material on study dot com you could ace this test more easily than tripping and falling. (In which case you would have a forward acceleration vector acting on your mass as well as the standard 9.8m/s/s due to gravity on earth on a standard day...I digress.)