Rant's testing odyssey

Since many of us have found unixman's detailed post on his CLEP experience very useful and motivational, I've decided to start a similar thread since his testing is winding down while I'm just getting started.

First, some background. I have roughly 40 credits that were obtained via traditional coursework a few years ago, mostly lower level liberal arts courses. I also have a few MCSE tests under my belt that should get me another couple of credits. I have 8-9 years of experience in the IT field and have advanced pretty well considering the lack of degree. However, advancing much further up the ladder is going to be very difficult without a degree, and my end goal is to obtain a master's, whether it be an MBA or an MIS-type of masters.

I've not quite decided whether or not to go with Excelsior or Charter Oak, and am also undecided whether to pursue a CIS/MIS degree or just a general business degree. Both tracks are close enough that I can get a bunch of tests out of the way while I finalize those decisions.

I'm basing my general testing plan on the business plan at BAin4weeks.com but have so far been taking only tests that are on both the BS and business degree. I'm also waiting for Excelsior to do my transcript evaluation, so I'm targeting only tests that I definitely don't have any similar courses on my transcript. Hopefully I can get this clarified in the next few weeks as it obviously will be helpful to me as I get further down the test track but also will be informative to this audience as well.

 

In the last 2 weeks, I've completed the following tests:

ECE - Organizational Behavior - completed 2/10 - grade A
ECE - Management of Human Resources - completed 2/18 - grade A
CLEP - Principles of Management - completed 2/21 - score 68

For Organizational Behavior and Human Resources tests, I mainly used the course notes found
here. I'll admit that I didn't completely read these and still scored an A. I've traditionally been a good tester on multiple choice exams and can make logical choices on many questions, and this was the case on both of these exams. I also found that my experience in the work place really helped.

For the Principles of Management CLEP, I used the Cliff's QuickReview. I again didn't completely read the text but skimmed the chapters that I didn't complete and found that it covered the majority of the questions. All 3 of these tests have similar content and I highly recommend taking all 3 within a short period of time. I'm hoping that the next few tests on the business track will be similar as well.

Next up: ECE Ethics Theory and Practice on 2/27 (darn ECE scheduling made this later in the week than I wanted), CLEP Principles of Marketing on 2/28 (if my REA text arrives in time to prep). I'm targeting 2 exams a week when possible, at least for these easier early tests, but the lead time on scheduling these ECE exams at the local Prometric center is making that difficult. The scheduling of the CLEP exams is so much easier at my local community college.

Progress - 13 days, 9 credit hours, A/B scores on all.

 

Update to my test schedule. ECE Ethics is still scheduled for 2/27. My Marketing text did arrive but I've decided to put this one off for now as it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the business tests I've taken, makes the most sense to group similar tests together while the material is still fresh in my brain. I've decided to knock-out ECE Labor Relations first, which is scheduled for 3/1. From there, here is the next batch of tests to schedule in a preliminary order that seems to make sense, which should take care of the bulk of my business requirements and get me another 39 credits:

CLEP Principles of Management - 3 credits
CLEP Principles of Marketing - 3 credits
CLEP Macroeconomics - 3 credits
CLEP Microeconomics - 3 credits
CLEP Principles of Accounting - 6 credits
DANTES Principles of Finance - 3 credits
CLEP Introductory Business Law - 3 credits
DANTES Business Law II - 3 credits
ECE Statistics - 3 credits
CLEP Information Systems - 3 credits
DANTES MIS - 3 credits
ECE Business Policy and Strategy - 3 credits

I'm putting that Business Policy test off as that one worries me since it's essay. I even looked at a Business Strategy course at Troy St for the upcoming quarter to get those credits since at $260 for the test an actual course isn't much more, but it sounded even worse, with a research paper due 2 weeks in and 70% of the grade based on research papers. Yow!

Now to just figure out where to take these DANTES tests as a civilian. I should also note that I am starting a C Programming course at UMass-Lowell on 3/1 to go towards an IS degree should I figure out how to test out of that degree. The course will be useful for me in my career anyways, I just hope it's as easy on my schedule as the UNIX course was that I took last semester so that my testing schedule can remain on track.

 

Rant,

Great post and link to study material.

Have you checked out www.getcollegecredit.com for a list of DANTES test sites?

Cheers,
Mark

 

Rant,
Great game plan! Good luck with your ethics test tomorrow.
I have the same concerns with Business Policy test. Have no idea what books to use. If you will have any recommendations please let me know.
Just curious.. why did you take ECE "Organizational Behavior" instead of the same Dante test? Dante tests are cheaper than ECE and Excelsior accepts both of them as a credit. Are there any other considerations?
Regards,
Olga

 

Kodos and...

compliments to Rant for continuing in a fine motivational ad informative tradition!

Also, a word of warning: I ordered a used copy "Essentials of Business law I" from a high-rated seller in mid -January on haslf.com. (No response to email query.)

So I'm out 7$? Just a word of caution : it CAN happen!

--Orson

 

Mark,
Thanks for the tip and the compliments. I did check that site for DANTES locations, but it seems to be quite outdated as many of those listed either aren't open testing sites or no longer administer DANTES. There is a place on the other side of town that I need to contact, appears to be some sort of military organization that supposedly will allow civilians. I also need to bug the local community college again as I'm not sure that they completely ruled themselves out.

BTW, keep up the great work over at degreeforum.com

Olga,
The main reason for ECE over DANTES goes along with the above comment. I knew exactly where an ECE testing facility was and scheduling was a piece of cake compared to DANTES. I wanted to jump right in and get the testing underway. I also was unsure if Excelsior would grant a letter grade for DANTES, but knew they would for an ECE test. As far as the Business Policy test, I'll be doing more research on prep materials for that as that test gets closer, and I'll be sure to share in this thread.

 

In Excelsior's business catalog on page 35 it states that the ECE version will receive advanced level business credit. Something to keep in mind if you need 3 upper-level credits.

The same applies to Ethics as well - ECE gives upper level credit while the DANTES version only gives arts & sciences credit.

Cheers,
Mark

 

Well I passed the Ethics exam with a B. Not sure how I managed that as I was woefully under-prepared for it. I had materials that would have prepared me nicely, I just couldn't get into it. I realized too late that this didn't go along with the rest of the business-specific tests that I was taking.

For anyone taking it, I recommend studying and understanding the glossary of ethics terms here. Quite honestly, if you get this entire list down pat, you'll pass this test easily. This link will provide you with a more thorough background on the terms and on the theorists behind the terms. If you understand all of the material at both links, an A should be easily attainable. In particular, I had 5-6 questions on Kant, a few questions on Divine Commands. Probably what saved me was the fact that the majority of the questions on the exam come from the case study exhibits and associated questions. Be sure to check the exam guide here, and see pages 8-9 for a sample case study. The case studies will typically have one or two questions that deal specifically with ethical terms (see the glossary again) but then a few questions where the answer can be figured out logically. To give an example, one of the case studies dealt with overpopulation of goats on an island. The case study would then explain how 5-6 different people recommend the problem be dealt with. One of the questions on this one would then ask which 2 people would likely agree on a certain type of compromise.

Overall, I was very worried during the first section of multiple choice questions as I was very weak with the terms and theorists. The case studies saved me, and I actually found them to be quite interesting, which probably contributed to me pulling a B. Again, study the links that I provided and you'll definitely pass this one.

Progress: 12 credit hours in 17 days (2 A's, 1 B, 1 Passing 68 on CLEP)
Next up: Labor Relations today

 

ECE Labor Relations completed today with an A. I was very surprised to see the grade letter A pop up when I was complete with this one, I fully expected a B at best and wouldn't have been surprised with a C. It really did seem like a hard test where I had to make educated guesses more often than I was hoping to. This test had a deep focus on several specific areas rather than taking a broader approach to labor relations as a whole.

As far as prep materials, I used this site which covers most of the important US Labor laws. Most of these were covered on the test. Definitely know the Wagner Act and the Taft-Hartley Act, exactly what each covers and the differences between the 2 acts. I also used this overview, which was decent. Don't worry about anything that happens prior to the Industrial Revolution, and most of the test will cover post-WWII. Some of the big labor organizations you'll need to know are the AFL, CIO, Knight of Labor, IWW.

From there, review the test outline in the ECE content guide. I went through each point that I didn't recognize and hadn't been covered by the 2 afforementioned sites and plugged them into Google to get some background. Be sure to know what each specific act and court decision is that's listed in the content guide. Definitely know what the role of the NLRB is and what types of things they will and won't handle. There were at least 10 questions that pertained to the NLRB's role. Also know the process of labor organization, ie. how workers organize into a union, what an employer can and can't legally do when employees are organizing. There were at least 10-15 questions from that topic. Know the difference between arbitration and mediation, how the grievance process works, etc. Know the types of workers that can and can't organize and limits on the types of workers that can fall under one bargaining unit. I had a few questions pertaining to public sector employees, but most were focused on the private sector.

Progress: 15 credits in 20 days (3 A's, 1 B, 1 Passing 68 Clep)

Last ECE for awhile, time to hit the business-focused CLEP tests.

 

Correction on a typo in the above description of ECE Labor Relations. Most of the test is post-WWI, not WWII as many labor acts happened between the two wars.

 

Passed CLEP Principles of Marketing today with a 71. I highly recommend the REA Princples of Marketing study guide, which is the only thing I used to prep for this test. In fact, I read the 50+ page review and barely browsed through the sample exams (which make up the majority of the book), and the review covered almost every question I had on the test. I'm faily certain I would've scored higher had I spent an hour going through the sample exams.

The test questions were pretty well balanced across the review sections in the book, with maybe a few more questions focusing on channels than some of the other areas. The only items on the test not in the REA book were questions on the Internet's involvement in marketing, such as banner ads, Intranets, how different types of Internet marketing fall into the marketing process (ie. music site sells downloadable music, which covers the distribution). There were a few math problems involving break even point, profit, etc. Overall, I found this to be a pretty easy test. BTW, I have a mint condition REA Principles of Marketing book to sell if anyone is interested, PM me.

Next up: CLEP Macroeconomics and Microeconomics next week
Progress: 18 credits in 24 days

 

Passed CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics today with a 66. I had a very busy afternoon at work which threw me out of "testing mode", and not knowing the supply and demand graphs well enough nailed me. This was the first test that took me over an hour to complete.

The test is more focused on specific areas than I was expecting. Definitely have a good understanding of Keynesian theory and how government spending in general affects the economy. There were also a few questions where you needed to compare Keynsian principles to classical theory and monetary policy. I also wasn't prepared for as many questions on aggregate supply and demand. There were several questions covering right and left movements of aggregate supply and demand. And the Federal Reserve is covered very thoroughly, including questions on what actions the Fed can take during recession or inflation, how money supply can be increased and what effect this will have on recession, interest rates, etc.


Author Steve Slavin is the man for this test. His book Economics: A Self Teaching Guide is very good for Macro (and hopefully Micro), and there are online Powerpoint slides for one of Slavin's other Economics books that are very good as well, which I used to brush-up prior to the test. I'd say you could use either resource alone and pass, I mainly used both so that I could study the slides at work and read the book at home.

Progress: 21 credits in 28 days
Next up: CLEP Principles of Microeconomics on Saturday

 

Passed CLEP Principles of Microeconomics today with a 66. This one took me 1hr 15 min, and I wasn't very certain that I had done well. I drew graphs to think through a lot of questions, which was time consuming. This seemed like a tough one.

I again used the Slavin materials referenced above, mostly sticking to the Microeconomics chapter since I had read most of the rest of the book prior to my Macro exam.

Definitely understand the supply and demand graphs. I had quite a few questions that dealt with the graphs and how the equilibrium price was affected if there was movement on the graph. Also know what elastic and inelastic supply and demand is, there are a few questions on this. Have a good understanding of market behaviors with monopolies, monopolistic competition, oligopolies, and perfect competition. Know the differences between short-run and long-run, there were probably 5-6 questions on this. And there were probably 10 questions where the difference between marginal cost and average cost came into play.

Progress: 24 credits in 30 days
Next up: ECE World Population on Monday. I'm shooting for 8 exams over the next 2 weeks, mostly easy ones mixing in with the 2 Business Law exams. I'm trying to get as many easy and moderate exams out of the way before I hit Statistics, Accounting, and Finance.

 

Very very impressive. I wish I was such a quick study. Congratulations on so many credits in such a short period of time. It's very inspirational.

 

Completed the ECE World Population exam today with an A. Let me first say that you might pass this exam by sitting it cold, but you probably won't get an A. It was more difficult than I thought, and I'm glad that I spent an hour reviewing heading in. I'd say that any more prep than 2 hours would be overkill.

I used only this population handbook and this world population data sheet. The glossary of terms at the end of the handbook is very helpful. If you know most of the terms, you'll do well. In particular, know how to figure fertility rates and birth rates. There weren't many math problems, but you do need to know what factors are part of these rates (total population vs. women 15-49). Some other things to know are the phases of the demographic transition and at what phases you'll see certain fertility rates, mortality rates, economic factors. Know how urbanization plays into population growth. There were at least 15 questions that had something to do with demographic transition, maybe more. I had probably 5-6 questions on Malthus, who is not covered in the materials I listed, so I had no idea who he was. There were proabably another 4 questions on some of the other theories. There were a few questions on trends in China's and India's populations, trends on "sub-Saharan" Africa, a few on US population trends. Also know something about migration and what factors lead people to migrate. Also know how women's economic and educational successes factor into fertility rates. Overall, it seemed tougher than I expected, but someone could probably pass with little to no preparation if they're good at making logical choices. Again, if would be tough to get an A with no preparation.

Progress: 27 credits in 32 days.
Next Up: CLEP Information Systems on Wednesday, should require little prep for me. Hoping to also do another ECE on Friday (perhaps Business Strategy) and CLEP Business Law on Saturday, but this may change once i get into the prep materials.

 

Geat work! Thanks for all the info. I check this thread almost every day. Whats next? I bought the Humanities study guide off of Ebay from Xenia and hope to take it in a few weeks. Any advice out there?

 

Rant, I know nothing about these tests except that many people around here use them. Your thread is a wonderful source of information, carefully and just about exhaustively laid out. I hope the process continues well for you, and I'm sure that many people will find this thread a tremendous help and vademecum. Well done!