I took my first Dante exam today on paper - Principles of Finance. It was much harder than I expected. I studied off and on for 2 weeks (20-25 hours total) and on my opinion it was not enough. I took on-line practice test for $5 and it gave me a false sense of confidence that I am ready. Practice test is a waste of time and money and does not provide the right difficulty level of the actual exam. The test consists of 86 questions (most of them require math application). Topics you need to know before taking the exam: Time value of Money (multiple cash flows, annuities ) NPV, IRR Cost of capital (WACC calculations) Operational Break-even Ratios I used Barron's "Finance" and as a supplement "Principles of Corporate Finance" by Ross (bought it for $10 on e-bay - good deal for a book of $100 value!). I will keep my fingers crossed until I get my score;( Olga
Have you ever taken any of the other exams for credit, or is this your first of any kind? I don't believe I've ever read a story of someone studying 25 hours and not passing, but I know I've read several stories of studying 0-2 hours and getting an A. I used the same Barron's book, about 4 hours of studying, and came away with a B. Here's a quick illustration of how much you really need to know to pass one of these exams for credit. Each exam, you need to get around 50% of the total answers correct. For Prinicples of Finance, we'll guess you need about 42 correct answers to pass. Let's take the following situation: - While taking the test, you only know the answer to 20 of the 84 questions (less than one fourth of the test). - Out of the remainding 64 questions, half of the questions, you are able to narrow down the answer to two choices. If you have a general understanding of the subject, this is easily true. - The remaining 32 Questions, you have no idea what the answer is, so take a random guess. Total score = 20+(32/2)+(32/4) = 44. 2 points above our estimated passing score. (This is assuming Dantes tests are 4 answer choices...they might be 5, I forget ^_^. If they're 5, then your score would be 42 or 43).
There are 4 possible answers - unless you select the "E" answer on the scorecard which isn't a valid choice Cheers, Mark
Thank you for the explanation! I do tend to overstudy sometimes but I hate to guess and leave the outcome to chance;-). In anyway, I will try to get up to speed and take at least 4 exams month. I am new to multiple choice tests but I do have 3 years of the undergraduate studies (engineering) under my belt with 3.9 GPA. I've always been a good test taker. I am sure I passed but I am not so sure about getting a high score. Thanks Olga
Fret not. I imagine you'll surprise yourself. I recently took the same exam. I have taken many DANTES/CLEPs/ECEs and thought that that the P of Finance may have been my first failure. I've yet to get my official score, but my testing center scanned the test and said I scored "substantially above the ACE recommendation for credit". Almost always I do better than I think.
Ditto Olga, I concur completely. I purchased the practice exam ($5) which was worthless(Save your money). The Barons EZ Finance 101, which helped, but the exam was much tougher than I expected. I haven't got my results back, but it was significantly harder than any CLEP/TECEP/DANTES I've taken and passed. It took the whole allotted time. I then immediately took Dantes, Prin of Supervision, which I finished in about 25 minutes. This was a cake walk compared to Finance. I just took TECEP Business Policy exam, which was also more difficult than CLEPs. Next week is TECEPs Business Strategy. These exams require 3 essays questions, 4 short answer questions, and 30 multiple choice. All said, expect writers cramp from hand writing around 10-12 pages of answers. These are very passable if you need some upper division at TESC for a BSBA. Good luck and keep testing
INSTANTCERT Hi Quiltlady, I used Instantcert.com. This seemed to be more than sufficient. If you have any background in management,this is an easy exam. Good luck
Just received the score on Finance exam and to my big surprise I've got A? Wow, I guess TexasBlack and Randy were right - with multiple choice tests you usually do better than you think. At least it worked for me.
Quiltlady, I know you didn't ask me,but I used the Official DSST study guide for Principles of Supervision. I t was more than adequate for that exam. That study guide covers about 8 or 9 different DSST exams. I used the guide for three exams(Princ. of SUP., Intro to BUS, and Personal Finance)and got A's on all of them. The guide is about $20.00 If you buy it new from the store. Good Luck. FED
Congrats Congratulations OlgaHtml. That must be a weight off your shoulders. I found out I passed too. I'm not sure how I did, but I'll take it. I wouldn't recommend Instantcert.com for the Finance exam, I was grossly underprepared. Instantcert has been very good for Bus Law, Supervision, Eng Comp, but horrible for Finance exam.
Has anyone used instacert.com to prepare for the P of Finance exam & pass recently? In the past people have said that it is useless for this exam. I’m wondering if they are now up to snuff?
I need to take Dantes Prin. of Finance and Intro. to Statistics exams as well. If anyone has any insight on these tests, that would be great. I am considering Instantcert as well and am also wondering if they are NOW up to par. If not, I heard the Barron's EZ series should be enuff...
Check out www.degreeforum.com Those exams are covered extremely well over at www.degreeforum.com . Check it out, there is everything you will need to pass these exams. Go to the forum section, and then to the Dantes, Clep sub section. Good luck.
What about learning the subject? Does anyone study here with that intention or just to get the credits and the degree?
Well...some of us have a WIDE variety of academia behind us, but for some reason or another, have not yet obtained a degree. This particular group of people is more than likely happy just to get the credits and thus the degree.
Yes, you are right in that. And getting a degree seems to be artificially important just to get ahead nowadays. There are many people with a lot of valuable professional experience (I'm one of them) and academia that are discriminated just because they don't have the degree, so didn't mean to criticize. It's just that some posts make this credit by examination process seem like a loophole or trick, less valuable and respectable than normal credit through taking courses and going to classes, evenm though many of us (I'm one of them) actually studies each of the subjects throroughly before taking the exam (well most of the subjects anyway...). Because in my case, I am really enjoying the learning that goes with it too.
