BillP's College Adventure

After I graduated H.S., like so many 19-22 year olds, I let a combination of beer, women and general boredom run my life, and Ga Southern let me know that my presence was no longer required on their campus.

Last Spring I found Lawrie’s B.A. In Four Weeks website and decided to finally finish my degree. So in May, I took my 38.3 semester hours of credit and enrolled in COSC.

My CLEP experience:

English Comp with Essay. - Since I scored about 90% on both Official CLEP Study guide and Princeton review pre-tests, and I write marketing research reports for a living, I went into this totally convinced I had this wired. I flunked this with a 49. I can only assume that my essay sucked. And I’ve since found out that they are looking for an essay with a VERY specific form, the “five paragraph essay”. Mine wasn’t even close. I just wrote 2-3 paragraphs explaining what I thought about the topic at hand. Ah well, I’m ready for October when I can retake the test.

College Math – scored in the 40% range in the pre-test, so I bought the Comex Systems Review book and worked through the examples. I can’t praise these books highly enough. After working my way through the books, I went in and nailed the test. I passed with a 71. 6 hours

Natural Science – scored in the high 30% in the pre-test, I used the Comex Systems book for this, along with three laminated study cards, one for physics, one for chemistry and one for biology, that I found at a local book store. Nailed the exam with a 70. Another 6 hours

Analyzing and Interpreting Literature – scored in the high 70% in the pre-test, but I had just received my Eng Comp score, so I was a bit nervous given my high pre-test scores on that exam, so I bought the study guide from Sheryl Spencer on eBay and worked through that. I’m not sure it did any good. I passed with a 77. Another 6 hours.

Next up – US History I & II tomorrow. Since I’ve been a history buff my whole life and scored in the high 90% in the pre-tests, I’m not looking for any trouble with these exams. 6 hours for the pair

On the 28th I’ll be taking Western Civ I & II, again high pre-test scores (high 70%) have made me fairly confident on these as well. Another 6 hours for these two

In September, I plan on knocking out the English Lit and American Lit for 12 hours, and then in October re-taking the Eng Comp. For 6 hours.

So in three months I’ve gone from 38.3 hours to 56.3 hours with the prospect of earning another 12 (bringing me to 68.3) before the end of the month. If I manage the 12 hours of Lit credit next month I will have gone from 38.3 to 80.3 in 4 months. And I took the month of July off to get married.!

 

Nice job Bill!

 

Good going!!!!!

Now, if you hadn't gotten married......... Then again, that will remove women from the equation

 

BillP. Are you or were you ever on the roadfly forum too?

 

Nope, never heard of "roadfly forum"

What is it?

 

A forum for BMW 5 series owners. There was guy on there who has the same screen name as you.

 

An update!

Took Us History I & II today and passed both. Got a 75 on US I and a 77 on US II.

This 6 hours brings me to 62 hours, which means I'm half-way home!

For those of you on the fence, or skeptical about the reality of this process, I can only encourage you to "go for it". I've gone from 38 hours to 62 hours since 1 May of this year!

No real studying, although I did run through a few questions on instacert.


Does anyone here have an opinion on Instacert? I've paid my $20, and I've gone through a couple of their "practice exams" but haven't really made up my mind yet.

 

re: your testing methods

I failed the college math today with a 45 and am not quite sure I could find any study material that was even worth the money.

I purchased instacert and went through the questions and understood most of the premises but when it came to the actual test, there was alot of gaps of knowledge I didn't know.

So I doubt I will use Instacert again. Do you know of any good material on Social Studies and History and Natural Sciences.

What is the trick to passing these tests. This was my first one and it seemed like 4 semesters worth of math shoved into 90 minutes.

I haven't studied some of these subjects in years and need to find a way to pass them on the first try because having to wait 6 months to retake them is absolutely rediculous and not worth coming back to.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks,

 

Speedbump,

One of the tricks with ANY math is to practice, practice, practice, then practice some more. When you are done with all that, do a few practice problems.

It simply is not enough to understand the premise. You need to exercise the math muscles a bit.

As for taking exams, I HATE exams. I HATE them and when I'm in a better mood I despise them. I hate tests so much I want to hurt them. However, I am in an industry that loves tests. Loves tests and will use a comma to change a question so subtly as to make the answer something completely different. So tests are now a part of my life. Here are some ideas you can take or leave, but htey helped me:

1) Relax- it's just a test, and it will not be the end of the world if you don't pass. If you don't pass, you can likely take it again some other day.

2) Read the question. No, I don't mean just to get the gist of it. Read the question! I was really bad at that part, and I am slowly getting better.

3) If this is a multiple guess test, then read all the answers. Read them, don't just glance at them.

4) Reread the question. Again, really read it.

5) Only then, if it's a math problem, do you start breaking out the pencil and other things needed (calculator if allowed, etc.). Work neatly! This is a must. When I taught stats, many times students made mistakes because they couldn't read their own handwriting!

6) Be extremely wary on multiple guess tests if the question seems overly simple and the answer pops into your head and it's one of the choices. It may be a trap!

7) If the test is multiple guess, and not math, follow steps 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then answer it. Beware of the non-math version of #6 (seemingly overly simple question).

8) If you have time go over your answers, however, do not be too quick to change any. From what I understand, usually your first anser is correct.

9) If an essay question (a la GMAT), then outline your response before you start writing. Do NOT grip the pencil too tightly, as I did when I took it. My hand cramped up, and I could barely write the last paragraph. I needed to use 2 hands, the result looked like Klingonese.

And the final part to the strategy...............

10) RELAX!

Go get 'em! You'll do better next go around!

 

Re: An update!

Speedbump,

Man the same thing happened to me with the Eng Comp exam , failed with a 49!

The best thing I found for both the Math and Natural Science exams was the Comex Systems books. I just methodically worked through the examples in the books, took the "post test" and nailed both exams.

Don't worry about the six months. You only missed by a few points, get the Comex books go over them and you'll be fine.

Good luck!

Bill

 

Update!!

Hmm, haven't been here in a while so I thought I'd give you guys an update.

In September I passed Western Civ I (scored 71) and II (scored 78, my personal best).

basically I used CLEP's Official Guide and Peterson's for these

Took Humanities and English Comp this weekend.

Passed the Humanities with a 78 (my all time high score). I used Instacert and the $6.95 Humanities Study guide from Xenia on eBay. I really like her stuff.

I feel really good about the English Comp. I consistantly scored 90%+ on all the pre-tests I've taken. And this time I was ready for the Essay. Over the past couple of months I've been writing spec essays and sending them to a buddy of mine who is an English prof.

Assuming I pass the English I'll be at 80 hours.

In two weeks I'm scheduled to take American Lit and English Lit.

 

Comex / CLEP Review

Bill,
I have a question for you about the comex material you used to study. I want to buy these and have found a few for sale on half.com for really good prices, but I was wondering on the publication dates of the material. The comex guides on there range in publication date from 1989 {soc sci ) up to 2001 (nat sci & humanities ). Do you know if these are republished annually or would these suffice for the tests. I am not sure how regularly that they update the CLEPs so I guess it would depend on that. Thanks for any info.....
MT

 

BillP:

Awesome story, COSC is a great school, and they have very friendly and knowledgable people there. I am entertaining the idea of enrolling in one of their master's programs when they roll them out.



Speed Bump:

The princeton review cracking the CLEP book has a very good review for the College Mathematics Exam.

 

Can't you get portfolio credit for that?

UF has a course called "Marriage and Family", why not get credit for the real deal?

 

Another update

Passed the English Comp CLEPwith a 64!

Then on 21 May I took and passed both the American Lit (73) and the English Lit (72) CLEPs.

So I'm now at 92 hours. I only need 28 more to wrap this up.

Anyone even remotely thinking about doing this sort of thing should go for it. In 13 months I've gone from 38 hours to 92 hours and hope to be finished by the end of summer.

Next up - Micro and Macro Econ CLEPS

 

Another update

Since my last update to this thread (last June), I've passed:

Civil War & Recon DANTES
Sociology CLEP
Principals of Marketing CLEP
Principals of Management CLEP
Intro Psychology CLEP

Now I have 107 hours and only have five more exams until I fiinish my degree.

Next up Micro and Macro Econ on 29 March.

 

All finished!!

Since my last visit I've finished all the exams needed for my degree:

MicroEcon CLEP (70)
MacroEcon CLEP (68)
Management CLEP (75)
Western Europe Since 1945 DANTES (67)
Rise and Fall of USSR DANTES (73)
Intro Modern Middle East (68)

I'm totally finished. Went from 38 credit hours in 2004 to 122 now.

21 exams, costing ~$1700, another ~$1900 in tuition to Charter Oak.

I probably spent another $1000 on books and study materials.

It's not the eastiest thing I've ever done, but it is definitely easier than trying to come up with the time and tuition to attend regular classes.

A big thanks to Lawrie Miller. Without you I would never have thought it possible.

 

Cool!

Congratulations on completing your degree! That's a great achievement.

What's next? Relaxing? Masters Degree, Certificates?

 

Wow congrats!! That is awesome!

Good job and thanks for helping to motivate everyone on the board!

Brandon

 

Congrats on your success!

I was able to pass two CLEPS back to back (US History) by renting 13 video set from the library and watching them for two days. It helped me to graduate that same semester.