discouraged for clep math,what do i need to know?

hi guys,
i try to stay positive but i'm doing the online peterson clep test(college math) to see how i'm doing and i can't get more than 50%.
i don't know what else to study and these questions are difficult!
the cracking the clepbook of princeton went ok , but this one is really hard.
so, i wonder if i'll make it and what is a good reference to see if i'm ok?
is the clep really difficult?
some advice would be welcome
thanks

 

Forget Peterson

Peterson on-line tests are more difficult than the actual CLEP College Math exam. I scored less than 50% on Peterson tests and I got 56 on the actual CLEP test. My advice: download the CLEP official mock test -- it costs 10 bucks (used to be free...) and is paper and pencil, but it gives you a more or less exact idea of the test level of difficulty.

By the way, Cracking the CLEP is a great study resource: almost everything is there.

Just two more things. On my exam there was just one very basic question on logarithmics (the kind of stuff that the Cracking book explains well) and no questions at all on binary system (however, learning to convert binary numbers into decimals is so easy that it's worth doing it, just in case -- just make a google search).
On the other hand, the actual questions on functions were harder than those on the book. If you have time, it's worth spending some time studying an algebra manual on that.

Most important of all: don't worry; it's not too difficult. You can make it -- Hey, the last time I had studied algebra I was in High school, more than twenty years ago.

 

Second that

I passed clep math using only the Cracking book.
I would agree that the functions are harder than what is written in the book. In the book it tells you to "plug in" but I don't know, with some of the functions It wasn't working.
I ended up guessing on A LOT of those questions and I still passed...to my amazement.

I think they have a new book out.
I would not recommend the REA general math or the Comex General math. There were a few sections like Geometry that were covered in these books but not on the exam.

 

Re: Second that

From the CLEP site I see 15% of the exam that could contain some amount of geometry, so it's not out of the question why study guides would include it. However, it's only 15%, which would mean a question or two.

Approximate Percent of Examination
10% Sets
Union and intersection
Subsets
Venn diagrams
Cartesian product

10% Logic
Truth tables
Conjunctions, disjunctions, implications, and negations
Conditional statements
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Converse, inverse, and contrapositive
Hypotheses, conclusions, and counterexamples

20% Real Number System
Prime and composite numbers
Odd and even numbers
Factors and divisibility
Rational and irrational numbers
Absolute value and order
Binary number system

20% Functions and Their Graphs
Properties and graphs of functions
Domain and range
Composition of functions and inverse functions

25% Probability and Statistics
Counting problems, including permutations and combinations
Computation of probabilities of simple and compound events
Simple conditional probability
Mean and median

15% Additional Topics from Algebra and Geometry
Complex numbers
Logarithms and exponents
Applications from algebra and geometry specifically on perimeter and area of plane figures
Properties of triangles and circles
The Pythagorean theorem
Parallel and perpendicular lines
Applications

Cheers,
Mark