Three days of Study. Two DANTES tests, and another CLEP in the pear tree!

Hi All,

I took three exams today:

DANTES Intro to Business
DANTES Principles of Supervision
CLEP Principles of Management

I had planned on spreading the three exams out over the next week but my testing center is extremely busy right now in the run up to Christmas and only had availability today (and one more spot on the 20th). So I just decided to take the bull by the horns and take all three exams in one sitting.

I used Instantcert and Passyourclass for all three exams. I also had COMEX for the Management exam.

I began studying for Supervision and Management over the weekend, and crammed for Intro to Business last night (when I found out I would be taking all three today).

I found all three exams to be relatively easy: Assuming you learn the info contained in Instantcert, Passyourclass, and COMEX.

I was actually surprised they weren't a little harder. In terms of difficulty, I would probably rate all three of them as a 2 out of 5.

I scored a 77 (scaled score) on Principles of Management and I feel very confident that I did equally well on the two DANTES exams. Of course, I won't know those results for a while but, pending the final confirmation, I earned another nine credits today (hopefully all A's).

It feels good!

Next up: Intro to World Religions (next Tuesday).

That's all for now,
Beholdweb

 

Good Job!!!!



Abner

 

Congratulations! It feels nice, doesn't it? For the DANTES World Religions exam, I used the "Everything Guide to World Religions" and scored an A. It sounds like you're doing a great job studying. Keep us updated!

Rhonda

 

Thanks Rhonda,

It feels great! I am loving this process.

For what it's worth, here is the study method I use:

1. Pick an exam.
2. Gather the appropriate study materials.
3. Read everything I can get my hands on that relates to the subject I am studying (soak it all in until I understand).
4. "Extract and Memorize" as many key names, important terms, and significant concepts from the subject as possible (practise writing them out over and over).
5. Take ten minutes before I START the exam to regurgitate everything I have memorized ("Brain Dump" thanks Unixman) onto the scratch paper.
6. Start the exam.
7. Refer to my "brain dump" paper whenever necessary.
8. "Mark and Skip" any questions that I cannot answer within thirty seconds.
9. Get to the end of the exam and then spend any leftover time reviewing the marked questions.
10. Hopefully Pass the Exam...and pass well!

It may not work for everyone, but it's working for me so far.

$1,000 for 43 credits in less than 6 weeks. I wouldn't have thought it possible if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!

I still have a LOT to do...but it's a good start!

I'm happy,
Beholdweb

 

Congrats, beholdweb! It is so true what everyone says: the hardest part is just getting started.

I sat 11 DSST over three days (9 over the first two) just hoping for some a passing grade. I really did put forth some serious effort, so what a great feeling it was two weeks later when the results came in: 11 A's!

Excelsior finally completed my evaluation, which pegged me at 91 credits with a 4.0 GPA (106 if you count the DSST that haven't been graded yet). I have since decided to focus on maintaing this GPA advantage (why ruin a good thing?), so I'll skip the ECE English Composition (already paid $285 -- ouch!) and take an IL composition class as pass/fail.

Indeed, "brain dumping" has been an invaluable technique. I had a stubborn DSST proctor once that tried to forbid it and I really had to press the issue (told them to call Chauncey on the spot).

I will sit my first ECE exam this week and am wondering if you can use scratch paper at Prometric. Anyone?


Keep it up!

 

Class? Why not just take the TECEP English Comp exam, which is also pass/fail?

Also, what is "IL"?

--

I bow to you for completing 11 DANTES in 3 days. You are very brave! That had to be killer. It is exhausting just filling in all those bubbles. It takes 20 minutes to fill out the cover page info alone. Grrrr!

I hope DANTES go computerized soon!

Which 11 exams did you take?

 

That's funny. The most DANTES I've written in one day is three. I agree, I hope they go computerized soon! It felt like my arm was going to fall off just filling out those cover pages!

Rhonda

 

Prometric

Prometic gives you scratch paper, or sometimes a reusable scratch whiteboard and pen. You cannot use your own paper for obvious reasons. I like the ECE exams, but find Promoetric a less friendly testing environment then my local community college testing center. Somehow the ID check and picture there feel more formal and institutional than the friendly exchange with librarians who know me at my community college where I take both CLEPS and proctored exams for distance classes. Both have cameras and audiofeeds from the testing areas and provide lockers to put all your stuff induring test taking.


Elizabeth

 

Have you worked in supervision or management?

I don't know... reports like these make me very very nervous.

Do you have a personal interest in the world's religions? Have you already been exposed to them?

My area of interest is religious studies. And I just don't believe that students can come up to speed on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and perhaps Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism, Shinto, paleolitic religion, the ancient religions, shamanism and tribal religions, as well as all kinds of general stuff about the phenomenon of religion itself and about how religion is studied and practiced in different cultures, in just a few hours of skimming a study guide.

It seems to me that a decent world religions course should be a substantive academic undertaking. It provides the basic foundation for all of a student's subsequent work in religion, following up all the various ideas in more detail. The introductory class provides the foundation. Even if a general ed non-major student walks away from it at that point, he or she should take away a broad overview of the subject and a feeling for how scholarship approaches it.

 

Re: Re: Three days of Study. Two DANTES tests, and another CLEP in the pear tree!

Bill,

I think I know where you're going with this. I have been going back and forth over staying with my current school (National University) or tranferring over to Excelsior and testing out of the majority of my gen. ed and major requirements. The thing is, I am a very impatient person, and if I stay with National, I won't graduate until the summer of 2008. However, if I transfer over to Excelsior, I could finish up by late spring of next year! Obviously, the value of my education is in question here. If I stay at National (not exactly an Ivy League school, mind you!), I will likely learn quite a bit more then if I transfer over to Excelsior and CLEP/DANTE/ECE my way out of a degree. This is not to say that an degree from Excelsior is worthless to me. Quite the contrary. I would likely receive a promotion by my having a BA/BS from an RA school. Also, I would likely be able to start a Graduate program early than anticipated. My main concern though, is that I won't learn as much by testing out of my courses. Let's face it - how long is someone going to retain information (let alone process it long enough to be considered useful) by "brain dumping". Again, this is not a slight to beholdweb or anyone else that is pursuing a degree from one of the "Big three". I admire people that can knock out so many credits at once! I suppose that I am just "writing aloud" here, trying to decide what course of action to take.

- Tom

P.S. Sorry beholdweb. I'm not trying to hijack your thread! Congrats!!!

 

Re: Re: Three days of Study. Two DANTES tests, and another CLEP in the pear tree!

Hi BillDayson,

Remember, these are INTRODUCTORY courses. The aim is to introduce students to the subject matter, not to ensure they have mastered every aspect.

I do agree that World Religions could potentially be a substantive academic undertaking. But that is why it is possible to major in this subject, and to proceed onwards to a Master's or a Ph.D in the subject. I believe THAT is the "substantive academic undertaking" you are referring to.

For the Intro to World Religions exam, however, you must merely familiarize yourself with the names, dates, places, terminology, and key themes of each religion. Certainly this is nothing to take lightly. But the more profound learning in this subject would only occur if you majored in the subject (ie, took about TEN courses at the lower and upper level). Then you would be setting the foundation for even more in-depth study at the master's or doctoral level.

The same applies to most of the "Intro" and "Principles" type subjects: They are merely an initial exploration into the topics.

Having said that, I am a former full-time pastor and a bible school graduate. So I do understand what you mean about it being a substantive academic undertaking. I just don't believe that it applies to these "introductory" courses/exams.

On a related note, I have no former experience with College-level Algebra, I have never worked in a mathematical field and I probably never will. I have no personal interest in the subject matter either. But in order to get my degree I MUST prove that I have sufficient proficiency in this subject. It is not because I have a great love for math, or because I wish to embark on a substantive academic undertaking. It is simply something that I have to do, a hurdle to jump over. I will do it too....but then I will leave the subject behind and NEVER have the opportunity to study the profundities of quantitative theory. That's fine for me, because I don't have any interest in that. So for me, the College Algebra will just be an exam I have to take, nothing more, nothing less. No passion for math is required or necessary.


Beholdweb

 

Re: Re: Three days of Study. Two DANTES tests, and another CLEP in the pear tree!

Bill, I understand your concern and the same issue puzzled me too. I'm familiar with many of the mentioned exams because I myself took quite a few of them.
Here, perhaps, are some thoughts to ponder:
-as already mentioned, this are mostly equivalents of introductory courses and they test only relatively basic undergraduate stuff.
-the kids who take equivalent courses at college very often show similar study patterns as in the above example(e.g. they start to study a couple of nights before the final), and they pass.
-multiple choice exams generally possess a pretty good validity because they are standardized before getting into circulation(i.e. they are given to a large number of people who just passed equivalent courses; then, using the scores of this participants the test difficulty is adjusted and the passing score is determined). So I think, one could even argue that an objective test like CLEP has greater predictive reliability than some of the exams developed by B&M colleges "in-house".


Dennis

 

Hi All,

Just a quick update!

I got my scores in the mail today for DANTES Intro to Business and DANTES Principles of Supervision. My scaled scores were 66 and 67 respectively. Two more 'A's and 6 more credits done.

It took DANTES 16 days to get my scores to me (including the Christmas holiday). About two weeks seems to be the norm for me so far.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!
Beholdweb

 

good job!!! What did you think of the DANTES Principles of Supervision? I hear it is pretty basic, what did you think?


Happy New Year, you should be proud of yourself!!!


Abner

 

Thanks Abner,

I had been studying intensively for the CLEP Principles of Management exam and realised that Principles of Supervision included some of the same concepts.

So I scheduled both exams at the same time and studied the Supervision section of the Official DSST book to make sure I knew all the needed terminology etc.

If you know the info in the DSST book, the exam should be relatively easy to pass.

Studying for Principles of Management, Intro to Business, and Principles of Supervision at the same time was helpful because they each have a certain amount of overlap...

Management involves Supervision, Supervision is an element of Management, and Intro to Business includes sections on both.

I passed Principles of Marketing a week before I took the Intro to Business exam, and this helped me too, because Marketing is also one of the topics covered on the Intro to Business exam.

In my opinion, grouping related exams together wherever possible is a very worthwhile strategy.

Example:
-----------
1) Principles of Marketing
2) Principles of Management
3) Principles of Supervision
4) Intro to Business

Have a great 2006,
Beholdweb

 

Yeah, grouping is not a bad idea. Maybe I will see if I can take Principles of Marketing & Principles of Supervision together/back to back. I took Intro to Business back in August and passed.


Thanks,

Abner

 

Hi Abner,

Just a word of caution and clarification...

Even though Marketing overlaps with the Intro to Business exam, it does NOT overlap with the Supervision/Management exams. I included Marketing in the four 'grouped' exams ONLY because it overlaps with one section of the Intro to Business exam (but you have already taken that one).

So be advised that taking Marketing AND Supervision (or Management) on the same day could potentially work against you because you would have to study two completely different sets of information at the same time. This may not be an issue for you Abner, but I just thought I would mention it in case.

I studied for Marketing and then allowed myself a week to study for Management and Supervision.

Better to be safe than sorry!

Based on my own experience and hindsight (20/20 as always ), and just to be clear for anyone else who may read this, I would suggest studying for the four exams in this order:

1&2) Study for both Management AND Supervision (lots of overlap).
3) Then study for Marketing.
4) Then use your prior studies to take Intro to Business (either on the same day as Marketing or a few days later to allow time to study the additional sections of the exam).

How long you allow yourself to study before sitting each exam should be based entirely on your own judgement.

I wouldn't personally take Marketing AND Management/Supervision at the same exact time. The content is too different. But if you are confident that studying for two subjects simultaneously will not affect your performance then by all means go for it.

Whatever you end up doing Abner....good luck!

Keep us updated,
Beholdweb

 

Oops, sorry. I meant to say Management and Supervision(1&2) on the same day. Good tips though, thanks for the advice. You have already crossed those bridges, and luckily I and others can now benefit from your experience.



I thank you for your comments.

Respecfully,
Abner

 

Have you considered adding Dantes Organizational Behavior to the business/management/supervision "cluster" you were referring to?

Don't know if it would work for everyone, but after taking a couple of basic business/management classes at a community college and studying a "generic" (borrowed) textbook for a couple of days, I didn't find the Dantes Org. Behavior test very difficult.

Dave

 

Hi Jigamafloo,

Yes, I have heard that some people do include Organizational Behavior in with this same "cluster" (I like that word - can I keep it?) of exams.

I am actually going to need the upper level ECE in Org Behavior as part of my degree plan. I plan on taking it around the same time I take Human Resource Management and closer to when I take a whole bunch of Pyschology exams since Org Behavior fits right in with those too.

When I think about it, in some ways nearly ALL the exams have some elements of overlap with others. As I am progressing through my degree plan, I am amazed at how many times I come across concepts that I have already studied for other exams: A concept from Sociology crops up again in Principles of Management; a law I studied for American Government suddenly crops up again in the Marketing exam etc.

It's pretty cool really!