Question re: CLEP general mathematics exam

First time poster here. I have sucessfully acquired 96 credits (72 of which were CLEP/DANTES). I need to fufill the NSM requirement--I'm looking at the CLEP General Mathematics exam. Does anyone have any links/tips/advice for a 40 something who has avoided math since high school on how to pass this exam?

Many thanks in advance.

B. Harkins
[email protected]
Excelsior BSL 2002 (hopefully!)

 

Welcome. Always nice to hear from a first-time poster.

I'd lurk in the sci.math.* newsgroups for a few days: partly to remember what it was about math that honked me off, and partly to get the vocabulary down get in the math mood. They're nice unintelligible folks.

You'll do fine. Please feel free to e-mail me if you don't think so.

TommyK
BOM, Regents (Excelsior) 1998
Member, Graduate Resource Network

 

Welcome. And you've hit upon my personal albatross-- mathematics in any form.

I took the College Mathematics general exam in October. I am among the world's math-o-phobes, and I did fine (62 scaled score, 72nd percentile) after the equivalent of a weekend's worth of preparation. 50% is passing; the test consists of multiple choice, 4-choice questions.

ETS says that most of the math content of their tests would've been covered by tenth grade. My observation is that the largest portion of the College Math questions involved statistics (albeit basic concepts.) Their "official" guide is consistent with this. If you already are comfortable with stats (you may have picked it up in 20+ years of real life) or can get comfortable with it, you're on safe ground. Another quarter of the test is pretty basic, common-sense stuff.

I've preached the virtues of "Cracking the CLEP" with specific regard to this test in other threads. I'll do it again here. I hate (abhor.. revile.. detest..) math, but this book coached me through.