I am looking for advice on the best brand/publisher of CLEP and GRE study material. I am pre-studying prior to enrolling in a degree program. I am presently finishing up CET, A+, and Net+ certification. Thanks. Bob
I've always been impressed with the materials published by the Princeton Review. The company's focus has seemed to be: beat the test.
I think that most students would probably be better off reading textbooks rather than study guides. That's probably most true for CLEPs, which seem more course-specific.
I had good luck with Comex. Their videos that complement the books are really expensive. I would never buy them on my income, but if you can get the videos from a library or another source that works like that then the books are well worth their cost of $7.63. These books have approximately the same depth as Barron's EZ-guides. I bought a couple of those based on Lawrie Miller's article for subject CLEPs and DSSTs. I've been pleased with both. One was for basic psychology and the other for economics. I haven't sat down to a GRE yet, 7 courses to go before I worry about that...
Suggestions... Suggestions For CLEPs, HarperCollins College Outline series are often the best briefer place to start. But it distinctly depends upon you prior knowledge and preparation. Wiley's Self-Teaching Guide series is very effective. THE best source are amazon.com customer reviews. Use the book search feature (by title, subect, etc), and then use at the botton (it used to be in the second "results" window), the "sort by" feature to have results ranked by "avg customer review," and the best will be shown the top down. (Sometimes a customer will even state that the book is excellent for CLEP prep! Others may be student studying in other settings.) Then read the reviews and match them to your self-knowledge and needs. Several recommendations may be found on these pages on degreeinfo.com, too. Just search by exam title and review results. GREs, subject or otherwose are quite tough, and even Printeton Review's help failed to get me the expected or anticipated Psych GRE score, so choose carefully, and rely especially on the full sample GRE tests--NOT the 40 question brief version--it can mislead you (it did me)! As for computer cours guides, I don't know how helpful my info will be for youe, since I'm studying the liberal arts and sciences with a little business. Good studying, and good luck! --Orson
