Hi, just finished humanities and social science exams. Found them to be more difficult than those found in college board book and princeton review. Just my background and bad luck or is that the general consensus? Curious because I have several others to take and wonder if I should study a little harder in spite of doing well in the book exams. thanks
clep Human Growth and Developement....I just took this one after doing some review of the exam book. The practice tests were in fact much more difficult than the actual exam. I would recommend the HGAD test to anyone with any common sense. It was very easy.
My experience was that the "General Exams" are some of the hardest CLEPs because they cover so much material, and are hard to study for. The Humanities CLEP was a tough one for me mainly because my interests in life don't mesh with what the test teaches. I did OK in the Social Sciences test, but not great. However, I found the Science and College Mathematics tests to be quite easy with my background. At this point, I have taken 19 CLEP tests, and plan to take three more in the near future. Most tests have been studied for by checking a textbook out of a local college library, reading the book from cover to cover, and retyping the "chapter summary" section into a word processer (this becomes my main study material if I need further review). This is probably overkill, but I am pursuing this in terms of getting a liberal arts education rather than proving what I already know. There are some exams that I won't take. For instance, although I read voraciously, American and English Lit. cover material that I don't particularly care for, and from my perspective would take more studying than I care to put forth to earn a "A" (Based on the practice tests I would pass them if I sat the exams now, but probably with a "C" grade from Excelsior). In general though, I found that most of the CLEP exams are fairly easy. In terms of what to take next, I wouldn't take Human Growth and Development without first taking Introduction to Psychology. It really depends on what your interests are. One thing to keep in mind is that everything kind of runs together in the social sciences. Once you learn something, it will probably be reinforced in your further studies.
I found the practice tests in the Princeton Review book and the "official" guide eerily close to the actual tests (in terms of difficulty and breakdown) for the College Math general exam and the Business Law subject exam. Took the Spanish subject exam for kicks-- already had ACE-recommended credit for eight semester hours, but wanted the magic 12-- and found both the sample test and the real test to be indicative of how far my Spanish has slid over the past few years. On average, I'd say that the practice materials from those two sources were, for me, accurate predictors.
I took the following CLEP and DANTES and found them very easy- DANTES Here’s to you Health DANTES Tech Writing DANTES Intro to Business DANTES Intro to Computing DANTES Envir and Humanity DANTES Intro to Criminal Justice DANTES Intro to Law Enforcement CLEP English CLEP Analy. and interp. lit. CLEP History I CLEP General Math CLEP Sociology CLEP Humanities
I took several CLEPs. The one I found most challenging was the English Composition (or something like that). Basically reading passages and answering inane questions. I passed it, but I think some of the answers were subjective. I talk goodly English, so I was pretty surprised the score weren't higher. I found the computer exam overly simplistic. The accounting CLEP was involved/thoerough, but I wouldn't call it overly difficult. The ECON test was a challenge as well.
Dear John-- I found the Princeton Review most helpful. However in subjects that I'm weaker in, they did not provide either sufficient review or drill, so for Math and Natural Science I used the Comex books. These are older, more dated, less sophistocated as books, but they do cover the basics fairly well, and I recommend them for others seeking down and dirty coaching on CLEP General subject matter (as well as Hovey's CLEP Principles of Management). Good Luck. --Orson
