Revised Excelsior Eng Comp Exam: anyone taken it yet?

The exam information for the revised Excelsior English Composition exam is at
http://www.excelsior.edu/pdf/englcmp2.pdf

Anyone take it, yet?

--Orson

 

Orson, I took it in late October and just found out that I earned a 'c' grade. If you will recall, there was some discussion re: this a few weeks ago, and I guess this grade adds to the mystery of 'c' grades at Excelsior on this exam.
I did no prep for the exam in terms of writing, but I did take your advice and I looked over the MLA handbook. In addition, my library had a version that dealt with research papers which was useful.
If you have any specific questions, I will do my best to answer them. It has been over a month now, and with my studying for and taking other exams, I may not be as helpful as I would like.
John

 

Thanks John...

The new samlpe exam show that just one part of the old one is retained, and the new parts are revised to include set texts to write on--this would appear to be most helpful!

SO--John--do you mean that this "help" was of no help? Did you take the exam without without this sample and outline? Or were the "set" examples merely representative of the sorts of passages one actually encounters...?

--Orson
("...mystery" indeed!)

 

This is what I remember;
One of the sections consisted of reading a long passage from a James Joyce book. I was instructed to find areas relating to the 'dark' theme. Also, instances of 'light'. Compare and contrast.

Another was a cover letter written to me (a hr executive) seeking a job with my company. I also got from the letter that this person knew me or was told to contact me personally because he was seeking advice on how to approach the job search. The point of the question was to find problems concerning grammar, punctuation, spelling, meaning, etc. The writing was to be structured as a response to the letter.

The other I cannot remember very well, but it had something to do with a confrontational situation where I was acting as a mediator or problem-solver. I also believe that I was also given the opportunity to disagree with both points of view, find a solution, side with one of the parties, etc.

Once again, I used your advice re: the MLA handbook as you will cite others works in two of the three questions.

I really wish I could remember more, but my brain is just about fried from test taking!

Hope this helps, if you have any more questions, just ask. Maybe the questions themselves will jog my memory!

 

Thanks again, John....

In other words, the revision on this exam is merely one of presentation, not of questions or content. (Let's argue lit instead of social problems. ) This brings it more in conformity with other standard exams, like the AP--an exam one should still prefer to take for the Excelsior English requirement. Yet in grading, it is srictly "old school."

Let me elaborate. I began my higher education at Lawrence University in Wisconsin over twenty years ago. This college was really smaller than my high school, though. It vies--along with Grinnell of Iowa and Carleton in Minnesota, as well as a few others--for the mythical title "Harvard of the Midwest." When I was there, a "C" was indeed still a respectable grade, and a B- was still evidence of superior effort! And cold exams were still given. One brilliant prof, still lecturing there in his 70s, included on exam instructions: "Use brilliant examples." Does anyone anywhere still demand that?

It was quite a shock to attend Augsburg College in Minneapolis or Hillsdale of Michigan and discover that cold written exams were almost unknown there. But Lawrentians' mordant humor about how severe the challenges of exams there that the truest joke went this way. "You have before you a razor, needle and thread, alcohol and cotton balls. Take out your appendix. Be sure to show all your work." THAT'S old school. (Note: Excelsiro would not take either of my Lawrence Freshman Comp courses for their requirement.)

Therefore, I have decided not to retake this exam. Instead, since it's elective and can show a better level of competence than an ECE Comp "C" does, I'll take the CLEP Freshman Comp exam. At least this will SHOW what I actually know--!

--Orson

P.S. For the benefit of others, has anyone achieved anything better than an ECE Comp "C"?--Would any of these approved experts care to share any pointers?