half the CLEP exams were revised

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by cookderosa, Dec 4, 2018.

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  1. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    (forgive the lazy copy/paste)


    BREAKING NEWS: Half the CLEP Exams were just revised

    Posted on December 4, 2018 by Jennifer Cook-DeRosa"BREAKING NEWS: Half the CLEP Exams were just revised"


    Big news- we just saw a MAJOR revision of half of the ENTIRE CLEP CATALOG. 16 of their exams set to expire November 30, 2018, just appeared in the ACE catalog as revised and updated!! Only after we start hearing back from parents will we have a better idea of “how” these changes impact content. Please share in your CLEP communities immediately.

    American Government 7/1/01- 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/01/2018 -11/30/23

    Calculus 10/1/12 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/01/2018 -11/30/23

    Chemistry 7/1/01- 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    College Composition (essay) 7/1/10 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    College Modular (no essay) 3/1/15 – 11/30/ 18 –>REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    English Literature 3/1/15 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    French Language 3/1/15 – 11/30/18–> REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    History of the United States I 7/1/01- 11/30/18 –> REVISED EXAM 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    History of the United States II 7/1/01- 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Human Growth and Development 11/1/06 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 –11/30/2023

    Humanities 3/1/15 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Intro. Educational Psychology 10/1/12 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Intro. Business Law 5/1/02 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Intro. Psychology 10/1/12 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Intro. Sociology 10/1/12 – 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    Natural Sciences 7/1/01- 11/30/18 –> REVISED 12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023

    ACE is the third-party review organization that colleges use to decide if a class or exam is “worth” college credit or not. In other words, CLEP exams are worth college credit because they have undergone review by ACE.

    When ACE reviews an exam, they always assign a date range for that review. At the ending date, the exam must be reviewed again or removed. The exam can be renewed and extended when there isn’t a significant change in content. As an example, we’ve watched the Biology exam renew since 2001. As such, we can feel confident that the exam has not changed that much since 2001 because the date simply keeps getting extended for another 3-year cycle. (indicating no change)

    If an exam is revised, it must be assigned a new date range. For instance, United States History 1 has remained unchanged since 2001, but just received a new date range renewal “12/1/2018 – 11/30/2023” which tells us that the exam was revised this time. (indicating significant content change)

    It’s an imperfect system, but one that we can use to watch what the College Board is doing behind the scenes. They don’t usually announce exam revisions, but we can figure it out if we watch the dates in the ACE database.

    Some exam revisions are significant (when Social Science and History completely changed their content in 2016) or slight. We don’t know what is coming, but we can report what we learn as a group. This kind of feedback loop helps all parents help each other.

    All date ranges and the history of date ranges are available by searching the ACE Database.

    Currently, 33 exams are evaluated for college credit.
     
    SteveFoerster likes this.
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes, we forgive you for supplying valuable information that helps many people. ;)
     
    cookderosa likes this.
  3. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Jennifer,

    Have you heard any feedback about the content of the new exams? And if so, do you think the exams were revised significantly enough to make older REA study guides obsolete? I have quite a few books I bought in the 2008/2009 time frame that I was planning on donating for use and started thinking they might not be as good of a resource now. I will go through the list above to see if I have any study guides for exams that weren't modified but any thoughts about the other material is greatly appreciated.
     
  4. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Just so you get the alert hopefully, please see the post above this one.
     
    cookderosa likes this.
  5. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Hey! So, I do have some updates to share.

    I wrote a long summary on my blog- again, just doing a copy/paste. Also, to answer your question, I'd use my old REA books for everything except for Human Growth & Development, Business Law, and US History 1 - and I wouldn't even ditch them, I'd just make sure I prepared well enough via some Peterson's practice tests. I RARELY get rid of books so I'd make them work- but for someone starting from scratch, just buy a new edition for those 3 and you'll be good.


    Posted on December 7, 2018 by Jennifer Cook-DeRosa
    "CLEP Revisions: Now What?"


    So, you’ve possibly heard the news: CLEP revised 1/2 of their catalog on December 1st – leaving many of us a little shocked and asking the question, “now what?”

    Don’t worry, this is not bad news, it’s just news. More importantly, every revision appears in this post, so going forward, you’ll have all the tools you need to have your teen ready for their next CLEP exam (revised or not!) Resourceful high school planning means that flexibility is our friend, and we’ll adapt without missing a beat! So, we’ll dry our tears and march forward!!

    What didn’t change
    • Content: Content is content is content. The “meat” of the exam is content, and no matter what subject or what test we’re talking about, the content is the same. If you’re part way through a US History textbook or finishing up French 3, you’re going to be fine with content. Keep learning.
    • Structure: The testing structure has remained the same. CLEP is still a multiple choice exam offering pass/fail college credit for a passing score.
    • Cost: CLEP exams currently cost $87 and generally carry a small testing center fee of around $20. The revised exams brought no change to the cost. One thing to note, you can currently take CLEP exams for free when you earn a voucher through Modern States. We strongly suggest you pay $0 for ALL of your CLEP exams!
    • Passing Scores: Passing an exam still requires a scaled score of 50. It’s possible that the number of questions required to hit a 50 may have changed, we’ll never know because that remains confidential. (individual colleges may ask for higher scores)
    What changed?
    • Distribution of topics: This is the biggest change for a few exams, and it refers to the breakdown of what is covered. You’ll see examples below, but in short, an old exam may have dedicated 3% to a certain topic, and the new exam may now dedicate 6%. If you’re taking an updated exam with a new distribution, you need to be sure your test prep aligns well.
    • Questions: We can assume all new exams have added/revised/removed questions from the question bank.
    Distribution Comparison
    To compare the “old” exam distribution of topics against the “new” distribution, I’ve turned to my 2016 Official CLEP Study Guide and am comparing it against the CLEP Official Website’s overview page which shows current distributions.

    I’ve done a careful comparison of all exams from 2016, and found that 3 exams have had distribution changes. To save space, I’ve not copied the entire exam distribution, just the changes. Refer to CLEP’s official website for full exam distributions and read how to use CLEP in your homeschool here.

    Intro. Business Law

    Category: Contracts OLD 25%-35% –> NEW 30%–40%
    Category: Legal Environment OLD 25% -30% –> NEW 20%–25%

    History of the United States I

    Category: Political institutions, political dev, and public policy OLD 35% –>NEW 30%
    Category: Social developments OLD 25% –> NEW 30%
    Category: Cultural and intellectual developments OLD 15% –> NEW 20%
    Category: Diplomacy and international relations OLD 15% –> NEW 10%

    Human Growth and Development
    NEW TOPIC –> Biological (in Theoretical Perspectives)
    NEW TOPIC–>Ecological (in Theoretical Perspectives)

    Category: Research Strategies and Methodology OLD 5% –> NEW 6%

    Category: Biological Development the Life Span OLD 10% –> NEW 12%

    NEW TOPIC –> Genetic disorders (in Biological Development, moved from atypical dev.)

    Category: Perceptual Development Throughout the Life Span OLD 7% –> NEW 6%
    NEW TOPIC –> Habituation (in Perceptual Development)

    Intelligence Throughout the Life Span OLD 4% –> NEW 6%
    NEW TOPIC –>Giftedness (in Intelligence, moved from atypical Dev.)
    NEW TOPIC –>Intelligence tests (in Intelligence)
    NEW TOPIC –> Reaction range (in Intelligence)

    Social Development Throughout the Life Span OLD 10% –> NEW 12%
    NEW TOPIC –> Social learning and modeling (in Social Development)

    Schooling, Work, and Interventions OLD 5% –> NEW 6%
    NEW TOPIC –> Operant conditioning (in Schooling, Work…)

    Category Renamed –> Developmental Psychopathology OLD 5% –> NEW 6%
    NEW TOPIC –> Anxiety and mood disorders (in Psychopathology)



    We observed no change to the distribution for:
    French Language

    English Literature

    College Composition (essay)

    College Modular (no essay)

    American Government

    History of the United States II

    Intro. Educational Psychology

    Intro. Psychology

    Intro. Sociology

    Calculus

    Chemistry

    Natural Sciences

    Humanities
     
  6. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Good post. Thanks Jennifer.
     
  7. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Thanks Jennifer!
     

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