Free resources for exam studies.

Quick note: I have spoken with Chip by way of PM and he's given me permission to make this post.

My name is Jennifer, and I wanted to let you all know about my website. I have a LOT of free resources for studying for college-level exams. Some of them I am sure many of you are familiar with, such as the Annenberg/Learner site, but others may be new to you.

My site is geared toward homeschooling high schoolers who would like to combine their "regular" studies with prepping for specific exams. This means for many post-high school students, there's way more info than you need for just a refresher of any topic; this site was built with first-time learners in mind. (In my home state, students are required to meet a certain number of attendance days/hours of schooling, so I wanted to be sure to provide them with plenty of resources that could be used to create a semester or full year of study.) That said, anyone prepping for an exam could use the resources/materials, not just homeschoolers.

Also, I'm afraid it's not terribly user-friendly for non-homeschoolers. I originally designed it around a recommended course of study for 9th - 12th grade, so I didn't always name the "class" after the actual exam. For example, if you are interested in the CLEP English Comp test, you would find it under "Language Arts 1, 2, & 3." If you click on any link under the "FREE COURSES" section, you'll be taken to a page that does include the name of the actual test, along with the specific resources. Right now, there's 30ish - I've not counted in awhile - individual courses.

In trying to anticipate any questions/concerns:

1) Yes, it is free. There are a small handful of links that point to something that must be paid for, but they are strictly optional and none is over $10. And they are NOT affiliate links. I am making no money/special benefits from this website. In fact, it costs me, because I'm paying for hosting since I didn't want ads.

2) If you download the end-of-course exams for practice, you will find they are previously released state exams from a few states around the country. I did get permission to bundle these exams and host them at my site by contacting the DOEs where necessary.

3) There is a counter on my site. I am not trying to track people or invade privacy. I included it only so that I could see what subjects garnered the most interest, so that I would know where to focus my attention. (In other words, if more people seem to hit the science pages, I will look to adding additional courses there.)

Brevity is not my strong point, eh? Anyway, this website is strictly for helping people find resources to homeschool/study for exams, even if they live on an extreme budget. I do sincerely hope it will help users here on this forum.


www.homeschoolcollegeusa.com

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For the insanely curious only: Why did I create this website? I've been homeschooling my children for 8 years now, and for the most part have relied on the public library and free internet sites for our curriculum. When my son announced his intention to test his way (as much as possible) to a degree, I pulled together the info that is now on my site. It represents hours/months/years of work actually, and I figured if it could help even one more student, then it was worth the time to make the site. That's it. No other sneaky motive.

 

Thank You!

What a wonderful resource for us homeschoolers! I've already downloaded the resources for Ethics ... I was looking for resources to put together a class for my up-and-coming 9th grader. These look perfect.

Blessings to you.

 

Nice job! I've done a similar plan for my kids- we have 4, this is our 12th year homeschooling. I am often impressed by the resourcefulness of other homeschool moms I meet. I don't know if it is that we share a certain kind of personality that drives us to become homeschoolers....or if homeschooling generates a personality. *I'll admit that I was pretty much type A long before homeschooling lol!

In any event, MOST of the homeschooling women take their job very seriously- like the CEO of a company -and strive for success. While this may go unnoticed by the passively observant, it isn't lost on other homeschool moms. Kudos. Many people will benefit from your hard work.

 

@ cframe - You are very welcome.

@ cookderosa - Thanks. And that's an interesting thought - did we become homeschoolers because we're craz... I mean, hard-working overachievers, or did homeschooling make us hard-working overachievers?

I just looked at my husband and said, "Do you think I'm a Type A personality?" and he made this face and finally said, "I dunno. You definitely... have something." Ha! I guess that means "Yes." and that "Type A" is a disease. Oh, wait - he is clarifying it now with, "You're the friendliest Type A I know." (This? Is probably because 20+ years of marriage kicked in and his brain said, "Wait! That didn't sound good! Fix it! Fix it, now! Before it's too late!" *snicker*)

 

Free America: The Story of US DVD

This link: http://classroom.history.com/america-dvd/event/form will take you to a form that allows you to request a free "school" copy of the America: The Story of US DVD and homeschoolers are included.

This aired recently on TV, and I know my husband and daughter watched part of it and enjoyed it.

It may help with studying for the US History CLEP, so I thought I'd point it out.

(FYI - Requests must be made before July 1.)

 

Journey to the Stars DVD

For students studying for the Astronomy DSST exam:

Order the Journey to the Stars DVD -

"Educators and parents: Are you ready to take your students a Journey to the Stars? The American Museum of Natural History and NASA have joined forces to produce a planetarium show about the amazing variety of stars that dot our cosmos--exploding stars, giant stars, dwarf stars, neutron stars, even our own star! But you don't have to go to a planetarium to experience this mind-blowing journey. NASA will send you a DVD and Educator's Guide, for free! Just fill out the form below."

FYI - There is information there for non-US residents to order, and it doesn't *specifically* state you must be in a school/homeschool program, though it does ask for a school name in the form.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH........I've got a child going into 9th and we homeschool so this was a timely "gem" to find.

God bless

 

My husband says the same thing. I guess if the site ever really took off, I would consider it, but I really don't see that happening. It only gets a few hits a day. I'm afraid it would just be a nuisance for visitors and not really bring any money in.

 

Ohhhh my goodness you are my new best friend ♥ ♥ I'm done with CLEPs, but I'm still perusing your site eagerly [: Will definitely pass on to all my homeschool friends.

ETA: Would love to see foreign language stuff added at some point...

 

Right now, you can find the foreign language stuff HERE. I do intend to break it down into individual pages sometime soon.

And thanks - hope the site helps you and your friends.

 

Awesome, I don't know how I missed that Are any of the testing.wisc.edu links working for you now? They aren't working for me, but they did work when I went the long route & found them on the website. I think you might need to link to this page?: Spanish Placement Test

Also, Livemocha.com is a fantastic language resource. A bit like Rosetta Stone, but free & with the amazing benefit of having native speakers' critique.

Here's a fantastic German resource: Learning German | Deutsche Welle They have podcasts that help some with vocab while keeping you entertained (one of them is available in French also), plus lots of news in German with vocab [:

 

The links do work for me, but maybe it's a browser issue, so I will change that. More incentive for me to change the file from one pdf to 3 individual html pages. And thanks for the additional info!

 

I got the individual pages done for French, Spanish, and German on my site.

And last night, I came across this:

CLEP SAMPLER: AN INTRODUCTION TO TAKING CLEP ON COMPUTER

on the official CollegeBoard website. It's a little software program that shows you "how" to take a CLEP test. Honestly, I don't think many people would need it. It simply walks you through things like the kinds of possible questions you might get and how you answer them. ("Click on this space here!" - "This is how you mark something on a graph." - "Drag the phrases to the blank boxes." - That sort of thing.) Still, I thought I'd mention it for anyone who maybe didn't grow up in the computer age and is a little nervous about how the computer-based tests work.

And I also found this:

CLEP EXAM DESCRIPTION DOWNLOADS (PDFS)

I'm in the process now of adding them as links on my site, but in the meanwhile I just wanted to point them out. (Or maybe I'm the only one who didn't know about them until now?) I like these downloads because they are more like the DSST exam description pages, with an outline, recommended study materials, and some sample questions and answers.