Advice Needed

[Curth79]

So I took a two exams on Thursday.

I didn't pass them, missed them by less than 2 points.

I've been drilling the flashcards over and over and also took the exam (which was much more difficult than the actual clep) over @ Peterson's.

I have one more exam coming Monday, it's the "big one" Social Sciences and History.

Apparantly I'm not studying properly or not studying the right material. My advice is simple :What should I be focusing on for this upcoming Exam?

I've read to focus really hard on one part of the test, so my idea is to keep drilling myself on the History section of the test, which according to my official CLEP study guide 60% of the exam's content.

On the CLEP exam I missed half and got half right, translated to a 50 that's passing, but too close for comfort.

I've read all of the stickies here, any further advice would be appreciated.

[nick94]

So I took a two exams on Thursday.

I didn't pass them, missed them by less than 2 points.

I've been drilling the flashcards over and over and also took the exam (which was much more difficult than the actual clep) over @ Peterson's.

I have one more exam coming Monday, it's the "big one" Social Sciences and History.

Apparantly I'm not studying properly or not studying the right material. My advice is simple :What should I be focusing on for this upcoming Exam?

I've read to focus really hard on one part of the test, so my idea is to keep drilling myself on the History section of the test, which according to my official CLEP study guide 60% of the exam's content.

On the CLEP exam I missed half and got half right, translated to a 50 that's passing, but too close for comfort.

I've read all of the stickies here, any further advice would be appreciated.

Just make sure you do almost EVERYTHING that people suggest in the Exam Specific Feedback Forum. You should then be right on with them! Good Luck!

[bkbarden]

So I took a two exams on Thursday.

I didn't pass them, missed them by less than 2 points.

I've been drilling the flashcards over and over and also took the exam (which was much more difficult than the actual clep) over @ Peterson's.

I have one more exam coming Monday, it's the "big one" Social Sciences and History.

Apparantly I'm not studying properly or not studying the right material. My advice is simple :What should I be focusing on for this upcoming Exam?

I've read to focus really hard on one part of the test, so my idea is to keep drilling myself on the History section of the test, which according to my official CLEP study guide 60% of the exam's content.

On the CLEP exam I missed half and got half right, translated to a 50 that's passing, but too close for comfort.

I've read all of the stickies here, any further advice would be appreciated.

Have you tried using other resources for your exams? Maybe IC is not enough or not the best way for you to study. Do you know what your learning style is? It helps to know if you do better with videos or books, for example.

I know Monday is a little soon to get any new books or other resources, so try to find some things on the internet. I just Googled "Social Sciences and History Study Guide" and found this link.

Social Sciences and History CLEP Study Guide - Free University Project -

It looks like a great resource... videos, SparkNotes, etc. If it gets old or doesn't seem right, look for something else.

One other thing... I'm pretty sure this test is only 40% History. So you're going to want to pick three or four other topics to know really well. When I took this test, I did it after I had taken both US History exams, both Western Civ exams and five Psychology and Sociology exams. I'm also pretty well versed in government, so that was good. That gave me a background on 70 - 75% of the exam. I would say you could probably get away with less knowledge than that, but probably not much.

I hope this helps some! God bless as you study!

[94steve]

I'm a pretty good history person. Getting lost in various history topics on wikipedia has been a hobby of mine for years. To be honest with you, I didn't study any history for this exam for that reason so I don't know where to tell you to begin on that one.

Sociology, anthropology, and econ are a horse of a different color.

I suggest knowing all the big names from all of these topics and what they did. For example, Durkheim was the big suicide and case study guy. Simple stuff like that.

Also, knowing the terminology for those 3 subjects is key. Norms, mores, folkways, marginal utility etc. all refer to relatively easy to understand concepts that our esteemed colleagues in the ivory towers of academia felt the need to give funny names to. I guess everybody needs a measure of job security.

Knowing the bare bones basic of social sciences research will also get you points. What's the difference between the dependent and the independent variable, What's participant-observation research, what's a case study, and so on.

Most of the econ tended to be macro related. Lots of general questions about prices, their effect on interest, the money supply, whatever. Remember, MACRO!!!

Government didn't really rear its ugly head too much. When it did the questions weren't rocket science.

Anyway, I hope I was able to help out!