06-29-2015, 04:34 PM
Hey everyone,
This is my first post on the forum and I am aware that the chemistry CLEP topic has come up a lot before now (I know because this was one of my resources when I was preparing for the exam), but I wanted to share my personal experience.
I did take the exam last month (May 2015) and I passed. I got a 53 and a 50 was required by my university for credit, though they only accept 3 hours of credit toward chemistry instead of 6.
I took 2 semesters of intro level chemistry my freshman year in college about 3 years ago and had to look into the CLEP when I transferred uni's and my chemistry courses were not carrying over how I was told they would. To minimize the damage, I decided to CLEP chemistry. I studied for approx. 3 weeks (constant studying, for 4-12 hours a day for the entire 3 weeks).
I used three sources for review and practice primarily:
- Khan Academy (I can't express how thankful I am for this website)
- Peterson's Practice Exams
- CLEP Official Practice Exam
My notes on the above:
---If you need something to help understand the actual concepts of chemistry, I think that you would find Khan Academy helpful. I learned more reviewing these videos in three weeks than I did in an entire year of intro chemistry at a university. One thing I did find frustrating about Khan, however, was that material may not be laid out in the most logical order. They really do try to guide you by sections, but I felt like there were some points where I was coming across videos that I felt I should have reached before moving on to things I'd already gone over. This may just be something relevant to me. I would just recommend scoping out the order of things in a college text book and try to mirror your progress in Khan based on that order.
---The Peterson's tests were pretty decent practice. I felt like the real exam was a bit more difficult honestly, but I did notice that my test scores in Peterson's were just above where my exam score for the actual test ended up. I scored 37, 40, and 57 on my Peterson's practice and got a 53 on the actual exam. I do like how the questions had review! That was helpful. I would HIGHLY recommend running the timers on ALL of your practice exams. I did not run it on my first two, just the final. It makes a difference. I found that when I was taking the actual exam, I ended up being pretty stretched on time. I recall about 15 questions or so at the end I had to put guesses on quickly and I went back to try and find the most reasonable choices on them, just to ensure that everything was answered by the end of the exam.
--- CLEP Official Practice Exam... wow. So I took two of the Peterson's tests before moving over to this for practice and I was discouraged on my first pass to say the least. It did seem a lot more difficult to me and I attribute most of that to the fact that the Official Practice involved a lot more knowledge based on concept where I felt the Peterson's was more calculation-based. The bad part is that the wrong answers are not explained and broken down in the Official Practice. However, the questions are much more reflective (as they should be) on what types of things you should expect to be asked on the exam. The guide that comes with the Official Practice states that it is not recommended to use the Official Practice as a resource for studying. The reason for this makes sense as there is only one set of questions and once you've gone through, if you try taking the exam again, you will be scoping out for the answers as you will already know them and it will not be a helpful method of studying. The way I approached this guide: Made my pass through and noted everything I got wrong. Once I had all the questions I got wrong, I went back through and made it a point to begin understanding the CONCEPT behind each thing I missed. I realized this was the most helpful way to study only a few days before my exam and the rate at which it accelerated my preparation was astounding.
With allllll of that being said, I would say - make sure you go into your studies knowing that this will be a concept-based exam. It is important to know the calculations as well - however, being able identify why something happens, as well as how - is the most important thing to focus on.
So if you are limited on money for resources ($20 for the Peterson's and $10 for the CLEP Official Practice Exam) will be well worth it. Khan Academy is completely free. I feel like the $30 I spent was necessary and contributed greatly to my passing so.. That is just my best advice!
I hope that this information helps anyone that decides to take the exam. Don't be intimidated by the statistics that people throw around about the low percentage of students that pass. Just use that as a heads up that you will have to take the studying seriously. I would recommend 6-8 weeks of medium-intensity studying if you are going into this completely cold; 3-6 if you are just refreshing a bit. I killed myself on a time limit because of deadlines but would have liked more time..
Anyway..CHEERS guys..
and Good Luck!
This is my first post on the forum and I am aware that the chemistry CLEP topic has come up a lot before now (I know because this was one of my resources when I was preparing for the exam), but I wanted to share my personal experience.
I did take the exam last month (May 2015) and I passed. I got a 53 and a 50 was required by my university for credit, though they only accept 3 hours of credit toward chemistry instead of 6.
I took 2 semesters of intro level chemistry my freshman year in college about 3 years ago and had to look into the CLEP when I transferred uni's and my chemistry courses were not carrying over how I was told they would. To minimize the damage, I decided to CLEP chemistry. I studied for approx. 3 weeks (constant studying, for 4-12 hours a day for the entire 3 weeks).
I used three sources for review and practice primarily:
- Khan Academy (I can't express how thankful I am for this website)
- Peterson's Practice Exams
- CLEP Official Practice Exam
My notes on the above:
---If you need something to help understand the actual concepts of chemistry, I think that you would find Khan Academy helpful. I learned more reviewing these videos in three weeks than I did in an entire year of intro chemistry at a university. One thing I did find frustrating about Khan, however, was that material may not be laid out in the most logical order. They really do try to guide you by sections, but I felt like there were some points where I was coming across videos that I felt I should have reached before moving on to things I'd already gone over. This may just be something relevant to me. I would just recommend scoping out the order of things in a college text book and try to mirror your progress in Khan based on that order.
---The Peterson's tests were pretty decent practice. I felt like the real exam was a bit more difficult honestly, but I did notice that my test scores in Peterson's were just above where my exam score for the actual test ended up. I scored 37, 40, and 57 on my Peterson's practice and got a 53 on the actual exam. I do like how the questions had review! That was helpful. I would HIGHLY recommend running the timers on ALL of your practice exams. I did not run it on my first two, just the final. It makes a difference. I found that when I was taking the actual exam, I ended up being pretty stretched on time. I recall about 15 questions or so at the end I had to put guesses on quickly and I went back to try and find the most reasonable choices on them, just to ensure that everything was answered by the end of the exam.
--- CLEP Official Practice Exam... wow. So I took two of the Peterson's tests before moving over to this for practice and I was discouraged on my first pass to say the least. It did seem a lot more difficult to me and I attribute most of that to the fact that the Official Practice involved a lot more knowledge based on concept where I felt the Peterson's was more calculation-based. The bad part is that the wrong answers are not explained and broken down in the Official Practice. However, the questions are much more reflective (as they should be) on what types of things you should expect to be asked on the exam. The guide that comes with the Official Practice states that it is not recommended to use the Official Practice as a resource for studying. The reason for this makes sense as there is only one set of questions and once you've gone through, if you try taking the exam again, you will be scoping out for the answers as you will already know them and it will not be a helpful method of studying. The way I approached this guide: Made my pass through and noted everything I got wrong. Once I had all the questions I got wrong, I went back through and made it a point to begin understanding the CONCEPT behind each thing I missed. I realized this was the most helpful way to study only a few days before my exam and the rate at which it accelerated my preparation was astounding.
With allllll of that being said, I would say - make sure you go into your studies knowing that this will be a concept-based exam. It is important to know the calculations as well - however, being able identify why something happens, as well as how - is the most important thing to focus on.
So if you are limited on money for resources ($20 for the Peterson's and $10 for the CLEP Official Practice Exam) will be well worth it. Khan Academy is completely free. I feel like the $30 I spent was necessary and contributed greatly to my passing so.. That is just my best advice!
I hope that this information helps anyone that decides to take the exam. Don't be intimidated by the statistics that people throw around about the low percentage of students that pass. Just use that as a heads up that you will have to take the studying seriously. I would recommend 6-8 weeks of medium-intensity studying if you are going into this completely cold; 3-6 if you are just refreshing a bit. I killed myself on a time limit because of deadlines but would have liked more time..
Anyway..CHEERS guys..
and Good Luck!
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