College Composition CLEP essay help

[Bassmanj]

I found this forum and was amazed at the huge amount of information available here. So, first of all, I want to say thank you to everyone for freely sharing their knowledge; it really helps a lot of people.

Now, I am studying for the CC CLEP and am hoping to find some information regarding the essays. I am hoping to take the test in the beginning of February, but the essay section is proving to be very difficult for me. My biggest problem is gathering enough material and writing a long enough essay within the time constraints. So my question for anyone who has taken this test is: how long of an essay do you need to pass? Have you passed without completely finishing your essays? What would you have scored (from 1-6) the essays you wrote for the real test?

So far I have been studying with the CLEP Official study guide, Peterson's CLEP book, reading online writing help websites (Purdue, Sparknotes fast food essay, various sites explaining the 5X5 essay etc.) and Lucile Vaughan Payne's book The Lively Art of Writing. Are there any other study aids that I should really include?

To get an idea of where I am, I took my first Petersons test via my library's testing and education center, and I scored 82% on the multiple choice section. How accurately does Peterson's test represent the real test? If I am scoring a 3 on one essay, and I don't quite finish the other (maybe a score of 2.5?), what do I need to score on the multiple choice section to pass?

Thanks for all your helpful insights,

Joel

[Bassmanj]

Oh, on a side note, how similar is the Peterson's online testing program to the real testing format?

[dcan]

First, in terms of "toughness" this is what scoring 82% on a Peterson's is like:



Second, regarding how accurate it is, since you are taking a CLEP order the Official CLEP Study Guide from Amazon. It has extremely accurate sample tests for all CLEP tests. The important part to me is the bit about reading the essay passages and understanding the citations. The test is heavily structured around proving that you know how not to plagiarize material.

Third, for the essays I'm pretty sure you need a 3 on each essay to pass. The fast food essay article is perfect for what you need, because you only get 70 minutes total for both essays. You will stress out because you have to think, structure, write, and edit fast, but like the article says they are checking that you know the rules, not that you can write for a Pulitzer.

You pick a general topic area like "Politics" and then you are given your essay topic. You then write a 5x5 about it. For the second essay they give you two short passages (1-3 paragraphs or so) that oppose each other on a topic and you have to take a position and write an essay defending your position with citations from both. Citations can be in any format as long as it's clear which passage you are referring to. By "any format" I don't mean MLA or APA, I mean as simple as saying "According to Smith..." or "blah blah (Jones)" etc.

The Official Study Guide contains a sample of each type of essay, with 3 sample responses that each scored a 6, 4, and 2, so you can see what they expect.

I also strongly suggest writing example 5x5s under time constraints. Your #1 enemy here will be time. Some useful prompts are here, here, and here.

[Publius]

The Peterson’s practice examinations are on par with the real thing. Judging from your listed scores, you’re adequately prepared for the CLEPs multiple choice section. When doing this test myself, I was passing the Peterson’s with upper 70’s.

Being in pretty much the same situation as you are, my biggest challenge was the essays, without a doubt. If I could of done one thing different during my preparation it would of been to write a whole lot more practice essays. As it was I only did 1, maybe 2 at best, the week before.

On my CLEP I “finished” each essay with seconds to spare... literally seconds. The first one had 4 paragraphs, the second 5.
I ended up passing the CLEP with a total score of 58.

One the essay section of the College Composition they are looking to see if you’re capable of writing at a college level. They aren’t going to be looking for length as it would impossible to write up a multiple pages worth of information in the given time. I would concentrate rather on:

-Good Technique with Varied Style (sprinkle you’re essay with a proper formate, topic sentences, opening and concluding paragraphs, using different sentence openers, accompanied with some higher vocabulary, adverbs and adjectives, bringing in different phrases and clauses)
-Proper Mechanics (quite important! Make sure citing is perfect, spelling correct, and if possible try not to split infinitives, etc. )
-Persuasive Thesis (They want you to pick a side and support... doesn’t necessarily matter which side as long as you’re not on the fence)



What I’d recommend in preparation for the essay part:

You can’t write/type enough essays (timed of course) in preparation. (keep spell checker off during writing then turn it on when done)
Get familiar with a form of citing in your preparation. They want to see you cite, and cite properly, on your essays, so do it in you’re practice essays as well.


When taking the exam:
I’d recommend taking some scratch pieces of paper before the test (2-3). During the multiple choice section jot down some of the vocabulary, phrases, forms of citing etc..
You’re not given a lot of time for you’re essays so take a piece of scratch paper and either before the entire test, or right before your essay portion, take 30 seconds to jot down 2 outlines. i.e.
I. (first paragraph - topic)
1(first sentence)
2(second sentence)
3(third sentence)
(do that for 4-5 paragraphs)

Just writing down the numbers for your outline can save 30 seconds which if you’re like me, will use every last nanosecond, whether to write another sentence, proofread a paragraph etc.. But DON’T blow off using an outline... it may seem like a waste of time but it really does organize your thoughts, keep your plan in focus, and keep you on track.

Hope this helps some! Good luck!

[jasminhusam]

can i ask question what is the The Peterson’s practice examinations and how i can take it ...thanks

[Publius]

can i ask question what is the The Peterson’s practice examinations and how i can take it ...thanks

Free Practice Clep Tests! - Free-Clep-Prep.com

[dcan]

I just realized the PDF you can download from the College Board website is the "Official Study Guide" material referenced above. The PDF is 44 pages and is essentially what I have for the College Composition test in my paperback version of the guide. You can use this to see what type of questions there are and the essays should look.

@jasminhusam this PDF may be very helpful to you.

[jasminhusam]

i have this study guide its really helpful ,thank you dcan

[Bassmanj]

Thanks for everybody's replies,
I do have the Official study guide and definitely need more work citing. Seeing as I am probably adequately prepared for the multiple choice section, I will focus the majority of my time to writing practice essays.

On my CLEP I “finished” each essay with seconds to spare... literally seconds. The first one had 4 paragraphs, the second 5.
I ended up passing the CLEP with a total score of 58.

What would you have scored the two essays you wrote in the real test? When you took the test, was there a stopping point after the multiple choice section? Ie. can you get yourself prepared for the essays by writing your outline structure on scrap paper, and then clicking continue to move to the essay prompt.

How similar is the format of the Peterson's online tests to the testing center format?

[dcan]

If by "format" you mean the software, you can download a demo of the software from the CollegeBoard website with a tutorial on how to use it.