French CLEP

[studyandpass5]

I will be taking the French CLEP soon and wanted everyone's input on the test. I took 3 years of French when I was in high school, but I have since lost a lot of it. Here's hoping it comes back to me
I know Modern States will probably be my best bet in preparing for the CLEP, but are there any other resources that were a necessity for anyone? What was it that helped you the most? What's the best resource for practice tests?
Right now I'm planning on using Duolingo and Modern States, but I feel like I need more resources than that. Any thoughts? 

Thanks!

[DIGI-212]

My daughter scored 49 after completing French 2 in high school. She retested 3 months later and scored 52. Over the 3 months she read several chapter books in French and listened to French podcasts. She said the part school classes did not prepare her for were the long selections of dialogue you only get to listen to once before answering a question and also the vocabulary words appearing in the paragraphs of text. She said reading and listening to French helped raise her score.

[shadowgem]

My daughter scored 49 after completing French 2 in high school. She retested 3 months later and scored 52. Over the 3 months she read several chapter books in French and listened to French podcasts. She said the part school classes did not prepare her for were the long selections of dialogue you only get to listen to once before answering a question and also the vocabulary words appearing in the paragraphs of text. She said reading and listening to French helped raise her score.

My husband and I just began to learn French together. We are also using Duolingo and enjoying it. 

If you have a Netflix account you may want to try and watch as many shows in French as you can. We search for International Movies in French and have found an excellent selection of sitcoms, comedies and movies where subtitles/audio are available in French. 

There are also quite a few French audio books available to listen to in French on youtube, including many classics you are probably already familiar with such as 1984. 

Personally I find listening to French musicians such as Indillia (available on youtube with English subtitles) very helpful in increasing/strengthening my vocabulary since I love music. 

I also try to practice speaking/texting french as much as possible with my husband.

[sanantone]

Annenberg has a French series. I haven't watched it, but I loved their Spanish series.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

[hsfamfun]

I took this exam after I completed French 4 in high school because I was planning on minoring in French in college and the AP exam offered 6 credits(101&102) while the CLEP offered 12(101-202). It was in the late 1980's, so I will be no help at all on the structure of the exam, but I can tell you the sources that I use to keep my French from getting rusty. I ended up majoring in French and was just about fluent after spending a summer in France but I am not fluent at this point, I just want to keep it as a skill. What I do is: 1)Listen. Audioboks, newscasts,TV shows, whatever you can find.
2) Speak it when you can and to whomever you can, and that can include an instructional CD in the car.
3)Read in French. Children's books are great and my library has a small collection. I have a French Bible I often read. The Kindle/ebook availability has made getting foreign language books cheaper.
4) Find a program you like. Duolingo is pretty good and the price is great. I have been using Advanced Berlitz CD's that I found on clearance. Whatever you will use is what works best.