Intro to World Religion DSST

[chuk]

Just took the exam for the second time and failed for the second time. The insta cert flash cards are helpful, but let me tell you what is not! I took the DSST practice exam of 50 questions ($5.00) last night and studied everything I missed the day of the exam. Not a singular question helped me with the test today. I should have spent my tie elsewhere.
This is not an easy exam as some of you had said, which I already knew. There is a lot of Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. A few Christianity and Taoism questions. The questions are very specific (with names, times, places) and a little tricky.

[AlmostaNerd]

Since you're a subscriber, you can go to the exam feedback forum. Look for the study guides there. The most helpful one for me was MFU's updated guide. Third time's a charm, good luck.

[Leherself]

Yeah, I'd agree that it's not an easy test. There are so many questions about specific vocabulary - names, specialized terms, etc. - that you either know the answers or you don't. It's not a test that you can skate by with test-taking skills alone. There's a reason it's recommended upper level credit. It's also a very broad exam - a lot of people have a decent quantity of knowledge on one or two religions, but you really need knowledge of the full set of major world religions for this test.

As far as study material, I found the instant cert cards helpful, but I've been broadly interested in comparative religion for over a decade and have read probably hundreds of books and thousands of websites on the subject. I think it's usually the case that people find exams easy when they have a good background in the topics covered - even if they didn't necessarily study extensively for the exam itself.

Some books I'd recommend:
- The World's Religions by Huston Smith. Huston Smith is very focused on his interpretation of the Philosophy behind the religions, more so than the historical particulars, but this is a great overview that has been in print for a long time over many editions.
- Library of World Religions (A six volume set - the individual volumes are Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholocism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam). These are older - published I believe in the 1960s, but they're excellent. They don't assume prior knowledge and talk about the exact sort of things you find on the exam. The downside is they don't cover Taoism, Sikhism, Shinto, or any other religions, and they don't talk about primitive religions at all.

Also, I'm a big fan of wikipedia as a study tool. Wiki all the big names and pay attention to any names or major historical events mentioned.