Is College Composition hard?

[groundhog]

Hi,
So I am taking College Composition this Wednesday, and I just kind of want to know how hard it is. What's the hardest part of the exam? Just kind of things I should be ready for. This is not my first test at all. I have taken a whole bunch of other tests before this one.

Thanks!

[SoliDeoGloria]

I just took this test a couple of weeks ago. For me, it wasn't that hard because I enjoy correcting grammar and revising papers, so I hardly had to study for the multiple choice portion. I took a week to study for this one. The 2 mandatory essays are probably the hardest part. You have 30 minutes to write an argumentative essay about either a quote or an argument given to you. Then you have 40 minutes to read two sources and write an essay backing up your view while integrating/quoting the two sources into your essay.
For the argumentative style, I reviewed the section for writing essays in the Princeton Review Cracking the ACT, which I had used for my ACT and found quite helpful for explaining how to write argumentatively.
For the source essay, make sure you know how to cite sources. It is also important to practice being timed while writing your essays, because 30 minutes goes by very quickly!
If you need more help with the multiple choice portion, check out English Composition CLEP Free Study Guide - Free-Clep-Prep.com. It is for the old CLEP, but looks like a good study resource. And I know several people have mentioned that Princeton Review's Cracking the CLEP is very helpful too.

The most helpful thing for me were the Peterson's Practice Tests. If you or someone in your family (could be grandfather, uncle, etc.) is or was in the military, you can sign up for the free ones (DOD Libraries). I took all three of these (along with the Official CLEP study guide), and they were right on for the actual test. They give you good practice for writing essays and has good sample essays to look over.

All that said, this is not a bad exam for 6 credits! Hope it goes well!

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

I put some of my thoughts at the bottom of this post ---> http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post136709 Practice writing as many essays as possible - that was definitely the more stressful part of the exam for me (the multiple-choice part was really easy).

It took just under 4 weeks for me to get my score back. I found this document that has a chart showing the grading dates for the College Composition essays. The chart is just past half-way down the document.

I used examples heavily in my essays -- making up impressive facts to beef it up a bit. You may want to invent some statistics from a fictional (and long-named) organization (i.e. According to the National Institution for the Civil Rights of North-American Experimental Animals, only 10% of all experimental animals are actually placed into an experimental environment where their lives are seriously threatened). The graders are not necessarily looking for truth in your essays, but rather structure, cohesion, and an interesting view on the subject. In fact, you may even wish to include "interviews" from imaginary people (perhaps a "well known" movie star that you actually made up) in both of your essays. Sounds silly, I know, but it may make your work more interesting to the CollegeBoard graders.

If you are looking for a way to finish up your essays without sounding incomplete, try adding a catchy phrase to the end of your essay (i.e. We need to stand up against the unfairness that making performance-enhancing drugs legal would create today!), something that creates an emotional appeal and moves your reader to action. I had a hard time figuring out how to finish my essays without the essays sounding incomplete, and so that phrase (and ones like it) were helpful to have, since they are easily modified to fit the subject.

One thing about the format of the test: once you finish your multiple-choice section, it will bring you to a page (similar to the one that you always see when you begin any CLEP) where you will select "Dismiss Directions" to begin the countdown for the first essay after you have read the directions. After you are done with the first essay, you will be brought to a second screen that will give you the directions for the second essay. Again, once you are done reading the directions, click the "Dismiss Directions" button. There is not time limit between them -- it's a great place to breathe for once in the exam! One other thing: don't skip the tutorial at the beginning of the test (as I usually do now). There will be a place for you to play around with the software you will use on the essay section (cut, paste, and undo are the only buttons available -- no copy!). Hope that made sense.

[OE800_85]

In short, no. Basically EVERY college student in the country has to complete this kind of course in order to get their degree. Look at EVERY SINGLE college grad, most of them aren't good writers. The test isn't necessarily grading you on your ability as a writer, far from it, it's grading you on your format, style, and adherence to structure. Read up on the necessary structure and organization of different essays, follow rules for audience, tone, form, grammar, and so forth, and I'm sure unless you sound like a primary school student, you'll pass.

[Westerner]

Great thoughts here already. If you practice, practice, practice until you can write well developed 5 paragraph essays in the allotted time, you'll have no problem with this one!