01-05-2010, 09:13 PM
Hello all, I'm new to this forum, but I just wanted to give my two cents on a very interesting test that I took today. If anyone here plans on taking the Introduction to World Religion test, I have a few suggestions/footnotes you should consider. First, do no take this test lightly, this is a very difficult test, that would make even the most astute students wet themselves half way through. I will give a breakdown of the test and my personal experience with the test as well. I passed this DDST, however, like a brave lion who just got through fighting his brother for supremacy of the jungle, I've retreated to my den to lick the many wounds inflicted upon me in solitude. Needless to say, I triumph over this test but nearly got castrated in the process. This test has a difficulty of 3 according the the people at acetheclep.com
The Breakdown of the test.
I expected this test to be very definitive in terms of the questions it asked. For example, I was expecting questions like "what is hajji?," "Immaculate conception describe what?," "who were the Aryans?," or "What caused the Jewish Diaspora?" You know, questions that actually dealt with the actual introductory elements of the religions, instead it was more ideologically intuitive analytical questions like "How was political climate in Buddha's time?" A question like that can be taken many ways and through reading about India during that time one would assume it was a ridged caste system because Buddhism spawn from Hinduism and disregarded the whole caste system ideology, and that was one of the key elements of many that makes Buddhism more appealing to Indians and those who practice it when compared to Hinduism. Well, that not even close to the answer. A correct answer would be the replacement of tribal republics with territorially based kingdoms. You see, a question like that could me misconstrued and one can get it wrong. This test covered mostly Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, Sikh, Hinduism, and lightly covered, Islam, Taoism, and Judaism .The test I took was out of 97 questions, so take with that what you will. I only counted three questions that I remembered seeing in the practice book in the actual exam, which mean one has to have a true understanding of those religions beforehand. Key things to study is, Catholicism, Calvinism, dates, Confucius principles (which there are five of and all are Chinese) and other tings of that sort. I will put it like this, this test measures how much you know about each religion, so when studying, do not get hung up on the life stories of people like Peter, Muhammad, of Jesus, instead focus on their teachings, the dates, what they said, and their guiding principles. You don't have to read the Bible or Koran, but instead focus on its creation, what it means, the messages and how all of the holy books/ scriptures compare and contrast. This test measures your able to associate the proper phrases/teachings with particular people/styles. This is really evident in Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, because most of these words are foreign, but don't forget some of the words blend together, so it can be even more confusing.
My personal experience
Study.... I don't mean going over the text that you get from the library, because that does you no good at all. I read through that thing six times and it did nothing. This is because religions like Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Shirk (sp?), and just different other religions are not covered in those practice guide. Use Wikipedia, it actually help a lot. I had to compare and contrast a lot between the major religions, and that helped to grasp an analytical view of some of the religions. Learn those key phrases of Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, because its like learning a new language which also made the test very challenging. Words like Rammayana, sunyata, mishnana and many others should be part of your vocab even if you do not know how to say them. Also study the top religious holidays and have an understanding of what they all mean. This test is no joke at all. Some might have breezed through it with no problem and to them I tipped my hat to. Others like myself, who has a kid and works from 7-5 found it challenging to study and truly devote the time necessary to really grasp and understand the material. That is the thing, its a lot of material to cover. If you need this clep, take it, and just know that its going to be very challenging. I'm typically good at history so i came out of this ok and with a new respect for those who study theology. If you can avoid taking this clep for something else, do it. I had no choice and had to take this clep, I tried to escape it because I'm not really keen on religious history all to much anyway, but it was what it was. When studying, devote two hours at least to just one religion, do not try to cross them or take on three at one time. If you can do that cool, but all I know is that sometimes, because many of them are so closely related its easy to get them mixed up. Just remember, this is a hard test, at least my version was. They throw in questions to mix you up a lot and make you second guess yourself. That is why its important to have a clear analytical understanding of all the elements of religion. I had a total of about two weeks to study for this exam and even than, if I had to total up my hours I would say i spent a good 30-36 hours studying and that almost seems like its to much so it could be a lot less. heck, I will be honest, I studied as much as I can, but I also crammed a lot to prior to the test, literally. There is so much to adsorb about all of these religions, that it seems almost impossible to even grasp a firm understanding confident enough to go into a test and feel like your going to ace it. Even when you pass this exam, like i did, you feel humble and proud, yet, walk out of the room with you tail between your legs and dribbles of urine running down the side of your leg. I walked out and literally wanted to scream "yeah," but at the same time, it was such a challenging exam that I almost felt like it would be disrespectful and walked out quiet, that is how much respect hat I had for it and I normally do not feel like that. I walked out of the exam room thinking, somewhere out there, there has to be a great spiritual god laughing and pointing at me . I have three more cleps in U.S history II, Principles of management and principles of supervision that I will post about after I take them
The Breakdown of the test.
I expected this test to be very definitive in terms of the questions it asked. For example, I was expecting questions like "what is hajji?," "Immaculate conception describe what?," "who were the Aryans?," or "What caused the Jewish Diaspora?" You know, questions that actually dealt with the actual introductory elements of the religions, instead it was more ideologically intuitive analytical questions like "How was political climate in Buddha's time?" A question like that can be taken many ways and through reading about India during that time one would assume it was a ridged caste system because Buddhism spawn from Hinduism and disregarded the whole caste system ideology, and that was one of the key elements of many that makes Buddhism more appealing to Indians and those who practice it when compared to Hinduism. Well, that not even close to the answer. A correct answer would be the replacement of tribal republics with territorially based kingdoms. You see, a question like that could me misconstrued and one can get it wrong. This test covered mostly Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, Sikh, Hinduism, and lightly covered, Islam, Taoism, and Judaism .The test I took was out of 97 questions, so take with that what you will. I only counted three questions that I remembered seeing in the practice book in the actual exam, which mean one has to have a true understanding of those religions beforehand. Key things to study is, Catholicism, Calvinism, dates, Confucius principles (which there are five of and all are Chinese) and other tings of that sort. I will put it like this, this test measures how much you know about each religion, so when studying, do not get hung up on the life stories of people like Peter, Muhammad, of Jesus, instead focus on their teachings, the dates, what they said, and their guiding principles. You don't have to read the Bible or Koran, but instead focus on its creation, what it means, the messages and how all of the holy books/ scriptures compare and contrast. This test measures your able to associate the proper phrases/teachings with particular people/styles. This is really evident in Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, because most of these words are foreign, but don't forget some of the words blend together, so it can be even more confusing.
My personal experience
Study.... I don't mean going over the text that you get from the library, because that does you no good at all. I read through that thing six times and it did nothing. This is because religions like Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Shirk (sp?), and just different other religions are not covered in those practice guide. Use Wikipedia, it actually help a lot. I had to compare and contrast a lot between the major religions, and that helped to grasp an analytical view of some of the religions. Learn those key phrases of Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, because its like learning a new language which also made the test very challenging. Words like Rammayana, sunyata, mishnana and many others should be part of your vocab even if you do not know how to say them. Also study the top religious holidays and have an understanding of what they all mean. This test is no joke at all. Some might have breezed through it with no problem and to them I tipped my hat to. Others like myself, who has a kid and works from 7-5 found it challenging to study and truly devote the time necessary to really grasp and understand the material. That is the thing, its a lot of material to cover. If you need this clep, take it, and just know that its going to be very challenging. I'm typically good at history so i came out of this ok and with a new respect for those who study theology. If you can avoid taking this clep for something else, do it. I had no choice and had to take this clep, I tried to escape it because I'm not really keen on religious history all to much anyway, but it was what it was. When studying, devote two hours at least to just one religion, do not try to cross them or take on three at one time. If you can do that cool, but all I know is that sometimes, because many of them are so closely related its easy to get them mixed up. Just remember, this is a hard test, at least my version was. They throw in questions to mix you up a lot and make you second guess yourself. That is why its important to have a clear analytical understanding of all the elements of religion. I had a total of about two weeks to study for this exam and even than, if I had to total up my hours I would say i spent a good 30-36 hours studying and that almost seems like its to much so it could be a lot less. heck, I will be honest, I studied as much as I can, but I also crammed a lot to prior to the test, literally. There is so much to adsorb about all of these religions, that it seems almost impossible to even grasp a firm understanding confident enough to go into a test and feel like your going to ace it. Even when you pass this exam, like i did, you feel humble and proud, yet, walk out of the room with you tail between your legs and dribbles of urine running down the side of your leg. I walked out and literally wanted to scream "yeah," but at the same time, it was such a challenging exam that I almost felt like it would be disrespectful and walked out quiet, that is how much respect hat I had for it and I normally do not feel like that. I walked out of the exam room thinking, somewhere out there, there has to be a great spiritual god laughing and pointing at me . I have three more cleps in U.S history II, Principles of management and principles of supervision that I will post about after I take them
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You're going to get hounded with questions from all the PMP holders.