Pass Rates

[bat21]

You need to remember that the scores are reflective of Military and Not the General Public , so the outlook will be scued!

[cookderosa]

You need to remember that the scores are reflective of Military and Not the General Public , so the outlook will be scued!

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Almost a year ago I spoke to one of the head advisors for Kaplan's local college here (job related- not for me) and we spoke about CLEP. He said "no one passes those things." Of course I know that's not true, and he has a huge bias (less money for the college if people DO pass instead of enrolling in a course!) but this is not the first time I have heard about low pass rates. Wouldn't it be nice if CLEP published pass rates?

Anyway, I think there are a lot of variables, any of which could be significant.
-cold testing more likely
-poor study materials possible (no IC right? LOL)
-average age of student/test taker (it is only my opinion but the over 30 crowd probably have higher pass rates than the 18-21 group)
-less time for study possibly
-more distractions (big guns, wars, killing, etc)
-gender differences possible, maybe ratio is important

On the issue of computer based test vs. paper based, I know I found the computer easier in one major way- that's because it is organized! If it has happened to me once, it has happened to me 10 times that I'm doing a fill-in-the-bubble only to get to the end and find out I'm one bubble off! :eek: Not the case on the computer test. You view once question at a time, and click next. Very nice, very clean. I said it before but the visual aspect of computer based DSST is very pleasing to look at (nice colors, nice fonts, good proportion of white space, overall refreshing) which is a striking contrast to the older test booklet bubble mess they had before.

[larry7crys]

Everytime I look into these numbers and try to help a fellow sailor trying to get his degree, I can't help but to emphasize to them the need to study. Yes, I've taken many exams cold, even DSSTs but I still tried to study something before shooting from the hip. I absolutely hate it when someone at my command takes an exam like this and flat out fails without even trying. The arguement could be made that they don't pay for it, so why does it even matter? The truth is that it does. The average college person who takes of these exams studies quite hard to pass them, even to excel at them because they pay for it. Why can't the military be like these hard-studying groups? I'll never know the answer to that.

[cookderosa]

Everytime I look into these numbers and try to help a fellow sailor trying to get his degree, I can't help but to emphasize to them the need to study. Yes, I've taken many exams cold, even DSSTs but I still tried to study something before shooting from the hip. I absolutely hate it when someone at my command takes an exam like this and flat out fails without even trying. The arguement could be made that they don't pay for it, so why does it even matter? The truth is that it does. The average college person who takes of these exams studies quite hard to pass them, even to excel at them because they pay for it. Why can't the military be like these hard-studying groups? I'll never know the answer to that.

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I don't think your military boys are any less determined or able, I think it's just human nature to jump on an opportunity where you have nothing to loose! (except for a 6 month waiting period which was more of a factor for many of us here)

[lovetheduns]

After taking a look at that, I know for sure that I will never tackle CLEP Chemistry, ever. Did you see the one for maternity nursing? Zero pass rate, geez. Financial Accounting with only a seven percent? And let's just mark geology off the list, too...Am I reading this right? Thank you for sharing this. This will really help me with my degree plans.

*LOL* I actually took Geology at a Community College and I made a C-- that was with open book tests for all except the final.

[peacfulchaos2001]

To be honest, I would venture to say that we(military), or the majority do study. However, I have noticed that the amount of studying in comparison to a "normal" IC member is not worth mentioning. I tested about 6 months ago with about 11 other people. Of those 11, only one stated they hadn't studied. The other 10 was mixture of people that only studied for about a night to those studying for weeks. True, we don't have to pay for the test which leads ALOT of people to take test cold or barely study at all. However, a 6 month wait is a long time for us given the fact of how the military is pushing so hard on education lately.

[barbeque22]

I am sure this link is on here somewhere but it is the 2008 pass rates for clep and dantes.

http://www.dantes.doded.mil/DANTES_WEB/l..._exams.pdf