10-16-2009, 06:33 PM
Hi everyone,
I took the Precalcus Clep test in August, and was pretty disappointed to see the little amount of information about the test. I hadn't join Collegplus yet when I took the test (I started taking clep tests before I joined since my brother was already in the program), but all the same, I could hardly find any information about what to study, how hard it was, what books I needed, calculator, etc...so I decided I should post something about it for anyone that is going to take the test and doesn't know what to expect.
I prepared by going through the Saxon "Advanced Mathmatics" book in 2 months. I took College Mathmatics right after that and then proceeded to study for Precalc. I used the Precalculus REA guide and that's about it. I didn't know if anything else was out there. We found some practice Precalc tests on the collegeboard website but they were only 5-10 questions long and not particularly helpful.
You cannot use your own calculator when you take the test; they have a downloadable calculator that you can practice on (2 weeks, I think, before taking the test). It's really not hard to use, and works pretty well. On the test, you actually don't use a calculator much (although in my family - you only use a calculator if you have too!).
Anyway, I ended up memorizing all the conic formulas and trig formulas, when actually, it wasn't as hard as I was expecting. You need to especially be familiar with finding domains/ranges and simpifying problems. Also, it is good to be able to identfy a graph or sinusoid (what it is, the equation of it, etc).
I hope others find this helpful, for there really isn't a lot of support for Precalc as there are a lot of other tests. I scored a 70 on College Math and a 65 on Precalc. I hope this helps and good luck to anyone that is going to be taking this test!!!!
`Dakota
I took the Precalcus Clep test in August, and was pretty disappointed to see the little amount of information about the test. I hadn't join Collegplus yet when I took the test (I started taking clep tests before I joined since my brother was already in the program), but all the same, I could hardly find any information about what to study, how hard it was, what books I needed, calculator, etc...so I decided I should post something about it for anyone that is going to take the test and doesn't know what to expect.
I prepared by going through the Saxon "Advanced Mathmatics" book in 2 months. I took College Mathmatics right after that and then proceeded to study for Precalc. I used the Precalculus REA guide and that's about it. I didn't know if anything else was out there. We found some practice Precalc tests on the collegeboard website but they were only 5-10 questions long and not particularly helpful.
You cannot use your own calculator when you take the test; they have a downloadable calculator that you can practice on (2 weeks, I think, before taking the test). It's really not hard to use, and works pretty well. On the test, you actually don't use a calculator much (although in my family - you only use a calculator if you have too!).
Anyway, I ended up memorizing all the conic formulas and trig formulas, when actually, it wasn't as hard as I was expecting. You need to especially be familiar with finding domains/ranges and simpifying problems. Also, it is good to be able to identfy a graph or sinusoid (what it is, the equation of it, etc).
I hope others find this helpful, for there really isn't a lot of support for Precalc as there are a lot of other tests. I scored a 70 on College Math and a 65 on Precalc. I hope this helps and good luck to anyone that is going to be taking this test!!!!
`Dakota
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