Social science & history clep - feedback/help

[bmad86]

I wanted some feedback from those of you that have taken the Social Science and History CLEP and passed. I am leaning towards this exam because it is worth 6 credits. I have only take one CLEP exam, and it was the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature. I would like some honest feedback on the difficulty level. I am not big into History, but wouldn't mind putting in the needed study time to pass. I studied maybe a total of an hour for A&I and got a 61. I don't think I can do that on this exam, but maybe I'm wrong. What are your thoughts?

[ironheadjack]

This test was 60% history, US and Western Civ. Sprinkled with some government, economics, literature. But it was very heavy on the history, if you don't know history either choose a different exam or be prepared to do a lot of studying.

Check out specific exam feedback, it has always been helpful for me.

[Westerner]

Here's my feedback from when I took this test.

I passed this Clep in July 2012.

*Score: 71
*Length of study: under 2 weeks
*Resources: REA, Petersons PTs, Princeton's Cracking the Clep, OCSG

*Tips: I took Western Civ 1&2, US History 1&2, American Government, and Intro Sociology before taking this one. Those are the major areas, so review them well; the other smaller topics are pretty basic (except there's some Economics, but it wasn't too bad, and I would say it's not essential to have taken the MacroEcon and MicroEcon Cleps).

*Previous tests taken:
Western Civ 1&2
US History 1&2
Intro Sociology
American Government
(in that order)

*Practice test scores:
REA—69%, 74&
Petersons—63%, 68% (I didn’t take the 3rd Petersons, but just studied it)
Cracking the Clep—81%
OCSG—81% (TAKE AND REVIEW THIS!!!!! There was a CLEP question that I would’ve had NO IDEA about if I hadn’t taken this test. Because I did, I knew the answer in a snap!)

*Observations:

Yes, the test is arranged by section!

My test had about 40 Q’s on US History, with chunks of government thrown in (I took these tests most recently & was most comfortable with this section)
~20 Q’s on Western Civ/World History (took WC 1&2 early this year, so it was a little more fuzzy, but this section of the test was not too bad)
~20 Q’s on Economics (some was not too hard to get, made some educated guesses, and just flat-out guessed for others)
~10-12 Q’s on Geography/Anthropology (not hard)
~30 Q’s on Sociology with a little Psychology (for me, the Sociology was very easy & basic)

US history and government are definite biggies on this test; also a good knowledge of world history is necessary. Though, I'd say difficulty level will vary based on your previous experience. Try a practice test to see how well you score and what you need to study more.

[corpsole2]

I took the test seven years ago, in tandem with CLEP Humanities. I scored a 58.

I remember that it was fairly easy, but then again history and geography were always my strongest subject. :-) I do remember them asking you to analyze a drawing of a map, and then you would tell them what the map is telling you, i.e., if the city is near a delta or if there are mountains in a certain quadrant. Don't sweat the economics questions, as they are straightforward.

Just remember, this tests you on the breadth of your knowledge, not on the depth. This is encompassing history, economics, geography, a bit of sociology, and anthropology. It was a gateway course for me to the social sciences courses I'd later take.

If you don't sweat it you should do fine. Good luck.