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I'm registered to take the Spanish CLEP in a little under 2 weeks (1/11/2011). I've already taken my 100-level Spanish courses, so I need a minimum of a 63 on the CLEP to get any credit. I bought levels 1-3 of Rosetta Stone, and I've completed level 1 and started level 2. I've been really pleased with the program so far, and I feel like I'm learning a lot more efficiently and retaining a lot more than I ever did in traditional foreign language classes.
I took my first Peterson's practice exam last night and got a 69% (84 correct, 28 incorrect, and 9 unanswered). The problem is I don't have a clue how this translates into a CLEP score. I called Peterson's and CLEP today, but neither could give me an answer. I've tried searching the forums, but I've read so much conflicting information I don't know what to think. Can anyone tell me where I stand now in relation to a goal of 63 or better on the CLEP? I'd really like to know so I can reassess my studying efforts and plan for the next couple weeks.
I'll follow up on my progress, and post my final exam score. Thanks everyone!
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12-30-2010, 03:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-30-2010, 04:00 PM by methibosheth.)
I took this test a couple of months ago and passed with a 64. I used the REA Clep Spanish guide for prep, and it has an approximate raw score to scaled score coversion table. According to this table, the minimum number of questions correctly answered necessary to score a 64 is about 72. When I was taking the practice tests out of this book, I was getting about 75 of the questions right, which equated to a score of 65. In retrospect, this table was pretty accurate! Since your getting well over 80 of the questions correct, you shouldn't have a problem scoring above 63! Good luck!
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That's encouraging. I've heard several people say the Peterson's exams are a bit easier than the REA and the actual CLEP though. I think I'll get a copy of the REA guide and see how I score on their practice tests. Thanks again!
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In my experience, Peterson's are far harder than the real thing, while REA are about identical. My gut tells me you don't really need the REA book; if you took the test today, you would probably pass! However, if you are more concerned about actually learning the material than achieving a passing score, the REA book is a pretty good buy!
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methibosheth Wrote:I took this test a couple of months ago and passed with a 64. I used the REA Clep Spanish guide for prep, and it has an approximate raw score to scaled score coversion table. According to this table, the minimum number of questions correctly answered necessary to score a 64 is about 72. When I was taking the practice tests out of this book, I was getting about 75 of the questions right, which equated to a score of 65. In retrospect, this table was pretty accurate! Since your getting well over 80 of the questions correct, you shouldn't have a problem scoring above 63! Good luck!
The conversion table in the REA book is completely inaccurate. Also, you need to go over each and every question, because there are several instances where the book mixes up which answer goes to which question. In fact, for one test (I believe it is the second test), there are about 20 answers that don't correspond to any question that appears in any of the tests. It is really strange. So, you will have to go over all of your answers if you want to know how many you REALLY got right, rather than how many the answer key says you got right.
Quote:That's encouraging. I've heard several people say the Peterson's exams are a bit easier than the REA and the actual CLEP though.
Not even close. For my second and third Peterson's exams, I only got 2 wrong on each test. The actual CLEP was noticeably more challenging, however, it was not anywhere near as challenging as the REA book- in which I would still get about 15-20 questions wrong, even after retaking the same test.
I have mentioned this before on this site, the REA book is a disorganized mess, but I can guarantee you that if you master it, the CLEP will be a breeze. It covers absolutely everything that you could ever need to know for the Spanish CLEP, and the exams are much, MUCH more difficult than the real thing. Getting a copy would be a good idea
SMS, SGB, GEN, NG, TG16, NES, SNES
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Maniac Crainiac: which edition did you have? I had read several amazon reviews that said the older editions of this REA had the problems you mentioned. Mine is an '09 edition (the year they revised this one), and seemed pretty accurate to me.
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Well, I guess I'm gonna go for the latest edition of the REA guide. There is no way I can work through the whole thing given my time constraints, but getting the grammar basics down should be really beneficial. I hope the practice tests in the latest edition of REA aren't as jumbled as they apparently were in the older edition/s. I don't have the time or knowledge of the language to go through every question and challenge the correctness of the answer key. Thanks for the input!
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