UPDATE to "Feeling Incredibly Defeated and Discouraged."

[rrr]

Update to my old post: http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...-help.html

I really wanted to write this post and share my story because for the past 5 months, I feel like my entire life has revolved around DSSTs and CLEPs. Being "free" is a surreal feeling. Here's how I ended up passing almost 15 tests in three months.

Unlike a lot of people on the forum, I already have my masters and a full time job. However, I was eligible for a nice salary bump if I got 30 more college credits. Piece of cake, I thought! I had never heard of CLEPs before, but word on the teacher grapevine was that they're the most efficient method for credits. I spoke to other people who had done it, and they said they got 6 credits each for most CLEPs. I figured I'd take 5 tests over the summer break and be done with it.

I started in August and halfway through taking my tests, I realized that CLEPs now counted for 3, not 6, credits. Now I needed more like 10 tests instead of 5. Aaaargh. It was okay, though. I'm a good test taker and there seemed to be a lot of options. I'm an English/History major, so here's what I took based on my strong points:

Analyzing and Interpreting Lit (3)
Humanities (3)
American Literature (3)
Social Sciences and History (6)
US History 1 (3)
Sociology (3)
Educational Psychology (3)
College Composition (6)

I was so happy when I sent in my application for the salary upgrade mid-September. I felt really proud and productive. I was seriously banging out these tests one after another and even when I felt stuck at having to double the amount I was taking, I powered through. Lo and behold, that turned to DEVASTATION when my salary upgrade request came back rejected. They wouldn't accept half the tests I took because they were too similar to courses I took in college. I got some pushback on my last thread about this but I need to stress that the website is extremely vague about what counts and what doesn't. All it says is they cannot be a "repeat" of a course you already took. There was no way to check beforehand about what was considered too close-- I tried calling to ask if a certain CLEP would be acceptable, and they said they don't do case-by-case consultations like that, I have to just take it and see what happens. So even though I have never taken a class like the CLEPs I took, apparently anything under the umbrella of English and History were off the table.

I still think I was screwed over with this. The most unjust rejection was the Humanities CLEP. My undergrad college has various gen eds - Foreign Language, Mathematics, Lab Science, Humanities, Aesthetics, etc - and because my transcript said that I had fulfilled my "humanities" gen ed, my employers wouldn't count the Humanities CLEP, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. I fulfilled that gen ed from taking AP Lit in high school .... I have never taken any class similar to the Humanities CLEP, but because the name literally appeared somewhere on my transcript, they rejected it. Still so salty.

In the end, they granted me 15 credits. It was extremely upsetting because I had spend hundreds of dollars taking these tests and had no idea what my next steps were. I was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and didn't know how I'd possibly get 15 more. But I came up with a game plan, mostly thanks to the advice here and free-clep-prep.com's ranking of test difficulties. Here's what I took over the next month:

CLEP Marketing
DSST Principles of Supervision
DSST Intro to Business
DSST Foundations of Counseling
DSST Intro Law Enforcement

By the grace of God, I did it. I started mid-August and ended mid-November. I really feel like my entire life during that time was studying and taking these tests. I was constantly studying. On the subway, on the weekends, just reading through study guides I made. It's weird to not have that anymore. Overall, I spent over $1300 ($80 test + $25 testing fee for 13 tests) and will receive a $7,000 salary upgrade. Worth it! To be honest, I'm going to miss it all. I've always been a good student and it was nice to have something tangible to work towards. I already feel antsy for a new "project."

If anyone has any questions about any specific tests or study methods, let me know! It's all very fresh in my head right now. When half my tests were rejected I felt very low and very hopeless. It seemed insurmountable, but the tests I took are all very passable with a little dedication and smart studying. Thanks so much to everyone for consolidating all their help and knowledge here, and good luck to everyone else!

[OakLakeNC]

Congrats!

How was DSST Law Enforcement? I have that one planned. From the forums it seems to have a reputation as one of the easier upper level exams.

[Mamasaphire]

Update to my old post:

By the grace of God, I did it. I started mid-August and ended mid-November. I really feel like my entire life during that time was studying and taking these tests. I was constantly studying. On the subway, on the weekends, just reading through study guides I made. It's weird to not have that anymore. Overall, I spent over $1300 ($80 test + $25 testing fee for 13 tests) and will receive a $7,000 salary upgrade. Worth it! To be honest, I'm going to miss it all. I've always been a good student and it was nice to have something tangible to work towards. I already feel antsy for a new "project."

If anyone has any questions about any specific tests or study methods, let me know! It's all very fresh in my head right now. When half my tests were rejected I felt very low and very hopeless. It seemed insurmountable, but the tests I took are all very passable with a little dedication and smart studying. Thanks so much to everyone for consolidating all their help and knowledge here, and good luck to everyone else!

That's awesome! Thank you for sharing the update!

[KayV]

Well done! As a fellow teacher, it really is hard to explain the amount of effort it takes to bump up a salary lane, but it is so worth it in the end. Congratulations!

[rrr]

OakLaneNC - I thought the questions were hit or miss. I passed with very little studying - I used Snazzlefrag's guide mostly, and Cliff Notes for Criminal Justice. Some questions were just really specific and you can really only just guess, but a lot of it is common sense or can be reasoned rationally if you've seen Law and Order or something similar. I also took it because people said it was an easier DSST and overall I'd say they're right.

Thanks KayV! It's so frustrating because there is so little information about getting that teacher bump, any time I have one simple question I have to be on hold for over an hour, and they're so picky with what they will and won't accept. I'm still paranoid they're going to come back to me in a few months and be like "wait, no, your Counseling DSST is too similar to your Intro Psych from college so you're still three credits short..."

[cookderosa]

I am sooo proud of you!! Of course I remember your thread, and it seemed like they were really determined to make it hard for you, but you did it!! Congratulations for putting in the hard work - money is the icing on the cake of course