US History 1 and 2

[adoncia]

Hi everyone,
I took the Social Sciences exam yesterday and found it really tough. I barely passed with a score of 50. I was'nt very well prepared and guessed on more than half the questions.What saved me i think were the questions on Sociology and Psychology.
I am planning to take the US History 1 and 2 exams next as there is a lot of overlap from the Social Sciences exam.
I need to know if the Instantcert guide is good for these 2. I do have Passyourclass guides for both but nothing apart from that.
Do you think Instantcert and Passyourclass would be sufficient or do you think i should get a REA or something else? How long do you think it should take for each of these subjects condidering the fact that taking the Social Sciences exam would'nt help much as i was not well prepared for it.
Also does US history cover the Government part also? meaning political science questions eg how many terms are allowed for the senator etc?
Your advice will be very helpful,
Thanks in advance,
Adoncia

[BEEFLO14]

I used both study guides and found that hardly any of the material covered in the instant cert or the pass your class guide helped me out. I scored a 47 on us history I and I studied for like 2 weeks. There were a bunch of quotes from people, that neither study guide talked about. I feel that I could answer any question about that era, but the questions were very difficult.

[BEEFLO14]

I took the US history I exam today and scored a 47. I have been studying instant cert, pass your class and wikipedia for 2 weeks. A lot of the material that was on that test was not in any of the things that I studied. Thanks instant cert.

[Farmerboy]

These two exams are probably the most unperdictable of the CLEP's. I have friends who knew their history backwards and forwards and still failed while others who didn't have any backround were able to study and pass. I would use IC and REA as your exam guides. If you really want to know the material and don't mind a lot of reading (1000 pages) Paul Johnson's A History of the American People is one of the best overviews I have read. Hope this helps and keep studying, you can do it!

Farmerboy

[ShotoJuku]

NEVER underestimate any exam! Give yourself ample study time and use as many resources as needed; the REA books are great for US 1 & 2.

[cookderosa]

I found these exams hard since my history background was weak. I used the REA books only, and that was more than enough. I have no idea how pass your class is, so can't help you there.

For what it's worth, I would have suggested taking the social science subject exams (US History 1 and 2, psych, educational psych, sociology, government, etc) all before the 6 credit general exam- you did it the hard way and pulled it off!

You will have quotes as a previous poster mentioned, but if you are prepared these are easy because there are major hints in the quotes. One question that comes to mind was on civil rights/education of black American slaves. The reason it was a "gimme" is because the first quote was something about how a college education was the best path for a black man to overcome the opression of slavery. The others were vague quotes unrelated to the question, and one about vocational education. The question was something like- which one of these was spoken by W.E.B. DuBois. Of course it was the one about college. He was a PhD from Harvard (!) and the founder of the NAACP, author, univeristy of chicago....important guy. Expect many questions about him- so, while you may have never read those quotes, you can certainly figure it out. Had they asked about Booker T Washington, it would have been the vocational training answer. You will have to know your major players in both exams.

Read the specific exam feedback section- that helped me a great deal too. After you feel ready, try your hand at the 3 Peterson tests. If you hit over 50% on every one of them, you are ready!

[amakusa007]

I took the test for History US II 3 days ago. Believe me the passyourclass book cover maybe 5% of what might come from the test. The instantcert Flash cards would help you out more & it covers everything & more that the passyourclass book. I didn't tried using the REA Book or the Peterson test but I recommend you to use these cause if I would have use them I probably would have pass the test.

[ShotoJuku]

I didn't try using the REA Book or the Peterson test but I recommend you to use these because if I would have used them I probably would have passed the test.

The quote above is worth passing on again!!!

[WantToImprove]

I took the US History 1 Exam, yesterday at 1pm. I used the passyourclass, instantcert flashcards, and the official CLEP study guide. About an hour before the test I did 115 cards from Flashcardexchange that were free. (lesson 3)

I had been studying only for five days. I ended up making a 63 with about 35 minutes left.

I owe a great deal to instantcert and passyourclass. The practice exam on passyourclass was HORRIBLE. Really it won't help you out, but the condensed reading was helpful. InstantCert probably helped the most. The official clep study guide I took on tuesday (one day after studying) and I missed like...16 questions out of 50. I think the study guide was harder than the actual CLEP.

Thank you instantcert, I signed up for the Tuesday US history 2, I will let everyone know how it goes.

*Edit*: I signed up for 8:30 on Tuesday, I will probably start studying for it tomorrow.

[dc67]

I used stricly IC for History 2 and passed with a 59. Was everything covered? NO, Did I pass? Yes. A pass is a pass!!!