US History 2 Clep

[vickyvicky]

Hi, i purchased the REA book for this title, but the flash cards seem to cover many different topics, which one should i study more on? any advice? thanks

[Storyteller]

VickyVicky,

I just today passed Clep US History II with a 74 - I used IC, REA, Peterson's, Sparknotes and Historyteacher.net (History AP), I studied 2 wks. It usually takes me 3-4 wks.

The test was 120 questions and I swear I could have used IC exclusively to pass this test. I'm not good at guessing so I tend to study hard.

With IC do every section - I found the number of categories daunting so I started from the bottom up since it covered information that I had lived through. You gotta love it!

The test is straightforward - few subjective questions - it's good to know a little about everything.

Good luck!
jan c.

[Elinor]

When I am discouragingly daunted by the amount of material covered by IC, I read through the REA study guide and/or SparkNotes or SparkCharts for the subject before I even begin going through the flashcards. I'm actually doing that now for the Soviet Union (only, I'm reading textbooks instead of study guides...).

I took US I & II on the same day, after about a week of intense study, and passed each. I used the REA books and InstantCert (Googling and Wiki-ing when I was interested). These aren't terribly difficult tests; you can do it! If you have to focus on one study method over another, I would advise you to focus on IC; the REA book for US II wasn't nearly as good as the REA for US I.

Good luck!

[vickyvicky]

but how do you make connection between each fill in the blanks, i get lost when i go through the flashcards without stories,

[MA2]

If I'm studying something I'm completely clueless on, like the World Religions DSST test I just took (and got a 444 on) I'll do the flashcards 10 at a time.

So if I start with the first section, (Buddhism) I'l go through the first ten and see how I'm doing. If I'm getting hardly any right, I'll do the first 10 questions and then re-do them again and again and again until I get most or all right.

Then I do 11-20 the same way, 21-30, etc.

On a topic like Judaism or Christianity where I knew a lot more to start, I would go through all of them and then re-do the ones I missed. Seems to work so far.

[ryoder]

I used REA for us history I and no instantcert and passed with a 70.
The REA books kick the crap out of instantcert in my opinion. Plus the reading part is fun and boosts your reading comprehension and total understanding of a topic. Their test are multiple choice too, this reflects the actual tests format.
Sometimes you end up remembering the word that instantcert wants you to remember to fill in the blank but you don't know the concept.

[clep3705]

+1 on the previous post.

The REA books for US History are very good. So are the practice test questions. I went through all 3 tests one last time immediately before taking the test - as in sitting in the lobby of the testing center.

I used Wikipedia to look up a few things.

[Elinor]

but how do you make connection between each fill in the blanks, i get lost when i go through the flashcards without stories,

By reading the REA book first, you are laying a "story" foundation. Then IC will help you remember more details. Just DON'T look only at the blanks; read the entire card, fill in the blanks, read 'em again. That's what seems to work for me: repetition, repetition, repetition. When I'm able to get the suggested 90+% correct, I schedule my test for the next day, and go through the flashcards a time or two more.

This may only be my personal study method. The same thing doesn't work for everyone in the same way.

BTW, if you need more story foundation, you might search Learner.org. I remember really enjoying the videos I used for some of my history CLEPs, but I can't remember if I used them for US II. They might have something to help give you a big picture though.

[vickyvicky]

Every time I use the REA, I feel so unprepared, not because it is irrelevant to the tests, but because IC covers so much more, i always doubt if REA is worth it

[ahensel]

You should really read through a narrative of events, like you would find in a textbook or study guide, first. Then you can go back and use flashcards to learn the key terms, roles of different people, important dates and places, etc.

You can also use outlines to help organize information by topic. As always, practice tests are great for helping you figure out what you need to spend additional time reviewing as well.

Hope this helps!