Vietnam War DSST Advice

[Westerner]

I just perused the SEF for the MME test, and they seem to give dire warnings about this. You say that the test doesn't go too in depth, but many of the others on the SEF say it is more in depth than you think. Is that all a matter of degrees, like some might be expecting a 'names and dates' type questions, whereas you should be very familiar with the subject material?

You need to know about the major players in the major countries. Some countries you need to research more than others. I left feedback in the SEF as to which countries were covered more. But, as I'll explain below, just defining terms isn't enough. More like, you'd need to read a short article on each.

I also hear that it is a good idea to know how all the pieces fit together, instead of just memorizing the answers. I found the DSST Fact Sheet, complete with 14 practice questions, and I got about 60% correct right off the bat. But some of the questions seem to go in depth. Any suggestions on what I should focus on, or if Wikipedia might be enough?

That's a good score on the DSST fact sheet. I found that if I researched all I could about some topic/war/person, knowing their connections and things related to them would help with other test questions. Like, if you knew about the "mandate system," you'd need to know what nations had what mandates at what times. The definition wouldn't be enough. If you studied the King Crane commission, you'd also need to know the results—who was pleased, who was angry, etc. I would guess if you read the Wikipedia page on the Modern Middle East and followed all the links, that would give you most of the necessary info to pass. But as most people don't have the time and need something more interestng, just use Google as needed. And Free CLEP Prep.

Also, the difficulty of questions varied. With some, if you knew Person X headed the X Organization, that's what the question would ask and you'd know the answer. With others, you'd need to know how Group Y reacted to the Incident Z.