College Composition CLEP essay help

[SoliDeoGloria]

I would highly suggest you time yourself when writing practice essays, so that you know how fast to write and think . 30 minutes goes by very quickly. I would also agree with Westerner and suggest that you look into getting the Official CLEP Study Guide (2010 or newer). Maybe your library has a copy? The Peterson's practice tests were right on for CC.

[Togas]

....Third, for the essays I'm pretty sure you need a 3 on each essay to pass. The fast food essay article is perfect for what you need, because you only get 70 minutes total for both essays. You will stress out because you have to think, structure, write, and edit fast, but like the article says they are checking that you know the rules, not that you can write for a Pulitzer....

What is this fast food essay?
Where can I find it?

[Gretchen]

What is this fast food essay?
Where can I find it?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think they are talking about this article:
SAT: Improve SAT Score with SparkNotes: The Fast Food Essay

ALSO! Can someone tell me if there is spell check for the essay portion? :confused:

[Togas]

Thank you,
I take the test today and I'm only really worried about the essay portion.

[Westerner]

ALSO! Can someone tell me if there is spell check for the essay portion? :confused:

Nope, there's not. Only cut (no copy) and paste.

[Gretchen]

I took this test today and now I get to just wait and pray! Do they snail mail the results or email?

Here are my initial thoughts and I'll post more once I know my scores!

I prepped using InstantCert flashcards for English Composition not College Composition mainly because I HATE the way the InstantCert College Comp Flashcards make you open another tab to look at several of the passages. It makes it extremely difficult to use my iPad. InstantCert people, if you're listening - PLEASE make the College Comp flashcard set only need ONE tab!

Anyway - that being said... the English Comp cards were pretty good. It was a nice general refresher on basic English and Grammar rules. My test had several questions that matched up with the "Identifying Sentence Errors" section. However, I had ZERO questions that matched with the "Additional Grammar Concepts and Reinforcement" section (Where you have to identify Misplaced Modifier, pronoun error, etc.) so don't spend too much time on those. You don't really have to know what the error is called - you just have to know what's wrong and how to fix it. I also used the REA sample tests: CLEPÂ College Composition Book + Online

I feel like I did fairly well on the multiple choice section. I was pressed for time but not terribly. I actually had time to quickly review about 20 questions that I had marked for review.

There were several questions where you had to click the underlined error or pick no error.
like this:
The police warned Rob that he and Pete needed to cooperate, or there would be dire consequences, possibly even deportation

Several questions on how to best modify a sentence
Passages of text with questions like:

• What is the purpose of sentence 7 in a passage (support argument in sentence 6, raise a question, contrast sentence 3, etc)
  
• What would be the best way to join sentences 3 and 4
  
• What should be added after sentence 11 to better support the paragraph?
  
• What is the next logical sentence after sentence 7
  

The essay --- urrgghhh no clue how that's going to turn out. I don't think I did terribly but I didn't produce awesome essays or anything! First question was something like "Knowledge has value only when it's put to practical use" and I was supposed to agree or disagree and tell why. The second one was about Leadership and it had two passages that I was supposed to reference and again - I was supposed to pick a side and use the two passages to support my stand.

There was NO SPELLCHECK on the essay section (arrrgghh) so I hope I don't get counted off too much for that. It also made me waste my time wondering if I had spelled something correctly or not. I hate that and I wish they would add spellcheck because no one in the real world would try and type an essay without it. :ack:

Anyway - that's about all I can remember. I'll update when I get my results or if I can think of any other helpful info!

[Togas]

Thank you,
I take the test today and I'm only really worried about the essay portion.

Got my score today. Passed!
I didn't think I was going to though. I was fighting a cold and didn't answer all of the questions.

Thank you for the help everyone.

Next up DSST Tech Writing.
After I'm debating to go back and try to work on the lit test, start working on the chem test, or just quit the test portion and focus on getting ready for Calc 2 next semester ala Khan Acadamy.