Will instacert work well for me ?

[jm82792]

I'm 16,am a ged grad(550,Killing myself over the score)
and am going to take some cleps since I need credit to UH Hilo and these cleps go towards my degree.
Sociology,Microeconomics,History of United States 1 and 2.

Now for somebody who has graduated,doesn't know a whole lot about history,nothing of micro economics or sociology would REA books and then instacert be a way to pass ?
What is instacert ?
How does it work(flash cards and clep like Qs)?
Is it to check if I know what I'm doing after REA and other sources,and help me score higher?

Are the REA books good ?
I have micro economics and sociology coming in the mail.
Amazon says microeconomics is okay and sociology is good,however I'm not sure how factual the information is.

Any advice on prepping for the clep ?
How long does it take to build from knowing almost nothing of a subject to passing a clep?

[blueberry]

I'm 16,am a ged grad(550,Killing myself over the score)
and am going to take some cleps since I need credit to UH Hilo and these cleps go towards my degree.
Sociology,Microeconomics,History of United States 1 and 2.

Now for somebody who has graduated,doesn't know a whole lot about history,nothing of micro economics or sociology would REA books and then instacert be a way to pass ?
What is instacert ?
How does it work(flash cards and clep like Qs)?
Is it to check if I know what I'm doing after REA and other sources,and help me score higher?

Are the REA books good ?
I have micro economics and sociology coming in the mail.
Amazon says microeconomics is okay and sociology is good,however I'm not sure how factual the information is.

Any advice on prepping for the clep ?
How long does it take to build from knowing almost nothing of a subject to passing a clep?

Hi and welcome to the forum!!

Okay, here goes trying to answer all your Q's: (I don't know anything about microeconomics but I can answer for US History and Sociology)

Instantcert is a method of studying involving flashcards with information from the subject you are studying for. By doing the flashcards over and over, and reading the extended answer for each one, you really learn the information thoroughly. The questions on the flashcards are just fill-in-the-blanks, not multiple choice like the actual exam. The point of doing the flashcards is not to memorize the answers and get through them real quick, it is a means of learning the info.

An additional benefit of IC is the Specific Exam Feedback section of this board, which is a thread where people post their feedback after taking an exam...for sure as important, or even more important than studying the flash cards.

As a rule, it is best to use an additional source of reference when preparing for an exam with IC. REA is a very good source. For some exams, IC alone is adequate, but its always better to overprepare! The REA books come with practice exams at the back which are a pretty good guage of how well you are doing. Free Peterson's practice tests online are also good to test yourself, although they are somewhat harder than the actual exam.

It is definitely possible to prepare for a CLEP without having any background on the subject. All you need is some self discipline and some motivation and you are good to go.

Prep time varies with each individual, you will see some people on this board will not prep at all, just going into a testing center and taking a test cold, while others will prepare for weeks before sitting the exam.

So to answer your question, I would say "YES!" Instantcert will work for you!!!

Whew! I hope this helps. Good luck with everything and let us know how it goes!!!

[Levi]

Are the REA books good ?
I have micro economics and sociology coming in the mail.
Amazon says microeconomics is okay and sociology is good,however I'm not sure how factual the information is.

The REA books are normally pretty good, although the practice questions are to some degree a little inaccurate. I did not use the REA Micro book when I studied for this test because the REA Macro book wasn't that good. However, the book I did use was Cracking the AP: Economics Macro and Micro Exams....this was very helpful. Between IC and Cracking the AP, you should get a firm handle on this subject.

[studyhard]

InstantCert is great! It will definitely help prepare you for the exam. If I had to pick just one resource, that would be it.

As others have said though, it's usually wise to supplement with a couple of other resources if the subject is one you're not thoroughly familiar with.

I personally found the REA book on macro/micro very unhelpful. It went way too fast and totally confused me. InstantCert helped me a lot instead. The other resource I used that was much more basic and foundational than the REA book was this online book:

Contents

Good luck!