My College Math CLEP experience

[krystalsmmns]

So I took the test today and passed with a 57. Yay! Right? All I can say is, I was in disbelief! I studied using the official practice test from the college board, freeclepprep.com and YouTube. I was averaging 70's on free clep prep and the official practice test. Going into the test I was still concerned and anxious, because I still didn't have a firm grasp and I was repeating formulas and rules in my head over and over again. They say that the practice test are harder and even the freeclepprep guy says he designed his test to be harder on purpose. Well all I got to say is when I began taking the test, it was nothing like what I practiced for. I mean nothing like it. The questions and format were nothing like the official practice test. The questions were 10 times harder and trickier, the numbers I was working with were huge as opposed to the smaller calculations on the practice test. I seriously thought for a moment, I was taking the wrong test.

Pretty much everything I crammed in my head over and over again was useless. Yet...some how I passed this test. Halfway through the test, I told myself I failed and I wanted to just walk out. At the end of the test they give you an option of not sending the scores to the university and not seeing it yourself, which basically cancels your test, except you still have to wait 6 months to take it again. They gave you two minutes to decide. I sat there for two minutes contemplating that I could only answer about 10 out of the 60 confidently, then I said heck with it and submitted my test. I expected to see something below 40, but alas, 57.

All I can think of, is that some people have stated that some test are harder and are scaled lower. The test I took was very advanced.

So, I thought I would share just in case your sitting there at the end of your test wondering if you should submit it. If your test seemed impossibly harder than most of the practice test you've done, it's probably scaled lower.

[BGSU_Alum_86]

You made a wise decision, in my opinion. When I am checking in candidates and going over the pre-test screens with new candidates, I almost always suggest to candidates to no even think about cancelling their score. Once I explain that they have already paid for it, they have seen it/taken it so will have to wait 6 months before trying again, plus will never know their score so won't know if they did pass (or even just barely) much less how close they were to passing if they didn't pass... Well, they usually follow my suggestion.

There is always the possibility that CLEP refreshed their exam questions at the time of launching the new test platform. If that is the case, all of the test prep and test specific suggestions may be out-of-date. Hard to know for certain.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[cookderosa]

Congrats on your pass! I don't know how hard the official guide's practice questions are, but you're not the first person I read about who felt under-prepared using the free site you used. In my opinion, the most accurate test prep is probably still Peterson's; it's not free though, it costs $20 for 3 exams. None the less, a pass is a pass! Congratulations!

PS there is never a reason to cancel a score. Even if you'd failed the test, your score is your private info and won't be shared on your transcript. Always, always, always get a score.

[krystalsmmns]

Thank you. I would agree that site was definitely not enough. I was trying not to spend any money. The main thing free clep prep was good for, was probability, permutations, combinations, parallel & perpendicular lines and fog, gof function practice. The rest were good things to learn, but not a good presentation of how the applications are represented on the actual test. The official practice test really didn't help me at all, except for the same things as free prep test.

When I was given the option at the end to not send my scores to the university, it also said if I opted to do that, I would not see my score either. I assumed that meant, I had to send it to the university or not have access.

[BGSU_Alum_86]

^^The option at the end is to either submit or cancel scores -- that is it. I have had some very young testers get confused over that word "submit" because many of them are not even in college (or know what college they plan to attend), so they think it means to submit to their school (though their registration ticket shows that they selected "do not send"). Now they think their only option is to "cancel"!

My explanation to testers is that submit simply means you want to submit your score to the CLEP/ETS computer system. This means you will always have access to that score in the future; immediate to your current school (if you attend one) or to a future school if you transfer.

A number of testers decide that they don't want to send their scores until after they know how they did on their test. You are always welcome to enter "do not send" when you are registering for your exam on your CLEP account. You can take all of the tests you want and then order one transcript after the fact, having all of your passing scores put on it. I believe the current cost for a CLEP transcript is $20. So for peace of mind for those who are worried about their school's reaction to a failing score, this would be a good option to use.